The Guardian

[[File:The Guardian 2018.svg|right|thumb|165px|In case you haven't guessed, this is their logo.]]
{{media}}
{{DISPLAYTITLE:''The Guardian''}}
{{cquote|''The Guardian'' is such a [[psychological projection|biased]], [[Multiculturalism|multi-culti]], middle-class, [[left-wing]] rag, it could be [[Swedish]].|||[[Pat Condell]], complimenting Sweden<ref>http://youtu.be/D4YMbsEm3ms?t=2m9s</ref>}}

'''''The Guardian''''' is a [[United Kingdom|British]] centre-left newspaper (beloved of [[Organic food|organically-grown]], muesli-wearing, sandal-hugging, [[Environmentalism|tree-eating]], [[Disability|disabled]], [[lesbian]], [[atheist]]ic, [[feminist]] social workers and [[Education|teachers]]) with one of the most popular websites in the [[United Kingdom]].<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20090406071331/http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/guardian.co.uk Statistics Summary for guardian.co.uk]</ref> ''The Observer'' is its affiliated Sunday newspaper.<ref group=note>British daily newspapers appear six days a week, Monday to Saturday, while there are weekly Sunday titles. Over time, the dailies have acquired or started their own Sunday paper. ''The Observer'' began publication as a Sunday newspaper in 1791 predating ''The Manchester Guardian'' (founded 1821) which became ''The Guardian'' in 1959. Guardian Media Group acquired ''The Observer'' in 1993 as its Sunday organ.</ref>

==Columnists==
Its columnists include David Mitchell, a rare breed of politically-aware comedians,<ref>[http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/davidmitchell The Guardian - David Mitchell]</ref> and it also hosts the [[anti-science]] and anti-[[math]]ematic screeds of [[Simon Jenkins]].<ref>[http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/simonjenkins The Guardian - Simon Jenkins]</ref>

Former columnists include confessed misanthrope [[Charlie Brooker]],<ref>[http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/charliebrooker The Guardian - Charlie Brooker]</ref> who since moved on to television; excellent [[science]] writer and [[skeptic]] [[Ben Goldacre]]<ref>[http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/series/badscience The Guardian - Ben Goldacre]</ref> (who had his [[legal]] fees paid by the paper during his lawsuit with [[woo]]-peddler {{wpl|Matthias Rath||);}} and Ariane Sherine,<ref>[http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/arianesherine The Guardian - Ariane Sherine]</ref> who was responsible for setting up the [[atheist Bus Campaign]] and later concentrated on comedy.

Its science section also sometimes features [[RationalWiki]] contributor The Lay Scientist (under his [[real world|IRL]] name Martin Robbins).<ref>[http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/the-lay-scientist The Guardian - The Lay Scientist]</ref> During the [[UK General Election, 2010|2010 general election]], Robbins wrote analytical commentaries to the major parties' responses to science-related questions asked by [[Brian Cox]], [[Simon Singh]], and David Nutt.

[[Glenn Greenwald]]<ref>http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/glenn-greenwald</ref> did massive work covering [[privacy]] issues in the post-[[PATRIOT Act|PATRIOT]] world, but resigned in 2013 to pursue other projects.

==The Grauniad==
[[File:Grauniadstrikesagain.png|right|thumb|[[Joe the Plumber|What's wrong with this picture?]]]]

<!-- The grammatical errors in this section are intentional. It's called humor. -->
The papper was once notorios for it's many toyps and other ovbious mstakes, so that ''[[Private Eye]]'' always refereed to it as "The Grauniad" after it was sad to hve msprinted it's own name — an epethet which bcame comon usige. [http://www.grauniad.co.uk/ www.grauniad.co.uk] redirects to the propper name, and [[Wikipedia|Wikiipeida]] has a similar reedirect.

