Bradley Manning: Curiouser & Curiouser...

The Bradley Manning Support Network website has disappeared from cyberspace today - yet another salvo in the WikiLeaks cyberwar it would seem.
A false rumour was also being spread on Twitter that Manning had committed suicide.
He is alive and well - Mike Gogulski of BMSG has spoken to Bradley on the phone, antiwar.com reports.
Some strange and scary things are certainly happening right now.
Fagburn thought Johann Hari wrote a sound and level-headed article for The Independent today on the arrest of Julian Assange; 'This case must not obscure what WikiLeaks has told us'

A Message today from BMSG:
"Immediately following Bradley's arrest in late June 2010, the whistle-blower website Wikileaks publicly solicited donations specifically for Bradley's legal defense expenses. In July 2010, Wikileaks pledged to contribute a "substantial amount" towards Bradley's legal defense costs. Since Bradley's selection of David Coombs as his civilian defense attorney in August 2010, the Bradley Manning Support Network has unsuccessfully attempted to facilitate the pledged Wikileaks contribution.
"We understand the difficult situation Wikileaks currently faces as the world's governments conspire to extinguish the whistle-blower website," explained Jeff Paterson, Bradley Manning Support Network steering committee member and project director of Courage to Resist (couragetoresist.org).
"However, in order to meet Bradley Manning's legal defense needs, we're forced to clarify that Wikileaks has not yet made a contribution towards this effort. We certainly welcome any contribution from Wikileaks, but we need to inform our supporters that it may not be forthcoming and that their continued contributions and support are crucial." Donate to Bradley Manning's Defence Fund

Wikileaks 5: A Gay Gandhi?

This is a few days old - sorry, but I don't read The Times Of India that often, and I don't think it's been picked up in the western media.
A cable from the US Embassy in Delhi leaked by Wikileaks has apparently outed Rahul Gandhi, the Indian politician thought to be the heir apparent of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty.
Rahul, 40, is a Congress politician and son of the former Indian Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, and the current Congress President, Sonia Gandhi.
The Indian press have sniggered before that he is something of a "gay icon" (nudge, nudge) - as in the hilarious Julian & Sandy-style cartoon above.

Bed & Breakfast Bans: For The Love Of God

'Christian B&B owners sued for discrimination after refusing to allow gay couple share a double bed'
You may have guessed this is from The Daily Mail.
"The Christian owners of a seaside guesthouse are being sued in a landmark case - for refusing to allow a gay couple to share a double bed.
"Devout Peter and Hazelmary Bull refused to let civil partners Martyn Hall and Steven Preddy use a double room because it would be ‘an affront to their faith’.
"They are using 2007 Equality Act Regulations to claim up to £5,000 in damages at a landmark case that begins at Bristol County Court next Monday."
As if this isn't awful enough, we learn that Mrs Bull is "a great grandmother" and Mr Bull "works for the RSPB charity".
What heartless bastards would want to affront their values!!!?
Stonewall are backing the Bulls, The Christian Institute the godless Gays.
Are you normal?
You can book a room at the Chyrmorvah House "family hotel" in Cornwall here.
They cook the porridge in the AGA overnight, you know?
Why not give them a call on 01736 716497 and ask if it's okay to stay if you promise not to do any bumming?
Fagburn is tired of repeating arguments against hate-loving bigots like these, beyond the fact that they sound so bonkers they should be sectioned.
As ever there is much truth spoken on the Daily Mail's messageboards;
"Good luck to you, Mr. and Mrs. Bull," writes Gordon from Evesham.
"I hope that your principles and 'rights' triumph over those of two predatory homosexuals.
"It is time that this 'equality' nonsense was put into perspective."
It's certainly something to think about.
Purely in the interests of balance I shall leave you with the thoughts of Annie, from Devon.
"I've stayed here - it's absolutely horrid - they haven't spent a penny on it in years - breakfast was disgusting..... it was a few years ago that I stayed to be fair but I remember clearly saying that we would never ever return. So, gay or not - just don't bother."

This was also a hot topic on The Sun's messageboards today - Fagburn is often pleasantly surprised at how pro-gay comments heavily outweigh phobic ones here.
Several posters pointed out that the hotel's rules would mean they'd turn away Mary and Joseph, as they were an unmarried couple.
But would the Bulls even offer them the stable?

