Alex Hilton has finally got a hoax right. A couple of years ago he tried to convince the world that Margaret Thatcher had died. Yesterday he launched a website pretending to be the Mayor of Baltimore, who was "outraged", I say "outraged" by Chris Grayling's comments likening some British city centres to the Baltimore based series The Wire. Despite there being plenty of clues on the website (copyright R Monkee, British spelling etc) some pretty big media institutions fell for it hook, line and sinker.
Check THIS out from The Guardian. Even the Baltimore Sun fell for it. And so, unbelievably did the BBC.
Much of the lefty blogosphere also fell into line, which won't make Alex very popular. Indeed, LabourList's Alex Smith is spitting blood. But it's the reaction of the Liberal
Regurgitating a press release without doing any independent checking isn’t journalism, it is churnalism, something you condemn repeatedly.
Hundal replied in his normal charming manner...
Guido – wait, you’re giving us advice now on journalism are you? You idiot – I’m not running a press release and passing it off as original journalism – I’m reporting and linking to a statement made by someone. I know that you’re desperate to defend the Tories these days and a bit annoyed that left blogs are increasingly flexing their muscles* – but I suggest you take your moralising someplace where people take your opinion seriously.
* My emphasis. You really do have to feel sorry for him, don't you. On his other site, Pickled Politics, which is obsessed by supposed examples of apparent racism, he has a go at the Daily Telegraph, using the inflammatory headline...
Daily Telegraph Goes for Naked Racism
Of course, it does nothing of the sort, as any half sensible person reading the article would agree. A few weeks ago the Daily Telegraph threatened Nadine Dorries (who is back blogging on a daily basis) with legal action after she accused its owners of promoting the BNP.
Surely what Hundal has accused the Telegraph of is just as bad. Perhaps Sunny had better prepare his legal defence.
UPDATE: Alex Hilton will be on Sky News at 7pm talking about the scam.
UPDATE 7pm: The Mayor of Baltimore's media spokesman has just been on Sky News saying that they are going to take legal action against Alex Hilton. A bit of an overreaction, I would have thought. It just shows how what seems like a funny joke can spiral out of control.
and i thought the smears would stop when dolly and mcbride left
ReplyDeleteThis is all just too funny! What fools these left-wing journalists have shown themselves to be.
ReplyDeleteHundal says about Guido:
"I know that you’re desperate to defend the Tories..."
How can anyone who has ever bothered to read Guido's website accuse him of defending the Tories?
I sincerely hope an official complaint to the local police, the FBI and the US State department is forthcoming, and under the abusive extradition treaty, Hilton, stands trial in a US court.
ReplyDeleteYou cannot impersonate an elected official or anybody for that matter this is identity theft.
Let us hope the political Met Police (Labour supporting scum) take action as well, we must stamp this out as this is just another step along the debauched line for Labour the manipulators of spin to kill the story of how they have ruined this great country.
Was Sky News taken in - the bit on Boulton&co indicates they had doubts.
ReplyDeleteHilarious.
ReplyDeleteLove the Midsomer Murders comparison.
What a fucking lame attack Dale. So a newspaper runs an article scare-mongering about the lack of white middle class babies compared to black babies, and you think I'm libelling them.
ReplyDeletePerhaps you'd better brush up on your legalese - it's called fair comment you muppet. But then perhaps you are ok with condoning that sort of naked racism.
Oh yeah, there never was a press release sent around on that story.
ReplyDeleteI picked up the link from Tom Watson on twitter. You really are an ignorant prat.
I would normally delete a comment with the F word in it, but since a nerve has so clearly been touched, I'll leave readers to judge for themselves the validity of Sunny's words. Calling a newspaper racist is not fair comment. Hopefully the Telegraph will form their own judgement.
ReplyDelete"I would normally delete a comment with the F word in it, but since a nerve has so clearly been touched, I'll leave readers to judge for themselves the validity of Sunny's words."
ReplyDelete'Validity' and 'Sunny's words'. Not normally seen together in a sentence that doesn't have a negative it it!
And I doubt the 'Telegraph' will bother with him. It'd be like using a howitzer to swat a particulatly annoying gnat..
None of this detracts from the original point that Grayling's attempt to draw a parallel between Britain and The Wire was a pathetic and lame attempt to appear hip whilst grossly exaggerating the problems we have in this country.
ReplyDeleteThe only parallel between the Wire and this country is that Tories like Grayling require subtitles to understand it. Oh, and Cameron makes for a wonderful Tommy Carcetti (though you might actually have to watch the show to understand that point).
I actually found this hoax rather humorous not least the reference to Midsomer Murders.
@Sunny H
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rX7wtNOkuHo
Iain,
ReplyDeleteNo-one digs himself a hole deeper or faster than a twat in trouble.
