Don’t Menshn Charlie Hebdo Return

Today, the new issue of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo went on sale, and sold out across Paris in short order. As a sneak preview, though, its front cover had already been made available: a depiction of a tearful Mohammed, holding a “Je Suis Charlie” placard, and with the caption “Tout Est Pardonné” (all is forgiven). For part of the UK press, this presented a challenge.

(c) Doc Hackenbush 2014

Should they show the cover or not? Most papers did not, despite Evan Davis having given viewers of BBC Newsnight a sneak preview on Monday. Only two published it, the Guardian and Independent. That both had taken this action was well-known, but in one reassuringly expensive corner of Manhattan, there had to be the pretence that only one had been brave enough.

In both the Guardian and Independent

Yes, professional self-promotion practitioner and (thankfully) former Tory MP Louise Mensch decided to go in to bat for the Indy, despite having previously slagged off papers with lesser circulations, well, when it was the Guardian she was attacking, anyway. “Apparently only the Independent had the guts to reproduce the Charlie Hebdo cover. Am subscribing, you should too” she asserted, to very little effect.

But she meant it: “We should reward bravery in journalism. Hope you join me in subscribing to [Independent] which reprinted Charlie Hebdo”. Still there was no word on the Guardian, as she rambled on: “Here’s the Amazon link to subscribe to [Independent], the only paper brave enough to reprint Charlie Hebdo cover”. Was it ignorance, or just another of Louise’s expedient exaggerations?

Who knows? And, indeed, who cares? In any case, she was now off on a (rather short) walk down Memory Lane, as witness “I’m old enough to remember [Independent] starting. Slogan ‘It is. Are you?’ They lived up to that today”. Big intercoursing deal. I can remember the Sun in the days when it was a broadsheet, before Creepy Uncle Rupe got his hands on it. And by now the dishonesty over the Guardian had caught up with her.

Simon Brown put her straight: “For the sake of balance it is also on the Guardian website. We don’t have the print version at work”. So what would Ms Mensch say to that? Simples. Just pretend it’s not there: “I do not see that the Guardian newspaper printed it”. Yeah, well, if you haven’t got the Guardian newspaper, that might be a difficult one.

Michael Connor, though, did have it, and was also on hand to give Ms Mensch the hard word: “The Guardian did print it. It’s on Page 6. Subscribing?” Oh dear, reality intervenes! What to do ? “No. Though I congratulate [The Guardian] for having [the] guts to print it, nothing wipes out [Alan Rusbridger] trafficking names of GCHQ agents”. Yes, the Mensch excuse depends on her batshit accusations, that she never stood up, being true.

The latest Louise Mensch pretence falls flat. And remember, they allowed her to become an MP. Be afraid of what is put before you next May. Be very afraid.