Stop Rod Liddle

By Will Straw | Published: January 10, 2010

A facebook group has been launched with the aim of stopping Rod Liddle from becoming Editor of the Independent newspaper. The former Today programme editor is renowned for his offensives outbursts.

Rod-LiddleThe Guardian reported on Friday that Rod Liddle was being lined up to edit the newspaper. Alex Higgins, who blogs at Bring on the Revolution, acted quickly to set up a facebook group detailing Rod Liddle’s views and warning “If Rod Liddle becomes editor of The Independent, I will not buy it again.”

Higgins writes:

“Rod Liddle would be a disappointing choice for the ‘Daily Telegraph’ or the ‘Daily Mail’. For the ‘Independent’, it represents a direct affront to the readership.

“Many ‘Independent’ readers were already disappointed by the direction the paper had taken under Roger Alton, and we absolutely should not accept the appointment of Rod Liddle.”

He goes on to detail many of Liddle’s positions including:

- decrying “Muslim Savages“

- mocking the black British community for merely producing “rap music” and “goat curry“

- denying the evidence for Anthropogenic Global Warming theory

- a series of sexist articles and views including “So – Harriet Harman, then. Would you? I mean after a few beers obviously, not while you were sober.”

UPDATE 18.04

The facebook group has now attracted well over 1,000 people in under 24 hours.

This entry was posted in Media Integrity and tagged , . Bookmark the permalink. Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL.
  • http://twitter.com/jamiesw/status/7591862344 JamieSW

    RT @leftfootfwd: Stop offensive twat Rod Liddle becoming Editor of the Independent http://bit.ly/5bee0V

  • http://twitter.com/rantersparadise/status/7591888308 irene rukerebuka

    RT @leftfootfwd Stop offensive twat Rod Liddle becoming Editor of the Independent http://bit.ly/5bee0V

  • http://twitter.com/palmeralan/status/7591903885 Alan Palmer

    Done. RT @leftfootfwd: Stop offensive twat Rod Liddle becoming Editor of the Independent http://bit.ly/5bee0V

  • http://twitter.com/lupinpooter/status/7591962856 Amelia Longcroft

    RT @leftfootfwd: Stop offensive twat Rod Liddle becoming Editor of the Independent http://bit.ly/5bee0V

  • http://bastardoldholborn.blogspot.com/ Old Holborn

    As only goat eating, female genital mutilation apologising, gun toting yardie loving, tree hugging lesbian vegans who want to return us to the middle ages via Hip Hop read the Indie, I fear he may be a bad choice.

  • http://twitter.com/josshands/status/7592327236 Joss Hands

    RT @leftfootfwd: Stop offensive twat Rod Liddle becoming Editor of the Independent http://bit.ly/5bee0V

  • Pingback: uberVU - social comments

  • concrete pump

    I don’t really like Liddle.

    But hey! if he upsets you lot.

    Good on him.

  • http://twitter.com/totalkharnage/status/7592527700 totalkharnage

    RT @leftfootfwd: Stop offensive twat Rod Liddle becoming Editor of the Independent http://bit.ly/5bee0V

  • Fred

    At least he’s not there because of who his dad is.

  • Anon E Mouse

    The only reason you don’t like Rod Liddle is because he’s a man of conviction Will – he sticks to his opinion and defends it with clever argument.

    You’re just not used to that Will…

  • http://twitter.com/martinmcivor/status/7592756936 Martin McIvor

    RT @leftfootfwd: Stop offensive twat Rod Liddle becoming Editor of the Independent http://bit.ly/5bee0V

  • http://www.brianmoylan.info/theatlanticbridge/ Brian Moylan

    Nothing particularly to say on the post; just wanted to see what my name looks like amongst this predictable little army of right-wing apologists that post replies everywhere a that a blog exists with a view unacceptable to the average Daily Mail reader is espoused.

  • http://bastardoldholborn.blogspot.com/ Old Holborn

    Me? Rightwing? I’m the most communist person I know, Comrade!

  • Will Straw

    Old Holborn – An interesting take. Thanks, as ever.

    Fred – Unless you’re referring to the biological fact of my existence, your insinuation is false and unnecessary. Please note our comments policy or don’t come back: http://www.leftfootforward.org/about

    Anon – I don’t regard racism or sexism as clever. Good luck to the guy, but don’t expect me to support him. And I thought you liked this site because we made clear arguments for the things we believe in, stuck to them, and defended them.

    Brian – I think your name looks great. Please come back and comment more regularly.

