PInk News: Dear Pot...

The complete lack of self-awareness here is too funny for words or even sentences.

'The Sun isn't the only tabloid to run ridicuolus LGBT stories...'

Syria: Cassus Belli

Great to see Pink News doing their bit to support the war effort.

Note how the 'Let's bomb Raqqa to buggery to save Teh Gayz!' line is also taken up today by our friends at the Mail Online and in The Sun's editorial; Why We Must Tackle This Evil.

PS The Mail story is actually an old wire story from Associated Press, note those fag-enablers at Fox News also like it.

And, but of course, the odious Dan Hodges at the Telegraph pitches in...

By the time you finish reading this article somewhere in Syria Isil will have murdered someone. They may have made them dig their own grave and shot them. They may have burned them alive. Perhaps they will have thrown them of a roof for being gay. Or raped them, tortured them and then beheaded them for the crime of being a woman. 

Remember, the UK doesn't do imperialism, this is another 'humanitarian intervention'.

Update: Yet more from Britain's best known champion of gay rights, The Sun. Funny this is foregrounded today, eh?

George Michael: Disgraceful

IN a disgraceful piece of sentencing by, I presume, a press-hating Old Bailey judge (there’s plenty of them out there), a woman prison officer has been jailed for 12 months for selling stories to The Sun about the time George Michael spent in jail.

When you think of the ludicrous sentences handed down by the likes of Judge John Bevan QC (it stands for Quite Crackers) for the most awful violence in the street, clever online frauds etc this jailing is wholly disproportionate.

So what did she do for her £2,100? Michael had been sentenced to two months when found slumped at the wheel after crashing his car high on drugs.

Since he could have killed someone while out his mind, he was the one who should get a year.

George Michael was a global superstar and his time in jail was not only of interest to the public but also of public interest.

How the mighty have fallen is part of the sentencing.*

Even the dim Judge Bevan should know that.

So what did Amanda Watts, 43, who worked at HMP Highpoint, Suffolk, do that earned her such a long sentence?

She revealed who visited Michael and gave The Sun a sketch of the singer’s cell. Big deal.

Old Bailey juries repeatedly refused to convict journalists for paying public officials so when a judge gets a chance to make an exemplary sentence he takes it with both hands.

And grandstanding outside the court because his Operation Elveden has received such a bucket of bad PR is Detective Chief Supt Gordon Briggs, with a justifying quote for the £30million of your money that has been spent on this witch-hunt.

I feel desperate for Ms Watts, who suffers from the debilitating illness lupus, and would urge her to appeal this disgusting sentence by a disgusting Establishment court.

Sun columnist, Kelvin MacKenzie - he was also the paper's editor during its most viciously homophobic era, 1981-1994.

Amanda Watts was paid around £400 a pop for such fascinating stories as Yog's then boyfriend, Kenny Goss, had visited him, and 'he can watch TV and buy snacks... he looks quite slim and old'!

The Sun had earlier revealed what George may or may not have had for lunch on his first day inside, possibly pasta and chips.

Lucky readers were also treated to an artist's computer generated image graphic of what his Pentonville prison cell was sort-of like; 'The window bleakly faces a jail wall. But he did find a few luxuries. One was a tiny portable telly which will cost him £1 a week to rent. Another was a kettle so he can make himself a cuppa.'

'Public interest', Kelvin, really?!!

* Who breaks a butterfly under the wheels of a ten ton truck?

Lord Sewel: You Are The Quarry

The Sun.

Here is a photo of a man you'd never heard of til yesterday having far more fun than you do.

But don't worry, we're going to make the jammy bastard pay!

Full disclosure: No journalist who works for The Sun has been proven to pay for hookers and coke on expenses for at least a year.

PS Anyone for a straight re-run of the Paul Flowers, the 'Crystal Methodist', non-story?

PPS What Lord Sewel gets up to is none of our business, Ian Dunt, politics.co.uk

Tweets Of The Day: George Michael

To my lovelies and fans around the world, thank you for all the birthday wishes, I am truly overwhelmed.

— George Michael (@GeorgeMichael) June 25, 2015

I am looking forward to spending it with friends and family, thanks again, love The Singing Greek!

— George Michael (@GeorgeMichael) June 25, 2015

Happy birthday George. x

PS The Sun can do one!