Example: [http://grammar.about.com/b/2008/07/23/back-to-homophone-corner.htm "The audience was encouraged to wander over the stage and activate hidden censors"]
{{Clearleft}}

==Comment is free==
{{cquote|Comment is free, but facts are scared|||P. C. Scott{{citation needed|joke}}}}
{{cquote|The [[Richard Dawkins|Dawkins]] inspired "[[Militant atheism|atheist ranters]]" come out in force on Guardian pages. [[New Atheism|They hate organised religion with a zeal]], [[Antitheism|they deride the faithful as mentally retarded]], they gibber on about [[Flying Spaghetti Monster|spaghetti monsters]] and sky pixies, as if such talk actually added anything meaningful to the debate. They debase Dawkins' own arguments through grotesque simplifications, and they adore the man almost reverentially. It is easy to picture these sycophantic drones smugly typing their intolerant bile, glowing with inner pride at their own rebellious contrariness.|||''Another Angry Voice'', a left-leaning internet blogger<ref>[http://anotherangryvoice.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/richard-dawkins-slave-ancestor.html Richard Dawkins and the slave trade], ''Another Angry Voice''.</ref>{{efn|And while we could dismiss a right-wing pundit's opinion as just their [[persecution complex]] acting up, if a ''left-winger'' is saying this, you ''know'' the problem has to be bad.{{fact|joke}}}}}}
[http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree Comment is Free] (CiF) is the comment and opinion... "section" on ''The Guardian'''s website that publishes content submitted by, well, potentially anyone. Authors are free to suggest themselves, and, if approved, get to write a column. While there are some editorial standards, it's not considered a part of the ''Guardian'' proper and it's not supposed to reflect the paper's stance — it's intended to be something of an open forum in the spirit of 
attracting [[clickbait|page views]]
 the open exchange of ideas, 
[[clickbait|page views]]
 intellectual debate, and 
[[clickbait|page views]]
 the accumulation of hundreds of posts with varying level of stupidity in the comment section of each column. 

Due to the controversial nature of some contributions, there's the inevitable suspicion that ''The Guardian'' is [[Proll|trolling its own audience for page views]], and even then there are "WTF were they thinking when they approved this?" moments, such as when CiF invited contributions from members of the [[Occupy Wall Street|Occupy St Paul's]] movement in 2011 and [[Freeman on the land]] garbage got a free airing in a national newspaper.<ref>[http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/nov/15/welfare-education-law-occupy-london "commonly known as Dom" airs his views in the "law" section of this article] and [http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/nov/18/freeman-land-strategy-bullet-debt gets totally schooled a couple of days later.]</ref>

The comment section on the CiF articles is naturally even worse, being filled to the brim with [[alt-right]] talking points, [[antisemitism]], [[conspiracy theories]], and [[Time Cube|just plain weirdness]]. The editorial staff tries to moderate and patrol, but... There is only so much you can do. We know the feeling.

==Criticisms==
The paper was accused of supporting [[antisemitic]] commentators, writing approvingly of [[Gilad Atzmon]], portraying him as a mere pro-[[Palestine]] activist, and glossing over his dodgy statements about "the [[Holocaust]] religion" and [[International Jewish Conspiracy|conspiracy theories about Jewish people]].<ref>https://web.archive.org/web/20111007185556/http://cifwatch.com/2011/10/02/jew-hatred-as-liberal-commentary-guardian-provides-platform-to-vicious-antisemitie-gilad-atzmon/</ref> However, a September 2011 column by Andy Newman finally denounced Atzmon and criticised the British left for ignoring antisemitism.<ref>http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/sep/25/gilad-atzmon-antisemitism-the-left</ref> The paper has also written approvingly about [[Raed Salah]], depicting him as an innocent victim of prejudice rather than a purveyor of medieval anti-[[Jew]]ish sentiment.<ref>https://web.archive.org/web/20111031135125/http://hurryupharry.org/2011/10/30/friends-of-raed-salah-is-the-guardian-a-newspaper/</ref> In 2012, the paper was criticized for running a cartoon which depicted [[Benjamin Netanyahu]] as a "puppet master" for members of the British Government, including [[Tony Blair]] — playing on the antisemitic stereotype that Jews are cunning manipulators and that Blair isn't capable of thinking on his own.<ref>https://web.archive.org/web/20121121193727/http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/91164/antisemitic-guardian-gaza-cartoon-shows-jews-puppeteers</ref> ''Guardian'' editors seemed to have embraced [[false dichotomy]] in this aspect — that you have to ''have'' to be a raving nut of an anti-[[Zionist]] to critique [[Israel]]'s human rights record.  