World Cup 2022 Qatar: Missing An Open Goal

'Where are the footballers who are glad to be gay? Let’s put things right here before we criticise the Middle East' says Robert Crampton in The Times.
To which any rational person would answer; "Bollocks!"
Let's criticise both.
"Given the medieval attitude to homosexuality in large parts of the Middle East, several critics have also raised concerns about the treatment of gay players at the tournament."
No, most critics are angered because homosexuality is illegal in Qatar.
There's even a new cliche uttered in response; "Homosexuality was illegal when England hosted the World Cup in 1967."
Yes, but it's 2010 and it isn't now.
It's good to see journalists defending Qatar - they're very generous with their five star free trips to the sun-kissed gulf state, coincidentally.
But anyway, Robert, you were twisting things to fit your argument...
"Which to me invites the response: never mind potential Qatari attitudes in 12 years’ time, what about actual British attitudes right now?"
Which brings him back to his titular question; "There is not one openly gay footballer among the 92 clubs in the premier and football leagues, or in Scotland as far as I am aware. That’s right. Out of several thousand professional footballers, not one is openly gay, when statistically you might expect there to be quite a few."
So off he goes to tell once more the parable of Justin Fashanu, the only player to come out, whose career then died, and he later commited suicide.
"Last year the Professional Footballers’ Association scrapped plans for an anti-homophobia video."
Though Fagburn suspects this was because the FA realised it was shit.
"Fans — and occasionally other players — routinely direct virulent homophobic abuse at any player whose good looks, or interest in fashion, or art, or books, mark him out as different from the norm."
Yes, but again they don't send gay men to prison in the UK, and homosexuality is still against the law in Qatar.
"...although there may be plenty of reasons to criticise Fifa for awarding the World Cup to Qatar, that state’s possible aversion to gay footballers, 12 years from now, should not be top of the list."
It's not, dear.

• The homo-friendly looking chaps above are of course all players in this year's world Cup photographed by Annie Leibovitz for Vanity Fair.

Rupert Everett: The Arrest Of Oscar Wilde At The Cadogan Hotel

Rupert Everett has written a really good article for The Times today.
Will wonders never cease?
Regular readers of Rupert's column will know that he is currently staying at the Cadogan Hotel in Chelsea in the room where Oscar Wilde was arrested.
Mr Everett has been meditating about this - it was the anniversary last week, and Oscar died 110 years ago this winter.
"I am lying on Oscar Wilde’s bed in the Cadogan Hotel in Chelsea. It’s late, the night is cold and I am sipping at a weak hock and seltzer in his honour and gazing through the same Nottingham lace curtains that John Betjeman describes in his marvellous poem The Arrest of Oscar Wilde at the Cadogan Hotel."
That's one of fagburn's favourite poems, incidentally.
Cracks me up every time.
"Through the haze of gauze that still shrouds the bay window it could be 1895 outside. Pont Street still “towers red under the London sky”. Inside, the room is grey and high and luxurious with wooden floors and a huge bed, the perfect hideaway for an exiled movie queen..."
Each man creates the Wilde he wants, and Mr Everett's is Wilde as the world's first celebrity; "the most successful playwright in London at the time, but also a rather silly fairy sometimes."
His libel action against Queensbury was "a tragically blind example of early celebrity madness."
His fall is seen as not the wages of sin but the price of fame; "Success befuddled him. Add alcohol and sex to the mix and an almost syphilitic (maybe) sense of self unfurled, flapping uncontrollably in the changing wind."
After considering Wilde was caught up in a great political conspiracy, and surrendered himself to martyrdom, Mr Everett concludes; "Wilde may have been a silly fairy, but he is also one of my heroes...
"For me, he had the perfect blend of brilliance and silliness, of pride and humility. He was one of the first “stars” in the tradition of Byron and, with Paul-Marie Verlaine, one of the last great vagabonds of the 19th century."

Slow News Day: Official!

