Oxford Council staff attempt to intimidate Journalists to make them comply with Marxist agenda.
Oxford Council today demanded that Vision News publish their pre-approved press release in an attempt to take back the narrative over climate Lockdown plans.
The Council's press officer, Tom Jennings, contacted Vision News demanding that we publish the statement Oxford Council(s) had issued after we exposed their Climate Lockdown plans. The arrogance! We explained to Jennings that we could not comply with the demands as we have strict impartiality rules and do not reprint any political party press releases in this way. Following a short exchange with our Editor Jennings became aggressive and very rapidly began making veiled threats in an attempt to intimidate our Editor into retracting our article or publishing their version of it.
Jennings, who is listed on Linkedin as Communications Manager at Oxford City Council, text a series of passive-aggressive messages before trotting-out the somewhat predictable veiled threats of legal action if we didn't comply, in an obvious attempt to frighten our staff into complying with the Councils demands.
It is unclear if Mr Jennings had been instructed to threaten journalists in his official capacity as a Council Officer but as he was texting under his Oxford Council email address it is safe to assume that he was speaking on their behalf.
Echos of the STASI
So left wing councils want to control the narrative so much they are attempting to intimidate journalists to suppress descent. This is Britain in 2022, but Oxford Council appear to think its East Germany some period in the 1980s with this STASI-like behaviour.
Please don't take this as a threat, but taking your approach of taking no responsibility for linking to other articles is actually quite dangerous legally, in the UK, an organisation can be sued for republishing libelous comments. Don't worry, we're not planning legal action. I'm just trying to be helpful
Jennings, a studious looking millennial who probably has never had an adult say no to him in his entire life, had referred to us as 'conspiracy theorists' in a previous press release and then thought he was going to have us comply with his demands to rewrite our article using Council approved Marxist terminology.
Oxford Council had the right to reply but chose to slander us in the media first.
We have published everything the council have stated, Not only links to their entire range of documents, but all of the relevant Oxford mail articles. We have given the council sufficient right to reply. Something that they have not afforded us, after they posted defamatory articles about Vision News that have still not been withdrawn despite their clear inaccuracy. we also published the Council's responses to our article in which they spend the entire time slagging us off. What sort of morons do Oxford Council think we are exactly?
We are not in the business of being the mouthpiece of Communist-style councils. We leave the publishing of Marxist propaganda to the likes of the Oxford Mail who have dutifully published everything these toxic bureaucrats have said without challenge and have been complicit in the Council's agenda.
Vision News staff will be contacting Oxford Council for further details about whether Tom Jennings was a rogue staff member or operating in an official capacity.
Our job, as investigatory journalists, is to hold the government to account, which we will continue to do - Ed
Related:
Oxford Councillors in 'Fear for their Lives' After Vision News Reveals their Plans to the Public
Finally thinking for ourselves again.