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Tuesday 26 January 2016

Don’t Menshn The Vice-President

After (thankfully) former Tory MP Louise Mensch’s column for the Sunday Sun was cancelled recently, she claimed that she had been “promoted at work”. What work was this? To many, all she did was to spend endless hours obsessing on Twitter - most recently with her aggressive defence of Tim Hunt - and occasionally publishing over-long self-justifying blog posts. What “work” could she be involved in?
(c) Doc Hackenbush 2014

Well, today Laurence Durnan at Political Scrapbook has revealed what Ms Mensch claims to be her new role - except that she is the only one doing the claiming. Her LinkedIn page tells that she is nowVice President, Creative and Strategy, News Corporation”. She claims to have been doing “Creative and Strategy” work there for well over a year and a half. But, as Laurence found, News Corp appeared not to know who she was.
Here's the claim ...

Ms Mensch could not be contacted via the News Corp switchboard. She did not have a PA or any other assistant - an unusual situation for a “Vice President”. And now a Zelo Street regular has brought yet more intriguing news about this so-called appointment. One might expect a “Vice President” to be a director level appointment. So a search of News Corp’s list of directors was undertaken, to check that Ms Mensch was present.
... and here's what News Corp say

Sadly, she was not. A “Vice President” who is not a director of the company? Someone who has been in post for over a year and a half, yet they have no phone contact details or assistant listed? Do the wheels grind so slowly at the Murdoch empire that it takes more than a year and a half to get a phone put in, and a PA appointed? What kind of thrusting, dynamic organisation is this? And it gets yet curiouser.

My source has searched the News Corp website for any mention of Louise Mensch. And the result? You can see for yourself: there is the screen grab. A search was made for the name “Louise Mensch”, but search results came there none. “Sorry, no results. Try your search again”. As far as News Corp’s list of directors, its website, and its switchboard are all concerned, Ms Mensch has nothing to do with the company.

Vice President appointments are usually the subject of press releases, such asNews Corporation … announced the appointment of Michael Florin as Senior Vice President and Head of Investor Relations for the new News Corporation” and “News Corporation …  announced the appointment of Antoinette Cook Bush as Executive Vice President and Global Head of Government Affairs for the new News Corporation”, both in 2013.
That sounds plausible ... 

But Ms Mensch claimed she had secured her “promotion” this year - and the only press release this year is definitely not about her. A search on “Creative and Strategy” yields no information about her. Louise Mensch has spent more than a little time denouncing Connie St Louis over allegations that the latter had somehow enhanced her CV: perhaps Ms Mensch could explain why News Corp does not know of the latest addition to hers.

After all, she wouldn’t be lying - that’s something others do, isn’t it, Louise?

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

“Vice President, Creative and Strategy, News Corporation”.

Hahaha.

"Creative and Strategy" is the new lies.

The woman is so full of shite it's squirting out of her ears.

What a knob head.

Anonymous said...

Tim, at US media companies, VP is generally the first rung on the senior executive ladder, with Senior VP and Executive VP to follow. Lord knows I'm no fan of Louise Mensch or her politics, but I don't think there's a lot of meat on this bone.

SimonB said...

...also in my Fantasy NewsCorp lineup I'd like to have Donald Trump as VP Minorities and Industrial Relations, Tony Blair as VP Middle Eastern Section and Jimmy The Idiot Boy as head of outreach.

pete c said...

As ever, the Mensch grammar doesn't scan too well, does it.

Technically, you'd be VP for Creativity & Strategy (or Creative and Strategic) - not as she states it. Started off well then!

Besides, we have far too much creativity from News Corp people already, we don't need a VP spurring them on to even greater depths.

Brian Higgy said...

I must say Louise is strategically creative with the lies she comes up with.

SteveB said...

her "current" actually states: News Corp, News International.

which is interesting because the latter has changed it's name so she isn't that current! Now trading as News UK it also fails to lay claim to her, not even in the Top Talent section!

But changing the subject, back at News Corps list of people it does admit to there is one Antoinette Bush, Global Head of Government Affairs - I am the only one that finds that job title slightly menacing!!

Anonymous said...

Checked news corps vacancies that had been advertised internally and externally on their website over the last year. Many senior positions advertised for the purpose of open and transparent competition. Could NOT find any vacancy advertised by news corps for a Vice President for Creative and Strategy, but plenty of other vacancies advertised!

HackneyHaz said...

Her LinkedIn also claims she has been a Conservatist activist from 1985-2013. What, was she a Tory activist in her Labour years?

Anonymous said...

off topic, but have you noticed how one perpetually thirsty blogger hasn't made it to the 2016 Debrett's list?

Last year:
http://www.debretts.com/people/debretts-500-2015/list

This year:
*Sad face*

Tim Fenton said...

@9

That's no surprise - the Fawkes blog long ago sold out to the press establishment, and hasn't broken any remotely interesting stories for a long, long time.

Gweedo Fawkes said...

That's because I probably like smashing up hardrives.

Why would anyone smash a hardrive?

There are usually a couple of reasons:

Hiding evidence of illegal activity.

Child porn.

Must dash. Too much Chablis.

Must leave some for my breakfast!