Do you want to know how desperate they are for stories to fill their papers today?
The kerbrilliant 3am "Girls" summed it up with possibly Fagburn's headline of the year, which accompanied a photo of Victoria Beckham; 'Woman Wears Coat'
They even tagged it 'Slow news day'.
Or how about this for the sound of the showbiz barrel being rudely scraped?
'Why have I got pink headphones on, mummy? Dannii Minogue protects son's ears at X Factor rehearsals'
"She may have his best interests at heart.
"But in years to come, Dannii Minogue's baby boy Ethan may well be cursing his mother for giving him girly pink noise-reducing headphones to wear."
Fagburn guesses his response would be the same as anyone reading this non-story; "Who gives a flying fuck?"
"The X Factor judge took the five-month-old tot along with her to rehearsals ahead of the live show this weekend.
"But while the headphones may have spared his hearing, they certainly won't save his blushes when the family photo album comes out when he reaches his adolescent years.
"Video footage of Dannii holding Ethan and waving his hand to the cameras was played on the X Factor spin-off show the Xtra Factor on ITV2 last night - perfect material to embarrass him in front of his future girlfriend one day."
I'm loving that presumption Ethan Minogue will grow up straight.
Dannii's probably planning to send him to that special school where they turn celebrities' children gay to order.
The journalist did start off hedging her bets; "Ethan may well be cursing his mother for giving him girly-pink noise-reducing headphones..."
The writer of this gripping news story is Georgina Littlejohn, a good advert for how kids may not turn out as their parents intended.
Georgina - as Fagburn never tires of reminding people - is the gays-loving daughter of the Mail's gays-hating star columnist, Richard Littlejohn.
What are the chances of that happening, eh?

Gay Straight Men : T'Aint Who You Do

Tim Lott is a straight man, he is happily married with children.
But Lott thinks he's more than a little bit gay.
He doesn't fancy blokes, he just feels that way.
No, he's not metrosexual - that's "morphed into meaning simply someone who is young, urbane and well groomed".
He calls himself "stray" - a straight gay - and confesses all in The Times today; 'The Joy Of Being A Lifestyle Gay'
Tim Lott blames his wife for turning him stray.
"She got me addicted to chick TV. Initially Cold Feet and Sex and the City, and later the harder stuff — reality TV — including Big Brother, The Apprentice and I’m a Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here!"
It's got worse as Lott's got older, but he's also learned to accept himself; "I take a recipe book to work so that I can work out what ingredients I have to buy if I need to cook that evening. I have come to love shopping for food, particularly for cheese, wine and delicatessen items. I enjoy spa treatments and visits to the hairdresser far more than shouting at 22 men chasing a ball on a TV screen..."
Thankfully, he doesn't feel the odd (straight) man out - far from it.
"...I think that there are many like me. In fact, I would imagine that, unlike the much-vaunted metrosexuals, who were always a minority, we are now well set to be in the majority over the Jeremy Clarkson/Alex Ferguson axis, the Fraternity of Blokes."
Tim Lott is far from the first straight journalist to write about how he's getting in touch with his effeminate gay side - it's almost a cliche.
It's interesting to compare it to an article in The Guardian last week;
The Death Of Camp by Kevin Troughton.
Troughton was writing as a gay man who doesn't feel "gay" - which for him means "camp" or "effiminate gay men" - a far more well-worn journalism cliche than the gay-acting straight man.
Like Lott, Troughton thinks he's part of growing trend, "masculine" gay men who prefer "outdoor pursuits" to Pride festivals.
They define "gay" in rather different ways; for Lott it's about being artistic and cultured, Troughton thinks it's horribly common.
Fagburn thinks they think it's got a lot to do with class.
Would the judge who this Summer stereotyped gay men as liking "Kylie and cocktails" have attracted as much ire if he'd said "Sondheim and champagne"?
For Fagburn what's interesting, and what's new, is not that many gay men feel they don't fit into the prevalent gay stereotypes, and some straight men do - it was ever thus.
What's interesting is how it's now generally taken as a given that gay and straight are as much cultural identities, as they are sexual;
It ain't who you do, but what you like doing.

Bradley Manning: No News, New Pic

The Sunday Times - once famed for its Insight Team's investigative reporting - runs a profile of Bradley Manning;
'Maverick soldier hands ‘doomsday files’ to wanted WikiLeaks chief The misfit at the heart of the leak of diplomatic cables boasted of the ease with which he snatched them'
What do we learn?
Erm, nothing much.
Like Gareth Williams - the MI6 agent and suspected murder victim - journalists are having trouble finding anything out about him.
It must be very frustrating for some that they haven't found any dirt on him - beyond speculation that a boyfriend once wore drag.
Manning's story is rarely fleshed out beyond; strange kid, very bright, joined the military, gay.
The Sunday Times has little to add.
"Mark Radford, editor of the Crescent Courier, the local newspaper, said last week: He was a friend of my son and would play at our house. He was very intelligent. While other children played video games, he was figuring out how to crack codes.'
Which sounds slightly improbable.
Oh well, they do have a nice new photo - like Williams there are but a handful of pictures of him being endlessly reprinted.
Here is Bradley on his 21st birthday, looking - I'm sure you'll agree - quite cute and slightly gay.
On Monday Republican presidential hopeful, Mick Huckabee, added his voice to those who have said Manning should be executed for treason.
On Friday, WikiLeaks' Juilan Assange called Manning "an unparalleled hero".
He is - please support Bradley Manning.

