“So how was your day?” — It’s a question which must get asked millions of times a day. Some surgeons may celebrate a successful operation; some police officers may toast the closing of a case; some bartenders may have enjoyed an evening’s banter with their regular punters.

However, if you’re John Coles, Ace Reporter for The Sun, your response to that question goes a little something like this:

Oh, my day was GREAT! I went on Facebook and stalked a 24 year old that nobody’s ever heard of. THEN, out of revenge for his Dad’s ‘zany’ statements about drugs, I publicly humilated him in a national newspaper!

Yes, the minds of tabloid journalists operate a little differently to the rest of us.

image by Beau Bo D’Or

So how did Coles’ intrepid cyber bullying increase his readers’ understanding of the world? Well, we’ve discovered that Steve Nutt either smokes weed or roll-ups (or maybe even both!); we’ve found out that he sometimes makes risque & inappropriate jokes to friends; we’ve learned that he has a sister who once drank booze at 16, and a brother who was once NAKED! In Sweden!

So basically, what we can deduce from all of this is that Professor Nutt has raised what appears to be a completely ordinary, unremarkable family, who just happen to have had the misfortune of being related to a scientist The Sun didn’t like.

Not that you’d get that understanding from the ‘article’, of course, because Coles tries his level best to portray Steve Nutt as a potentially disturbed, spliff-smoking terrorist sympathiser, and his siblings as raging, out-of-control hedonists who like alcohol and.. erm.. Scandinavia.

Let’s just set aside the observation that ethics at this newspaper seem to have been completely abandoned, and instead just take a moment to sigh at how poisonous the issue of drugs has become. Not only can a well-credentialled scientist get the sack for trying to explain that science, but his family can be harassed and humiliated for no other reason than politically-motivated revenge.

I really wish Murdoch would hurry up with his plan to charge people for reading his papers; the day when I don’t have access to this vindictive garbage can’t come soon enough.

· About the author: Neil Robertson is a regular contributor to Liberal Conspiracy. A Cambridge graduate, he works for an engineering consultancy and writes from a liberal-left perspective about such emotive political subjects as (yawn) electoral reform, social issues, the maddening rightwards lurches of the Labour Party and the need to revitalise grassroots political activism. He blogs primarily at: Bleeding Heart Show.

· Other posts by Neil Robertson

· Filed under: Blog , Media , Our democracy

Reactions: Twitter, blogs

1. Liberal Conspiracy
   

   :: The Sun does cyber-stalking too http://bit.ly/3ju9N1

2. Andrew Tindall
   

   RT @libcon: :: The Sun does cyber-stalking too http://bit.ly/3ju9N1

3. Ryan Brightwell
   

   Nice. The Sun cyber-stalks Prof David Nutt's son. RT @libcon http://bit.ly/IGGy3

4. sunny hundal
   

   Sun reporter #JohnColes is a twat. RT @libcon: The Sun does cyber-stalking too http://bit.ly/3ju9N1

5. Gareth Winchester
   

   RT @libcon Liberal Conspiracy: #TheSun does cyber-stalking too http://bit.ly/IGGy3 #nuttsack #media

6. Leon Green
   

   RT @pickledpolitics Sun reporter #JohnColes is a twat. RT @libcon: The Sun does cyber-stalking too http://bit.ly/3ju9N1

7. Martyn Norris
   

   The Sun does cyber-stalking too http://bit.ly/3ju9N1

8. The G
   

   RT @libcon Liberal Conspiracy » The Sun does cyber-stalking too http://bit.ly/IGGy3

9. Jonathan Butterworth
   

   The Sun does cyber-stalking too http://bit.ly/3ju9N1

10. Dave Pearson
    

    RT @jonmbutterworth: The Sun does cyber-stalking too http://bit.ly/3ju9N1

11. Stephen Duffy
    

    RT @libcon: :: The Sun does cyber-stalking too http://bit.ly/3ju9N1

12. Amy Angus
    

    RT @pickledpolitics: Sun reporter #JohnColes is a twat. RT @libcon: The Sun does cyber-stalking too http://bit.ly/3ju9N1

13. Christine Bean
    

    Cyberstalking Liberal Conspiracy » The Sun does cyber-stalking too: The Sun does cyber-stalking to.. http://bit.ly/4DnZW7

14. iamabeanstalker
    

    Cyberstalking Liberal Conspiracy » The Sun does cyber-stalking too: The Sun does cyber-stalking to.. http://bit.ly/4DnZW7

15. Lucas Weatherby
    

    RT @libcon: The Sun does cyber-stalking too http://bit.ly/3ju9N1

    You give me the giggles, libcon. Brilliant!

16. Hannah Lemming
    

    RT @pickledpolitics: Sun reporter #JohnColes is a twat. RT @libcon: The Sun does cyber-stalking too http://bit.ly/3ju9N1

17. Survivors In action
    

    Liberal Conspiracy » The Sun does cyberstalking too http://bit.ly/4DnZW7

18. Jack of Kent
    

    RT @libcon: :: The Sun does cyber-stalking too http://bit.ly/3ju9N1

19. Martyn Norris
    

    RT @libcon The Sun does cyber-stalking too http://bit.ly/3ju9N1

20. Sim-O
    

    RT @the_sun_lies: The Sun does cyber-stalking too. (@LibCon) http://is.gd/4W626

21. Benjamin Gray
    

    The Sun: Britain's Brownshirts http://j.mp/1RshD1

22. Mike Devonport
    

    #JohnColes at #thesun can't win rational arguments so attacks his opponents children instead. Utter Scum! http://bit.ly/3ju9N1

23. Robin Green
    

    RT @MikeDevonport: #JohnColes at #thesun can't win rational arguments so attacks his opponents children instead. http://bit.ly/3ju9N1

24. Expert, Official Et Al… « Back Towards T' Locus
    

    [...] money or cajones – don’t bother to do much investigation nowadays (no, Sun, scouring the lives of unknown youths doesn’t count). Rather, they head for the net, ctrl+c and ctrl+v, and mesh quotes together into aimless [...]

25. Tim Ireland
    

    The Sun does cyber-stalking too: http://bit.ly/49DETA

26. Nicholas Stewart
    

    #LiberalConspiracy The Sun does cyber-stalking too http://tinyurl.com/yhvxy7j

27. Nicholas Stewart
    

    #LiberalConspiracy The Sun does cyber-stalking too http://tinyurl.com/yhvxy7j

28. The Sun-Tabloid Lies
    

    The Sun does cyber-stalking too. (@LibCon) http://is.gd/4W626

29. Mike Devonport
    

    @libcon: #JohnColes at #thesun can't win rational arguments so attacks his opponents children instead. Utter Scum! http://bit.ly/3ju9N1

30. richcarey
    

    RT @libcon The Sun does cyber-stalking too http://bit.ly/3ju9N1

31. Claire Butler
    

    Missed this bit of Murdoch creepiness the other day – RT @libcon Liberal Conspiracy » The Sun does cyber-stalking too http://bit.ly/IGGy3

32. Survivors In action
    

    Liberal Conspiracy » The Sun does cyber-stalking too http://bit.ly/07enkYO

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