Shut down this racist paper!!

[Gob]

A petition has been launched to 'shut down' The Guardian newspaper over accusations of hypocrisy for backing Black Lives Matter protests, despite branding Abraham Lincoln 'abhorrent' during the US Civil War.

The paper, which was originally called the Manchester Guardian, was founded by John Edward Taylor in 1821 using profits from a cotton plantation that used slaves.

During the United States' Civil War 40 years later, it sided with the southern Confederates against President Lincoln, who wanted slavery abolished.

One extract from the paper on October 10, 1862, read: 'It was an evil day both for America and the world when he was chosen President of the United States.'

A year later it even opposed the Proclamation of Emancipation - which freed slaves - and described the President's time in office after his assassination as 'abhorrent'.

But in recent editorials the paper has tried to mask its past, with headlines such as 'The Guardian view on Colston's statue: a long time in going' and 'The Guardian view on Black Lives Matter worldwide: a common cause'.

Many are baying for statues linked to slavery to be torn down and some have suggested the Guardian should also fall for being on the wrong side of history.

A petition has even been launched now online to the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) to 'shut down the newspaper'.

Novelist and journalist Tony Parsons, who organised the petition, tweeted: 'Shameful links to slave-owning Confederate south. Built on the profits of cotton fields. Shut down The Guardian Newspaper.'

Mail On Sunday columnist Peter Hitchens added on Twitter: 'I do think this (beautifully honest) confession of the SuperWoke Guardian's support for the slave-owning Confederacy (and its furious loathing for Lincoln) in the American Civil War is one of the great discoveries of the day. ''Who shall 'scape whipping?'''

And freelance journalist Kate Mulvery put: 'Maybe the Guardian should topple - given that its founder made a fortune in the cotton trade - went on the side of the confederates during the American Civil War - oh and denounced Lincoln for freeing slaves.'

Several supporters of the petition have also called out The Guardian's 'hypocrisy' on the editorial stance.

The newspaper was founded by cotton merchant John Edward Taylor in 1819, with his nephew CP Scott going on to become its most celebrated editor.

Taylor's industry thrived on the backs of cotton-picking slaves out of sight and mind in the Americas, and the paper continued its relationship with it after his death in 1844.

The Guardian maintained its relationship with cotton merchant advertisers and even railed against factory workers who refused to touch material picked by US slaves, according to Guido.

During the US Civil War - which lasted from 1861 to 1865 - the newspaper's onslaught against President Lincoln was ramped up.

On January 2, 1863, it accused Lincoln of having 'no desire to abolish slavery except as a means of extrication from the difficulties of government'.

A year and a half later, on November 22, 1864, it claimed: 'Nor is Mr Lincoln's re-election by fraud, violence, and intimidation rendered a matter of comparatively small importance solely by the fact that it reveals nothing with respect to the real wishes and thoughts of the majority of his fellow countrymen.'

And upon hearing Lincoln had been murdered, the newspaper published on April 27, 1865: 'Of his rule we can never speak except as a series of acts abhorrent to every true notion of constitutional right and human liberty.'

In his biography of the Manchester Guardian, David Ayerst noted: 'The Guardian was indeed convinced that the majority of Northerners, so far from having any antipathy to slavery, considered it to be the natural condition of the N**** and were content to profit by it.'

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... rrent.html

[BoSoxGal]

So, all the people who owned the paper and wrote for the paper and espoused those views are now dust in the ground, no?

The paper is not a monument to them or those views, it is a living thing like a government - what matters is the views and positions it takes now, the people who write for it and own it now.

In the center of Boston is a beautiful old building called Faneuil Hall - I first visited as a young kid and was thrilled by it as it’s such a lovely building with such interesting history. It’s nicknamed the Cradle of Liberty because it used to be a big meeting hall where it hosted many speakers, including Sam Adams, advocating independence from Great Britain. Now it’s mostly a shopping mall - barf. Still lovely though:




The man who built it and gave it to the city of Boston was called Peter Faneuil, and he made his riches in large part by trading slaves. So people want to rename the building, and after dismissing the notion a few years back, Boston Mayor Marty Walsh is now said to be considering it. I think it’s perfectly fine to rename it now. It’s worth noting that a review of the building’s history indicates that the original, financed by Faneuil and built in 1743, burned down not 20 years after it was erected - and the city rebuilt it, and later expanded it. So there is really no debt owed to the memory of Faneuil anymore.

Nobody is suggesting for one minute we should tear it down. See the difference?

[MajGenl.Meade]

A year later it even opposed the Proclamation of Emancipation - which freed slaves - and described the President's time in office after his assassination as 'abhorrent'

Terrific writing that. I could be wrong but I don't think he was in office after his assassination.

Speaking of which, what kind of mental midget ass believes a newspaper today should be shut down for anything that was published in it 155 years ago? The entire f-ing country was founded on slave dealing, from the plantations of the south to the New England shipping magnates. These total arseholes will be suggesting next that the USA should be broken into little bits, sold to the highest (black) bidder and shove whatever is left into the ocean.

Total dumbassery. And then they wonder why so many people think Trump is bearable, given the lunatic alternative they offer.

Makes me sick

[BoSoxGal]

Excuse me, but it’s an English newspaper and the petition to shut it down was started by an English novelist called Tony Parsons.

So fuck right off blaming it on Americans.

[MajGenl.Meade]

Show me where I blamed "Americans"?! I blamed arseholes. The entire world wonders why people voted for Trump - reaction to this kind of dumbnuts thinking is part of the explanation.

I'd hate to see what you might write if I had disagreed with you instead!

PS I have posted your reparations link to the Atlantic on FB. Thank you.

[Gob]

Speaking of which, what kind of mental midget ass believes a newspaper today should be shut down for anything that was published in it 155 years ago?

The same sort of person who believes that a statue of someone who died in 1941 should be pulled down as they don't like some views he held?

[MajGenl.Meade]

Poor old BP. I see the council is removing the statue to protect it. Fear of the mob. It's enough to make Mafeking blood boil!