Jeremy Clarkson Protests Too Much

Over at the Super Soaraway Currant Bun, signs are emerging that the press’ campaign to get the public to participate in the Culture Secretary’s “consultation” on Section 40 of the Crime And Courts Act - and Leveson Part 2 - is progressing not necessarily to their advantage. We know this as the Murdoch goons have today wheeled out Jeremy Clarkson to smack a little sense into the Sun’s readers. Well, metaphorically, at least.

That nice Mr Murdoch phoned me up, whispered in my ear, and then I came round TO HIS WAY OF THINKING

Jezza gets to the point smartly: “the keystone of freedom is a press that is completely and utterly free from any sort of government interference” before swerving across the dishonesty line in no style at all. “The Government, quietly, while you are drunk in front of the television, is staging a coup … It is taking control of the papers so it can effectively control what’s written in them”. Do tell us more, O wise one.

“Here’s the deal that’s being considered … If any newspaper fails to sign up to a new regulatory body - it’s called Impress and it’s funded in part by Max Mosley - then they will be hounded into bankruptcy by the most disgusting plan to emerge from Britain since the invention of the concentration camp”. Max Mosley Nazi slur? Check!

And that’s about it, save to tell readers what a splendid choice of newspapers they have - forgetting that most of them are controlled by four manipulative billionaires - before Jezza concludes “Instead, we are going to let the Government give the newspaper owners a simple choice. Succumb to state control or go out of business”.

As anyone who has been following this debate will have noticed, Jezza is lying through his teeth. Nobody is going to be hounded into bankruptcy, there is no proposal for state control, and no paper is being coerced, forced or even gently persuaded to join IMPRESS. And it gets a lot worse for Clarkson - and the rest of the Murdoch faithful.

What Jezza has not told his readers is that the paper in which he is writing has a considerable interest in having not just Section 40, but also Leveson 2, brushed gently and quietly under the carpet. Why that might be is not hard to explain.

The Sun doesn’t want you to remember that its former sister paper was being run as a borderline criminal enterprise.

The Sun doesn’t want you to know that its management shopped dozens of its sources to the cops, with many going to jail and having their careers ruined.

The Sun doesn’t want Leveson 2 to unearth the corrupt relationship between the Screws and the Police over the Daniel Morgan murder and all the subsequent investigations into it.

The Sun doesn’t want you to know that there are several claims outstanding against it over phone hacking - the phone hacking that was supposed to only be done by the Screws.

The Sun doesn’t want you to know about Mazher Mahmood’s stings, his criminal behaviour, the probably unsafe nature of many of the convictions his stings generated, the closeness of Maz to those at the very top of the Murdoch empire, and all the bent coppers and seriously dodgy characters that aided and abetted him.

The Sun doesn’t want you to know just how much control its boss exercised over successive Governments.

The Sun doesn’t want you to discuss the Murdoch bid for the 61% of Sky that it does not yet own.

So the Sun gets Jeremy Clarkson, who speaks as he finds - well, allegedly, at least - to go out and lie for them.

Don’t believe Jezza’s lies. Don’t be fooled by their campaign. And don’t buy the Sun.