By Gavin Mackintosh-
The investigation into the media handling of Diane Abbott’s account of serious racism and death threats on twitter is causing some anger among some members of the British media.
The matter which was sparked and assigned for investigation at the end of 2018 on this site started and stalled after some internal disagreements on the issue. It was resumed after members of our thinktank spent hours in separate meetings over a number of discussing various issues, particularly the exploration of ideas for twitter to significantly improve its security measures.
Labour Mp Diane Abbott complained bitterly about using being called a racially derogatory name in September 2017, and complained bitterly again last December, calling for twitter to insist twitter users are forced to register their name and address to their accounts. When Abbott reported during an interview on an ITV morning show that she had been called a nxxxxx, the fact she used the N word was highlighted to the exclusion of those who had used it against her.
The Eye Of Media.Com undertook an investigation to understand why most media outlets that reported the story failed to focus their attention on Abbott’s attackers, but directed it on the Labour Mps choice of the word. Members of many of the publications guilty of this poor reporting were contacted for an explanation, but struggled to provide one. Some asked for the request to be put in writing, a task that was shared out to some members of the team.
The topic was unusual and a bit discomforting for some of us assigned to the unique and revealing task, but is one useful for the records. Some of the journalists who wrote the stories have moved to other news outlets, according to information given by three of the six news media publications we contacted, the other journalists were freelancers who worked from home, and had to be sent emails to explain their articles. Not a question that would excite many people about an MP like Abbott.
Members of the news desk of national newspapers were uncomfortable with the line of questioning , with one dropping the phone to one inquirer, and the other speedily ending the call. The matter has been committed to research from ordinary members of the British public, including university students, to get a wider view of what smart thinking people make of it, about a dozen random people have already been surveyed about it, among other topics.
Official complaints to those publications are to be made from The Eye Of Media.Com’s editorial , with the overall findings forming research information.
On a separate note, the hostile reaction of Abbott’s team to our probe about her complaint to bad treatment at a January episode of question Time has been resumed after some internal opposition from some members of our team.