Daily Mail: Sorry

Daily Mail.

With the help of the BBC’s Panorama this week, the full evil lunacy of the child abuse and murder conspiracy allegations relating to Dolphin Square, Elm House, Leon Brittan, Ted Heath, Field Marshal Lord Bramall etc is now emerging. There is a long, long way to go, however, before the names are properly cleared and the police have apologised for their disgusting behaviour. There also needs to be a long list drawn up of those in public life and the media who gave credence to these cruel fantasies. The behaviour of Tom Watson MP puts him in the same class as Titus Oates, Noel Pemberton Billing and Senator Joe McCarthy. Many of us tut-tut that Jeremy Corbyn is leader of the Labour party, but it is far more shocking that its deputy leader is Mr Watson.

Charles Moore's Notes, The Spectator.

Post-Leveson score-settling from the Labour-bashing Mail and Moore?

Well duh, but this sorry, shitty episode shows the man is a power-crazed bully.

Oh. And erm Richard Littlejohn also hates the 'Nonce Finder General'...

I thought Orwell once wrote something along the lines of, 'Something is not necessarily false just because it's appeared in the Daily Mail', but I can't find it.

So can you just pretend he said it and nod sagely?

[Edit: And similarly, an accusation isn't necessarily true just because it's made against a public figure you despise].

Tom Daley: Little Tease

Here's a short teaser of our Tom on the Jonathan Ross Show tonight.
Enjoy!

Tom Daley is also the subject of Radio 4's Profile this evening.
It's on the wireless, though, so sadly no pics...

PS Profile was a lovely, short... profile, with some interesting stuff about his coming out at the end.
His friend and fellow diver, Brooke Graddon, said Tom had been planning to do it for months, and yes, he was worried the tabloids would run something about him first.
Though his agent, Jamie Cunningham, wouldn't comment on the exact circumstances of his deciding to come out.
Hmm...
But after hearing it I'm starting to think/worry about tomorrow's Sunday papers.
They've had a week now to try and find some "dirt".
Thankfully, after Hackgate and Leveson etc, we don't have to worry about tabloid exposes or silly stories based on pure speculation anymore, do we?

And finally... Queerty have got some lovely, candid and informal photos of Tom and Dustin together.
Here they are in a hot tub.
Two gay dudes are allowed to be just friends, you know?

Mark Oaten: Hacked

["Private investigator"] Glenn Mulcaire blagged MP Mark Oaten’s mobile phone details before the News of the World paid the politician’s gay lover £20,000 for details of the affair, a court heard.*

Andrew Edis QC for the prosecution told the jury that Oaten was involved with a young man in January 2006 when the News of the World became aware of the affair.

Edis told the jury: “Mark Oaten was a candidate for the leadership of the Lib Dem Party, but at that time the newspaper detected a relationship between between him and a young man, Ian Chadwick.

"Mr Oaten was married at the time - he may still be married today, I did not mean to imply anything by that - and the newspaper eventually got the story by paying Mr Chadwick £20,000."

Edis told the jury that Muclaire “blagged” Oaten’s phone details from Vodafone before hacking his voicemail ten times.

Mulcaire has already pleaded guilty to phone-hacking.

The prosecution alleges that several senior News of the World staff and executives were involved in a conspiracy to hack the mobile phones of a range of high profile people...

Press Gazette.

* Oaten was outed in 2006 by the NOTW after a rent boy sold his story. He writes about it here.

News Of The World: Back From The Dead

Steve Bell for The Guardian.

No comment.

"The trial yesterday raised far more important issues about the machinations of the Murdoch press than tittle-tattle about Coulson and Brooks blah blah blah..." etc.

PS Keep up with the latest developments in this unfolding shitstorm at Press Gazette Hacking Trial.

Daily MIrror: NOOOOOOOOOO!!!

Daily Mirror.

So?
Mentioned in passing; he was "caught in a newspaper sting" - actually by the News Of The World!
Anthony Russell has always disputed the paper's versions of events.
The Greenhouse is a sauna, not a brothel.

Leveson Inquiry: The Last Word?

"I do think that statutory regulation is not required. Most of the heinous crimes that came up and have made such a splash in front of this inquiry have already been illegal.
"Contempt of court is illegal, phone-tapping is illegal, policemen taking money is illegal. All of these things don't need a code, we already have laws for them.
"The fact that these laws were not rigorously enforced is again due to the failure of the police, the interaction of the police and News International - and let's be honest about this, the fact that our politicians have been very, very involved in ways that I think are not sensible with senior News International people."

Ian Hislop addressing the Leveson Inquiry earlier.

There is a terrible irony in how the inquiry has revealed much dirt about how newspapers operate, but does anything else really need to be said beyond this?

PS But if you want more, the full transcript of Hislop's appearance is here.