Lies, Damned Lies, and Newspapers

Dear Rebekah Brooks,

I understand from various respectable sources (e.g. The Guardian) that you have responded to allegations made about the actions of the newspaper you edit as follows:

It is inconceivable that I knew or worse, sanctioned these appalling allegations.

Well, no. No one is actually accusing you of sanctioning the allegations. They are being made by other newspapers, not yours. What you are being accused of is sanctioning the actions that your newspaper is alleged to have taken, which is an entirely different matter.

Is constructing a coherent sentence in an announcement likely to be quoted by every news outlet in the country beyond you? You are the editor of a nationally distributed newspaper, are you not?

Or is this perhaps, as David Allen Green appears to think, part of an exercise in spin that will enable you to claim later that you “never lied” about the matter.

People outside of the UK who are wondering what all the fuss is about can find a history of the affair at the BBC.

3 thoughts on “Lies, Damned Lies, and Newspapers

  1. You have included Rebekah Brooks “newspaper” and “constructing a coherent sentence” in the same post… The two have always been mutually exclusive, from my limited reading of that trash mag.

  2. For the record, another Murdoch rag, ‘The New York Post’ is being sued for libel by the hotel maid in the DSK case. They published unsubstantiated (she says) claims that she worked as a prostitute.

    Murdoch is as Murdoch does!

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