Alex Wickham: Outed

The sting operation that caused a Tory minister to resign was masterminded by a reporter who works for the Guido Fawkes political blog, Alex Wickham (who outed himself, see Zelo Street).

He first offered his story about Brooks Newmark's explicit Twitter exchanges with a "Tory PR girl" to the Sun on Sunday because it publishes the Guido Fawkes diary, to which he contributes.

But the Sun rejected the chance to run the "investigation". Its senior executives, who include the former Press Complaints Commission director Stig Abell, thought there were unjustifiable elements to the story.

Wickham then approached the Mail on Sunday's political editor, Simon Walters. He and his editor, Geordie Greig, did not take long to reject it out of hand.

Like the Sun, the MoS was concerned about the methodology employed to obtain the story, believing that it amounted to entrapment and also involved a fishing expedition.

Wickham was luckier with his third choice, the Sunday Mirror. Now it is that paper taking the heat for running the story rejected by the other two. It is the subject of complaints to the Independent Press Standards Organisation (Ipso) and to the police...

He has previously aired concerns about the sexual peccadilloes of MPs. In a piece in The Spectator in January this year, he related how he had been the subject of "unwanted advances from male Tory MPs."

He wrote about predatory gay Tory MPs haunting the Strangers' Bar in Westminster "on the lookout for fresh meat" and then moving on to the Players piano bar in Charing Cross where one Tory - "a headline name" - ran his hand up Wickham's thigh.

Wickham has yet to respond to my attempt to reach him.

Roy Greenslade, Media Guardian.

Mr Newmark has done nothing illegal, but  Fagburn wonders if Mr Wickham's sting was.

What a cnut.

Please feel free to send in compromising photos etc of Alex. 

Press Complaints Commission: "An Extremely Finely Balanced Decision"

The Press Complaints Commission has ruled that an article published by the Daily Mirror headlined "Stuart Hall judge visited gay brothel" did not breach Clause 12 (Discrimination) of the Editors' Code of Practice.

The front-page article reported that Judge Russell, who presided over the sentencing of Stuart Hall, had resigned in 1996 following the publication of allegations that he had visited a "gay brothel." Dr Nicholas Russell complained to the PCC, with the consent of Judge Russell, that the article had implied wrongly that his brother's sexual orientation was relevant to his sentencing of Mr Hall. He argued the coverage was grossly offensive and referred to his brother's sexual orientation in pejorative terms. He also argued that the article intruded into his brother's privacy in breach of Clause 3 (Privacy) of the Code.

The newspaper strongly denied that the article had included details of the Judge's sexual orientation, or that it had referred to his sexual orientation is a pejorative way. The newspaper believed that it was relevant to the debate about a high-profile case concerning sexual misconduct that the Judge who presided over the trial had in the past faced allegations about sexual activities, albeit of a very different kind, which had led to his resignation. The newspaper said that in order to properly recount the circumstances of the resignation, it had been relevant to report that the establishment had openly catered for gay men.

This was an "extremely finely balanced decision" but the Commission ultimately concluded that the newspaper had been entitled to bring to its readers' attention the fact of the Judge's resignation, and that it had not breached Clause 12 (ii) in describing the circumstances. The Commission did, however, express its reservations about the manner in which the material had been presented and made clear that it might have taken a different view had the report included gratuitous details relating to the Judge's sexual orientation.

The Commission also concluded that the article made no "prejudicial or pejorative reference" to the Judge's sexual orientation and there was therefore no breach of Clause 12 (i). It noted that the article had recounted the incident in a factual manner, without ridiculing the Judge's sexuality or employing offensive terms. Lastly, as the coverage contained minimal details about the allegations, which had been previously published, the complaint was not upheld under Clause 3 (Privacy).

ENDS

Notes to editors:

1. To read the adjudication please click here.

2. The Editors' Code of Practice can be read here.

Unbelievable.

Who's business was this, and what bearing did it have on Stuart Hall's trial?
Oh, and Russell was caught in a News Of The World sting, and it was in a sauna not a "gay brothel", by the way.
The highly reputable News Of The World?
Whatever happened to them, eh?

