To think this what the Russel Brand story is meant to bury?

[madamreign]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-66839314

It's not half as salacious, possibly a bit dry and dull to most people.

But it's fucking constitutional dynamite

Yep

This.

Why don't you just say outright that you are a RB fan and don't believe these women, because you clearly have an agenda starting this thread.

Neither you or the PP has any idea of what it would take to stand up a story so legally contentious when Brand is known to use his lawyers to shut people down and take out superinjunctions. The reporters didn't just bowl up to the women's front door and say 'gizza chat' and them saying 'sure' – it will have taken months and years of building up trust and assurance that they would be protected. The reporters then had to corroborate every single detail from every single woman AND the witnesses that went on the record. This included getting access to the LA woman's medical records of her reporting the rape almost two decades ago.

It was hardly a cut and paste job.

I'm often amazed that the shops have any tin foil left for my cooking.

Also, as others have said, why on earth would Murdoch want to bury this BJ story. BJ is yesterday's man, not worth much to Murdoch now. And BJ's flat-out lawbreaking didn't cost him or Murdoch much while he was actually PM. Why would it matter so much that it is being discussed again now?
Honestly, every single thread about the RB story has been grim in so many ways. Like 50% of posters have given up on thinking. Is MN full of people who follow RB's youtube garbge?

I don't disagree entirely but the Brand story hasn't bumped Johnson to the second story has it?

It's a damming indictment of people's apathy for sure but it's all a bit chicken and egg in terms of people's apathy vs the state and media nurturing the apathy.

I do disagree with your insistence that Brand shouldn't be news. The fact that these stories keep coming out and are "open secrets" yet these people still get work speaks to something rank in the entertainment industry and I think that is news.

Well said!

Agree that the Brand story isn’t just about him, it’s about the fact this highly misogynistic person was allowed to talk about raping and sexually assaulting women on TV and radio and nobody in charge thought it was wrong. This is the world woman and girls have to live in and it needs to fucking change!! The likes of Frankie Boyle are still telling rape “jokes”. He’s now mainstream on the BBC, why?

Yeah sure. Two separate media organisations did 4 years of investigation to bury the fact that Boris Johnson is a cunt.

That's not what is being said though really is it, it's the timing. I don't think this story is anything to do with it but I have questioned 'why now'.

It really makes me laugh how the conspiracy theorists think they’re intelligent when really they look like absolute imbeciles.
How ANYONE could think the allegations are all lies to take down some has-been because he criticises the media to his sad delusional followers is beyond me. Shame on you all. Is it because it is less scary than facing the truth at the heart of this, which is that women are not safe in misogynistic society?! It’s easier to say it’s lies than face this horrible truth?

Once people go down the rabbit hole it's hard to get them back out

The worst bit is they don’t see that they’re doing exactly what they accuse media and ‘the establishment’ of doing. Always on behalf of someone who makes sure they keep their distance from any challenges. Always insistent that their favoured perspective of events is ‘right’. They don’t even just disagree, they get highly offended and start lashing out aggressively.

I’ve stopped caring it’s hard to come back from the rabbit hole. Fucking stay down there.

@CornishGem1975 You do realise both these stories broke because two different broadcasters had programmes they wanted to publicise?

So channel 4 spent years making a documentary, and then held on to it. They waited until they heard that the BBC had a documentary with these claims about Johnson, and then thought/were told "release the Beand documentary now!"

It's different to the Huw Edwards story - that was just an article. And what it was alleged to be distracting from involved a deadline known about in advance. So if they did have any dirt they were waiting to print, it would have been easier to plan. I'm not saying that that did happen, just that it makes more sense than this Brand story.

Did you know that the dates for Christmas and Hanukkah often coincide? Conspiracy!!!!

Not to mention getting an additional victim to take new allegations to the police.

It's the BBC releasing a story about a BBC investigation. They do this all the sodding time - its like a disguised ad, to get a programme a bit of attention by carrying it on the news page. I doubt anyone would have been able to influence when the BBC carried its own story. Or do people really think that Boris's influence is such that he/his supporters can arrange such detail within the BBC?

One thing I noted towards the end of the story is that this happened after Boris had covid.

Covid can affect cognitive function.

Only a small point, in the context of this story. But still an important one. And actually the point that has the widest implications for society as a whole, especially as we've been so successfully conditioned to think it's OK to get it multiple times a year

Yeah sure. Two separate media organisations did 4 years of investigation to bury the fact that Boris Johnson is a cunt.

Well, it's a bit more than that he's a cunt. The current issue for the Tory party is that they were perfectly happy for him to undermine the constitution and do whatever he wanted for as long as they perceived he was bringing in the votes.

And also of course it's a matter of when they released the story, and how they did it. Realistically it made no difference either to C4 or the papers if they released the story earlier or later. What was particularly odd about this one was the hype around how it was going to be the massive, hugely important story of the year. Many people assumed that meant it had to relate to politics or the Royal Family. When we heard it was a story about a sleazy person being sleazier than we previously knew, I think a lot of people were wondering what on earth the big build-up was about.

What that story makes me wonder is what even worse Tory appallingness it is meant to distract us from!

What an appalling thread, I can’t believe the op wrote that brand raping and abusing women should be on page 8. No it should be exactly where it is. Stop the cover up

not every news story is a conspiracy to bury something else.

The fact that the Tory party almost destabilised the State, should be front page news for weeks.

It was, OP. And then it was again when there was judical review of BJ's decision to prorogue parliament and the judge called it illegal. That's the MSM media for you, doing its job. Sometimes badly but a hell of a lot better than some wacko narcissist influencer on youtube, who has clearly groomed many of his followers to disregard or downgrade evidence of his criminality.

And they are. As a direct result of this investigative journalism.

I don't think they're lies, far from it.

@Cornettoninja Ha Ha! Mid winter festival conspiracy!

I find it hilarious there are still people who are astonished to find out that Boris Johnson was manifestly unsuited to be PM and lot of people hated working for him.

I watched the BBC doc last night. It was very interesting but hardly a revelation. Boris Johnson is reckless and lazy, some people hated working for him, his allies are in the main very aware of his failings but were happy to overlook them as they thought he was electoral gold.

Brand would like to think himself important enough to be a big distraction for some constitutional scandal. Or, at least, he very much wants his fans to think of him that way.

This particular scandal has been coming his way for years and isn’t a massive surprise to anyone. it’s just that the investigation has accumulated enough evidence that he can’t threaten it away with litigation at this point.

It’s also in the realm of ‘sleb gossip’ which isn’t going to distract from the sort of things that completely different journalists and areas of society are interested in.

These kind of conspiracy theories that paint Brand as some kind of victim are ridiculous and abhorrent.

The fact is that if the government or anyone else tries to opportunistically use events that come up in the news to release stuff they’d rather got less attention it’s not some orchestrated conspiracy - it’s just that: opportunism and the hope that no one will notice.

The chickens were always going to come home to roost for brand.

Has MN been invaded by Brand's "awakening wonders" who are daft enough to pay him money?

That aside, this is an interesting quote from Brand:

“Human beings are flawed and fallible and usually, personally speaking, again, from personal experience, in the places where there is the most intimacy, I’m at most risk in some ways of behaving in a way that’s ugly – always, of course, within the confines of the law, I would hope, but in ways that are not in alignment with the kind of moral codes that I like to aspire to live by at least.”

The I would hope part is an odd thing to say?