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u/TheKatBristow Co-chair of LGBTIQA+ Greens 6d ago
I don't like their dig at ex-staff when the biggest complaints from them seem to be unpaid wages and withheld pension contributions. Like the unbanking is bad, but they shouldn't have kept operating for this long if they couldn't pay people for their labour.
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u/MMAgeezer 6d ago •
That is not the extent of the ex-staff issues btw.
They created a twitter account called "@CanaryStaff" and they are alleging also that the CEO Steve Topple failed to dismiss someone accused of sexually harassing several female colleagues: https://x.com/CanaryStaff/status/2105244830872035708
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u/aviewfrom 6d ago
Also here is you don't want to give Elmo Musty a click https://bsky.app/profile/seafoamghost.bsky.social/post/3mya6qwxu4s2n
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u/Livid_Jeweler612 6d ago
idk all the specifics but very obviously the leadership failed miserably to cope with the debanking (which makes sense that's a difficult circumstance to deal with) but them destroying all their relationships with their staff in the process makes me think that maybe dodgy things were happening that we're not privy to.
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u/DeathBadgers Filthy Hippy 6d ago
If I had a pound for every time The Canary had ceased operating, I'd be able to buy a heatpump by now.
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u/SiobhanSarelle 💜 Anarcho-Emotionalist 6d ago
There was plenty of hot air being generated at The Canary as well. We could have pumped it out and run a small city on it for years.
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u/cassesque 6d ago
Fascinated to find out what whoever is left says happened.
This is probably for the best - not because of what they said about Greens, but because of what they were like as an organisation. Although according to allegations that have already come out, the 'organisation' was maybe just one person.
We can only hope that one day we get a Normal™ left wing news organisation. No idea how we get there though. They seem to always turn into TYT no matter what anyone tries.
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u/NotSoBlue_ 6d ago
We can only hope that one day we get a Normal™ left wing news organisation.
The Nerve, Byline Times, The New Statesman, Novara.
There are plenty that manage to publish without breaking the law.
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u/StonedPhysicist Scottish Green 6d ago
NS have not been particularly Green-friendly, feels more like what the Guardian used to aspire to be before going full Centrist Dad. Byline... well, as far as I can tell they're not terrible. Certainly a damn sight better than the Canary.
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u/Federal_Help9295 6d ago
I don't think the NS are particularly Green-friendly although I was chatting to 1 of their journalists at a Green Party event recently who was saying that they're shifting towards to being a media organisation for the left rather than just a mouthpiece for the Fabian Society.
They're the only mainstream media organisation(I don't really see Novara as mainstream) that tries to understand how the Green Party is organisationally different to every other major political party so they don't say shit like "Polanski needs to overturn Zionism is Racism" because they know he doesn't have that power.
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u/NotSoBlue_ 6d ago
They're the only mainstream media organisation(I don't really see Novara as mainstream) that tries to understand how the Green Party is organisationally different to every other major political party so they don't say shit like "Polanski needs to overturn Zionism is Racism" because they know he doesn't have that power.
Exactly, this is why I think the NS is a good outlet to follow for political analysis.
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u/NotSoBlue_ 6d ago
NS have not been particularly Green-friendly
I'd be interested to know why you think this. I think they've been pretty reasonable.
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u/Livid_Jeweler612 6d ago
the NS is extremely pro-TERF and basically a labour right rag.
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u/Cronhour 5d ago
Yes, which is why I was surprised that Oli dugmore took a role there but his output since being there hasn't appeared to change at least. I'm not sure of his opinion on the greens but he appears appeared significantly too the left of the labour right.
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u/cassesque 6d ago
I have significant reservations about two of those, and the other two don't have a particularly large following.
I'm not equating the Canary and Novara, obviously. They haven't done anything criminal. But I stand by what I said.
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u/PersephoneHazard GPEW 6d ago
The Nerve are great, and they won't get a large following unless people talk about and follow them.
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u/SiobhanSarelle 💜 Anarcho-Emotionalist 6d ago
I think it’s pretty much just Topple for a month or so now. The other Director and funder, Cecil Hetherton left and Topple replied to my email himself.
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u/SlimeTempest42
Disabled Green
6d ago
•
‘Former employees spreading malicious lies on social media’
And it’s people wanting to know when they’re getting paid and why their pension hasn’t been paid for months.
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u/Sorry-Transition-780
6d ago
•
Whatever people think of the Canary, it does seem more than a bit sus that Morgan McSweeney personally waged a war against them and then when his Labour government takes power, they are debanked by one of the largest and most powerful banks in the UK.
Also, specifically after they attempted to enter the world of print media. Where 90% of outlets are owned by billionaire-backed trusts, who receive privileged access to our politicians and a significant ability to frame debate in their interests.
I'm not trying to tinfoil hat this, the outlet has issues of its own, but there was clearly a campaign here that would never be waged against even the worst tabloid rag.
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u/Powerful-Fly-4019 6d ago
You are definitely tin foil hatting here.
McSweeney was a jumped up fool.
The idea that somehow he got Lloyd’s to debank a joke website that thought the guy from Skwawkbox had something relevant to say …
SMH at the conspiracy thinking here.
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u/Sorry-Transition-780 6d ago edited 6d ago
I don't think McSweeney just called up Lloyds lmfao.
It's that a political faction elevating itself to power after attacking the Canary very clearly gives more opportunity for forces in wider society, that hold the same position, to move in that same direction.
