Tag Archives: Gaby Hinsliff

Channel 4 runs online poll after Gordon Brown makes on-air ‘bigot’ gaffe

As former Observer political editor Gaby Hinsliff (@gabyhinsliff) tweeted earlier today, Gordon Brown’s post walkabout gaffe (see video below), in which he called an elderly former Labour voter a “bigot”: “Shows how easy it is to forget the first law of broadcast: even if you’re not on air, if you’re miked up you’re effectively on record.”

Channel 4 News was quick off the mark with an online poll on its live election blog, asking: “Does Gordon Brown’s unguarded ‘bigot’ remark make you less likely to vote Labour?” At the time of writing, the ‘no’s” had a 68 per cent majority but watch that space…

Meanwhile, a spoof Twitter account @bigotedwoman and the phrase “Bigoted Woman” are currently trending on Twitter.

#IWD: Gaby Hinsliff – ‘Too many women waiting to be invited to blog, where men just pile in’

Former Observer political editor Gaby Hinsliff, explains why she has taken on the task of guest-editing LabourList for the day, to mark International Women’s Day. She says “there are too many women waiting to be invited to blog, where men just pile in”. Guest-editing allowed her the chance to give new writers and fresh perspectives an airing, she writes.

Read her post in full at this link. An extract:

I’m generally suspicious of anything wimmin-only: it smacks of condescension. My first instinct was to commission something about why a female-only blogging day is a rotten idea.

(…)

My only rule was that the writing should stand on its argument, not its author. Ideally you wouldn’t even notice they were all female: after all, did you notice that every single byline here last weekend was male?