UPDATE: A wonderfully parochial piece in Wales On Sunday.
'Welsh schoolboy at the centre of Wikileaks row'
They quote "one of his fellow servicemen in the US...who has asked to be anonymous."
"Manning never had a mean thing to say about anyone. He was polite, sociable and eager to please. He was targeted though for being 'Chapter 15 [homosexual]."
Apart from that there's rehashes of the usual pre-cog; "He always had this sense that I'm going to right a big wrong. He was like that at school."

Liberace: Candelabra In The Wind

Michael Douglas has reportedly signed up to play Liberace in a big budget biopic directed by Steven Soderbergh.
The screenplay is based on Behind The Candelabra - My Life With Liberace, written by Lee's last lover, Scott Thorson.
His yumminess Matt Damon is set to play Thorson.
The book focuses on Lee's relationship with his much younger lover (I'm sure Douglas can empathise), their separation - and an infamous "gaylimoney" case - and Liberace's denial about and then death from Aids.
Despite his very public denials of being gay, Liberace always seemed like a queer hero to Fagburn.
Maybe the new film will reposition him as a gay martyr, but of a very different colour to that Oscar-magnet Harvey Milk.
In a strange piece of synchronicity, Sacha Baron Cohen is to play Freddie Mercury, the other big name musical loss to Aids, in a new film scripted by Peter Morgan.
The 19th anniversary of Freddie's death was marked by BBC World Service's Witness where his personal assistant, Peter Freestone, remembered his last days.

John Waters: A Model Interview

There is, Fagburn gets the feeling, a holy trinity of queens that the broadsheets are always gagging to get interviews with.
Neil Tennant, Gore Vidal and John Waters.
Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Fagburn loves reading them.
It doesn't matter that Pet Shop Boys records hardly bother the charts these days, that John Waters' films don't get released in this country, or that Gore Vidal now can come over like the thinking man's David Icke.
They'll be given pages in the weekend supplements cause they always give good quote.
The usual function of queens in the media is to do some bitchin', and these three - cultured, clever and ever-so witty - can be relied upon to do it with class.
And they perform another much desired function for the proper papers - high talking about low culture; be it pop, trash or politics.
Mr John Waters has a new book out, Role Models.
Everyone wants a piece of him.
He did The Graham Norton Show last night - alongside Justin Bieber!
He's on Loose Ends on Radio 4 as I type.
He's just made a joke about Johnny Mathis and gerontophilia - bless.
The Observer ran an extract from his book last Sunday;
'When John Waters met Little Richard'
There's a feature in The Guardian Guide today, 'Myths & Butts John Waters tells Jim Shelley about his life, his work and Charles Manson'
Really?
You'll have to forgive Fagburn, but I don't think this is a new interview with John Waters.
Hasn't Mr Shelley just filleted out a load of his favourite quotes from Role Models?
Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Update: Shelley tells me he did interview Waters - and there are original quotes in his piece. Happy to clarify. 

The Times: Behind The Paywall

Here's a glimpse of what you're missing from today's edition of The Times if you haven't signed up to give billionaire tyrant Rupert Murdoch's News Corp £8.66 every month.

"...drag queens, rubber-clad sadomasochists, gay cowboys, witches gyrating in a manner rarely seen outside Spearmint Rhino... transvestites, fist-pumping Black Power activists, ermine-wearing aristocrats, clerics and a gentleman clad in little more than a zipped-up leather hood... toffs, Maoists, monks and a man in a leather mask... a shirtless young guy in a “street” setting: a dreamy bit of rough... a 6ft 6in homosexual who currently lives in Los Angeles ... a gay district, student areas, blocks of streets that are good for drugs (those last three tending to be the same place)... a gay block that was like the prison brothel..."

