“We own the weekend,” trumpeted Saturday’s Guardian, with an ad campaign fronted by Hugh Grant to advertise the daily paper and its sister Sunday paper The Observer. However, it didn’t take long for the disowning to start.
The Observer printed an article by Julie Burchill defending Suzanne Moore’s controversial New Statesman piece on femininity, in which Burchill called transgender people “a bunch of bed-wetters in bad wigs”, among other things. Cue public outrage. Guardian editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger was bombarded with complaints on Twitter about having allowed such an article in his newspaper.
His defence? “Actually it’s an Observer piece,” he tweeted, helpfully passing on the Twitter handle of Observer editor John Mulholland.
Rusbridger is editor-in-chief of Guardian News and Media, which encompasses the Sunday paper and its online presence, and is tipped to take over at the Royal Opera House. At least there are lots of curtains to hide behind at Covent Garden.
