Guido Fawked – Telling Porkies On Morgan

[Update at end of post]

Sometimes the opposition comes riding to your rescue when you need to show them up for what they are. In the case of the perpetually thirsty Paul Staines and his tame gofer, the flannelled fool Henry Cole, they have come galloping today following news that Newsweek magazine has run a feature on the deeply unpleasant Piers “Morgan” Moron, long a target of the Guido Fawkes blog.

Modest as ever

Moron was the subject of a Department Of Trade And Industry (DTI) investigation back in 2004 into his behaviour at the time of the Viglen share tipping affair that had kicked off in 2000. He had bought a lot of shares in the company – emptying his and his then wife’s bank accounts in the process – the day before his paper’s own “City Slickers” column tipped them strongly.

Moreover, the authors of “City Slickers”, James Hipwell and Anil Bhoyrul, had also indulged in an impulse purchase of the same shares – as had a number of other Mirror hacks. The slickers walked the plank for that, but Moron escaped unscathed. Newsweek has obtained access to the records of the DTI probe, and Moron’s interviews, which has generated fresh interest.

Course I can identify a policeman - they're the f***ers who pulled me over

However, although the transcripts show Moron being confronted with details of his emails and phone calls, he defends himself robustly, and of course did not face any kind of prosecution. And his bosses at CNN will already know about the saga – it would have been hard for them to miss it, given the attendant publicity. So how could the Fawkes blog spice this one up?

The answer is all too predictable: the Laurel and Hardy of the blogosphere, who earlier this week went after Pa Broon whom they accused of lying, have been doing something remarkably similar as they spin the Moron story. So the DTI does not get a mention, and instead the transcripts are elevated to the status of “Police interview”. The less than dynamic duo is at least consistent here.

Of course it was the Police, cos I'm on telly!

After all, when they first picked up on the impending Newsweek piece they talked of “Police Interview Transcripts”. Perhaps they really believe that, but it is significant that neither of them stopped to think for a minute: getting hold of Police records, especially since Operation Motorman, is nigh on impossible nowadays. More likely Staines and Cole wanted to believe it.

All that the Newsweek article does is revisit a long closed investigation, which its target audience may find interesting because the central character is now a primetime host on CNN. Otherwise, nothing has changed in Moron’s situation. And I’ll predict right now that if it does, nothing that the Fawkes blog says will have had any effect whatsoever on whatever happens.

They are, as ever, clueless, ineffectual and dishonest. Another fine mess.

[UPDATE 1930 hours: although Staines and Cole do not, repeat not, read this blog, the reference to "Police" was removed from today's Fawkes blog post after I published the original of this one. I'm sure that this was mere coincidence.

Sadly for the less than dynamic duo, I had already taken a screenshot. Moreover, the 8 June post on the Fawkes blog still has the "Police" howler. Thus every sign of a Cole rush job - too little, too late. As before, another fine mess]