The Daily Mail: Not Disgusted Of Oxfordshire

Life is full - full of surprises.
While reading The Daily Mail this morning, I came across an article - about an elderly aristocrat having some problems with a cruising ground close to his stately home - that was positively delightful.
Will wonders never cease?
The Telegraph published a sour and cackheaded piece about this last week.
The Daily Mail's journalist, Robert Hardman - titter ye not - went out to meet the man and see things for himself.
The title sets the tone; 'The doughty baronet and the doggers: Sir Beville's polite war on al fresco liaisons on his estate'
Some land near a layby by his old pile has long been a cruising ground; "It seems to be mostly gay men, but there are also sexual exhibitionists (male and female) and their voyeuristic followers — collectively known as ‘doggers’."
Sir Beville Stainer is being ever so English and nice about it.
"Sir Beville is a man of the world — a former Army officer, he was aide-de-camp to the Governor-General of Australia — and he can certainly see the funny side of it all.
"‘I kept hearing this word “dogging”, so I looked it up on the internet the other day and, well…I couldn’t believe what I saw!’ He bursts out laughing, adding that Lady Stanier was equally startled."
Like the old joke about the couple in a rail carriage who only get told off by their fellow passengers when they light a post-coital cigarette, it's not so much the shagging the baronet minds, but all the litter they leave behind.
"'I came down here two-and-a-half weeks ago and filled 28 binliners with rubbish,’ says Sir Beville Stanier, as we tiptoe through the filth on his side of the fence."
The local peoples' real gripe is that a border fence built by Oxfordshire County Council isn't sturdy enough.
"These people are not prudes. ­Richard, a former resident, laughs as he recounts the sight of a naked man running across the estate at dawn. Some tenants talk fondly of the ­regular faces — the chap with the suggestive numberplate and the bloke who takes up residence in a camper van for the entire summer."
It all reads a little like an Ealing Comedy.
"There is nothing new about sexual shenanigans in this particular layby. The council built this section of dual carriageway through the Shotover estate in the Fifties, along with the public convenience.
"It soon became a meeting place for local homosexuals — plus the police, who once discovered a local magistrate in breach of his own laws...
"‘I am pretty liberal,’ says a lady in one estate ­cottage who does not want to give her name.
‘I don’t mind what people do in their own backyard. But why should they do it in mine?’"
A fair point.
Let us hope this kerfuffle is soon resolved to everyone's satisfaction.
It is time for Robert Hardman to bid a fond farewell.
"The temperature is falling and so is the snow. It’s not exactly Dr Zhivago here on the A40 but it clearly retains a romantic allure for some.
"I am reminded of Winston Churchill’s remark on receiving the grave news that one of his MPs had been caught in a compromising ­situation with a Guardsman in a London park ­during a blizzard: ‘Makes you proud to be British.’"
And so does this article.

Morrissey: The Queen Is Morally Dead

On Thursday Johnny Marr took to Twitter and tweeted; "David Cameron, stop saying that you like The Smiths, no you don't. I forbid you to like it."
Good for him.
Like The Clash's Mick Jones it was always clear who was really the left-wing conscience of the band.
Morrissey has just written a long open letter pledging his agreement.
"I would like to, if I may, offer support to Johnny Marr who has spoken out to the media this week against David Cameron. To those who have expressed concern over Johnny's words in view of the fact that David Cameron has pledged immense allegiance to the music of the Smiths, I would like to try to explain why I think Johnny is right not to be flattered."
"It is true that music is a universal language – the ONLY universal language, and belongs to all, one way or another. However, with fitting grimness I must report that David Cameron hunts and shoots and kills stags – apparently for pleasure."
That's right - as Cameron and his millionaire chums unleash a war against the working class and on the most vulnerable in society, hacking away at the welfare state with gay abandon, Morrissey gets miffed that Dave kills stags.
As riots return to London and set Europe on fire in righteous anger against the injustices of neo-liberalism, Morrissey says he's angry about hunting fucking stags.
Morrissey really is the most spectacular moral fuckwit.
This year we've had to endure his criticisms of China.
Not for turning a communist state into the world's biggest sweatshop, but because of the "horrific... Chinese cat and dog trade."
In August he wrote a letter to The Times about the British army.
On Afghanistan? Iraq?
No - it was drawing attention to "[the] horrific process utilised to supply real bearskins" for Guardsmens' hats.
What a colossal, monumental buffoon.
We should do the world a favour and eat him.

