Another dish of humble pie is being served to The Guardian today. Last year, despite the Supreme Court’s clear ruling in ZXC v Bloomberg that suspects shouldn’t be named until charged, Byline Times breached Dan Wootton’s privacy by revealing his identity. Only a few mainstream media outlets did the same. The Guardian was one that foolishly chose to do so.
Wootton’s lawyers were quick to contact the paper, and though the story was taken offline the next morning, it was too late for print. Since Guido’s report that Wootton has been cleared, The Guardian looks even sillier. And they’ve been forced to accept it themselves now too…
Last night, The Guardian issued a grovelling apology to Wootton, along with coughing up an undisclosed sum to him. The next question is whether or not Byline Times will too. The six or seven figure bill might encourage them to. If they choose to double down, it’ll spell the end of the outlet. And an end to its particularly paranoid form of conspiracy theorising masquerading as gutter journalism…
Read The Guardian’s full apology below:
Guardianista eco-warrior George Monbiot attacked the Institute of Economic Affairs’ Reem Ibrahim on Politics Live today for what he thinks is a conflict of interest – she could only be arguing for liberty and free markets if she were funded by “dark money” corporations and evil men in suits. Cranks like Monbiot are exactly why think tank donors’ identities ought to be protected…
Guido is surprised to see Monbiot spouting about shrouded interests seeing as his own past isn’t so clean. Guido recalls the eco-crank’s very public dressing down by The Guardian when it emerged he had been promoting charities he was working for in his articles without declaration to his editors. Monbiot agreed to do charity work from 2013-16 worth £25,000 after defaming Lord McAlpine in 2012. He decided part of that would be to publicise the charities in his columns and nominate their personnel for awards. That just happens to be a clear violation of editorial standards…
He was caught out in 2016 after a sleuth got in touch with The Guardian about Monbiot’s covert activities. Glass houses…
The Guardian’s pop culture columnist Chanté Joseph apologised in November for having “badly misjudged some recent posts” after retweeting a series of questionable posts about the Israel/Hamas war “in the spur of the moment“. Joseph previously appeared on screens as the host of Channel 4’s “How Not To Be Racist” documentary…
It looks like that indiscretion coincides with the end of Joseph’s weekly “Pop Culture” podcast which Guido is told is still “currently taking a break.” The Guardian celebrated the regular podcast’s return on the 14th September, yet took it off the airwaves after only six weeks. Another break coming along with the fallout from Joseph’s “misjudged” tweeting…
The Guardian’s pop culture columnist Chanté Joseph has apologised for retweeting a series of pro-Hamas posts, claiming she “badly misjudged” the material and shared it “in the spur of the moment“. Joseph, who hosted Channel 4’s “How Not To Be Racist” documentary, insists she “did not fully understand the content or implications at the time“. According to Jewish News, here is one of the posts she “did not fully understand”:
Here’s another…
Joseph has since locked down her Twitter/X account and released a statement:
“I repost a huge amount on social media in the spur of the moment and I now realise I have badly misjudged some recent posts. I did not fully understand the content or implications at the time. I have now deleted the posts and I sincerely apologise for the upset I have caused.”
Sharing posts claiming Israeli kidnappings are “propaganda” happens on a whim, apparently…
Aubrey Allegretti has this morning announced he will be leaving the Guardian to join The Times. It looks like an upward move for Allegretti, who will become the paper of record’s Chief Political Correspondent. Allegretti will be joining in Autumn after having built up his contacts as the Guardian’s Senior Political Correspondent. You might be forgiven for thinking the Times is preparing for a Labour government…
Under the headline “Guardian Media Group makes record revenues for news business” the Guardian reports that everything is tickety-boo at GMG plc, with total revenues reaching £264 million – which includes a staggering £82 million from 1 million paying supporters who respond to their begging pleas. Makes Guido think he is perhaps being too proud in resisting begging for donations from readers…
Away from the puff prose, the bottom line is that the paper lost £47.5 million before tax – a handy £31.8 million tax credit reduced that to a mere £15.7 million. The Scott Trust endowment of £1.2 billion, invested in such things as hedge funds and private equity, covered the shortfall. A note to the accounts emphasises – perhaps because of past highlighting by Guido – that the unnamed funds and fund managers are all UK tax residents.
Despite the paper losing money, editor Katharine Viner’s salary rose 3.5% from £509,850 to £527,694 – something the Guardian’s media editor Jim Waterson wisely failed to report. The extra 18 grand should cover a summer holiday in Tuscany… cheers!
