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Last week, one of the major Corbyn cheerleading sites — Sqwarkbox — lost a libel suit against (now former) Labour MP Anna Turley. That Turley had to be embroiled in this during the election

is bad enough. The Unite union has said it is going to fund an appeal on behalf of Sqwarkbox. Then over the weekend, the left wing activist, journalist and noted Corbyn cheerleader Owen

Jones was subjected to an onslaught of abuse on Twitter. While this was started — it seems — by hard right activists, many of those on the non-Corbynite wing of the Party joined in. Labour

needs to have a long and involved conversation about what it got so very badly wrong over this election. That conversation should not just involve the party but the wider infrastructure that

has grown up around left wing politics in recent years. That includes not only Unite but also the Corbyn-supporting media and its relationship with Labour. Sqwarkbox, for example, was known

to have received briefings from the Leader of the Opposition’s Office. The Canary is another online Labour-supporting site, one that was frequently shared by Shadow Cabinet members. Novara

Media is another of the stand-out Corbynite sites. All politicians need media folk in their corner. But how you do that matters. With a few honourable exceptions there has been a widespread

insular and aggressive approach from these commentators. Their hyper-partisan approach is more aimed at protecting their income than trying to get a Labour government. These so-called

outriders have spent the last four years telling Labour members what they want to hear. They offered a vision of Corbyn and the Labour Party that comforted members who often felt like

everyone was against them. The problem was that large swaths of the country were indeed against them. And they never heard why from their own side. Nor did they hear any attempt to persuade

the country otherwise. Cheerleading is fine, but not if it’s dishonest. If your leader is failing, it isn’t your job to deny that fact, but to help them turn it around. If your Party is

tanking in the polls it isn’t your job to pretend nothing is happening or call pollsters liars, but to look at how the Party can reset. If people who listen to you and share your politics

are being racist, you should be the first to call them out, not the last to admit it. Otherwise you just enable denial and never progress your cause. Of course part of being a Corbyn

representative is putting the best gloss on what’s gone wrong. But when that is all you do, the effect is counter-active. The answer to Labour’s media problem isn’t through some vile

hashtag, like the one aimed at Owen Jones. Those who want to revive a more comradely spirit in the Labour Party are not going to do so by aping the worst behaviours of those they criticise.

In a media that skews significantly to the right, Labour does need media figures who can go out and make a case for its values. But if those figures are compromised because their business

model relies on subscriptions from an ultra-loyal fanbase who don’t want to hear nuance, then they are only ever able to make that case to an internal — not external — audience. In doing so

they fail the project and the party. Labour members deserve people who will be honest with them. Labour politicians deserve people who will strengthen their offer through critique. Potential

Labour voters deserve to be listened to when they are asking why they should vote Labour, not preached at by the terminally cloth-eared. As the Labour Party and the wider left wing

infrastructure decides what to do following this catastrophic defeat, and a group of Labour figures, including Ed Miliband, conduct an inquiry into the disastrous election result, a look at

why the party’s messengers failed to convince is long overdue. If it does not, Labour will be ignoring a key aspect of its current malaise.