This article, by “comedy writer, journalist and olive farmer”, Charlie Skelton – a man who, with Victoria Coren, once made what sounds like the shittest porn film ever – is in my view the lowest point that Comment Is Free .
Read it. Then look through Skelton’s past output. Green ink, every one.
If you had doubt about the sort of chap Charlie Skelton is, here’s the man burbling away on the Troofer far Right wingnut Alec Jones show:
At 8:08, Skelton makes a pretty off colour joke about Holocaust denial. Have a read of Joseph’s (Ooooh he is a Christian and a Zionist and a Jew!!!!!!) piece, following this one, for the text.
He has a go at Michael Weiss, who sometimes has stuff cross posted here (“follow The Network!!!!). Have a read of his reply, here. Here’s the conclusion, but read it all:
It seems some subjects merit closer scrutiny for Charlie Skelton. In relation to the 9/11 “Truther” movement, whose events he has serially attended, Skelton wrote in The Guardian in 2009: “Nano-thermite is a question. Truth is a question. 9/11 is a question. But here’s something I really don’t understand: when did it become uncool to ask questions? When did questioners become imbeciles?”
I’ll extend the author the courtesy he chose not to extend me or to several other Syrians far braver than I and refrain from answering that last query for him.
But the most devastating response of all has come from The Guardian’s own Diplomatic Editor, Julian Borger. You must read every word of it. Extracts do not do it justice.
Then return to this article. What did you think?
Comment Is Free has become the bridge between the ruins of the mainstream Left and the conspiracist far Right. But that website is not the whole newpaper, yet.
There is a battle going on in The Guardian, between the serious journalists, and the Indymediasque Comment Is Free clique. The latter have the professionalism of the staff of a student newspaper at a university dominated by the Socialist Workers’ Party. The former have news values, still.
There was, as is plain, a revolt against the platforming of Charlie Skelton’s latest public display of psychosis. This piece is daggers to Comment is Free. Julian Borger makes his position very clear.
But who will win this battle? The Guardian’s business model is now driven by its website. That business turns on the rate of page impressions and the like. By accident, design or stupidity, The Guardian has turned itself into an online freakshow, a sort of political Ogrish.com, where people come to gawp at the latest horror. Nobody at The Guardian seems to appreciate that its apparent success in attracting hits is a sign, not of its influence and authority, but of the very opposite. It has shredded its reputation, in a few short years.
The trouble is, the newspaper is dying. The website is furiously active. The prognosis is not good.
As for Charlie Skelton – well, if he is not furiously debasing himself over some online porn, I bet he is busy googling Harry’s Place to see how it links in to the shadowy Bilderberg Group, the Trilateral Commission and the Zionist Occupation Government. (He will, in fact, be doing this. And then he will do an ‘observational comedy routine about how he was fiddling with himself when his name came through on Google alert, and then he googled this website and… )
PS: Victoria Coren made the porn film. She wasn’t in it.