Senior members of the British Parliament claimed that ''The Guardian'' may be guilty of treason in leaking data given to them by [[Edward Snowden]] regarding the [[NSA]]'s spying operations. British former Prime Minister, [[David Cameron]], has ridiculously accused The Guardian of "aiding the enemies" of the United Kingdom.<ref>https://web.archive.org/web/20131215113119/http://www.thehopkinsonreport.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/steepling-positive-body-language.jpg</ref>

In 2013, The Guardian published an article by the fringe [[Post-Keynesian economics|Post-Keynesian economist]] Mark Weisbrot predicting that the problems of Venezuelan economy would be easily fixed and claiming that "Hyperinflation is also a very remote possibility".<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/07/venezuela-not-greece-latin-america-oil-poverty Sorry, Venezuela haters: this economy is not the Greece of Latin America]</ref> Between 2013 and 2020, the country's GDP dropped 75%<ref>[https://www.ft.com/content/789bedb2-27c7-4b20-a30d-a5669ffc06ce Has Venezuela’s economy bottomed out?]</ref> with a ten million (you read it right) inflation rate in 2019.<ref>[https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/02/venezuela-inflation-at-10-million-percent-its-time-for-shock-therapy.html Venezuela hyperinflation hits 10 million percent. ‘Shock therapy’ may be only chance to undo the economic damage]</ref>

===Transphobia===
''The Guardian'' has a history of running columns discriminatory towards [[trans]] people, although others in the organization are known to be supportive of trans people. Such columns were also uncommon though present prior to about 2017. ''Semafor'' described the behind-the-scenes portion as "a [[cold war]] in ''The Guardian's'' newsroom — between older and younger [[feminist]]s, Brits and Americans, [[liberal]]s and [[progressive]]s".<ref name="SemaforTrans">Max Tani (April 3, 2023). [https://www.semafor.com/article/04/02/2023/inside-the-guardians-civil-war-over-trans-coverage "Inside the Guardian's civil war over trans coverage"]. ''Semafor''.</ref>

Contributor [[Julie Bindel]] in a 2004 column used hostile and insulting language towards trans people such as calling a trans woman "a man in a dress" and referring to trans men who "have their breasts sliced off and a penis made out of their beer bellies".<ref>{{cite web | last=Bindel | first=Julie | title=Julie Bindel: Gender benders, beware | website=the Guardian | date=2004-01-31 | url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/jan/31/gender.weekend7 | access-date=2024-06-25}}</ref> Bindel has since apologized for the language she used. As of 2016, she has been [[no platform|no-platformed]] for her [[transphobia]] several times.<ref>[https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/if-you-dont-like-no-platforming-maybe-its-you-whos-the-special-snowflake-a6884026.html If you don't like no-platforming, maybe it's you who's the 'special snowflake'], Sean Faye The Independent, 19 Feb 2016</ref> As a side note, Bindel dismisses the existence of [[bisexual]] women,<ref>Molly Fleming (May 5, 2019). [https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/miley-cyrus-bisexual-lgbt-lesbian-julie-bindel-transgender-a8900421.html "Stop dismissing bisexual women like Miley Cyrus. What’s the point in liberation if it’s not everyone?"]. ''The Independent''.</ref><ref>[https://www.huffingtonpost.com/julie-bindel/where-is-the-politics-in-_b_1589435.html Where’s the Politics in Sex?], Julie Bindel, Huffington Post, 06/12/2012</ref> wrote against [[gay marriage]]s,<ref>Julie Bindel (June 16, 2014). [https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/jun/16/gay-marriage-equality-women-lesbian-couples-conservative-institution "Gay marriage is not about equality but a way of keeping women quiet"]. ''The Guardian''.</ref> and seems to discourage solidarity between lesbian women and gay men.<ref>(July 2, 2014). [https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-28130472 "Viewpoint: Should gay men and lesbians be bracketed together?"]. ''BBC News Magazine''. {{quotebox|Lesbians and gay men have long campaigned alongside each other. But are they wrongly bracketed together, asks Julie Bindel.}}</ref><ref>(March 10, 2023). [http://archive.today/2025.06.22-174558/https://x.com/unherd/status/1634081652514144256 "'The Lesbian Project is seeking an amicable divorce from our gay brothers' | @bindelj"]. ''[[UnHerd]]'', via Twitter (archived).</ref>

During the Gender Recognition Act Consultation in 2018, ''The Guardian'''s [[TERF]]s wrote hit pieces against the trans community, so much so that their US team had to tell their British colleagues to shut up and stop pretending all trans women were rapists.<ref>{{cite web | last=Levin | first=Sam | last2=Chalabi | first2=Mona | last3=Siddiqui | first3=Sabrina | title=Why we take issue with the Guardian's stance on trans rights in the UK | website=the Guardian | date=2018-11-02 | url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/nov/02/guardian-editorial-response-transgender-rights-uk | access-date=2024-06-25}}</ref> This has not succeeded, and many transgender staff have been subsequently [[Brain drain|forced out]] in the face of institutional transphobia.

