It may indeed be late (and well beyond my bedtime) but Alan at Biased BBC has raised some intriguing, Whittingdalegate-related concerns based on a couple of hard-hitting articles in the Sunday papers - one by Richard Pendlebury in the Mail and one by the famous Andrew Gilligan in the Telegraph.
Common to both are charges that Max Mosley has been up to mischief.
All I'll add to that is that Mr. Mosley was featured in Newsnight's 'scoop' and made what struck me at the time as quite a remarkable statement:
Well, it's quite funny. When I appeared in front of this committee back in 2009 he [John Whittingdale] said, vis a vis my little story in the News of the World, 'You must have realised this was a time-bomb that was going to go off.'
Of course, if I'd known that he had, shall I say, similar interests I would have said, 'Well, aren't you in the same position? Surely, you're more well-known than I am?"
Unless I'm missing something, the general view seems to be that Mr. Whittingale didn't know his girlfriend was a dominatrix and broke off his relationship with her after finding out that she was involved in the sex industry. So why did Max suggest that JW had "similar interests" to him? Is there any evidence for that? And was John Whittingale really more "well-known" than Max Mosley in 2009?
Anyhow, that's not really my business. I just thought I'd pass it on, in the public interest - and because no one else seems to have noticed.
In such matters probably best to stand back. The gloves are certainly off with the Mail going for Mosley's jugular.
ReplyDeleteBTW did you hear any of the - what's the word? - saturnine?? (best I can come up with this time of night, if that's not too Panglossian a take on things) Tim Garton-Ash's pieces on free speech on Radio 4. He was given at least an hour or more over several days to propound his view of free speech, which seemed to chime in with Max Mosley's - and he had Mosley on to give his side of things (with no counterbalance from the press to give their view).
Personally my view of free speech that of the late 18th century cartoons.
Here are some examples -
https://gerryco23.wordpress.com/2014/07/25/city-of-laughter-bawdy-and-scurrilous-18th-century-london/
Free speech should expand in line with the girth of the powerful.
Is there any evidence for that?
ReplyDeleteNatalie Rowe alleges this. She also alleges that Whittingdale knew Ms King's profession all along and that she has evidence to prove it.
Byline/Hacked off were flailing around for a public interest angle on the Whittingdale story, and one such angle is that of hypocrisy implied in the Mosley quote. Unless I've missed it, no such question from Chairman Whittingdale to Mosley appears in the transcript of the committee hearings.
http://www.parliament.uk/documents/joint-committees/Privacy-and-Injunctions/JCPIWrittenEvWeb.pdf
Relevant section starts on page 698.