Guido Fawked – Pants On Fire

Once again, rather than adhering to those wise words attributed to the late Denis Thatcher (“better to remain silent and be thought a fool than open one’s mouth and remove all doubt”), the perpetually thirsty Paul Staines and his rabble at the Guido Fawkes blog have fired up the spin machine in the mistaken belief that this will wash away the less savoury aspects of the Brooks Newmark entrapment.

Fart in lift inquiry detects nasty smell

Under the heading “Trinity Mirror CEO Blasts Brooks Newmark Story Critics”, The Great Guido, in reproducing the statement made by Simon Fox, attempts to pretend that it is everybody else that has been behaving badly, while the Sunday Mirror, and by definition the Fawkes folks, are blameless and have been unfairly put upon, which should set everyone’s bullshit detectors sounding long and loud.

Somebody else did it!

These parts of Fox’s counterblast should particularly interest Fawkes watchers: “If you have only read or heard the coverage rather than read The Sunday Mirror itself, you will have been left with a very wrong impression of what we did. Most importantly we did not publish any photographs of the women in the story. Nor did we list any names of any MPs other than Brooks Newmark”.

Yeah, somebody else did it!

And, as the man said, there’s more: “The images of the women that you have seen widely reproduced were put there by other publications. The same goes for other MPs including those who have said that they will complain to IPSO”. Well, obtaining the names of those other MPs is extremely important, as it shows that this was not the “narrowly targeted” exercise that The Great Guido claimed.

What it looks like now ...

Moreover, when it comes to “The images of the women that you have seen widely reproduced”, there is one media outlet which has no room to talk, and it’s the one with the spin machine fired up. Consider the post from last Saturday evening that announced Newmark’s resignation: right now, it looks quite innocuous. But that wasn’t how it looked originally, was it, Fawkes folks?

... and what it looked like originally

No sirree. See where it says “It’s a picture story”? But, you will say, there is no picture. There was last Saturday evening. Yes, those media sources splashing “The images of the women that you have seen widely reproduced” included the Fawkes blog, as can be seen from this screen shot taken earlier. Staines and his dopey pals were not quick enough on the draw in their evidence deletion exercise.

The Great Guido was as guilty as anyone else of using a photo, for use of which the owner had not given consent. So, O Great Guido, how’s that “not publish any photographs of the women in the story” and “a very wrong impression of what we did” working out for you? You can even save electricity and illuminate your deliberations by the light of your burning trousers while you figure that one out.

The Fawkes rabble can’t even lie competently. Another fine mess, once again.