After the resignation of two transgender employees from the publication in August 2019 in protest of the newspaper's transphobic reporting, the word [[Cisgender|'cis-gendered']] was removed from ''The Guardian'''s style guide in December 2019 by its staff.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20191219224641/https://twitter.com/bindelj/status/1207727412521394185 Apologies for the Twitter GIFs.]</ref>

''The Guardian'' came under public fire once more in March 2020, after the publication of an article that called transgender women the "real enemy to women" — naturally, forgetting about or just ignoring the existence of trans men — and threatening violence against transgender people by saying people "wouldn't go down quietly" if British trans people gained the right of self-identification. They also suggested that a group of female feminists excluding transphobe Selina Todd from an event was equivalent to people supporting paedophile Roman Polanski.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20200302201835/https://www.theguardian.com/society/commentisfree/2020/mar/02/women-must-have-the-right-to-organise-we-will-not-be-silenced "Women must have the right to organise. We will not be silenced"], Suzanne Moore, ''The Guardian'', March 2, 2020.</ref> This resulted in a letter signed by over 200 British feminists condemning the article's writer, Suzanne Moore, and rejecting the transphobic narrative trans rights infringe on women's rights,<ref name=letter>[https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2020/03/05/the-guardian-anti-trans-editorial-feminists-letter-suzanne-moore-transphobia/ Hundreds of feminists write to ''The Guardian'' rejecting argument that trans rights threaten women], PinkNews, March 5th, 2020.</ref> as well as a subsequent open letter condemning the publication's 'pattern of abusive articles about trans people' signed by 2,250+ people.<ref>[https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2020/03/06/the-guardian-anti-trans-articles-open-letter-suzanne-moore-transphobia/ Thousands more sign letter to The Guardian protesting ‘pattern of abusive articles about trans people’], PinkNews, March 6th, 2020.</ref> Signatories included Guardian staff, and UK politicians like [[Green Party]] co-leader Sian Berry.<ref name=letter/> ''The Guardian'' took no action against Suzanne Moore, proving accusations of institutional transphobia, prompting yet another resignation from a transgender employee. Moore left in 2020, followed by Hadley Freeman in 2022, both objecting to the rejection of their pitches for articles relating to transgender issues.

Moore declared:
{{cquote|I am devastated and will leave / mAnd {{sic}} you can declare your victory. You have pushed out a working class women ( I am longer that for sure } I just make the point that some of us have had to fight harder than others. We weren’t all born to ti. . I have endless emails of support from within and without the paper f So many women are unhappy htere|||<ref name="SemaforTrans"/>}}

In a 2021 interview with [[Judith Butler]], the ''Guardian'' lobbed off an entire paragraph after backlash from anti-trans activists.<ref name="SemaforTrans"/><ref>Moya Lothian-McLean (September 14, 2021). [https://novaramedia.com/2021/09/14/judith-butlers-censorship-by-the-guardian-shows-whos-really-being-silenced-in-the-fight-for-trans-rights/ "Judith Butler's Censorship by the Guardian Shows Who's Really Being Silenced in the Fight for Trans Rights"].</ref> You'd think they'd be fine with the article keeping all the parts it was born with.

In a (modestly) funnier incident, the newspaper displayed its penchant for the topic when it landed an interview with Margaret Atwood about her book (not ''[[The Handmaid's Tale]]'', which she also authored). The interviewer veered off-topic by trying to debate Atwood about trans people unprompted, which she didn't seem to appreciate.<ref>Alex Bollinger (February 22, 2022). [https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2022/02/margaret-atwood-snapped-interviewer-wanted-debate-existence-trans-people/ "Margaret Atwood snapped at interviewer who wanted to debate existence of trans people"]. ''LGBTQ Nation''.</ref>

==WikiLeaks==

''The Guardian'' published the Iraq War Logs and were big fans of [[WikiLeaks]] in the early 2010s. Their editorial stance quickly shifted in 2016 when WikiLeaks published the emails of the Democratic National Committee and [[Hillary Clinton]]'s chief of staff John Podesta.

