‘There is no causal link between viewing child porn and abusing children’ claims Rod Liddle in a 2003 opinion editorial for The Guardian, titled ‘Should it really be a crime to look at child pornography?’.
Rod Liddle, who was recently brought onto BBC Newsnight, praised British tabloid The Sun’s ‘impeccable’ coverage of presenter Huw Edwards’ recent allegations regarding sending £35,000 as payment in exchange for sexually explicit photographs from a 17-year-old.
Following his July TV appearance, the 2012 piece titled ‘A teenage girl, A maths teacher and a righteous tabloid fury’, sparked controversy on Twitter after being featured on twitter by journalist Adam Bienkov and retweeted by author and TV personality Carol Vorderman.
The tweet, originally posted by Adam Bienkov, includes a screenshot of the opening two paragraphs and contains lines such as: ‘I seriously contemplated being a teacher once upon a time…I never found out because the one thing stopping me from being a teacher was that I could not remotely conceive of not trying to shag the kids’.
Highlighted in red by Bienkov, Liddle continues: ‘It seemed to me virtually impossible not to, and I was convinced that I'd be right in there, on day one’.
On The Sun’s website, Rod Liddle is described as ‘a columnist who isn't afraid to shy away from difficult or controversial topics with decades of journalism under his belt’.
However, in response to Liddle’s previous publications, Bienkov said ‘As Sun columnist Rod Liddle is brought onto Newsnight to talk about Huw Edwards’ alleged behaviour towards young people, here’s a reminder of what he's written himself on the subject’.
Huw Edwards is said to be ‘furious’ at The Sun’s news coverage after initially reporting the allegations against him. Edwards was identified by his wife as the unnamed BBC presenter facing the allegations due to his vulnerability following the scandal.
In reference to the tabloids' handling of the allegations, Liddle declared: ‘It has done the sort of tabloid, acceptable tabloid journalism that is holding the powerful to account. It has done so with a degree of measured carefulness’.
Carol Vorderman retweeted Bienkov’s statement and highlighted a similar point: ‘The Sun columnist Rod Liddle talking about Huw Edwards on Newsnight, but writing in The Spectator 2009 about how if he was a teacher he'd "sh*g the kids”.
Both of Ron Liddle’s criticised articles remain online.
Share This Post On
0 comments
Leave a comment
You need to login to leave a comment. Log-in
