Published: November 15th 2009 - at 8:30 pm

The Sun does cyber-stalking too


by Neil Robertson    

“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.


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About the author
Neil Robertson is a regular contributor to Liberal Conspiracy. He was born in Barnsley in 1984, and through a mixture of good luck and circumstance he ended up passing through Cambridge, Sheffield and Coventry before finally landing in London, where he works in education. His writing often focuses on social policy or international relations, because that's what all the Cool Kids write about. He mostly blogs at: The Bleeding Heart Show.
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Story Filed Under: Blog ,Media ,Our democracy


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Reader comments


1. Stirring Up Apathy

Carlsberg don’t do irony, but if they did….

http://www.newsoftheworld.co.uk/news/596691/Sign-up-now-to-the-Click-Bullying-Into-Touch-petition-Register-now.html

2. DHG

Nasty stuff, again, from the Scum.

It’s pretty heart breaking.

3. Biffy Dunderdale

Look – you don’t have to have access to it now. Neither do you have to pay for it. I suspect that even when you do have to pay for it, you will still be complaining about it.

4. madfish

Worth reading the comments – of the eleven there when I checked, the majority dismissed the article and/or came out in support of the Professor. … Still hope for the country yet!

5. Jimmy

Spiteful and gratuitously vindictive.

It really is a tory paper again.

6. Claude

It’s that atrocious brand of bullying that truly is triumphing in Britain. At all levels. And the tabloids are leading the way, The Sun in particular. Nasty, intrusive, aggressive, vindictive, ruthless, geezery, lairy, ‘bit-o-fun’, cruel.

John Coles can safely say he’s the ‘happy slapper’ of churnalism.

7. Thom Tyler

This was really nasty, and a new low for even the Scum.

8. DHG

Jimmy, I wouldn’t say that the Tories have a death grip on spite and being vindictive, Labour has plenty of such moments to refer to and whoever is perceived as the enemy by these parties or the Scum, gets attacked in a most vitriolic manner.

9. Sim-O

@ 4

I notice now that there are precisely zero comments and no option to leave any.

Are you sure you saw them, because I doubt the Sun would delete comments that were not agreeing with them?

/sarcasm

10. Zathras

Failing to even dent a rational argument does not mean it is reasonable to kick your opponent in the groin by publicly destroying their children instead – that is completely vindictive, nasty and utterly devoid of any ethics in the pursuit of personal agenda and money.

Even The Scum’s sensationalist negatively portrayed lie of his son’s personality has more morality than John Coles – so does this bent paperclip on my desk.

Outrageous!

NOTE: the comments on the sun are open, only a handful there though and mine hasn’t been published of course. :’(

11. Jimmy

“I notice now that there are precisely zero comments and no option to leave any.”

That’s what sidewiki is for.

12. madfish

Is it just me being bad at navigating the Scum’s website, or have they removed the whole article? The above link doesn’t work anymore. Too many comments slagging _them_ off posted (as I mentioned in 4)?

13. Zathras

They have taken the whole article down, so have the Daily Wail.

I’m not sure if that’s a win for rationality or a cover-up of negative publicity.

14. claude

Probably Nutt’s lawyers got involved. And rightly so. Hope they sue their arse.

15. Drav

The Sun (and the Daily Mail who did a more vitriolic copy of the article) have both pulled the articles.

16. Sim-O

@ 11

Not all of us have the luxeries of goodies like Sidewiki at work


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





Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.

 
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