George Michael Watch: FFS!

The Sun has now scraped right through the bottom of the barrel and is burrowing to the centre of the Earth...

Operation Elveden: Keep Taking The Tabloids

I applaud legal fightbacks from famous people whose privacy is trashed, and relish the satire of Homer Simpson’s “if they didn’t want people pawing through their garbage and saying they’re gay, they shouldn’t have tried to express themselves creatively”.

There is plenty to dislike about British tabloids. They squawk confected outrage, they oversimplify, they pry into complicated private miseries, they do mean stings, some did hack phones. They cozen people in crisis to make fools of themselves. They are obsessed with the wobbly bits of women’s bodies, yet turn on a sixpence to deploy outraged Aunt-Agatha prudery whenever it suits them. They are capable of misjudged campaigns leading to real danger, like Rebekah Brooks’s name-and-shame paedo fiasco. They are sometimes racist, frequently homophobic, almost always sexist.

But they are vivid, economic forces of communication, and some headlines are brilliant (“How Do You Solve A Problem Like Korea?”). They do expensive investigations. Their ease with the grittier end of society, their fellow-well-met pubbiness creates matey fellowship with coppers, prison officers, hospital porters, soldiers: people whose officer classes we definitely ought to know about.

The tabloid hack has no respect for authority, rules or notices; blags in, nips through windows, lies to get a story worth getting. Many have been well worth it, and picked up gratefully by the soft clean hands of the “quality” press and television.

Tabloid readers are not stupid. They don’t believe everything, they don’t approve of all exposés, they give generously to appeals, they smell injustice and callousness (as The Sun learnt the hard way, over Hillsborough). They just want bite-sized information, straightforward language and an irreverent laugh. Sometimes they are offered beautifully succinct political information, more useful than some cerebral analyses.

And though the red tops often deserve an outraged libel suit and contumely, they did not really deserve the targeted, legally dubious, vengeful and institutionally snobbish attacks of Elveden. As Lord Macdonald admitted: “It is simply obvious that there are circumstances in which it can be in the public interest for journalists to pay for information.” ...

Libby Purves, The Times.

S'pose so, yeah, sort of...

The Sun: We Never Forget

'Ex-CPS head Sir Keir Starmer (right) in London on Saturday'.

Great to see The Sun (On Sunday) covering yesterday's Save The Black Cap protest.

Strange they only mentioned it in a piece about their current whipping boy, the former Director Of Public Prosecutions, Keir Starmer, now standing as a Labour Party PCC.

A FORMER chief prosecutor piled pressure on his successors last night as he blasted their £20 million witchhunt against journalists.

Sir Keir Starmer and CPS chief Alison Saunders were accused of making an “error” by hauling reporters into court.

Their predecessor Lord Macdonald spoke out after three more Sun newsmen were cleared of paying public officials.

It means 48 charges against Sun journalists probed by Operation Elveden as part of would-be Labour MP Sir Keir and Ms Saunders’ crusade have resulted in ZERO convictions...

The comments risk overshadowing Sir Keir’s bid to become Labour MP for the London seat of Holborn and St Pancras.

Yesterday he joined locals protesting at the closure of the Black Cap gay pub in Camden.

Poor show by The Sun for not managing to shoehorn in another mention of Greville Janner this time, though.

Only connect...

Or am I reading too much into this?

The Sun: It Was The Sun Wot Won It!

The Sun.

Why oh why are the Crown Prosecution Service spending millions of public money going after decent honest journalists in pursuit of the truth and letting establishment nonces off the hook!!??? etc etc.

PS: This piece by Katie Hopkins, I'd Use Gunships To Stop Migrants, hasn't gone down very well...

Cue inevitable/intended Twitterstorm - Do people not realise that controversy is the currency of columnists like Katie?

Hopkins, Dinsmore and Murdoch must be pissing themselves.

Sack her? Bet she got a pay rise.

Oh, and comparing this appalling attention-seeking article to the Nazi holocaust or the Rwandan genocide is a little bit OTT.

Update...

Sun On Sunday: You couldn't make it up etc etc.

Will Young: Dan Wooton Gets The Horn

His first new track, Love Revolution, is a nostalgic affair sampling TOMCRAFT’s 2003 club banger Loneliness.