Lucy Meadows: Shame On All Of You

A coroner told the press "shame on all of you" as he ruled that a primary school teacher had killed herself after her gender reassignment became national news.
Michael Singleton, coroner for Blackburn, Hyndburn and Rossendale, singled out the Daily Mail as he accused the paper of "ridicule and humiliation" and a "character assassination" of Lucy Meadows, 32, who took her own life in March.
He urged the government to implement the recommendations of the Leveson report on press intrusion as he criticised the "sensational and salacious" press coverage. Delivering a verdict of suicide, he told the inquest into her death he was appalled at media reports about Meadows.
As he closed the inquest, he turned to the reporters present and said: "And to you the press, I say shame, shame on all of you."

The Guardian. 

Screengrab via The Media Blog

Although; "In a note she left, she made no mention of press intrusion, citing instead her debts, a number of bereavements including the death of her parents, and her stressful job as a primary school teacher" (ibid), Lucy Meadows had complained to the PCC in January.
Whatever, Richard Littlejohn and the Mail's coverage was disgusting - though tragically it seems to be pretty much the standard in reporting trans issues these days. 

Transphobia: 15 Points

1. The media has a long history of humiliating and undermining trans people

2. Transphobia cuts across left/liberal and conservative media

3. Most commentators (grudgingly) accept the right of individual adults to transition

4. Commentators disproportionately “monster” trans individuals
 
5. Editors and commissioners can no longer use the "complexity" of transgender issues as a gatekeeping tactic

6. The refusal of trans language, culture and history is ideological

7. The focus on the cost of gender reassignment to the NHS is ideological

8. Commentators “monster” efforts of trans community to organise

9.The battleground has moved to the lives of children

10. Liberal/libertarian constructions of “freedom of speech” preserve this status quo

11. Going to the PCC is understood to be pointless

12. The structures of online journalism should be considered in any analysis

13. The "outrage fatigue" generated by this model is particularly dangerous

14. This situation is self-perpetuating

15. Compromise is neither desirable nor possible

An excellent article for the New Statesman by Juliet Jacques.  
Please click here to read her analysis and explanation of these points.


PS The above photo is the one used to illustrate the article in the NS, and captioned; 'April Ashley, who was "outed" by the Sunday People in 1961, poses with her MBE in December 2012.'

PCC: How Not To Make A Complaint

The Press Complaints Commission (PCC) is to launch an inquiry into the Observer’s decision to publish a transphobic article by Julie Burchill.
The commission acted after receiving 800 complaints from members of the public in relation to the article, which was eventually removed from guardian.co.uk, the website of the Observer’s sister paper.
In a piece headed “Transsexuals should cut it out”, Burchill described trans people as “shims”, “shemales” and “bed-wetters in bad wigs”...

Pink News.

Good.
I'm not sure anything will actually come of this "investigation", but good.
The PCC can’t and won’t do anything here.
They only consider complaints from individuals who've been directly mentioned/affected, not social groups, or people who feel angry, aggrieved or insulted.*
The PCC received a record-breaking 25,000 complaints over Jan Moir’s article in the Mail about the death of Boyzone's Stephen Gately.
They only considered one - from Stephen’s partner, Andrew Cowles.
And even that was ultimately rejected by them.

I think the Gately/Moir row made a real and important difference to press behaviour by showing the depth of people's outrage and anger, and I hope this will, too, and that it marks a turning point in how the British media treat trans people.
But it’s naive to think the PCC will act on these complaints.
Post-Leveson Report nothing will change.
Though I'm not sure what they're meant to do; say newspapers can't publish nasty things?
Those angered by this awful episode are right to concentrate on shaming The Observer over their decision to publish Julie Burchill's shitty little piece in the first place.

* See the PCC Editor's Code of Practice.

PS Statement from The Observer readers' editor, Stephen Pritchard. Summary: "We really fucked up on this one." You may want to compare it to the Guardian's grovelling apology for publishing a transphobic piece by Julie Bindel in 2004...

