IPSO has finally responded to Dale Vince’s complaint this May that The Sun had somehow breached the Editors’ Code of Practice with an article headlined “ECO STOOGE Sir Keir Starmer held secret talks with Just Stop Oil donor days before revealing plan to bin new oil licences”. The Just Stop Oil-backing millionaire actually took the time to complain the use of just one word: He denied that the meeting was “secret”…
After a protracted back and forth – The Sun refused to back down, insisting the article wasn’t inaccurate, and the discussions were not publicly known – IPSO’s Complaints Committee “did not make a determination” as to who was right. Instead, “as a gesture of goodwill“, The Sun have removed the word “secret“, and kept everything else in the story exactly the same. He’s still described as an ECO STOOGE. Apparently Vince has decided not to take things further, and the removal of “secret“, even from the article’s web link, is good enough. This took about three months of investigations. And people complain these Just Stop Oil loons have too much time on their hands…
Read the ruling here…
LBC have announced The Sun’s Natasha Clark will be the station’s new Political Editor, after a gruelling four-month search to replace Theo Usherwood who stood down in April. Guido first reported Clark’s name was on the shortlist last month. Now she’s signed on the dotted line and will start broadcasting in September.
This morning Clark said:
“After six incredible years at The Sun, I am thrilled to be joining LBC at such an exciting time, ahead of one of the most high stakes elections in years. I can’t wait to start working with LBC and Global’s fantastic presenters and reporters – bringing our listeners and readers the stories and analysis that really matter to them.”
Congratulations…
A mixed bag overall for Murdoch’s UK print media empire. The latest accounts for Times Media, publisher of The Times and The Sunday Times, show profits doubled to £73.2 million last year, up from £34 million the year before. They also gained 70,000 digital-only subscribers, bringing their online total to 438,000, or 641,000 including print.
The Sun, meanwhile, more than doubled its pre-tax losses to £127 million in the same period – thanks largely to the £99.8m set aside for “damages and claimant’s legal expenses relating to phone hacking” and “future costs“. Revenues rose slightly from £318.6 million to £320.5 million following growth in their online business.
A cabal of left-wing MPs have, predictably, smelt blood and are going after Jeremy Clarkson. For anyone waking up from a four-day coma, Clarkson is under siege for writing a Sun column railing against Meghan Markle. One paragraph parodied a Game of Thrones scene:
“At night, I’m unable to sleep as I lie there, grinding my teeth and dreaming of the day when she is made to parade naked through the streets of every town in Britain while the crowds chant, ‘Shame!’ and throw lumps of excrement at her.”
Given Markle is the least popular member of the royal family bar Prince Andrew, Guido guesses many Brits may have been inclined to broadly agree with the sentiment of the piece. Instead the London-centric Twitter-sphere is apoplectic; getting the column taken down and forcing Clarkson into a sorry-not-sorry climbdown.
Oh dear. I’ve rather put my foot in it. In a column I wrote about Meghan, I made a clumsy reference to a scene in Game of Thrones and this has gone down badly with a great many people. I’m horrified to have caused so much hurt and I shall be more careful in future.
— Jeremy Clarkson (@JeremyClarkson) December 19, 2022
For some reason, lefty MPs feel that this important issue is today’s national priority. Rather than the strikes, the economy, war on our continent, or at the very least just logging off ahead of Christmas…
Tory-in-name-only MP Caroline Nokes has spearheaded a letter on behalf of those “hurt” by Jezza’s “#NotAnApology”, demanding he instead issue “an unreserved apology… to Ms Markle immediately”.
“We further demand definitive action is taken to ensure no article like this is ever published again.”
The letter is signed by 64 MPs, mainly Labour and SNP. Guido notes that whichever of Nokes’s staff formatted the letter isn’t particularly savvy, given the top name of the second column is Clive Lewis. An MP whose primary contribution to feminism thus far was telling a woman to “get on your knees bitch”.
Guido’s no stranger to defending Clarkson in times of career trouble. The BBC, despite dismissing him for a fracas in 2015, often stood by him during rows about things he’d said or written.
Guido’s not so confident that the likes of Amazon – American distributors of his brilliant farming show – will have the same backbone this time around…
UPDATE: Meanwhile, the official letter from MPs accusing the Sun of editorial sloppiness includes signatories spelt as follows:
- Mary Kelly Fox [sic]
- Claudia Webb [sic]
- Hanna [sic] Bardell
- Andy Macdonald [sic]
- Alan [sic] Doran [sic]
Chapeau…
Having promised not to give interviews to The Sun during his leadership campaign, Starmer nonetheless penned an opinion piece for the paper over the weekend – much to the ire of his perennially disgruntled membership, his rank and file MPs…and now even one of his own shadow ministers. Taking to Twitter yesterday to vent his outrage, Shadow Housing Minister Mike Amesbury didn’t pull any punches:
The decision by Kier to use the Sun for an Op Ed piece is both wrong and insensitive. Justice for the 97 is not done, the hurt for #Hillsborough families and supporters is raw. Vile untruths were peddled to protect the establishment & those responsible escape justice.
— Mike Amesbury MP (@MikeAmesburyMP) October 3, 2021
Yet despite calling Starmer’s article “both wrong and insensitive“, a Labour source tells Guido that Amesbury is keeping his title, and seemingly won’t face any further action. It looks like Sir Keir’s afraid of causing too much trouble…
As if his newfound commitment to low taxes wasn’t enough, Sir Keir’s now doubling down on his efforts to infuriate the far left ahead of conference. According to BFAWU union president, Ian Hodson, Labour has banned Socialist Appeal from reporting from the Brighton conference this weekend – yet to the annoyance of some comrades accrediting The Sun and offering a double hall stand to GB News:
“Hearing the s@# will be in the @UKLabour conference but they have banned #SocalistAppeal from being able to report on the conference. How did we get here Trade unionists Anti racists should be absolutely livid, that the hate filled rag is attending conference #JFT97“
Skwawkbox insists the party is “fundamentally diseased” if it allows the “the foul rag” (“The S*n”) to show up, and is calling the decision an act of “moral cowardice and bankruptcy”. Socialist Appeal will always be able to keep up with Labour conference’s goings-on via Guido, who will certainly be attending…
