Huw Edwards and backlash defending grim behaviour

[ThirtyPercentRecycled]

I’ve scanned through and can’t see a thread similar to this, but happy to ask for this to be deleted if it’s already done to death.

After the announcement that the seedy male is HE, there seems to be a backlash defending him, and defending men’s rights to behave exactly how they want to.
I’m not sure I will ever feel comfortable with men paying for sexually explicit photos, and I definitely won’t ever accept what I’m being told now that “all men do it, as long as it’s private it doesn’t hurt anyone” (have come straight here from watching a Jonathan Pie video saying this - all men wank, what’s the problem).

Every time there’s a glimmer of hope that men will be held accountable for their actions, people go into overdrive to excuse their actions and focus blame elsewhere.

HE knew what he was doing. No one forced him.
I have 1 friend that feels the same way I do, but everyone else I know thinks this is a huge overreaction and focus on the parents (definitely being paid, money grabbing scum), the young person (a druggy, not a potential victim, deserves everything he/she gets) and the Sun (Sam Fox etc). HE is being largely treated as a victim here, and I can’t get my head round it.

If my child had a life threatening drug habit, funded by a celebrity, I’d probably do the same thing. The police couldn’t do anything. The BBC didn’t do anything. As a desperate parent what would you do?

Me too had the potential to be world changing, but apparently asking men to respect women/young people and not treat them as commodities and sexual objects was a step too far for many, including many women.

Opinions I’ve heard on revenge porn, usually with a female victim, tend to blame the woman for allowing herself to be filmed in the first place. Rape victims (unless male) are asked what they were wearing, were they drunk, they are compared to objects/possessions - if you leave your house open don’t be surprised when someone takes your stuff.

So is this where we are? A world by men and for men, where they can get their grubby rocks off however they want but are still seen as the victim when it comes out?

It’s honestly disgusting me, the lengths that people go to to defend these men, I’m horrified that people I respected are defending HE, and I can’t see any solution to it. It’s so depressing.

Well quite, kind of my point.

The first police investigation appears to have been undertaken by South Wales police. The Met agreed with their findings.

Officers at Scotland Yard have now concluded there is no evidence to support this allegation, leaving the Sun facing questions about its reporting. South Wales police also believes there is no criminal case to answer.

https://amp.theguardian.com/media/2023/jul/13/huw-edwards-bbc-to-focus-on-fact-finding-as-police-say-no-criminal-case-sun

Yeah, there are hordes of women being sacked and exposed in the press for this kind of thing

Actually i’ve seen lots of posts on SM calling him a paedophile

@AgathaSpencerGregson

"For present purposes I think the consensus has moved in a direction opposite to that which you suggest. Post the Metoo movement there has been growing acceptance that exploitation of a position of power (whether due to age, wealth, position or all three) to gain sexual gratification is morally wrong even where it’s not a crime.seems fair enough to me."

I'm not seeing that at all. I'm seeing sex for light entertainment, some naked bloke banging a piano with his penis on a music show, students being given sex work advice as part of freshers week, PRIDE parades having less to do with Gay Pride that even 10 years ago and more to do with random fetish clubs. Sleaze is everywhere. My point is that this one man should not be used to set an example when there is no evidence that he's done anything illegal or even outside the moral boundary of the majority in this country.

If he has - and it’s an if at this point - sought sexual involvement of whatever kind with people much younger than himself or behaved oppressively to his junior colleagues than he has transgressed social and moral norms, I think. I think we would have no difficulty acknowledging this if he were a Tory MP or a figure otherwise of the right. But we are desperate to minimise the allegations when it comes to “our own”. It’s quite nauseating.

Ah, the guardian. If suspect/ biased media sources are what bothers us I am surprised to see that source relied on.

There's one in The Guardian this week, a schoolteacher with a 17 year old male. I imagine it's not the only one. Just under reported, and males are definitely the higher number for known offences of criminal predatory behaviour.

On googling there do seem to be more women hauled over the coals for more minor discretions.
In USA (obviously I know not here) a teacher was sacked because she was spotted in a fb post holding a glass of wine!

I’ve heard plenty of stories about female teachers coming under fire here, more so than men. Men’s crappy behaviour is largely seen as acceptable, and they will be defended by far more people than women will be.

Only we DONT know that. We don't know if there actually is a drug habit. The mother has said there is, but then her adult(20!) year old child has refuted her allegations and is estranged from her.

It was widely reported that the parents had contacted their local police force who had said that there was nothing to investigate, and then that police force had passed their information to the Met.

I’m not sure why you think The Grauniad is not to be trusted? Or would you rather take The Sun at its word? <cough cough Hillsborough>

BTW, the fact that both police forces had investigated was also reported in The Independent, Sky News, Metro, Wales online etc. But hey ho.

The drug habit was the basis of the claim.
The 20 year old denying it, as someone explained upthread, is to be expected.

The sun is indeed scum, but surely even they wouldn’t be stupid enough to entirely fabricate this, as the backlash if found to be so would surely close them down. I mean, it’s the Sun, so anything’s possible, but I don’t think even they would start this up without any evidence.

I mean, it’s the Sun, so anything’s possible, but I don’t think even they would start this up without any evidence.

This is going to be an interesting point going forward. The Sun originally said that the mother and stepfather swore affidavits, and then backtracked by saying they were just reporting the concerns of worried parents.

I’ll take both with a pinch of salt, if it’s all the same to you. The Guardian’s recent history of suppressing its female staff who don’t toe the “progressive” line as well as stories that don’t suit its bias means that it’s surrendered any claim to be superior to the tabloids as far as I’m concerned.

but I don’t think even they [The Sun] would start this up without any evidence.

See Hillsborough.

LOJ is a shit show but there are good journalists there (look at the TRA hate towards Sean Ingle for his sports reporting).

But you’re also including a wide range of other media outlets reporting the same information in your Guardian bias.

You'd think not, but since they still ran the story without any further checks after the alleged victim contacted them and said it was all lies I'm not that confident. As someone else has said they now seem to be scrambling to distance themselves from the allegation and apparently their 'evidence' was affidavits signed by the parents. I imagine in the weeks to come that'll be one of the avenues investigated.

I'm not saying this IS the case but if we believe the 20 year old could be lying about being an addict, I think it's also possible that the parents labelled the use of drugs as addiction when it wasn't an addiction.

Again, I'm not saying either way. I'm only stressing that we can't know. It's all very murky.

But we’re many years on from that, expectations on accountability are far higher, the Sun would be destroyed very quickly if they pulled anything like this now.
I (maybe naïvely?) don’t believe they could get away with out and out lies in this case.
Time will tell. I wouldn’t be sad to see the sun go!

But we’re many years on from that, expectations on accountability are far higher

Are we though?

How much do you trust Murdoch’s intentions given his decades of animosity towards the BBC?

Exactly that.

That's very much the Grauniad's own spin, rather than an accurate reporting of the carefully worded statements from the two police forces

The Guardian is reporting facts in that piece. You can find the exact same facts in pretty much any news media you like, of whatever political shade. South Wales police found no evidence of any illegal activity and have closed the case. That's a fact, not a left wing spin.

I think the reaction would have been very different if it was someone not as popular and respected as HE . I can only imagine the reaction on here (as he seems especially disliked in MN) if it were Peter Andre .

Are they scrambling? I haven't seen any evidence of that. They've just gone quiet.

I think the Sun will have probably cynically manipulated the parents and selectively used the evidence they had to flush out HE. Scorched earth.