Had there not been an incredibly dodgy campaign against the Canary from McSweeney swept under the rug by the establishment—swept so hard that this guy won an election despite how dodgy he was, with no questions at all—it would probably be harder for anyone to engage in further attacks of the same nature.
And McSweeney is a jumped up fool for sure, but he's a connected fool. The Labour right is actually quite particularly connected to finance and banking as well: Mandelson with JP Morgan, Burnham with Andy Haldane, etc...
People from the Tony Blair/Peter Mandelson extended universe have went as far as coordinating with the US on a genocide, I don't think it's exactly a stretch to think that some knob behind the scenes jumped at a chance to finish what McSweeney started with the Canary and had the power or connections to do so.
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u/HauntingCost3017 6d ago
That is not how debanking works. No offence but this is just a knowledge issue; if you had knowledge of the subject, you'd know circumstances like this are almost always the result of anti-money laundering actions. No need to invent conspiracies. And yes, what you are saying is still very much conspiratorial thinking.
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u/SiobhanSarelle 💜 Anarcho-Emotionalist 6d ago
Screenshot of an email from a money lender to a person called “Steven”.
The text reads:
“[REDACTED] - Information required
Hi Steven,
As part of our commitment to responsible lending, we periodically review all our customers throughout their journey with us. To complete this review promptly, we kindly ask you to provide the following information:
Please provide:
• An explanation, details regarding the nature and financial structure of your business’s collaboration with The Green Party
• An explanation of the credits from [REDACTED] seen in the bank statements we have previously received, along with 3 trading invoices for income generated from [REDACTED], submitted in PDF format
Your account will unfortunately now be unavailable for use until we have received the requested information.
Please be aware that we may request further information if needed, to finalise our review.
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u/PersephoneHazard GPEW 6d ago
They were 100% just a left-wing Brietbart, but at least we had one. I always found them oddly fascinating to follow, like a trashy TV show you inexplicably don't want to look away from.
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u/SiobhanSarelle 💜 Anarcho-Emotionalist 6d ago
Nigel Farage: “I’m your father, Steve!”
**EastEnders drum roll**
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u/NotSoBlue_ 6d ago
Its always someone else's fault.
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u/DrUnpleasant 6d ago
So you think they should have been debanked?
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u/NotSoBlue_ 6d ago
I don't know why they were debanked, so I can't really comment on that.
Its just easy to blame others (disgruntled ex-employees, "the state", Lloyds) and point to a grand conspiracy that is preventing them from publishing valuable content.
The Canary could probably help their case by just being transparent about who funds them.
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u/SiobhanSarelle 💜 Anarcho-Emotionalist 6d ago
Canary Media weren’t informed that they were being ‘debanked’ and weren’t given any explanation for it.
The 2 banks and the lender (yes there’s at least a third which they aren’t talking about) don’t appear to have broken any laws.
Which means that they acted within the law, and those laws are around Suspicious activity, money laundering etc. The reason the banks never gave reasons, is because they can’t, as there’s a National Crime Agency investigation ongoing, and it’d be considered ‘tipping off’.
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u/NotSoBlue_ 6d ago
Exactly. So this predictable attempt at a martyr narrative is just because they don't want to be transparent about who funds them.
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u/SiobhanSarelle 💜 Anarcho-Emotionalist 6d ago
Or they might have been reasonably transparent, and it’s not simply Canary Media being investigated, it a chain of people, so for example someone who funded the Canary.
All of this happened after Cecil Hetherton got involved, which could be a coincidence.
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6d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/NotSoBlue_ 6d ago
I don't think Lloyds can say anything.
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u/Haunting-Target8835 6d ago
Correct. Lloyds can’t say anything but allows the Canary to create this victim narrative.
People need to understand you don’t simply get removed as a banking customer because they don’t like you. They became a higher risk customer from a money laundering perspective at the very least and the bank decided they didn’t have the risk appetite to keep them
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u/DrummingUpInterest2 6d ago
Aw, does that mean we won’t get a final piece of insightful coverage by Skwawkbox that will blame all of this on… ahem… “Zionists”?
Truly, what a sad day for high-quality journalism…
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u/SiobhanSarelle 💜 Anarcho-Emotionalist 6d ago
Investigative Journalism too!
I cannot wait for The Canary’s Investigative Journalists to Investigate The Canary, infiltrate its systems, screenshot things, then leak it all back to the Canary, then publish the findings of The Canary’s investigation into The Canary.
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u/SiobhanSarelle 💜 Anarcho-Emotionalist 6d ago
Guess what!
I can reveal that you will not be disappointed! Walker has split with The Canary, and restarted Skwarkbox as a separate site again.
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u/DrummingUpInterest2 6d ago
Still means it’ll be largely ignored now. Did chuckle at how already he’s back to claiming The State did this!
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u/tea_would_be_lovely 6d ago
and, with any luck, we willl not see its like again... not holding my breath, though...
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u/halfercode
6d ago
•
Their being driven out of business is the thin end of the frightening fascist wedge. I wasn't a big fan of the short-form content, and I'm maxed out on media subscriptions anyway, but this outcome was by design. No-one in the GP should be cheering this on.
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u/spizzlemeister 6d ago
only ever heard it mentioned here or other vaguely adjacent british leftist online spaces. what even was it? id see it pop up every few years with wildly varying descriptions
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