Other songs on the record include Joy and Thank You, where Will rants about a relationship breakdown.

He said: “Sometimes you’ve just got to say, ‘F*** off, you dumped me, you don’t like this, you gave me a parking ticket’.

“Screw all this zen buddhist stuff.”

There’s also a song called U Think I’m Sexy.

Well guys, take a look. Do you?

A breathless Dan Wooton in The Sun.

Well guys?

Pride: Shame

The cover for the American DVD release of Pride has removed all mention of homosexuality.

The film, about a group of gay and lesbian activists who rallied in support of striking miners in the 1980s, was released in the UK to acclaim last year.

However, the US DVD cover makes a number of shocking changes, entirely removing homosexuality from the story...

Pink News - thought I'd nick a story off them for a change, rather than vice versa (though at least I give credit for my sources). Can't be arsed to check it, so it could be balls.

The film also fails to mention The Sun was behind a smear campaign against LGSM. 

Thus this is just a paper - the movie is distributed by Murdoch's Fox, coincidentally.

The real question is not how a DVD cover excised The Gays, but how the film makes two great political struggles seem so anodyne.

Update: The film’s director, Matthew Warchus said he “understands”, that it was a “clumsy”, but a “valid” marketing strategy.

“Changing the cover is kind of clumsy and a bit foolish,” he told BBC Radio 5’s Phil Williams.

“But this is a film that is loved by people of all political persuasions and sexual orientations.

“I’m just keen for as many people who have yet to see the film to see it.”

Continuing, he said he “didn’t want to preach to the converted” and that he wanted the film “to find a mainstream audience [and] broaden people’s minds.' via Pink News.

Shakespeare: Exclusive!

Barking boffins have been arguing if Bill the bard was a bender, The Sun can exclusively reveal, even though most papers ran this story yesterday, and it's about a spat that's being going on in the letters pages of the TLS for weeks, and people have been debating this for 400 years.

William Shakespeare's hit plays include Hamlet and Othello - and can still be seen on Sky Arts today!

The row erupted after one boffin said one of Shakespeare's sonnets poems was written about a hunky young fella!

But some other boffins said it could be about a hot young babe.

So come on Will, how did you AS YOU LIKE IT?

With ROMEO OR JULIET?

TO BUM OR NOT TO BUM?!!

Sir Cliff Richard: Exclusive!

From The Sun's homepage.

Fagburn wonders how long it'll be before an eagle-eyed Sun hack realises that this could have been worded just a teensy bit better.

Tick tick tick...

Update: Still there 12 hours later.

Grayson Perry Watch: Irony Lost

ARTIST Grayson Perry has included The Sun in his latest giant artwork – declaring we are a “definitive” part of Britain.

The huge Comfort Blanket piece – unveiled at the National Portrait Gallery in central London – is filled with what the Turner prize-winning star says define Britain.

The Sun sits alongside other British icons including the Queen, Top Gear, fish and chips and the Proms.

But there is no room for the Mirror or the Star.

Cross-dresser Grayson said: "I wanted to include The Sun as it is a big part of Britain. It is a definitive part of our country."

The piece is part of Grayson’s Who Are You? collection unveiled to coincide with his new Channel 4 series, which launched last night.

Grayson also created a vase based around disgraced Lib Dem politician Chris Huhne – which he covered in images of a penis.

Grayson said the work had repeated imprints of a willy as it was what got Huhne into trouble in the first place.

He revealed how Huhne wanted to buy the work - although it has been valued at more than £100,000.

The Sun.

The Sun: You, The Jury!

It's hard to know which one's worst, really...

Jason Orange: Gone For Good

Aww, he always was my favourite.

If this happened 20 years ago I'd be devastated.

And, lest we forget, Jason was the only member who didn't join in The That's £26 million scummy tax avoidance scam.

Connection?

PS Note the really classy Miliband-bashing at top of page...

The Sun: Rage Against The Dying Of The Light

'More like a paraffin lamp in a brothel, than a Sun'

How the Morning Star summed up The Sun after Rupert Murdoch had bought it and revamped it in 1969.

Taken from a fascinating episode of The Reunion where ex-staffers discuss the good/bad old days at the Currant Bun.

