Andrew Pierce: Homophobe

'In my 30-plus years as a journalist I have been the subject of many insults. They range from the size of my teeth, to the standard of my prose, or even to the fact that I am to quote some of my less liberal admirers, a ‘screaming poofter’. But I had never been accused of being homophobic. But that all changed when Carina Trimingham launched her bizarre legal action against the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday.
'Miss Trimingham alleged that I had, along with some of my colleagues, waged a campaign of harassment against her because she is a bisexual. The allegations are a grotesque suggestion and an astonishing and offensive charge to level at me...'

Really!!?
You amaze me.
Let's rectify that immediately - Andrew Pierce is a homophobe.
He's a gay Uncle Tom who never misses a chance to slag off the queers, and to confirm Daily Mail readers' prejudices, and always with the noxious rejoinder; "And I'm gay myself."
As he then proceeds to do in this article.
What a cunt.

Daily Mail Privacy Trial: "A Blueprint For Bullies And Bigots"

'The partner of MP Chris Huhne, Carina Trimingham, has had her claim for harassment and breach of privacy against the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday rejected by the High Court.
'Trimingham had an affair with former Secretary of State Huhne which led to him leaving his wife of 26 years in June 2010 when the matter was made public. Trimingham sued over some 65 "highly unpleasant and hurtful" articles which appeared in the Mail which she said represented a "cataclysmic interference" in her private life.
'Trimingham was particulary concerned that many of the articles made reference to her bisexuality.
'But Mr Justice Tungendhat handed down a judgment today which rejected her claim saying: "Ms Trimingham was not the purely private figure she claims to be. Her reasonable expectation of privacy has become limited..."

Press Gazette.

"To the extent that the words complained of include insults and other offensive matter, insulting and offensive speech is protected by the right of freedom of expression. In this case what Ms Trimingham complains of is not so unreasonable that it is necessary or proportionate to sanction or prohibit such publications in order to protect the rights of Ms Trimingham. So the defendant has not harassed her within the meaning of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997.
"It is not the case that a reasonable person in the position of the defendant ought to have known that these articles, separately, or cumulatively, amount to harassment of Ms Trimingham."
On the issue of privacy, the judgment adds: "I have also found that she had no reasonable expectation of privacy in relation to various items of information, including the images published on a total of occasions. These were cropped versions of photographs which had been taken at and immediately before her civil partnership ceremony in June 2007, but which reveal no more information about her than the public already knew."

Judge Tungendhat.

"This was an important example of the press exercising its right to free speech in relation to matters of significant public interest.
"We are pleased that the court agreed with us and has today dismissed all of Miss Trimingham’s complaints.
"The references to Miss Trimingham’s sexuality in our coverage were never pejorative, private or in any way homophobic.
"Miss Trimingham chose to level some very serious charges against our journalists in this case. This judgment vindicates both our journalists and their journalism."

Associated Newspapers' statement, quoted in the Mail's grimly jubliant report.

Carina Trimingham will have to pay at least £140,000 towards Associated Newspapers’ £410,000 legal costs.
She said outside the court:

"I am extremely disappointed by this judgment. There is a ray of light, however.
"Thankfully, the court has accepted today that repeated mocking of a person by a national newspaper by reference to their sexual orientation would almost inevitably be so oppressive as to amount to harassment.
"However, the court did not appreciate that when newspapers make repeated irrelevant references to sexuality - particularly in the context of pejorative and stereotypical references to appearance - it amounts to the same type of mocking which the court has confirmed is unacceptable.
"This is confused, and I think wrong. I am very concerned that this judgment may become a blueprint for bullies and bigots. I intend to appeal."

This was a particularly nasty, scurrilous and relentless hate campaign, clearly driven by homophobia - and by the simple fact that her partner Chris Huhne has become a punchbag for certain sections of the press, though I can't see how she thought she could have won under English law.
It's interesting that this trial has taken place at the same time as the Leveson Inquiry. Newspapers can write whatever they want about the private life of a "public figure" - though arguably the media made Trimingham in to a public figure - and commit the very nastiest kind of character assassination, especially if they're queer.  

PS This is an really important story that's been unfolding over 12 months now. Coverage of it in Gay Star News, Pink News, and Pink Paper over the last year = Zero! Impressive.

Daily Mail Privacy Trial: Homophobic, Moi?

'Daily Mail columnist Amanda Platell yesterday dismissed claims that the newspaper had been homophobic in its coverage of former Cabinet Minister Chris Huhne’s lover.
'She told the High Court that she found it ‘hard to believe’ that Carina Trimingham had been distressed by descriptions of her as being a bisexual and ‘jokey references’ to her appearance.'
Miss Trimingham, 44, who was in a civil partnership when she started her affair with Mr Huhne, is suing over what she describes as ‘crude and demeaning stereotypes’ in newspaper stories about her sexuality.
'She accuses Associated Newspapers, parent company of the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday, of misuse of private information and harassment in 65 articles, including references to her size, having spiky hair and supposedly wearing Doc Marten shoes.
'But Miss Platell said: ‘To be accused of being homophobic or having written things that are homophobic is one of the most offensive things you could say to me.'