Not so bleedin' sunny now is he?
Iain Dale:
ReplyDeleteThis sort of thing is scaremongering, especially when the columnist uses phrases like "excess fecundity."
iain , keep yhe idiot on , shows him to be what he is
ReplyDeletep.s keep up the good work
pps sorry to go off topic , but i wondered if you had a comment on the west ham disgrace other night , i am a west ham fan and was disgusted by the "fans " in and outside the ground , my heart did sink
To Sunny H
ReplyDeleteThe truth is, as a nation state England and by definition the English, have been ethnically cleansed (politically), this has happened through the Lefts desire to socially engineer a multicultural rainbow nation. In theory, there is nothing wrong with that desire, if achieved over many years of natural organic processes and the migrants assimilate into the welcoming base community.
The problem we have is this process is happening at too fast a rate, caused by 'incompetent Brown' and Nu-Labours total mismanagement of everything they touch, this combined with federalists in the EU who have no love or desire to keep England as a nation state.
I can back up the above claims by official documents, you will never see White, Black or Asian English, but you will see Irish, Welsh or Scottish or the collective term British. This is proof that in political thinking the use of English as a nationality is not wanted.
In effect, the indigenous English (including assimilated arrivals are being systematically cleansed. We must always be on guard when we spot it. In sport, the desire to field a football team under the banner UK or Great Britain will mean separate states of this union will start to disappear in the sporting world, followed by ever more acquiescence under the velvet jack-boot of the EU machine.
Remember the old divide and rule strategy, we have seen that with devolution and now through mass immigration and the increase in babies to migrants, the population make up will change beyond recognition. Is this bad, not yet perhaps, but it could be, as the majority become the minority and England becomes a powder keg like the Balkans.
Be careful it is not racist to oppose immigration, I would rather categorise it under tribalism, we, as humans are tribal and live and operate like tribes, when a tribe comes under pressure from anther tribe taking their living space it causes conflict. In reality the Utopian dream of creating a rainbow nation will eventually lead to the
Balkanisation of these islands
Its surely not a case of defending he Tories its a case of smearing the Tories. Hiltons 'scam' was a blatant smear.
ReplyDeleteBut why should anybody believe a word this guy Hilton says in future. Surely the intrinsic point of a blog is that you are honest with your readers. Your opinions may be crap but you do not try to pull wool over eyes.
What are the facts? Are there fewer white middle class babies? Does Sunny want to shut people up for telling the truth - as opposed to praising a dumb blogger for lying?
I thought the infamous 'Thatcher death' incident was when Alex Hilton was himself hoaxed - someone rang him up after midnight to "tip him off" before the story broke. He wasn't intending to mislead people then.
ReplyDeleteWhereas now the Mayor of Baltimore hoax has succeeded like a dream in making several respected newspapers look very stupid.
Sunny H, you really did get out of bed on the wrong side this morning, didn't you?
ReplyDeleteSo far today you have called the "Tory-defending" Guido Fawkes a "twat" and called Iain Dale a "muppet". What other choice words do you have in your armory? The English-speaking world waits with eager anticipation...
These sorts of comments represent the very worst discourse in blogging and are just the kind of thing that led to Damian McBride's downfall. You (the Left) can't admit that you're wrong, or that the other side are gaining the upper hand, and so start spewing forth invective.
As you may be able to see, Sunny H (if you're reading this), there is a picture of me next to my comment. Perhaps you would like to insult me about that. I'm all ears.
A little update - the BBC has changed their quiz question, perhaps they were hoping nobody had noticed :)
ReplyDeleteCan't beat a screen-shot...
That Sunny is a charming fellow, don't you think? Under that thin veneer of politeness, all these lefties are full of spite and hate and poison. You should see Incredible Sulk (or whatever his name is) on the Guardian blog. Talk about living up to your name, now he wants anyone who disagrees with him to only go on the Mail website. There's free speech for you.
ReplyDeleteAnd after all that unpleasantness with McBride and Co, you would think the left would just stop the blogging malarky as it gets them in so much trouble.
But Iain, you are so wrong, talking about "unbelievably the BBC". This would have been meat and drink for the BBC, I bet their mouths watered when they saw it and posted it within nanoseconds.
Three and a half billion quid, and they can't do some funadamental checking. Tut, tut.
*Snigger*
ReplyDeleteAgree with Sunny that it's a pretty lame attack on him Iain. He has a good sense of humour and posts the odd wind up himself. And I wouldn't say spitting blood is right for Alex Smith ... unless he's moved on from being not entirely gruntled ... though more sense of humour at LL wouldn't go amiss.
ReplyDeleteHowever, the spoof from Alex was IMO marvellous and as every good blagger with a GSOF should I helped it along a bit last night. Tweeted it early this a.m. with Balti Sun link which may even have got them going ...