Glee: Baby It's Cold Outside

Isn't it?
Adorable.
Have a great weekend

Phil Woolas: The Last Goodbye

The political career of Phil Woolas is over.
Finito. Dead.
Excellent news.
The High Court today upheld the decision to strip Woolas, Labour's former Immigration Minister, of his seat in the House of Commons.
Woolas narrowly won the Oldham East and Saddleworth seat in May, but the result was declared void by a special election court that ruled he'd lied about the Lib Dem candidate.
He was found guilty of making "false statements" - ie lying - in election literature which pandered to racists for electoral gain.
Woolas also produced literature that accused the unmarried Lib Dem, Elwyn Watkins, candidate of lying about living in the constituency and insinuating he was gay.
Watkins was described as "a single man who lives alone with his mother".
And lest we forget, as New Labour's Immigration Minister one could argue that his last job also involved pandering to racists for electoral gain.
He was also a hate figure for LGBT campaigners.
Fagburn is glad to see the back of the man who oversaw the shameful Immigration Office policy that lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people seeking asylum could return to their countries if they were "discreet".
The Sun once devoted an editorial to singing his praises;
"Phil Woolas speaks more sense on immigration than every minister combined in 11 years of this Government... [he] attacks his own Government for failing to check numbers in and out and making it too easy for illegals to stay."
It says much that Woolas used it in his election literature.

Wikileaks 4: Ann Coulter Vs Bradley Manning

With Bradley Manning's WikiLeaks being released in the same week as Don't Ask, Don't Tell returning to the headlines in the US, it was obvious some people were going to try and squish the two together - the "Gay Traitor" is a such trusty old saw for the right it can never be left to rust.
And quelle surprise, Ann Coulter - poster girl for America's right-wing fruitloops - has done exactly that in a piece for Town Hall Daily - Bradley Manning Poster Boy For Don't Ask Don't Tell - that's so breath-taking in its offensiveness it reads more like a bad stand-up routine.
Or a satire of one.

I'm not a military man, but I think singing along to Lady Gaga would constitute "telling" under "don't ask, don't tell."
Do you have to actually wear a dress to be captured by the Army's "don't ask, don't tell" dragnet?
What constitutes being "openly" gay now? Bringing a spice rack to basic training? Attending morning drills decked out as a Cher impersonator? Following Anderson Cooper on Twitter?
Also, U.S. military, have you seen a picture of Bradley Manning? The photo I've seen is only from the waist up, but you get the feeling that he's wearing butt-less chaps underneath. He looks like a guy in a soldier costume at the Greenwich Village Halloween parade.
With any luck, Bradley's court-martial will be gayer than a Liza Minelli wedding. It could be the first court-martial in U.S. history to feature ice sculptures and a "Wizard of Oz"-themed gazebo. "Are you going to Bradley's court-martial? I hear Patti LaBelle is going to sing!"
...Obviously, the vast majority of gays are loyal Americans -- and witty and stylish to boot! But a small percentage of gays are going to be narcissistic hothouse flowers like Bradley Manning.
Couldn't they just work for JetBlue? America would be a lot safer right now if gays in an "awkward place" psychologically could do no more damage than grabbing a couple of beers and sliding down the emergency chute.
Look at the disaster one gay created under our punishing "don't ask, don't tell" policy. What else awaits America with the overturning of a policy that was probably put there for a reason (apart from being the only thing Bill Clinton ever did that I agreed with)?

Dr Scott Lively from the Pro-Family Resource Centre continues this line of attack in Wikileaks - The "Gay" Connection

If you’re looking for someone to blame for the Wikileaks scandal, a good candidate would be President Bill Clinton. He was the one who, in 1995, signed an Executive Order removing “sexual orientation” as a grounds for denying someone a security clearance. Had that policy never been revoked, homosexual soldier Bradley Manning would never have had access to our national secrets and could not have leaked them. According to news reports, Manning decided to turn traitor after a fight with his boyfriend, which somehow motivated him to send hundreds of thousands of confidential documents to Wikileaks leader Julian Assange, who has also been alleged by some to be “gay.”...

News Of The World: On Katie Price & Russell Harty

"RT @frenchcuk: @MissKatiePrice if I was u,I'd start writing on twitter Dan Wootton has HIV and Gemma Wheatley has crabs etc.They make up #!@%*# so y cant u?XRT
MissKatiePrice"