PPS The Unholy Trinity: Burchill, Bindel and Moore, Christopher Bryant, Polari magazine.
Great piece. 
The image above has been shamelessly stolen from Polari's site.

Clare Balding: From "Dyke On A Bike" To "National Treasure"

It could be said that 2012 has belonged to two women. Both of them uncommonly fond of dogs and horses. Both on the television quite a bit, most noticeably during the Diamond Jubilee and the Olympics, but neither much given to either a) histrionics, or b) high-maintenance hairdos. Both well acquainted with the eccentricities of the British upper class, and the going in the 2.30 at Sandown... 

Hilariously fawning piece in The Times - Clare Balding, National Treasure.
Strangely neglects to mention the Press Complaints Commission upheld her complaint after Sunday Times' writer AA Gill called her "a dyke".

PS Clare has been elevated to "national treasure" status in the last few weeks by The Daily Mail, The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, The Independent, Mumsnet and Radio Times. I think it's as vacuous a phrase as "gay icon". Can't be arsed to post links, so Google it.

PPS 'OLYMPICS host Clare Balding has revealed she thought she was a DOG as a kid – and even wore a collar in the house.' The Sun. You couldn't make it up etc etc.

Christopher Jefferies: A Gift To The Tabloids

"If you think back to end of 2010 and last year, the story was something of a gift to the tabloids. It was a readymade Midsomer Murders script set in a respectable and leafy suburb.

"I was the person who had been arrested and the press seemed determined to believe the person who was arrested was the murderer, and to portray me in as dark and as lurid a light as possible.

"Lo and behold you don't just have a sexual predator, but you have a bisexual predator and all sorts of fantastic rumours were latched on to that I would hold pupils' hands while reading poetry, obviously with sinister sexual motives.

"Journalists will talk to 100 people and if 99 say one thing and one says something they would like to believe or will enable them to write the story they want to write, that is the one they will choose to believe.
"The caricature for me was the lewd figure, a peeping tom, I had apparently spied on tenants, I was a loner because I happened to live alone. A lot of people said some nice things about me but they tended to be buried and not given enough prominence in the articles.

"To complete the character assassination it was alleged that I was fascinated by death, because I happened to have shown on a couple of occasions a particularly important documentary about the liberation of Auschwitz.

"Here you have me, this dark, macabre, sinister villain. And that certainly wasn't the whole of it."

Christopher Jefferies - who was falsely accused of Joanna Yeates' murder - speaking at the Benn Debate, Bristol Festival Of Ideas.*

The only tabloids to cover this were the Express and The Daily Star. 

The Sun and The Daily Mirror, who were both found guilty of contempt of court, have ignored it. 

Here's the Star's heartfelt apology to Jefferies for libelling him.

Jefferies suggested one way this could be prevented from happening in the future; "If we're to avoid statutory regulation then the new PCC must have sanctions at its disposal so severe that compliance to the highest possible standards must be compelled."

* Accounts of Jefferies' talk order the above paragraphs differently. 

Leveson Inquiry: Stephen Gately

'Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre has admitted that the timing of Jan Moir’s Daily Mail column about the death of singer Stephen Gately was regrettable.

'But he said he would “die in a ditch” to defend her right to express her opinion.

'The Moir piece attracted a record 25,000 complaints to the Press Complaints Commission and was later cleared of breaching the Editors’ Code. *

'The piece appeared in the Mail on 16 October 2009 and was headed: "Why there was nothing ‘natural' about Stephen Gately's death". It suggested there was something "sleazy" about the tragedy and also said the truth had yet to emerge about the exact circumstances of Gately's "strange and lonely death".

'Under questioning about the piece, Dacre said: “My view is that perhaps the timing was a little regrettable, I think the column could have benefitted from a little judicious sub-editing. But I would die in a ditch to defend a columnist’s right to have her views." He added: "There isn’t a homophobic bone in Jan Moir’s body.”

'On the huge number of complaints about the piece, Dacre said: “These were online complaints and an example of how twittering can create a firestorm…Most people complaining admitted that they hadn’t read the piece.”