All in hilarious; 'Weren't me, guv, honest' mode.

Much on its notorious homophobia in the 80s - though the paper's known homophobes-in-chief, Murdoch and then editor, Kelvin MacKenzie, were sadly unavailable for comment.

• Listen on BBC iPlayer. For more on the sorry, sordid saga of Murdoch's Sun read Peter Chippindale and Chris Horries' Stick It Up Your Punter! - probably the most revealing (and funniest) book ever written about British journalism.

The Sun: This Is Their England

This is even more hideous when you can see who's on it - allegedly picked by Sun readers, here they are in their full glory.

I count eight (8) black people.*

Token Asian: Noreen Khan.

The Sun's favoured English pooves - for those among you taking notes: Grimmers, Dame Stephen Fry, Sir David Attenborough, Sir Elton, Sebastian Coe, Tinky Winky, our Tom, Lewis Hamilton, Yog, Mozza (tellingly positioned next to Nigel Farage).

Token lez: Clare Balding.

UND! SUN columnists Tony Parsons, Jeremy Clarkson, Katie Hopkins, Jane Moore and Rod Liddle tell [sic] why they’re proud of England.
Oh FFS. Another hundred reasons to defect to Cuba.

PS There is a 'campaign' to send copies of this back via a freepost address. Apparently these will just pile up in the sorting office. I imagine putting a sign on your front door saying you refuse to take one will be similarly annoying to postal workers. So don't be a priggish dick, please.

* Oops! An eagle-eyed fan tells me there are 15/16, and has once again exposed my pathological contempt for facts.

Meanwhile, Mirror Online makes a pitch (geddit?) for the gals and teh gays...

Welcome to the Mirror's World Cup Football Free Zone! Sexy players, wags, hot gossip - minus the actual FOOTBALL http://t.co/GJba09sNif
— Mirror Celeb (@MirrorCeleb) June 12, 2014

Hope you're looking forward to a month (!) of this...

This is funny...

The Independent.

Can someone tell the joyless gaytards at Gay Star News, if they're going to try and do a BuzzFeed-style item it helps not to be completely witless.

Oh do piss off.

World Cup: Fuck It

The Royal Mail has declined to distribute the current edition of The Drum magazine because a swear word appears prominently on the front page.

Delivery of the latest edition will now be delayed while the packaging is changed to ensure that the word "fuck" is not visible.

The cover highlights a competition the magazine ran for readers to design a World Cup poster. Based on one of the entries from designer Steve Price it said: "Fuck it football is shit. When is Downton back on."

Editor Gordon Young said: "Oh for fuck's sake. This magazine is a subscription only business-to-business title with a tightly defined readership. The sort of language our readers come across day-to-day is probably not dissimilar to the sort of language used in a Royal Mail sorting office and I reckon it is unlikely they will be offended...

A Royal Mail spokesman said: "All mailings we handle must comply with our general terms and conditions and must not include offensive, obscene or threatening language."

Press Gazette - via Melon Farmers.

In an heroic act of self-sacrifice, Fagburn has decided to boycott watching any World Cup matches as a protest against something or other.

And finally, now for some good news...

Postmen at a Royal Mail branch are set to defy bosses by refusing to deliver copies of The Sun newspaper.

The posties at the Skelmersdale office will walk out this week after managers said there was no option but deliver it.

The paper, which remains controversial over its coverage of the Hillsborough tragedy, approached Royal Mail to deliver 22m copies across England as part of a World Cup promotion campaign.

The Sun said it would not deliver copies in Liverpool. But some areas of Merseyside – such as Wirral – have the Chester postcode, while Southport has the Preston postcode and Skem shares the Wigan postcode...

Liverpool Echo. 

Conchita Wurst: Hahaha!

The Sun.

Well known and long-standing champion of gay rights, The Sun, sticks it to those evil Russian homophobes.

No other agenda here.

This Austrian Facebook page calling for Conchita to be pulled as their country's representative at Eurovision, got a whopping 36,000 likes.

Surely a campy protest outside the Austrian Embassy should be in order?

Still, it's only a larf, innit?

Cause fellas in dresses is well funny.

PS The 'Bearded Lady' tabloid tag is rather telling - as their coverage of Conchita usually treats her like she's something from a freakshow.

Just a thought...