Former comedy writer Graham Linehan’s Twitter account was finally closed this weekend. The move came a week after another nasty troll, Katie Hopkins, lost her account for the same reason: repeated violations of Twitter’s hateful conduct policy.

The stories are almost identical, but the reporting isn’t. And the best way to demonstrate that is to show you the way the same outlets reported the stories in their headlines.

Sky News:
– Katie Hopkins permanently banned by Twitter for breaking ‘abuse and hate’ rules
– Father Ted co-creator Graham Linehan banned from Twitter after trans comment

RT.com:
– Katie Hopkins permanently suspended from Twitter to keep platform ‘safe’ from ‘hateful conduct’
– Twitter permanently suspends ‘Father Ted’ writer after he replies ‘men aren’t women’ to pro-trans tweet

Guardian:
– Katie Hopkins permanently removed from Twitter
– Twitter closes Graham Linehan account after trans comment

Daily Mail:
– Katie Hopkins is BANNED from Twitter for breaking rules on hate speech
– Father Ted creator Graham Linehan is suspended from Twitter after stating ‘men aren’t women’

As you can see, each publication has framed the two stories very differently, and that’s apparent in many more publications than the ones I’ve quoted here. When Hopkins’ tweets have been referenced in headlines, if they were mentioned at all, they were usually prefixed with words like “vile” and “hateful”. There’s no such context in the headlines about Linehan.

Maybe that’s because all of those publications have run anti-trans story after anti-trans story, anti-trans column after anti-trans column.

Quick question: who claims that trans rights advocates are a front for a sinister cult sacrificing your children: the washed-up comedy writer or the award-winning newspaper columnist?

Trick question. It’s both.