'Dacre did admit that there were certain words he would have removed from the piece. He said that usually he doesn’t leave the office before 10pm, but he said that on the night in question when the Moir piece went to press he was on a rare night off taking his wife on a birthday trip to the opera.'

Press Gazette.

This was followed by a story filed later; Paul Dacre: Bad journalists should be 'struck off'
You couldn't make it up.

Here's an amusing/depressing account of Dacre's appearance on The Media Blog.
Best line: When asked whether the Mail preys upon its readers' "fears and prejudices":
"Anxieties" rather than "prejudices", is the word I'd use..."

* And the chair of the Press Complaints Commission Code Committee is... Paul Dacre!

Leveson Inquiry: Freedom Of Speech

"She was openly gay… we regarded it as a matter of freedom of speech… we didn't regard it as pejorative. There are gay websites that use that term in a positive way."

John Witherow, Sunday Times' editor, at the Leveson Inquiry, tries to excuse AA Gill calling Clare Balding a "dyke".
In 2010, the Press Complaints Commission upheld Balding's complaint against The Sunday Times - a decision perhaps swayed by Witherow's dismissive reply to her initial complaint to him.

Mail On Sunday: Great Corrections Of Our Time (Cont.)

"We have been asked to make clear that the Strathclyde Police officer Abigail Austen remains a serving police officer.
"She states she has only ever sought the pension rights and terms of service accorded any other female officer.
"She is not claiming any discrimination and is grateful for the continued support of her colleagues in the force. We are happy to set the record straight."

From the Mail's new (ish) Corrections & Clarifications column - always a hoot.
Ms Austen has had a complaint against the Mail upheld by the Press Complaints Commission.

Complaint:
Ms Abigail Austen of Glasgow complained that the newspaper’s coverage of her employment as the first transgender police officer in Strathclyde Police contained information which intruded into her private life.

Resolution:
The complaint was resolved when the newspaper gave an assurance that the complainant would be left alone to pursue her career within the police on the same basis as any other officer.

The offending article has been taken offline.
The tabloids seem to think the fact a person being trans is news in itself, and they should be free to out them and write whatever they want.
Trans women are of particular interest if they work in "manly" jobs; firefighters, police officers, soldiers have all been written about in the last year or so.
Verily, trans is the new gay...

Christopher Jefferies: Last Christmas

To an oblique question referring to the speculation about his sexuality he offers a brisk and emphatic response: “All I can say is that there was and there is absolutely no evidence for anybody to speculate in any direction on my sexuality.” Of the many references to him as a “bachelor” he remarks: “This is one of those examples of journalistic lazy thinking and the way in which people are encouraged to think in clichés.”

We may not have heard the last of Christopher Jefferies. He has been approached for comments on his experiences by the inquiry under Lord Justice Leveson which is examining the state of the press after the phone-hacking scandal, and he may yet be called as a witness.

He gives an indication of what he might say, and it is not surprising. He is no fan of the Press Complaints Commission, which he condemns as “woefully inadequate”, and he is not convinced that the press itself has learned much from what happened over New Year in Bristol.

He says he heard one editor, interviewed on radio after the libel case, refer to a “mistake”. “Yes,” he says, “it was a mistake. But that word seemed to me to be so inadequate to sum up the enormity of what happened – the crassness, the irresponsibility, the lack of judgment. Really if all that could be said was, ‘Oh yes we made a mistake,’ certainly standards need to be rather different.”

The conclusion of a brilliant - and chilling - interview with Christopher Jefferies in FT Weekend, talking about his crucifixion by the tabloids last Christmas.
Fuck.

Press Complaints Commission: Pointless Person Accepts She Is Quite Pointless

"The Press Complaints Commission has confirmed that its chair, Baroness Buscombe, is to step down following mounting criticism of the press watchdog's handling of the News of the World phone-hacking scandal."

Guardian Online.

