Lyn Washbrook

BBC Drama Script Producer and mum of three…

[Zack Polanski @ZackPolanski]

British.

[Lyn Washbrook @LSMW29]

@richardpbacon thank you for everything you said on Newsnight this evening! You were brilliant and right about everything! X

[Lyn Washbrook @LSMW29]

@TEDchris @elonmusk Thank you for speaking up with your own well respected platform.

[Chris Anderson @TEDchris]

With a certain amount of trepidation, I'm posting this open letter to @elonmusk, someone I have admired, but who, right now, is causing me concern. I know I'm not alone in thinking these thoughts. Please like or repost if you're willing... And Elon, if you're listening, please know this is offered in a constructive spirit.

-----

Dear Elon,

A thought hit me this morning.

On top of all your achievements in technology and entrepreneurship, you have become this century's single most influential writer.  You have more than 200 million followers on a powerful platform that you yourself control. And the words that you write flow well beyond just those followers into almost every user of X and far beyond courtesy of extensive media coverage.   This makes Rupert Murdoch at his prime seem inconsequential.

It must feel exhilarating. You made a huge gamble buying Twitter and it seems to have paid off spectacularly to the point that you can use it to massively impact the world, including changing governments.  You believe that X can largely replace most mainstream media. It is the new platform for citizen journalism, and you are citizen number 1.  You don’t need the hassle of editors and fact-checkers. Every single thing you post garners millions of likes and reposts. In a heartbeat you can change the global conversation.  No one in history has had this much power.

So there’s a lot at stake here, and, as it happens, journalism is something I care deeply about. I began my career as a journalist because I believed that good journalism was essential for the healthy functioning of democracy. Today I am worried — quite deeply worried, actually — that in your triumphant seizing of the global conversation, some of the core tenets of journalism are being forgotten. Without them, I think your efforts to make X the respected home of citizen journalism will fail.

There are numerous journalistic principles that matter — Grok can summarize them quite nicely. But there’s one in particular that’s been troubling me. It’s the fairness doctrine. The one that says that before you publish savagely critical claims about an individual, or an institution, you reach out to them for their side of the story. After all, just possibly, you may have missed a key fact or two that would change how people assess what has happened. Just possibly your sources were motivated to cause damage to that individual. Just possibly there’s an alternative explanation of what happened.

So, for example, when you tell hundreds of millions of people that someone should be hanged or jailed for outrageous crimes against humanity, just possibly you should first sound out what those who know those people really well would say about them. Some of your recent posts could literally get someone killed. Do you really want to risk that? How is it possible that you can do this at the very same time that you’re calling on people to make X more positive, more beautiful?  You say you want to maximize un-regretted user-seconds on X.  By far the simplest way you could do this, Elon, is simply to thoughtfully edit what you yourself post.

I get that from your eyes the issues you are championing are unbelievably important and worthy of extreme efforts. But the way you are presenting them is not citizen journalism. It's playground bullying. It’s crass and it’s cruel, and it’s therefore not nearly as effective as it could be.  You’re hearing the cheers of your most loyal followers, but missing the fact you’re making yourself a laughing stock among many who you really want on your side. Long-term that’s going to damage X, your other businesses, and indeed your long-term dreams for humanity.  No one wants to follow a playground bully to Mars.

I miss the old Elon. You can be funny, interesting, insightful and inspiring. You've fought incredibly hard for what you've built. And you may feel you're entitled to do whatever the hell you want with it. But I also know that you understand the danger of holding too tightly to the ring of power, how it can distort someone's judgement and turn them ugly.

I’m hoping you can loosen that ring just a little. For the love of humanity that you profess, I really urge you to embrace the fairness doctrine and showcase a better face of X.

Thanks for listening.

Chris

[dave ❄️ 🥕 🧻 @mrdavemacleod]

“We should have got on to him early on”

Ian Hislop’s takedown of Elon Musk is a thing of beauty 👏

[Lyn Washbrook @LSMW29]

@mrjamesob Hi James, love your show, first time I’ve messaged you, but I have an important question- can you please share your Saint Agur and Sprout recipe? Thanks!! Xx

[Hank Azaria @HankAzaria]

Chief Wiggum, Springfield PD, here… they’re doing WHAT?

[Lyn Washbrook @LSMW29]

@MrMichaelSpicer I’m sure I’m not alone in eagerly waiting to hear what you were saying in Trump’s ear at the debate?! Can we look forward to that?! Truly brilliant!! 🙏❤️😂

[Bill Madden @maddenifico]

This woman's righteous indignation over the loathsome piece of shit is spot-fucking-on. We cannot let Trump back into the White House. WE. CAN'T. 🔥🔥🔥🙌🙏👏🌊🇺🇸

[Lyn Washbrook @LSMW29]

@adilray I heard this analogy at the start of the war and couldn’t believe more people weren’t saying it! For Israel to accuse Hamas of using human shields and then to shoot anyway, doesn’t make them the good guys! It makes them just as bad as Hamas!! Thank you for sharing!