This was a retweet by Jordan on Twitter yesterday - now deleted.
Dan Wooton, News of the World Showbusiness editor, was not impressed.
Miss Katie Price has since tweeted her "apoligies" (sic).
"Be great if they'd admit when they get something wrong but wont happen!"
How true.
A better spelt statement has been issued on her behalf.
As she's surrounded by gay men, Miss Price should have known better.
It was a silly joke - and the point of the joke was that HIV is a terrible thing to wish on someone, so let's move on.
But let's not forget The News of the World's terrible record with show business people and HIV/Aids.
A celebrity might expect to be photographed coming out of The Ivy.
Gay stars have been snapped coming out of the doctors.
The case against The News of the World was most forcefully put in Alan Bennett's address at the funeral of his friend, Russell Harty, who the News of the World, after outing him as a gay man, then began desperately trying to out as a gay man with Aids.
"Reporters intermittently infested his home village for more than a year, bribing local children for information about his private life, even (there is a terrible comedy in it) trying to bribe the local vicar. Now he fought for his life in St James's Hospital one newspaper took a flat opposite and had a camera with a long lens trained on the window of his ward - the nurses would point it out to you when you visited him. A reporter posing as a junior doctor smuggled himself into the ward and demanded to see his notes, and every lunch-time reporters took the hospital porters over the road to the pub to try to bribe them into taking a photo of him..."

World Cup 2022 Qatar: Expect Prison

Fagburn doesn't normally follow the sports or football, but is thrilled to hear that Qatar will be hosting the World Cup in 2022.
Let's hope they decriminalise homsexuality before then, eh?
The penalty is up to five years in prison for both men and women.
According to the International Lesbian And Gay Association; "Along with the civil Penal Code also Islamic Sharia law is in force in Qatar, although only applicable to Muslims. The offence of “Zina” makes any sexual act by a married person outside of marriage punishable by death, while sexual acts by non-married persons are punish by flogging – both offences no matter if they were heterosexual or homosexual."
Nice.
Does FIFA not take a country's homophobic laws and human rights record into consideration?

Amnesty International Report on Human Rights in Qatar.

HIV/Aids: UK Media Coverage "About The Same"

This is a graph showing the average number of articles mentioning HIV/Aids per issue of the broadsheet newspapers in the UK between 1990 and 2010.
As you can see* it has remained quite stable - and has stayed roughly somewhere between 0.5 and 1 article per issue.
It dipped just below 0.5 at the start of 2010, but this is not unusual.
There's the occasional spike - if averaging close to two items an issue can be considered a spike - maybe there'll be one when they get round to counting the special edition of The Independent edited by Elton John.
So not much has changed.
Everything looks ok.
Nothing to see here.
So why has The Pink Paper run a story titled; 'Media coverage of HIV and AIDS falls by seventy per cent'
We do get a qualifier; "Media coverage on HIV/AIDS has fallen by more than 70 per cent in developed countries over the last 20 years, according to an international team of researchers."
But why didn't the journalist - Peter Lloyd, predictably - take a few minutes or more to try and find some data for the UK?
Because Peter Lloyd's bylined news story is as per usual - just a cut-and-paste of a press release from The Trends in Sustainability project.
Fagburn could deluge you on a daily basis with examples of how Pink Paper and Pink News just reprint press releases pretty much verbatim and pass them off as news stories, but it takes a special talent-bypass to do this and completely miss what's relevant to your readership.
Anyway, Trends In Sustainability is an interesting project - have a look round their new website.
It's a shame Pinkpaper.com couldn't be bothered.

* For a sharper version of the graph go to www.trendsinsustainability.com/onlineanalysis

Britain Grinds to A Halt!

Back with you very soon...

Michael Barrymore: Show Trial By Media

Andrew Billen interviews Barrymore for The Times today.
The feature is called - oh dear - 'Tears of A Clown'.
"Television careers die but they rarely remain buried. The medium exhumes its fallen stars and offers them the opportunity to die again. Outed (as much by himself as by the press), arrested (in connection with the death at his home of a stranger called Stuart Lubbock) and fired (by ITV, his spiritual home), Michael Barrymore first made a return to television five years ago on Celebrity Big Brother."
How could he hope to beat that intro?
Billen paints a picture of Barrymore as a lonely man.
You get the feeling there are some in the media who'll only be happy if he kills himself.
The tabloids hounding of Michael Barrymore has been one of the most disgraceful media spectacles of the last decade.
A show trial by media, it always stank of homophobia; "Well, what do you expect?"
Barrymore - a once brilliant, now broken man - returns to our small screens in a Channel 4 documentary series, Where I Became Me, where people revisit their childhood haunts.
It should make for interesting viewing.
Few people seem quite as haunted as Michael.
Poor sod.

