Speaking Truth From Power

Hey, Mail on Sunday: this is not going to go the way you think it will:

Police are examining sickening statements about child abuse made by a highly controversial Ukip candidate.

See, this is the thing: anyone who thinks Mr Plod should be spending his time investigating unregulated joking on Youtube probably isn't going to vote UKIP anyway.

Just a hunch.

Now a senior Ukip source has told The Mail on Sunday that they have passed a dossier to Wiltshire police containing deeply offensive remarks made by Mr Benjamin, an online ‘vlogger’ from Swindon who calls himself ‘Sargon of Akkad’.

A 'senior UKIP source' you guys! I'm assuming this the MoS's usual UKIP source, the famous Russian expat, Sergei Madeitupovitch.

The insider says the dossier was passed to Ukip’s ruling National Executive Council last autumn but no action was taken.

A 'dossier'. For a V-logger on Youtube.

So basically a list of links: that's the 'dossier'.

I don't think jokes should be illegal, but if they are, surely this kind of absurd self-dramatisation should be some kind of felony as well?

One question, Glen Owen of the Mail on Sunday: back when you were an ambitious young journalist, did you dream of the day when you would be breathlessly reporting on lists of Youtube links?

Other material studied by the police include a now-deleted 2015 video showing him repeatedly using the racial slurs ‘n****r’ and ‘sp*c’. He described two people as a ‘fag’ and a ‘retard’, and said it was ‘just f***ing fine’ to call an Asian woman a ‘ch*nk’.

Hey, this 'blogging' thing is going to get a lot easier if we can just randomly snip out words with no context whatsoever. Hey, let's do that right now:

Mail on Sunday journalist Glen Owen has written articles using racial slurs such as ‘n****r’ and ‘ch*nk

Why, oh why, is this racist allowed to write for a national newspaper?

Meanwhile, back in the real world:

[Labour MP Jess] Phillips later responded by suggesting she would take legal action, tweeting: ‘Oh I’ve just watched the clip of Mr Benjamin telling lies on a stage about me, so I think he’ll be hearing from the lawyers. Deary me.’

Y'know, an actual journalist would ask how this lawsuits going. How long does it take to issue a writ anyway?

Call me biased, but I'm thinking allegations that an MP thinks the death of her fellow citizens is a thigh-slapper are a little more serious than some wannabe edgelord making naughty jokes. That goes double if said MP is using bogus threats of lawsuits to try and silence her critics. But reporting on that would involve committing actual journalism, and who needs that? 

See, this is the thing: now the public has a real choice. If you're fine with the idea that alleged journalists should trawl Youtube for edgy jokes by uppity outsiders, while refusing to report on serious allegations about members of their little club, then go right ahead and vote for one of the legacy parties. Meanwhile, the rest of us can vote UKIP.