Don’t Menshn You’ve Been Rumbled

Seth Abramson writes for a variety of publications. He is an attorney, and a Professor at the University of New Hampshire. One can therefore deduce that he can be called A Proper And Serious Journalist. He has, like many in the USA, cast an inquiring and sceptical eye in the direction of the Trump Gang and its connections. Here, he has encountered the online presence of (thankfully) former Tory MP Louise Mensch.

Ms Mensch has now denounced Abramson as a Putin employee, and has accused him of treason. Abramson, in turn, has delved into the Mensch oeuvre and concluded that it contains precious few facts, but an overwhelming amount of falsehood and misinformation. Those few facts, though, have, along with her aggressive and obsessive approach, brought Ms Mensch a following. This may give some in the UK a déjà vu moment.

That is because we in Britain have been here before: Louise Mensch’s ability to garner attention, only to then spray her credibility up the nearest wall, is the stuff of media legend here. This trend was established during her membership of the Commons Culture, Media and Sport select committee, when she gained praise for her questioning of the Murdochs, only to then defame former editor Piers Morgan, for which she had to later apologise.

That lesson remained unlearned: Ms Mensch took up the cause of scientist Tim Hunt, immediately denouncing anyone of opposing view as a “liar”. But a year after she went in to bat for him, when the Commons Science and Technology Committee inquired into the Hunt affair, she was not called to give evidence. “No-one has asked for her opinion on this matter at all [and] nor will they” I was told at the time. Draw your own conclusions.

During her Hunt campaign, Ms Mensch took time out to wrongly accuse someone of hacking the security cameras at her home. She ignored requests to retract her claims. That was followed by threats to take legal action against writer Peter Jukes, and also myself. It was no more than bluster. But everyone else was lying.

The Mensch tendency to foot in mouth was exemplified when she accused a group of racial and religious hatred, and practising “coordinated sexual violence”. She apparently believed it was a group of refugees who were also Muslims. The photo she latched on to actually showed a Jewish group demonstrating their opposition to the Austrian far-right (and no, there was no “sexual violence”, either). One of her last Sun columns claimed “BREXIT looks more likely than ever after the EU coup in Portugal”. There was no coup. There was no outside intervention. She was wrong yet again.

Those Stateside were warned as to Ms Mensch’s creative approach to mere facts when she began to appear on Fox Business Network, claiming of recent refugee arrivals in Europe that “there are no real refugees” and it was all about “young men who have mostly just abandoned their womenfolk, abandoned their families, young men of fighting age who have literally stormed into Europe and pretty much taken it over”. Pure fantasy.

Now, as demonstrated by Seth Abramson’s more-in-sorrow-than-in-anger conclusion that “I'm one of the 210 people Mensch has falsely accused of treason. Read on if you want to see why I disavow any association with her”, another community is realising that Louise Mensch is the ultimate in unreliable information sources. And remember, they allowed her to become an MP.