The Evening Standard billboards - which crowd around London's tube station entrances - have always been a pet hate of mine. They are responsible for some of the most disgraceful content I have come across. Prior to May's London mayoral election they entertained every passer-by with non-stop attacks on then mayor Ken Livingstone.
One such billboard printed the infamous "Suicide Bomb Backer Runs Ken Campaign", a headline so misleading that it could be labelled a blatant lie.
I quote Decca Aitkenhead, who referred to this in a Guardian interview with Andrew Gilligan back in April:
"The story referred to Azzam Tamimi - a Muslim academic who endorsed suicide bombs in Palestine during a BBC interview four years ago - and a campaign group called Muslims4Ken. The problem was, Tamimi is not involved with Muslims4Ken at all, but is merely urging Muslims to vote for the mayor.
Had Livingstone made such a misleading claim - say by suggesting that because the BNP's leader is urging supporters to give their second preference vote to the Tories, which he is, this means a "Racist Runs Boris Campaign" - he would undoubtedly have found himself quoted in another of Gilligan's "Truth Check" articles, which scrutinise the candidate's words for lies."
Even after the election the billboards, scattered across London, continue relentless attacks on Ken and - unsurprisingly - random non-political stories whenever a Boris "problem" arises.
Over to Mr Stop Boris, writing at Boriswatch, for the latest example of the laughable lack of impartiality on London's only paid for newspaper's billboards:
"I’ve been in central London quite a lot lately, so I’ve been delighted to be reacquainted with the horrors of the Evening Standard display boards.
Last Friday I couldn’t move for being SHOUTED AT by their signs about Ken Livingstone’s all-expenses-paid trip – sorry, junket – to China for the Olympics. On visiting their web site I find I correctly predicted the author of the piece, Ken’s creepy stalker Andrew Gilligan, but also I was quite pleased to see a good half or more of the comments were quite sensibly pointing out that the Chinese government’s use of its money isn’t really of any concern to Londoners, and asking when Gilligan was going to start the long-awaited scrutiny of Boris he promised us before the election. Nice work.
Anyway, after making such a big deal out of a story of next-to-no relevance to Londoners, I approached the Evening Standard stall at my railway station with interest this evening to see what they had to say today following Tim Parker’s surprise resignation.
Oh no, what a shame! For some completely unrelated reason, today the Standard decided there wasn’t room for any political news, or any other usual blue-bordered headline, on their boards. Instead, both boards trumpeted Team GB’s achievements at the Olympics."
Any nerdy billboard-watcher such as myself will not be shocked by this. Just annoyed.
I've got a few suggestions for up-coming billboards, which the Standard could consider:
"Red Ken seen drinking champagne"
"Livingstone: I didn't watch all of Olympics."
"Johnson doing good job, says insider"
"Boris helps elderly black woman cross road"
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