“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. 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.
· Other posts by Neil Robertson
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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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