Mike Graham Racism Hypocrisy

For people who revel in the ability to shoot off North And South for hours at a time, the hosts at Murdoch noise floor occupant TalkRADIO are terribly sensitive souls, none more than Mike Graham, the Mr Blobby of the Baby Shard bunker, who has been so hurt by being called a racist that he is apparently prepared to go to law over the accusation.

Sadly, like his fellow host Julia Hartley Dooda, Graham’s knowledge of how this defamation business works is somewhat lacking, as is his sense of self-awareness, and, indeed, his sense of timing. We can see this from the time stamp on the Tweet that launched his latest offensive - 0042 hours yesterday morning.

Responding to Michael Walker, sometime of Novara Media, he blustered “Hey Michael. Just discovered your [Novara Media] video where you called me a racist. Can you please furnish me with your address for legal correspondence? Thanks”. “Furnish me with your address”? You don’t need someone’s address to send a Letter Before Action.

That assumed Graham was serious about doing so. Walker, later that morning, took a relaxed view: “Happy to have my day in court on this one Mike”. Very soon after that, Ash Sarkar pitched in. “I'm no legal eagle, but I reckon suggesting that repeatedly calling a South Asian woman a man with a moustache might be motivated by racism could be covered by ‘honest opinion’ [Mike Graham]. Also, you quote tweeted the wrong video”.

Would Graham care to respond? “I didn’t quote tweet the wrong video. And having an opinion about racism isn’t the same as calling someone racist. That’s a big difference I’m afraid. As any lawyer will tell you”. Any lawyer, to quote Graham’s happy phrase, would tell you that you don’t need someone’s address before launching a defamation action.

Meanwhile, Aaron Bastani had also got the message on Graham’s hissy fit. “The idea these people believe in ‘free speech’ is absurd … I’ve been called racist (and all kinds of things) over the years. I obviously don’t think that’s true (!) but in a free society I think an individual should be able to say that. Freedom is freedom to disagree”. It’s true that the TalkRADIO crowd are hot on telling their critics that it’s just FREEZE PEACH.

The problem that Graham faces in perhaps going to law in order to sooth his hurty feelings is that calling racist on people with very little other than hot air to back up the claim is something he does rather a lot. And it does seem to happen at the same time of day - or, rather, night. Last June, just after midnight, off he went: “Oh look. Another racist Leftie”.

In October, there were two late night snipes at Labour MP David Lammy, with “A racist speaks” at 2317 hours followed half an hour later by “More dangerous lies from the racist Lammy”. If anyone is on shaky ground dishing out the R-Word, it’s Mike Graham doing it to David Lammy. Even this month he was still at it, sneering “Miffy the racist” at Miffy Buckley.

That last one, once again, was soon after midnight. In the cold light of mid-morning, Ms Sarkar suggested he pony up his action: “we look forward to hearing from your lawyers. Perhaps they could have told you that all the information you needed to begin legal correspondence was already publicly available, and you didn't need to harangue anybody on Twitter at midnight to get things started”. Quite. So where’s the lawsuit? We’re waiting.

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