Richard Littlejohn: Hail The New Puritan

"Taking offence on behalf of others, where no offence is intended, is one of the banes of modern life. Using the criminal law to enforce compliance with the doctrines of ‘diversity’ is a form of fascism.
"Having said all that, if there’s one thing just as irritating as ‘political correctness’, it’s that peculiar breed of people who go out of their way to be politically incorrect.
"What I hate is intolerance, zealotry and stupidity from whichever quarter it comes, not just when it is practised by the state-funded enforcers of the new puritanism..."
- Richard Littlejohn, The Daily Mail, March 25th.

"The Chief Constable of Suffolk, Simon Ash, has hoisted a rainbow flag outside his headquarters to celebrate gay and lesbian history month.
"Why?
"‘The flag signifies pride and inclusivity,’ he said. ‘We are a force which values and embraces diversity.’
"As well as the HQ in Ipswich, it is also being flown at Bury St Edmunds and Lowestoft.
"I can just about see the point of celebrating gay history month in Soho or Brighton. But Bury St Edmunds?"
- Richard Littlejohn, The Daily Mail, March 28th.

• If Fagburn was Richard Littejohn, and had been shown to be lying about police flying rainbow flags a few weeks ago, I'd steer clear of the subject.
Just a thought...
Update: Angry Mob blog on the PCC and Littlejohn's earlier rainbow flag lie.

PCC: "Discrimination Against Homosexual People" Fine By Us

Here is the Press Complaints Commission's stock official response to complaints about the Daily Mail's infamous gay swastika cartoon in January;

"The Commission received over one hundred complaints about the cartoon. Virtually all the complainants considered that the portrayal of the couple in the cartoon discriminated against homosexual people. Many complainants also considered that the article was in breach of Clause 1 (Accuracy) on the grounds that it was inaccurate to depict a gay man with a swastika tattoo. The vast majority of complainants found the article to be highly offensive...
"In regard to the concern that it was inaccurate to depict a gay man displaying a swastika tattoo, the Commission emphasised that the cartoon was depicting figurative characters and not specific individuals...
"Virtually all of the complainants considered that the portrayal of the couple in the cartoon, and especially the depiction of a swastika, was in breach of Clause 12 (Discrimination) of the Code. The terms of this clause state that the press must avoid making a prejudicial or pejorative reference to an individual’s sexual orientation. However, the clause does not cover general concerns over the discrimination of groups or categories of people. Given that the majority of complainants considered that the cartoon discriminated against homosexual people in general, the Commission could not establish a breach of Clause 12 of the Editors’ Code of Practice." [Full ruling posted in comments]

This is the PCC's default position; you can say shitty things about a group, they're only concerned if an individual is attacked - and further, that someone involved personally complained.
Oh, except they rejected a complaint from Stephen Gately's civil partner, Andrew Cowles, over Jan Moir's awful piece about his death in The Daily Mail.
See also the PCC "ruling" on Richard Littlejohn last year saying all gay men are paedophiles, or their non-reply to a complaint from Fagburn about The Sun outing a trans person.
Complaining to the PCC or any offending media may seem pointless - and I'm not in favour of calls for censorship, or actually sure what people think they'll achieve by it - but Fagburn believes it makes others aware of our anger and disgust, and that they can't get away with writing - or drawing - homophobic trash.

Uganda: Court Bans Rolling Stone Outing

"The Ugandan High Court has ruled that one of the country's newspapers cannot identify people as homosexuals," CBC News reports.
"The Dec. 30 decision said the Rolling Stone newspaper — which published stories in October identifying people the editor said were gay — could no longer publish the identities or home addresses of the people in the case, nor of homosexuals generally...
"At least four people said they were attacked because of the article, including one woman who said she had to move to a secret location after people began pelting her home with stones..."
As you can see from stories today about Jo Yeate's murder, above, and the Ford prison riots, below, outing is still a popular practice in the British press.
Sadly our own Press Complaints Commission has no problem with papers outing LGBT people.

UPDATE: The editor has issued a press release saying he'll fight the ruling.
He also argues the information and photos are in the public domain as they are taken from Gaydar.