Well now Flora, if you close one eye, tilt your head and squint a bit then I guess you can distort any situation so that it fits into the predetermined narrative that you've already decided in your head.
But it doesn't alter the fact that this whole story was driven by the journalist, who we now know to be Alex Wickham, and we now know that he contacted at least 9 conservative MPs. Unfortunately he forgot to mention this to the Mirror when he sold them the story - which is a bit of a problem for them now.
He first tried to sell it to the Sun and then the Mail on Sunday, but they both rejected it. When a story is rejected by both the Sun and Fail on Sunday, you know that it's got to stink to high heaven.
Now about that transcript. Normally when the papers get a 'scoop' like this they are very keen to publish every detail, showing how very clever they were.
In this case, the Mirror have been strangely quiet. Even their original article was strangely confused and evasive about the exact sequence of events. And now they're saying nothing but "it was in the public interest".
Of course the transcript will come out, at the very least as part of an IPSO investigation, and when it does, do you think that is going to show Wickham in a shining light? I don't think so.
There could also be a police investigation, because tricking someone into performing a sexual act by pretending to be someone you're not is an offence under the Sexual Offences Act 2003. I imagine Newmark will be too embarrassed to make a complaint though.
For me the FWR relevant issue here is that Wickham considered he was entitled to use young women as a sex objects, without their consent, to attack another man who belonged to a political party he didn't much like.
Why don't we listen to what the women say?
Malin Sahlén
"It feels really uncomfortable. I have received lot of emails, text messages and phone calls from various countries on this today. It feels unreal. I do not want to be exploited in this way and that someone has used my image like this feels really awful, both for me and the others involved in this."
Original in Swedish here
Charlene Tyler
“I think grown adults can do whatever they like as long as both of them are over the age of consent. I don't think it's something to resign over."
“I hope the MP is okay. It makes me feel really awful that this will ruin his life."
“The fact that a newspaper was stealing my photograph is quite wrong. The newspaper’s taken it too far.”
And assuming that neither of these women provided the 'explicit' photographs, then presumably there will be other women not yet identified.