Also worth reading this if Nick Clegg's sanctimony on exes sticks in your craw at all.
You are misrepresenting the folly that is Dorries ... she was bang out of order. Just that once the Barclay brothers were right. Will be interested to see how she blogs about the departure of daughter Philippa - in top House of Commons job (mysteriously given lack of experience) - when she didn't actually blog her arrival in mum's office at all.
Will second daughter get the job? Now she's a graduate, as celebrated in Hansard?
PS: "fair" Iain? Why would you delete that idea? Oh, sorry, the other F word, the one that Tories can manage.
ReplyDeleteSunny is definately sanctimonious.
ReplyDeleteI like the way all these labour apologists keep labeling Guido as pro Tory.
If Sunny actually got off his pious pillar and read the blog, he would realise that Guido and most contributors have an equal opportunity policy of slagging off idiots of all colour in Westminster.
Alan Duncan and Daniel Hannan are berated as vehemently as Brown, Balls, Mandelson and their lemmings.
It is just more Labour sponsored smear to discredit any one who gets in their way as a facist, racist elitist.
Sunny should have more respect for the honest Labour activists as they are as tired of his and others "everyone is really bad and we're great" propaganda
Allalazam!
ReplyDeleteThe monkeys are NOW monkeys - not much of a trick.
Oh Dear! How the left get nasty when rumbled. They wanted to believe it and hence it was not checked correctly.
ReplyDeleteThey are not journalists but propagandists for and on behalf of the left.
Best laugh for ages, keep them coming.
"No-one digs himself a hole deeper or faster than a twat in trouble.
ReplyDeleteNot so bleedin' sunny now is he?"
As I pointed out in comments at LC (before they were 'disappeared' by Sunny or one of his staff), 'when you are in a hole, stop digging' is usually well-received advise.
Not Sunny. When he finds himself in a hole, he fires up the backhoe and commences that tunnel to Australia...
"...now the Mayor of Baltimore hoax has succeeded like a dream in making several respected newspapers look very stupid."
Oh? I thought it was just the 'Guardian' and the BBC website... ;)
"A little update - the BBC has changed their quiz question, perhaps they were hoping nobody had noticed..."
Hah! Priceless!
Chris Paul: "Agree with Sunny.."
ReplyDeleteWell, knock me down with a feather!
You see? This is what articles like the Telegraph's lead to- one of your readers is talking about white English people being cleansed.
ReplyDelete@ Sunny Hundal 3:43 PM
ReplyDeleteYou seem to be just another divisive race junky, playing the race card.
Sick of your type; I have stopped listening.
Hundal may be 'flexing' his muscles, but Charles Atlas he certainly ain't.
ReplyDeleteOn second thoughts maybe it's the muscles between his ears.
I wonder what Dr John Pugh, Liberal Democrat MP for Southport is thinking right now?
ReplyDeleteWire me
That appalling Telegraph article was either incredibly naive, or was designed to kick up the predictable green-ink, swivel-eyed, Mail reading mob that it did.
ReplyDeleteEither way it shows the depths to which the Telegraph has stooped under Lewis.
Many of the comments were despicable and several blatantly racist.
Ha ha ha, what a hoot. August is definitely a very wicked month.
ReplyDeleteWho has got last laugh now ?
From the Telegraph piece
ReplyDelete"The people most likely to take their [the Optimum Population Trust's] views [that couples should limit themselves to two kids] to heart are the agonised Anglo-Saxon liberals, for whom excess fecundity is never going to be much of a problem in the first place. They don't seem to cut much ice with the Somali mothers you see in West London."
So I'm guessing that McDonagh means Anglo-Saxon liberals of indeterminate background and white Somali mothers? Gimme a break!
Ben R
ReplyDeleteThat maybe so, but it's what people actually think.
The vast majority outside of the North and South Circular are not happy with the idea that various groups, which have no intention of melding into mainstream society, may be expending at a rate.
It's worth asking yourself where the Irish (my background) areas of the country are, or the Hugenot areas. Of course there are no such places, because the immigrants have been absorbed into the mainstream.
The Left is determined that people should be divided up and encouraged - even forced - to think of themselves of as being from elsewhere, even when they are third generation immigrants.
The vast majority of Anglo-Brits are fair minded. But they do not like the idea of state-sponsored separatism.
That's why the Tebbit Cricket test is so clever. It neatly poses the crucial question Do you belong here, or do you think you belong to a land you were not born in?
Or should I join in and pretend to be The Greatest Living Irishman because my father is from rural Eire, as was my maternal grandfather?
August 28, 2009 5:41 PM
ReplyDeleteyawn.
Yeah. Go nasty Iain.
