RT @dangillmor: Mirror newspaper sting is the oppo…

One thought on “RT @dangillmor: Mirror newspaper sting is the oppo…”

1. Tory todgergate – a tawdry tale… 500 words.

   For publication NB I think this is ‘in the public interest’ I am a member of the public who wants to know what these guys get up to – as they run our lives and we pay their wages…

   Re Newmark’s ‘sexting todger adventure’. According to Zoe Williams’s Guardian article yesterday, Newmark’s only crime was: ‘in falling for the sting he revealed his low IQ’. Now, sympathisers are encouraging him to go ahead with a claim against the Sunday Mirror for entrapment. We learn too of IPSO’s Chair, Sir Alan Moses’s statement, that any entrapment is – “a serious matter for urgent PUBLIC concern.” Well, as a member of the public, I sense a subtext here. Could it be, ‘a serious matter for urgent ESTABLISHMENT concern’.

   Given the context – ‘a journalistic investigation of MPs’ inappropriate use of social media’, plus recent child-sex exploitation cover ups – and inquiries (all of which have gone quiet owing to the flood of war news) cries of innocence and entrapment – especially coming from on high and other journalists, is unsettling.

   Sir Alan and IPSO must bear in mind that the jury is still out on The ESTABLISHMENT (of which this Tory, the resigned Minster of Civil Society, is a member) which stands accused of using power and money to corrupt, sexually exploit and cover up. Any invoking of the entrapment rule argument against investigative journalism will be a very handy tool for further cover ups.

   On LBC radio too, callers were likening entrapment to hacking. I thought this wrong, so I called in: “How can one become entrapped if innocent?” I asked. “Weren’t the recently hacked (represented by ‘Hacked Off’) innocent?” Then added: “Newmark’s quick resignation shows his admitted guilt” – and… “if he was your child’s teacher or GP, say… what then?”

   The on air journalist, James O’Brien, then implied I had a morality issue. He asked: “Had he been cross-dressing would you have seen that also as a reason for resignation?” I replied: “No, cross-dressing is personal and therefore acceptable; it does not corrupt others: but sending pictures of his genitals to someone whom (allegedly) he likely thought of as a lowly, unpaid, wannabe Tory intern suggests intent of an exploitative kind.”

   Interns have complained that this kind of exploitation does go on. So The Sunday Mirror should be applauded by ‘the public’ for uncovering any likely intent to exploit a young ‘wannabe’. The public certainly does have the right to know! It is in the public interest as Newmark comes from the class that run our lives – and we pay his wages.

   I hope Hacked Off (and IPSO) will agree: that to confound us by claiming that hacking and so-called entrapment are the same crime is (deliberately) specious. In light of the recent child sex-exploitation covers up, the public need less cover up and more such ‘stings’. What on earth else do (some) these guys get up to? More than ever, we need to know – of course, only if an issue/crime is proven.

   NB: I agree it is unforgivable (and surprising) that the S