Comrade Aaron Bastani looks to have narrowly avoided a one-way ticket to the gulag after apologising last night for comments he made on X about Jason Arday. In a video reminiscent of a hostage confession, or a Soviet show trial, the Novara Media co-founder admitted to the wrongthink sin of describing Arday, before his tragic death, as a ‘conman’. He also pleaded guilty to the thought crime of criticising a YouTube clip of Arday delivering a lecture at UCL.
The grovelling followed days of Novara fans ripping Bastani to shreds for daring to challenge the approved left-wing narrative: that Arday was the entirely innocent victim of a fascist witch hunt for which journalists must pay a price. Interestingly, the far-left commentator has increasingly strayed from the party line on a range of subjects, occasionally even attempting to inject some nuance into his arguments. But his views on Arday proved a step beyond the pale.
In his confessional video, Bastani declared: ‘I’m sorry, I apologise. Journalism is when you seek the facts. It’s a quest for the truth… This was anything but. It was bile. It’s everything I dislike about the modern media.’ He went on: ‘An apology isn’t enough, is it? I wish I could ask Jason for his forgiveness… I really screwed up.’
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