ReplyDeleteYou know you like it.
No surprise that the Beeb were taken in. They merely print press releases without checking these days. Hence their manipulation by single issue lobby groups - easy meat.
ReplyDelete@DP,
ReplyDeleteThe BBC seem to like being taken in by some groups more than others...
It's almost like they're biased.
Mayor culpa... Latin for clean own house up first!
ReplyDeleteThere's legal action and legal action
Scott Peterson, the Mayor's director of public relations: "He's wasting taxpayers of Baltimore's money by having us deal with this issue. I hope he gets elected so he can waste his own taxpayer's money."
ReplyDeleteNice to know Baltimore's PR department has contempt for the British taxpayer for absolutely no reason.
Sunny, reel your neck back in you clown. All Alex Hilton has done is made you, the guardian, the beeb and John Nettles look like mugs. And Guido, Iain and all the rest of us who actually have a sense of humour are having a chuckle at your expense.
ReplyDeleteIn the immortal words of Senator Clay Davis :-
"Sheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-it!"
@J H Holloway
ReplyDelete"It's worth asking yourself where the Irish (my background) areas of the country are, or the Hugenot areas. Of course there are no such places, because the immigrants have been absorbed into the mainstream."
Hm, but that's not really true is it? Nor are Hugenots and Irish communities a terribly good comparison. The Irish community in North London, for example, talks with a London accent, melds happily with the rest of London and was largely born in London, but they are still, quite self-conciously, a *community* with their own traditions and even dialect word survivals. Same with the North London Jewish community.
The same thing is now happening with the Asian communities that first developed in the 1950s/1960s. In forty years, I'll wager the Somalis and Poles, for example, will have reached the same state of happy assimilation, with a spicing of independent tradition.
Sounds healthy enough to me. But then I'm a liberal, what do I know?
Ultimately, all these groups will assimilate to the same degree as have the Huguenots, who, unlike the other peoples mentioned, were not immigrating here as late as the 1960s. I.e. completely.
A bit of an overreaction, I would have thought.
ReplyDeleteWell, no. Obviously they take this kind of thing very seriously.
What Alex Hilton overlooked was that the 'brand' of a Mayor MUST be guarded with great jealousy and vigour.
The legal argument would be: "If we let one person get away with it, others will try it. We must smash this nut with a sledgehammer."
Alix
ReplyDeleteWe should all hope so, but I fear that the Hugenots did not have some pretty vocal multiculturalists convincing them to stay unique and separate.
"The brand of a mirror"???
ReplyDeleteHave you spotted that this one's brand is a little tranished by the Grand Jury indictment for theft perjury and misconduct in public office?
And how did he undermine her office? Anything in the spoof was defending Baltimore. So if she challenges it she will be alleging that defending her city brought it into disrepute???
I read the very amusing midsomer murders spoof on the Coffee House blog. As Iain says in the Fraser Nelson story the blog is required reading. So I imagine he read the story there rather than part of humorous quiz of the week on the BBC website.
ReplyDeleteStrangely enough when crafting his piece on the spoof he seems to forget and all of sudden we have a left wing bias story.
It is then described as unbelievable that the BBC falls the story. Which seems a bit harsh to hold the Beeb to a higher standard than the Baltimore Sun.
The BBC is then accused of just printing the press release by posters although the link is for a quiz. And to cap it all the BBC is then criticised for changing it's story. Shouldn't they correct mistakes - even in light-hearted quizzes?
I someone post on Conservative Home about BBC derangement syndrome. Has Iain got it?
"Pickled Politics, which is obsessed by supposed examples of apparent racism"
ReplyDeleteThis is a rather untoward claim of yours Iain. And your comments below were akin to saying The Telegraph is not linked to the BNP, therefore it is not racist. The old Tories, the nasty ones, they probably used this cover, but you?
Does anyone have the link to the Pickled Politics post where Sunny calls for the Left to adopt the sort of OTT smearing tactics that the US Republicans use?
ReplyDeleteAh, got it:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.pickledpolitics.com/archives/5519
Nadine "back blogging"? Hardly.
ReplyDeleteShe may be putting her own rants up on her site, but there's no ability to post comments.
That ain't blogging, that's shouting with a megaphone.
(word verification, appropriately, is "sodu")
So now there will be yet another appeal for funds to get Alex Hilton through a court case?
ReplyDeleteIf they sue the ass off him, well, he had it coming. He is, after all, a narcissistic little twerp who is feted by the few and loathed by the many.
As for the morons who cut and pasted this hogwash, it just shows you how lazy journalists can be.
What a pathetically small world some of you inhabit.
Hahaha, Sunny Hundal really is a total bedwetter.
ReplyDeleteAnd what kind of name is "Sunny" anyway?