The Daily Mail

Get ready for the punchline - it's a cracker.

'She said one of her closest friends is fellow Daily Mail columnist Andrew Pierce, who is gay.'

Richard Littlejohn wrote a piece his Mail column at the same time that was strikingly similar in tone, language, smears and bile - the Mail ran eight about Trimingham in eleven days.
Here's a little background to the case.

PS Also loving the Compare & Contrast photos the Mail used - above - of the gorgeous, pouting Miss Platell and Carina Trimingham.

Daily Mail: Some People Push Back

The Daily Mail's homophobia finally got them in the dock today.
Carina Trimingham, the bisexual partner of Liberal Democrat minister Chris Huhne, got them there.
She started her legal action against publishers Associated Newspapers because of eight "humiliating and embarrassing" articles the Mail ran over eleven days last June that revealed she had left her female civil partner, Julie Bennett, for Huhne.
In her writ she called the attacks "relentless and spiteful."
The Mail's lawyers claimed freedom of speech meant newspapers should be able to discuss someone's sexuality, even using rude or discourteous language.
According to Media Guardian; "[Her barrister William] Bennett claimed that the 'perjorative' references to her sexuality were not only hurtful, but were also a breach of section 12 of the Press Complaints Commission code of practice which 'makes it absolutely clear that a person's sexuality ought to be mentioned unless genuinely relevant to the story'."
Trimingham has also lodged objections to a piece by Richard Littlejohn and the publication of an "inherently private photo" of her civil partnership ceremony - which is still up on Mail Online.
The Mail was still putting the boot into Huhne and Trimingham only last month; 'It's a nightmare conference for Chris Huhne as both his wife AND his mistress turn up'.
Let's hope Carina Trimingham takes them to the cleaners.


Update: The hearing will be on Thursday. Here's Press Gazette's account of the case.

Daily Mail Sued: "Relentless and Spiteful Attack"

First Clare Balding - and now Carina Trimingham.
Trimingham has launched a legal action against Associated Newspapers for invasion of privacy over stories published in the Daily Mail and Mail On Sunday over her relationship with Chris Huhne, the Liberal Democrat Energy and Climate minister.
Press Gazette reports; "According to a writ filed at the High Court, she claims the stories breached her reasonable expectation of privacy and her statutory right to privacy.
"Trimingham says the stories, which revealed she was bisexual, detailed relationship history which was private information.
"She claims the stories contained details about sexual intercourse, reports of private conversations and included photographs, which she had commissioned, that were taken before, during, and after her civil partnership ceremony.
"The writ says she seeks aggravated damages for the “relentless and spiteful character of the attack” as the eight stories were published over eleven days.
"In addition, she is seeking an injunction banning the papers from continuing to publish pictures of her civil ceremony and information about her sexuality..."

Chris Huhne: You Couldn't Make It Up!

Richard Littlejohn has been working himself into quite a sweat while thinking about lesbians.
Again.
Lib Dem MP Chris Huhne has been outed as having an affair... with a lady who likes ladies!.
"When the pictures of Chris Huhne's mistress were published, she looked familiar," muses Littlejohn in today's Daily Mail. "I recognised her from the days we both used to work for Sky News. Funny, I thought to myself, I always had her marked down as a lesbian.
"Turns out I was half-right. Carina Trimingham is bisexual. Even though she's currently sweating up the sheets with Huhne, it's not that long ago since she married her lesbian lover in a civil partnership ceremony.
"Takes all sorts. According to profiles, among the many jobs she's had over the past few years was working as press officer for AC/DC.
"That would explain it. You couldn't make it up."
Though I sometimes wonder if Richard Littlejohn doesn't make it up.
Maybe he has one of those machines Orwell imagined at The Ministry of Truth in 1984 that writes this drivel for him.
He just types in a word like "lesbian" and off it goes, vomiting out copy complete with his trademark catchprases ("You couldn't make it up!") and homophobic cliches.
"If you asked a cartoonist to draw a comedy lesbian from central casting, Carina Trimingham is what you'd get - all spiky haircut and Doc Martens. Chuck in a boiler suit and she's Millie Tant, straight from the pages of Viz magazine.
What Huhne sees in her can only be a matter for speculation."
And there are few thing Littlejohn loves more than idle speculation; "[Huhne's] ability to perform his duties as Minister of Windmills may not be affected, but this affair inevitably raises questions about his judgment.
While love can be blind, did he know when he began the relationship that Miss Trimingham was already 'married' to a lesbian?"
Almost certainly, yes.
Do you have a point, dear?
"Most of us couldn't care less what consenting adults get up to in private, provided it doesn't involve children or animals.
To pretend that prurient disapproval is what is driving this story is dishonest.
What matters here is not the sex, it's the lies, hypocrisy and blatant deception."
No, that's dishonest and blatant hypocrisy, Mr Littlejohn.
No other commentator has made nearly as much of the "lesbian love triangle" angle of this affair as you.
All that's driving your story is a prurient disapproval about a subject you're curiously clearly obsessed with.
You couldn't make it up!