Telling Them – Something Different for a Change

This is a guest post by AKUS
From time to time the Guardian solicits ideas and articles from its readers and others. Of course, they publish clear guidelines about content, length, and accuracy of articles that you might want to submit.
So, first of all, they do not want just any old article written by some ignorant blogger – they are after authoritative comment. So Jessica Reed provides a description of the ideal Guardian contributor (Ben White the Tooth Fairy and Rachel Shabi, Santa’s Little Helper, spring to mind):

1. ….. “What is your argument? What makes your angle special? Do you have expertise (in your professional or private life) which could nourish your writing? Do you have personal experience with a specific topic? If so, tell us”.

To drive the message home, Jessica sternly admonishes the would-be contributor:

3) Be sure of your facts

The internet is awash with rumours, gossip and glaring inaccuracies, which makes credibility all the more important to our readers. If you don’t check your facts, Cif commenters will be the first to point out your mistakes. Please double-check all your facts, but do not copy and paste whole paragraphs from other sources

(She neglects to mention that CiF Watch commenters will do an even better job!)
So bearing this in mind, I found this comment, unusual for us CiF Watchers, quite revealing, from the obituary for an Islamic religious leader, Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, 1928-2010 which garnered a grand total of 10 comments:


So a hat-tip to Saleh – despite Jessica’s description of what she looks for in a contribution, it appears the Guardian, always eager to give Islam a better than fair showing, accepted an article from an enthusiast for his topic who is not too careful with the facts! On the other hand – and this should be a warning to many of the Israel bashing contributors that we have debunked on this web-site – , as she wrote:

“If you don’t check your facts, Cif commenters will be the first to point out your mistakes”