[Edwin Hayward @edwinhayward]

It is extraordinary that the USA gets treated to a dismantling of the Tory party orders of magnitude better than the tame efforts anyone dares attempt here.

(And no, it's not the swearing that makes the difference - it's the accuracy of the attacks.)

[Jonathan Pie @JonathanPieNews]

Election Special: 2. Immigration

[Led By Donkeys @ByDonkeys]

Rishi Sunak. This is who he is

(Thanks to @gavinesler for narration)

[Jonathan Pie @JonathanPieNews]

Election Special: 1. The Economy

[Carol Vorderman @carolvorders]

Treat yourself and watch this brilliant spoof from @PoliticsJOE_UK 😂

Trump and Putin "IT WASN'T ME"
courtesy of @swedemason & @Jason_Spacey

Not #Caturday 😉

[Lyn Washbrook @LSMW29]

@PhilipRalph9 @dbessner Really interesting and sadly matches a lot of what I’ve heard.

[CALL TO ACTIVISM @CalltoActivism]

A British writer penned the best description of Donald Trump I’ve ever read:

“Why do some British people not like Donald Trump?”

A few things spring to mind. Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem. For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace – all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed. So for us, the stark contrast does rather throw Trump’s limitations into embarrassingly sharp relief.

Plus, we like a laugh. And while Trump may be laughable, he has never once said anything wry, witty or even faintly amusing – not once, ever. I don’t say that rhetorically, I mean it quite literally: not once, not ever. And that fact is particularly disturbing to the British sensibility – for us, to lack humour is almost inhuman. But with Trump, it’s a fact. He doesn’t even seem to understand what a joke is – his idea of a joke is a crass comment, an illiterate insult, a casual act of cruelty.

Trump is a troll. And like all trolls, he is never funny and he never laughs; he only crows or jeers. And scarily, he doesn’t just talk in crude, witless insults – he actually thinks in them. His mind is a simple bot-like algorithm of petty prejudices and knee-jerk nastiness.

There is never any under-layer of irony, complexity, nuance or depth. It’s all surface. Some Americans might see this as refreshingly upfront. Well, we don’t. We see it as having no inner world, no soul. And in Britain we traditionally side with David, not Goliath. All our heroes are plucky underdogs: Robin Hood, Dick Whittington, Oliver Twist. Trump is neither plucky, nor an underdog. He is the exact opposite of that. He’s not even a spoiled rich-boy, or a greedy fat-cat. He’s more a fat white slug. A Jabba the Hutt of privilege.

And worse, he is that most unforgivable of all things to the British: a bully. That is, except when he is among bullies; then he suddenly transforms into a snivelling sidekick instead. There are unspoken rules to this stuff – the Queensberry rules of basic decency – and he breaks them all. He punches downwards – which a gentleman should, would, could never do – and every blow he aims is below the belt. He particularly likes to kick the vulnerable or voiceless – and he kicks them when they are down.

So the fact that a significant minority – perhaps a third – of Americans look at what he does, listen to what he says, and then think ‘Yeah, he seems like my kind of guy’ is a matter of some confusion and no little distress to British people, given that:

• Americans are supposed to be nicer than us, and mostly are.

• You don’t need a particularly keen eye for detail to spot a few flaws in the man.

This last point is what especially confuses and dismays British people, and many other people too; his faults seem pretty bloody hard to miss. After all, it’s impossible to read a single tweet, or hear him speak a sentence or two, without staring deep into the abyss. He turns being artless into an art form; he is a Picasso of pettiness; a Shakespeare of shit. His faults are fractal: even his flaws have flaws, and so on ad infinitum.

God knows there have always been stupid people in the world, and plenty of nasty people too. But rarely has stupidity been so nasty, or nastiness so stupid. He makes Nixon look trustworthy and George W look smart. In fact, if Frankenstein decided to make a monster assembled entirely from human flaws – he would make a Trump.

And a remorseful Doctor Frankenstein would clutch out big clumpfuls of hair and scream in anguish: ‘My God… what… have… I… created?' If being a twat was a TV show, Trump would be the boxed set.”

-Nate White

[Led By Donkeys @ByDonkeys]

📽️ Mob rule and the Conservative Party.

Thanks to @gavinesler for narration.

[ElisabethDermotWalsh @elisabethdw]

I bet you know someone who needs to see this?! People ask me all the time "How did you get into TV? ...How can I?" The answer is complicated; nothing is a straight line. But talent isn't discovered under a rock, it emerges when people strive. X

[Lyn Washbrook @LSMW29]

@PhilipRalph9 @BBCDoctors Well said Phil!! BTW, you might like to know that Mike Hobson gave you a shout out tonight, thanking you for getting this message out - and so eloquently said! No show can survive/suceed without fantastic writer like you! Best wishes, xx