  • http://whollyrude.blogspot.com Polaris

    Free speech works both ways, deal with it… A contrary opinion is a challenge, anybody who does not enjoy their dearly held views being challenged is an intellectual coward, or fascist.

  • http://whollyrude.blogspot.com Polaris

    Your right hand column does state that you are “Fighting against Media Manipulation” does it not? What is this campaign, the one you advocate, but just that?

  • Anon E Mouse

    Will – We live in a free country. Perhaps you are being a little too delicate?

    Even if you disagree with it is he not as entitled to his opinion as you are to yours?

    Which as you know is why I like this site…

    PS – Even after several crates of beer I wouldn’t….

  • Grumpy Old Man

    Dear Will. I’m afraid you and your friends merely sound incensed and desperate. Incensed in the way a football fan is when his team changes owners without the fan’s consent, and desperate that another left-wing propaganda rag has probably decided to change allegiance. The Direction and management of the paper is entirely the responsibility of the proprietors, shareholders and board. I would remind you that when the Left threw their toys out of the cot over the change of owner of PoliticsHome, they gained nothing and lost a chance to influence the development. “I’ll never buy that paper again” and similar remarks singularly unintelligent ways of influencing a debate.

  • Will Straw

    There’s some inconsistency going on in this thread.

    As Rod Liddle is entitled to his views, so is Alex Higgins and the other 969 people who have signed up to his facebook group. It would be fascist to call for Liddle to be incarcerated for his views but no-one’s advocating that.

    Will

  • John

    Will, what do you call someone if they execute (in a particularly cruel fashion) a rape victim for having sex outside marriage, based on a twisted religious interpretation? Savages is, in my view, fairly generous.

  • http://twitter.com/danielblaney/status/7597532598 Daniel Blaney

    RT @leftfootfwd: Stop offensive twat Rod Liddle becoming Editor of the Independent http://bit.ly/5bee0V

  • Adam Ramsay

    The point is that there are plenty of papers who share Rod Liddle’s views on a range of things. If the Indie ends up as yet another generic right wing paper, it’s bad for British democracy and society. Whatever your political beliefs, surely divers ideas are important in democracy?

    More important though, is how much this shows that politics can be bought by the very rich.

  • http://www.democratsdiary.co.uk/ David Wearing

    I love the free speech argument, as though every human being has an inalienable right to be editor of the Independent.

    Still, that’s the right-wing for you. Always prattling on about (their) rights, never having the slightest clue what they mean.

  • http://www.shamik.co.uk Shamik Das

    I know Dave! The free speech to insult, libel and offend from behind an alias! They’re so brave aren’t they?!

  • Anon E Mouse

    David and Shamik – As usual make your personal insults but NEVER answer the points made here.

    Why not answer Johns point on execution – such as homosexuals being stoned to death for the sexual orientation they were born with?

    Somehow you two seem unable to condemn that kind of behaviour and just make weak comments about free speech.

    And Shamik after some of the remarks I read recently on your personal blog it’s small wonder people wish to remain anonymous in their responses to you.

    With the views you both hold neither of you two are supporters of the same Labour Party I am.

    Come back Deggsy – all is forgiven….

  • http://whollyrude.blogspot.com Polaris

    Dave, Shamik and Will – how exactly does “Fighting against Media Manipulation” correlate to a campaign to pick the editor of a national newspaper to suit the desire for one loosely allied group of facebook users trying to block an appointment of an editor with whom they have some real/imagined ideological difference?

    It’s not a left vs right spat, it’s a simple freedom of expression issue, surely.

    And I am not a “right wing” anything, or “left wing” for that matter, just a simple, reasonably well educated anarchist…

  • http://whollyrude.blogspot.com Polaris

    It’s a simple choice of supporting and independent press, or not.

    I would not feel comfortable campaigning against a left wing or right wing editor being appointed to any independent publication – who do you think you are?

    So a left leaning editor, only, will be acceptable to you, such outrageous dogma! Intolerant zealots, to a man…

  • http://bastardoldholborn.blogspot.com/ Old Holborn

    Has Kerry McCarthy joined your facebook group Will?

    It would be a shame if she didn’t, seeing as how she is the MP for Britain’s most multicultural Road, full of Hip Hop, Rap, goat curry, Qat and Somali Mosques.

    “The road in Bristol’s Easton district has suffered 915 crimes in seven months – that’s SIX for every metre it stretches.”

