Rachel Riley and Julia Hartley-Brewer’s responses to the massacre in Australia were filled with compassion and tolerance.
We’re only joking – of course they weren’t. They were filled with rampant hate and Islamophobia.
Hartley-Brewer: maintaining her reputation
On 13 April, a man wielding a knife stabbed and killed six people, injuring several more. Police shot and killed the attacker who was later named as Joel Cauchi. The BBC reported:
Authorities said the attack was most likely “related to the mental health” of Mr Cauchi.
Asked whether she believes he was targeting women, New South Wales Police Commissioner Karen Webb told reporters on Sunday it would be “an obvious line of inquiry”.
But she added she would not describe the stabbings as an “act of terror”, reiterating that police believed there was “no ideological motivation”.
Usually, professional practice on social media is to refrain from speculating on the motive of an ongoing attack as it’s unfolding. In the UK, however, you don’t need to act professionally to be employed by the corporate media
Enter Julia Hartley-Brewer of the Rupert-Murdoch-founded Talk TV:
Big mouth strikes again
As can be seen above, Brewer’s response received a community note highlighting her poor journalistic practice. She later apologised:
My tweet below was incorrect. The attack in Sydney was not an Islamist terror attack, it was carried out by a man the police have since named as Joel Cauchi who they say had mental health problems not an ideological motive. I doubt that will be much consolation to the families of… https://t.co/IkHkuvZehN
— Julia Hartley-Brewer (@JuliaHB1) April 14, 2024
Her point about it not being “consolation to the families” betrays how she views politics. Events happen, and then you scrabble around trying to demonstrate how it backs up your world view. She lost the game this time, but she reassures herself it won’t console anyone else.
If you think that’s reading into it too much, this is what she tweeted next:
Oh, and the reason I didn't retract sooner was simply because I was out and busy all day yesterday enjoying the sunshine with my lovely family and didn't look at Twitter or the news again until this morning. You guys should try that sometime. 😊
— Julia Hartley-Brewer (@JuliaHB1) April 14, 2024
People with emotions like empathy or humility don’t usually tweet ‘suck it, haters’ as part of their public apologies.
Brewer received a good deal of criticism for both the original tweet and her later back-peddling:
‘A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on’.
That’s how people like Hartley-Brewer steal a living from the gullible. https://t.co/cf2AbMWVkF— Mark Cockerton (@CockertonMark) April 14, 2024
You have a following of 468,200 people, Ms Brewer.
468,200 people that you presented blatantly incorrect information to because you went with the worst possible scenario.
You’re supposed to be a trusted source of news and information, but, as is almost always the case you… https://t.co/qlCl1gIcyA pic.twitter.com/7jnkuCOsFc
— The Bear (@i_iratus) April 14, 2024
If the motivation of the killer doesn't matter to the families of those killed, why did you make it the main point of your original tweet?
— Frances 'Cassandra' Coppola (@Frances_Coppola) April 14, 2024
You should try journalism sometime 🤣🤣🤣
— Ray (@Armsman47) April 14, 2024
Rachel Riley: hold my beer, Julia
However, eternal source of hate dressed up as sweet and innocent genius, Countdown co-presenter Rachel Riley, managed to go one further than Hartley-Brewer:
https://twitter.com/RachelRileyRR/status/1779096111669506497
Why did she go one further? Because when the truth – not right-wing racist conspiracy – came out about the alleged murderer in Sydney, she did the only thing she knows how to do: double down:
Global condemnation for the attack that has now claimed 6 innocent lives, including a 38 year old Mum protecting her baby.
And no, the attacker being named as Joel Cauchi does not change my opinion that it is wrong for people on our streets to be calling for mass terror attacks…
— Rachel Riley MBE 💙 (@RachelRileyRR) April 13, 2024
People on X were rightly calling her out:
Rachel Riley is despicable pic.twitter.com/dT7zf5YV00
— Osita Mba (@DrOsitaMba) April 14, 2024
Countless people were calling on Channel 4 to take action against Riley – as well as Talk TV over Hartley-Brewer:
Hi @Channel4 are you planning to do anything about Rachel Riley? She’s since doubled down on her racist and inciting Tweet too. Same question to you @TalkTV about JHB.
Can’t tag anyone for Lee Kern because nobody will employ him. https://t.co/P3DPQtCAUv
— Darshan Sanghrajka (@chiefchimpanzee) April 14, 2024
While it’s unlikely Channel 4 will do anything about their favourite Evil Princess – it’s even less likely that any of Hartley-Brewer’s employers will act.
Julia Hartley-Sewer
According to her blurb on the Telegraph website – an outlet she’s written several pieces for:
Julia Hartley-Brewer is a journalist, broadcaster and talkRADIO presenter. A former political editor and LBC Radio presenter, she is a regular on TV shows such as Question Time and Have I Got News For You, and on Radio 4’s Any Questions and the News Quiz
That’s a lot of gigs and media appearances for someone who has:
- Described the climate crisis as “just the weather” (among other stupid interventions on the environment).
- Come to the defence of Enoch Powell’s racist ‘rivers of blood speech’.
- Promoted Covid misinformation.
- Received 15,000 Ofcom complaints for screaming her way through an interview.
- Routinely sided with the worst dick heads in existence:
https://twitter.com/NerdPyle/status/1608673786047660032
Rivers of sewage
If you have a job, you might not understand how Riley and Hartley-Brewer keep getting work. In proper industries, you can’t fuck-up day-in, day-out and carry on earning a paycheck. In most jobs, you can’t get away with it once.
The context you need to put things into place is that the British corporate media and broadcasting is an open sewer. As such, the stink of bad journalism and even worse opinions is impossible to detect.
The other thing to understand is that whether it’s Talk TV, the Telegraph, Channel 4, or the BBC, it doesn’t matter how incompetent an employee is, just so long as they’re incompetent in a fashion which benefits the establishment.
Featured image via Wikipedia/TalkTV
