Dan Wootton - Silence Of The Press

After several instalments of the Byline Times investigation had been published, and after the inmates of the Northcliffe House bunker had suspended his Mail Online column, what word has there been from News UK, former employers of the deeply unpleasant Dan Wootton, still allowed a bully pulpit by Gammon Broadcasting™ News (“Bacon’s News Channel”)?

And the answer is that there has been very little, causing the people at Private Eye magazine to ask the question many in and around our free and fearless press would rather not ask, or see asked: what dirt might Desperate Dan have on his former colleagues? And if he hasn’t, can we be sure that those in the Baby Shard bunker are busily compiling their own dossier?

So let’s take the Eye’s lead question. “How fares Dan Wootton - also known, during his days trying to solicit nude photos and sexual encounters from work colleagues and contacts, as Martin Branning and Maria Joseph - in the legal battle he has launched to silence online newspaper Byline Times with the help of his new lawyer, fellow right-wing headbanger Donal Blaney?”

Well, Part 8 of the Byline Times exposé, from August 9, is still available to read, as is Part 7, subtitled “The Proof”. As is a subsequent piece headlined “GB News’ Top Boss Faced ‘Sexual Harassment’ Allegation - as Channel Paid to Shut Down ‘Institutional Racism’ Claims”. As is a comment piece by Hardeep Matharu considering the silence of the media establishment.

The headline - “The Media Scandal the Media Didn’t Want to Touch: Byline Times Will Keep Exposing the ‘Dark Forces’ in the Shadows” - by implication asks what is stopping Associated Newspapers, GB News, and especially News UK from blowing the whistle on Wootton themselves, rather than keeping schtum and hoping it will all go away.

Even the Guardian, which had begun its own investigation into Wootton after the first revelations from Byline Times, has apparently dried up, not having said anything on the subject for two and a half weeks. So what is stopping them from blowing the whistle on Wootton, a being so dislikable, and indeed repellant, that you would not want to get stuck in a lift with him?

Let’s go back to that piece from the Eye. “[Byline Times] has published an email sent from Wootton’s Sun account on 10 June 2016 requesting that a new payee be added to the paper’s accounts system … It alleges that the money was … paid to a male porn star for services that were entirely unrelated to the newspaper”. And then it reminds us of a previous search.

“Given how thorough News UK and its then outside lawyers were at ferreting out every single piece of evidence that could be used against its journalists in the disastrous trials for conspiracy to pay public officials a decade ago … they will no doubt be delighted to prove that they can be just as diligent this time around!” All those sources that the Murdoch press shopped to save itself.

Or is there something we don’t know, or don’t get, here? Wootton’s been caught bang to rights by the Byline Times team. All the legal threats haven’t stopped the continued publication of the exposé detailing Desperate Dan’s behaviour. His presence at GB News merely drags the already bad name of that channel down yet further. Their credibility is below zero.

Investigations at Byline Times continue, such has been the feedback from the initial series of revelations. Wouldn’t the Guardian like to do a little more investigative journalism of its own? Get out there ahead of the game, and equally importantly, the competition? Or does our free and fearless press have no interest in dispelling the impression that it is looking after its own?

Doesn’t the press want to regain some of that trust that its activities over the recent past have so shamelessly sprayed up the wall? Apparently not. And of course there will be no investigation, and most certainly no action, from press non-regulator IPSO. What the Eye missed is that Byline Times is not merely an online presence, but is an actual newspaper with a growing circulation.

And if Dan’s pals don’t deal with him, his opponents most certainly will.

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