This week Sex in the News gets serious as British MP John Whittingdale is caught dating an escort that specialises in dominatrix and fetish services complete with allegations of a media cover up. Also causing controversy is the story of Elton John’s partner cheating on him in a threesome and the injunction taken out to stop the media reporting on it even though that injunction doesn’t apply to media outlets in the US or even in Scotland that has different laws to the rest of Britain.
The news that British MP John Whittingdale has dated a dominatrix/escort has been making the round on various newspapers this week. Of course the dominatrix escort part grabs attention, with a few publications focusing on slut-shaming, but the majority are reporting a much bigger scandal.
“As culture secretary, with a brief that includes media policy, Whittingdale has a powerful influence over press regulation, the mooted privatisation of Channel 4 and above all the future finances of the BBC.”
It therefore raises great concern that although his escort dating story was known by four major news groups, no story broke out, until now, after he has stopped seeing the escort and is also part of the cabinet.
Since becoming part of the cabinet “he appears to have unilaterally decided to shelve the promised Part II of Leveson.” He has decided to not bring into effect a law that he, and parliament, had already voted through.
It raises the question of whether John Whittingdale had been blackmailed or coerced by media outlets who had knowledge of his escort scandal. Or maybe more likely that the governement used the threat of the Leveson recommendations in order to suppress the story. Either way it doesn’t look good for freedom of the press in the UK.
When reported by BBC’s News Tonight the four major news outlet commented they didn’t report the story previously because “They decided it wasn’t in the public interest to reveal that Whittingdale once had a relationship with a woman who happened to be a sex worker.”
Surprising considering they are normally so quick to pounce on anything with a whiff of sex about it.
Read here for more details.
Elton John in cheating threesome scandal
People in the UK are not allowed to know about this story
In the US and Scotland, Elton John and husband David Furnish are currently in the midst of a sex scandal. However English and Welsh media outlets have been banned from publishing the story.
The Enquirer reports that British businessman Daniel Laurence claims he had three encounters with Furnish, including one that involved “risky sex”.
The controversial allegations accuse Sir Elton John’s husband of meeting and having unprotected sex on several occasions. The tabloid reports that lawyers for Elton John said Furnish did not have an affair because the singer knew about the relationship.
According to The Enquirer, Furnish and Laurence began exchanging messages online in 2008 and hooked up in March 2009 at the Mayfair Hotel in London. The Enquirer published a Facebook chat it claims is between Furnish and Laurence. In it, Furnish asks Laurence about having a threesome. “I am getting hard thinking about it,”
The Sun on Sunday, which was planning to publish the original story before being served with the injunction, is challenging the ruling, with a hearing due in the court of appeal on Friday. The injunction was given on the basis that the couple did not want their private lives exposed which would also risk their two young children finding out. Whether or not it is their legal right is up for debate.
Despite the injunction, many people have taken to social media such as Twitter to talk about the scandal, as well as voice their disapproval of the injunction. A spokesperson for the attorney general’s office told the Guardian: “Anyone who breaches an injunction through comments posted online or otherwise may have contempt of court proceedings brought against them.”
One blogger has already received a letter threatening jail for using the couple’s name on a site that is accessible in the UK, but the blogger has no fears of prosecution based on the fact his site is not based in the UK in anyway.
My personal opinion is that when you use the media to present a wholesome family-friendly image to make millions selling your records and concert tickets to the public, when it turns out that squeaky clean image is not true, there is a public interest in it being reported. It’s outrageous that celebrities have become one of the biggest threats to freedom of the press in the UK.