On Saturday, the UK’s Labour Party elected Jeremy Corbyn to be its newest leader, and many in the media described the event in nightmarish terms, even comparing Corbyn to ISIS and Donald Trump. In reality, Corbyn has far more in common with the Labour Party’s socialist roots, and modern anti-austerity movements, then either an outspoken, racist billionaire or any religious extremist.
Adam Johnson, a journalist who contributes to Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting, tweeted out five outrageous headlines he’d seen in the wake of Corbyn’s election, all from independent media outlet The Daily Beast.
Ranging from calling Corbyn “The Labor Party’s Two Word Suicide Note” and “Lefty Christmas” to “Hezbollah’s Man In London: The Improbable Rise Of Wild-Eyed Jeremy Corbyn,” Johnson wryly commented that readers could “play ‘spot the agenda.’” The Daily Beast did later change its most extreme headline, which originally read, “What Corbyn, Trump, and Radical Islamists Have In Common,” to “The Daily Hate: Corbyn, Trump, And The New Politics Of Spite.”