Censorship: Fire In My Belly Put Out

The National Portrait Gallery in Washington has removed a video about Aids from an exhibition after protests from The Catholic League.
Fire In My Belly was created by David Wojnarowicz in 1987 to mark and mourn the death of his lover, the artist Peter Hujar. It was part of the exhibition, Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture.
The Catholic League took exception to footage of some ants crawling over a crucifix.
I'll type that again in case it hasn't sunk in: The Catholic League took exception to footage of some ants crawling over a crucifix.
The New York Times reports; "Bill Donohue, the president of the Catholic League, an advocacy group, said “A Fire in My Belly” was a form of hate speech.
“It would jump out at people if they had ants crawling all over the body of Muhammad... except that they wouldn’t do it, of course, for obvious reasons.”
“I’m not going to buy the argument that this is some statement about some poor guy dying of AIDS. Was this supposed to be a Christmas present to Catholics?”

Update: Brian Logan interviews co-curator, historian Jonathan Katz, in The Guardian, Too Shocking For America; "When will the decent majority of Americans stand against a fringe that sees censorship as a replacement for debate?"

Wikileaks 3: The Real Cover Up

The Media Research Center (Motto - "Join The Fight Against Liberal Media Bias!") are really pissed at all the pussy coverage of Bradley Manning.
'Today Show Portrays Wiki Leaker as a 'Teased' and 'Harassed' Victim of the Military'
"Instead of leading with how Army Private First Class Bradley Manning may have jeopardized national security with his document dump to WikiLeaks, NBC's chief Pentagon correspondent Jim Miklaszewski, in his profile of Manning on Tuesday's Today show, told viewers he was the "most unlikely suspect, with a youthful smile" and portrayed him as an abused victim of the military. Miklaszewski used the New York Times' Ginger Thompson in his report to tell the tale of young man who apparently decided to avenge the abuse he had taken over the years, dating back to high school, by selling out his country."
And there's a wonderfully bonkers piece from Accuracy In Media on how the US media is covering up the fact that the Wikileaks traitor Bradley Manning is an openly gay pervert.
"As the Senate returns to Washington to debate such matters as the Pentagon’s homosexual exclusion policy, major media coverage of the disclosure of thousands of sensitive U.S. Government cables by WikiLeaks has curiously and conveniently ignored the homosexual orientation and anti-American motivation of the alleged leaker, Pfc. Bradley Manning, now in prison...
"What the [New York] Times left out of its coverage was that Manning was an open homosexual who flaunted the Pentagon’s homosexual exclusion policy without being punished for his behaviour and conduct."
Your liberal lamestream media at work!

Perhaps they have a point?
The Guardian today gives over a page to a profile of Manning, 'The Young Soldier Who Faces 52 Years In Prison Troubled soldier was arrested after apparently confessing to the leaks online'
It doesn't specify why he was "troubled".
Fagburn cannot find any mention of he's gay in The Guardian's extensive coverage this year. Why? He was out and it seems germane to his action.
There is a certain irony in The Guardian partnering WikiLeaks to publish classified information, but keeping this from its readers.
Excerpts from Manning's online chats with former hacker Adrian Lamo are here.

And finally... Amy Goodman interviews Noam Chomsky about WikiLeaks - transcript and video here.

No wait, there's more! A great piece by Glenn Greenwald on Salon.com; "As usual, for authoritarian minds, those who expose secrets are far more hated than those in power who commit heinous acts using secrecy as their principal weapon..."

World Aids Day: Elton Edits Indie

I'll get a copy of this special edition of The Independent when I brave the cold and snow.
I just hope there's something in it by David Furnish.
The biggest World Aids Day con I've spotted thus far is that Starbucks are donating 5p - five sodding p! - from each coffee sold to something called "the Global Fund".
"So why not get all your friends and work colleagues to choose Starbucks next Wednesday and together we can all make a difference."
And they wonder why anarchists smash their windows.

EDIT: The Independent does have this in an Elton John-themed diary column; "Elton made an appearance in the Wikileaks dump of American diplomatic cables, one of which mentions his trip to Kazakhstan to perform at a birthday party for President Nazarbayev's son-in-law. But he's confident that's the last he'll read of himself in the documents. "I haven't fucked anyone in the American government," he reassured me. "No blow jobs in the Oval Office for me."
The cable reads; "In 2007, President Nazarbayev's son-in-law, Timur Kulibayev, celebrated his 41st birthday in grand style. At a small venue in Almaty, he hosted a private concert with some of Russia's biggest pop-stars. The headliner, however, was Elton John, to whom he reportedly paid one million pounds for this one-time appearance."
In June, John was reportedly paid $1 million to play at the wedding of right-wing US shock jock, Rush Limbaugh.
Good to think Sir Elton sticks to these nice, round figures - and politically dodgy figures.