In a November 2018 Guardian article, Luke Harding and Dan Collyns cited anonymous sources which stated that [[Donald Trump]]'s former campaign manager [[Paul Manafort]] held secret meetings with WikiLeaks founder [[Julian Assange]] inside the Ecuadorian embassy in London in 2013, 2015, and 2016.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20181127143814/https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/nov/27/manafort-held-secret-talks-with-assange-in-ecuadorian-embassy Manafort held secret talks with Assange in Ecuadorian embassy]</ref> The story was quickly edited and more-or-less retracted within a few days.

However, a July 2019 investigation cast new light on this possibility, since Assange was allegedly able to delete names from the embassy's visitor log.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20190715200904/https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/15/politics/assange-embassy-exclusive-documents/index.html Marshall Cohen, Kay Guerrero, and Arturo Torres, "Security reports reveal how Assange turned an embassy into a command post for election meddling." CNN, July 15, 2019. Accessed July 15, 2019.]</ref>

==Style guide==
''The Guardian'''s style guide, edited by David Marsh and Amelia Hodsdon,<ref>[https://www.theguardian.com/info/series/guardian-and-observer-style-guide Guardian and Observer style guide], The Guardian</ref> sets out the rules for its journalists and writers to use in their prose. It is regarded as one of the most authoritative style guides for journalism in British English (along with those of ''[[The Economist]]'' and the ''[[Daily Telegraph]]'').<ref>[https://www.thoughtco.com/top-free-online-style-guides-in-english-1688760 Top 8 Free Online Style Guides in English], Thought.com</ref><ref>[https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=VQGpCgAAQBAJ&lpg=PA54&ots=-sujtz8B2m&dq=guardian%20style%20guide&pg=PA54#v=onepage&q=guardian%20style%20guide&f=false Multimedia Journalism: A Practical Guide], Andy Bull, Routledge, 2015</ref> This requires making a variety of determinations not only about punctuation, capitalisation, variant spellings, common errors and clich&eacute;s to watch out for, and English usage, but also about how to describe places and people, for instance whether to refer to Jerusalem as the capital of [[Israel]].<ref>[http://honestreporting.com/update-guardian-style-guide-tel-aviv-no-longer-israels-capital-2/ UPDATE: Guardian Style Guide: Tel Aviv No Longer Israel’s Capital], Honest Reporting</ref> Hence it makes various judgement calls on what to call indigenous peoples and ethnic groups, what to call people with [[AIDS]] ("people with Aids" not "victims of Aids"), usage of phrases such as "[[alt-right]]" (should be in quotes and "evidence-based"), "[[gay]]" (an adjective not a noun), whether to capitalise "Google" (even when a verb), "[[Gypsies]] ("are recognised as an ethnic group under the Race Relations Act, as are Irish Travellers, hence capped up"), "[[tabloid]]" (to be used of traditional redtops like ''[[The Sun]]'' but "not shrunken broadsheets"), "schizophrenia" (only for those with the specific mental condition), and accurate health reporting (anti-viral drug Tamiflu is not to be described as a flu vaccine).

==Columnists==
*[[Charlie Brooker]]
*[[Ben Goldacre]]
*[[Glenn Greenwald]]
*[[Simon Jenkins]]
*[[Owen Jones]]
*[[George Monbiot]]

==See also==
*''[[The Daily Mail]]'', its polar opposite
*''[[Daily Telegraph]]'', its ideological rival
*''[[The Nation]]'', its American counterpart

==External links==
*[https://www.theguardian.com Official website]
*''[https://youtu.be/91_5OOmK1TQ Transphobia in the UK]'', a highly informative video essay by [[Shaun]] that explicitly discusses transphobic articles by the Guardian UK

==Notes==
{{reflist|group=note}}

==References==
{{reflist|2|80%}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Guardian, The}}
[[Category:Newspapers]]
[[Category:British media]]
[[Category:TERFs]]
[[Category:Discrimination]]
[[Category:Anti-LGBT bigots]]

Categories: Newspapers, British media, TERFs, Discrimination, Anti-LGBT bigots