    Never twitters that, does she?

    http://www.people.co.uk/news/news/tm_objectid=16254597&method=full&siteid=93463-name_page.html

  • http://www.bickerstafferecord.org.uk Paul

    I’ve no problem with a Facebook group, but I’d much rather see the NUJ backing it’s members at the Indie in telling the new owner where he can stick Liddle.

  • Pingback: Could the plot-shambles be good for Labour? « Freethinking Economist

  • http://twitter.com/theday2day/status/7604533997 Adam White

    RT @leftfootfwd: Stop offensive twat Rod Liddle becoming Editor of the Independent http://bit.ly/5bee0V

  • Pingback: A Liddle word on Health & Safety at work « Though Cowards Flinch

  • http://balhambugle.blogspot.com/ Balham Bugle

    Can’t say that I’m bothered whether Rod Liddle becomes the Indy’s editor. I haven’t read the Indy since I was at uni, when being po-faced was de rigueur. And while I read Liddle’s Spectator blog, it’s usually in the same way that I would listen to Dennis Leary

    But just an evidence-based analysis of the likely impact of this facebook page (I seem to remember EBA was in your strapline), currently numbering just over 1,300. The Indy sells around 180,000 copies a day, of which around half are paid for. Using the other papers in the Independent News and Media stable as a benchmark of financial sustainability, the Indy will need to double paying customers to have a similar operating margin. So, if a new approach has a reasonable chance of adding at least 100,000 new customers, I don’t think any sleep will be lost over a few thousand people who are probably aren’t regular buyers.

    PS – did you actually read the Liddle links use to lambast him before copying them into your post. Decrying, mocking and being sexist is fairly subjective so it seems pointless to argue, but decrying stoning of adulterous women seems a fairly reasonable response. But, does a column that discusses the politics of climate change negotiation really qualify as “denying the evidence” of AGW?

    Will, in future I’d concentrate on harvesting quotes from OECD reports. They long enough that most people won’t both to check to see how much your spinning.

  • Anon E Mouse

    Paul – And I’d rather see the NUJ or any other union for that matter acting in the interests of their members instead of getting involved in politics…

    I’m funny like that…

  • Will Straw

    John, Balham Bugle – the point about the “Muslim savages” article is that while Liddle makes an important point about the treatment of women by some Islamic states, the rhetoric seeks to tar all Muslims with the same brush. This is as useful as talking about tight Scots or drunk Irish. It is a sterotype and distracts from the underlying point being made.

  • Harry Va Derci

    Oh dear. You don’t do satire very well do you Will? Rod’s “would you” joke about Harpy was satirical of her own obsession with sexual politics.

    Your problem appears to be that you haven’t the wit to ‘get’ Liddle

    Whoosh

    (Perhaps you could direct to the nearest Facebook Group campaigning about nepotism in politics?)

  • Anon E Mouse

    Will – But no one else has the guts to mention it except Liddle.

    I would have thought that progressives, as you claim to be, would be in favour of free thinking individuals whether you agreed with them or not.

    Same with the Dutch cartoons – don’t tell me you’re in favour of banning them as well in case they tar all people with the same brush?

    Of course that would fit nicely with the police state Gordon Brown has set up to control the masses…

    (See what I did there Will re. GB)

  • http://twitter.com/manchestermule/status/7627308485 MULE

    RT @leftfootfwd: Stop offensive twat Rod Liddle becoming Editor of the Independent http://bit.ly/5bee0V

  • Pingback: Latest Liddle outburst: "F*** off back to where you’re from, then, you Muslims." | Left Foot Forward

  • DSD

    Us nasty rightwingers have got a Facebook group too so nyer nyer nyer nyer.

    http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=277263444991&ref=nf

  • Kevin T

    If enough of you progressives bought the Independent now, they wouldn’t be considering such a drastic change to keep it going. But there aren’t enough of you to pay for the existence of 2 highbrow left wing broadsheets. Maybe Lebedev thinks the paper might do better as a rival to the Times. I can’t see it surviving whatever he does. There are simply too many newspapers in this country catering to a dwindling number of readers.

  • Pingback: Independent owner to be inundated with emails on Liddle | Left Foot Forward

  • Pingback: Look Left – The Week in Fast Forward | Left Foot Forward

  • Pingback: Do Rod Liddle's human rights trump yours? | Left Foot Forward

  • http://ron-broxted.livejournal.com Ron Broxted

    Old Holborn when are you going to de-troll your s(h)ite?

  • Pingback: Liddle's latest outrage shouldn't surprise us | Left Foot Forward

  • Pingback: Look Left – The hate-filled Right hone in on their next target: Disabled people | Left Foot Forward