How the Sunday Times Works

Someone ought to give Nicholas a taste of his own medicine.

While I don't have to add just how deplorable and downright vile this e-mail is, since it should really go without saying, what I would like to know is - do the folk at the Sunday Times really find this story so important, in the age of Bush, Blair, Al-Qaeda, Iraq, global warming, skyrocketing house prices, an impending recession, and God knows what else, that they are willing to invade someone's privacy, blackmail them and potentially destroy their lives, just over something that I dare suggest most people probably couldn't give a toss about? Is it really that vital? Not even mentioning dragging their relatives through the whole thing as well.

While this behaviour shouldn't (unfortunately) come as a great shock to anyone familiar with the ways of the great British press, you know things are bad when journalists want to "break" a story just for the sake of breaking it, without any consideration into whether this actually serves the public good and/or the good of those involved.

A corporate newspaper has to attract maximum attention from the jaundiced bloodshots of the masses. To do this, requires emotional appeal: fear, greed, revenge, prurience and schadenfreude. These vile articles are just the bait. It works, too.

The Full email:

Aug 5, 2006 11:08 AM

Dear Miss [my name],

We intend to publish a prominent news story in this weekend's paper, revealing your identity as the author of the book, Girl With a One Track Mind.

We have matched up the dates of films you have worked on - Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Batman Begins and Lara Croft Tomb Raider - and it is clear that they correlate to your blog. We have obtained your birth certificate, and details about where you went to school and college.

We propose to publish the fact that you are 33 and live in [my address] -London, and that your mother, [her name], is a [her address] -based [her profession]. The article includes extracts from your book and blog, relevant to your career in the film industry. We also have a picture of you, taken outside your flat.

Unfortunately, the picture is not particularly flattering and might undermine the image that has been built up around your persona as Abby Lee. I think it would be helpful to both sides if you agreed to a photo shoot today so that we can publish a more attractive image.

We are proposing to assign you our senior portrait photographer, Francesco Guidicini, and would arrange everything to your convenience, including a car to pick you up. We would expect you to provide your own clothes and make up. As the story will be on a colour page, we would prefer the outfit to be one of colourful eveningwear.

We did put this proposal to you yesterday, but heard nothing back. Clearly this is now a matter of urgency, and I would appreciate you contacting me as soon as possible. To avoid any doubt we will, of course, publish the story as it is if we do not hear from you.

Yours sincerely,
Nicholas Hellen

Acting News Editor

Journalists have been practising this evil for years: whenever I read that some "loose" woman is giving her exclusive kiss-and-tell (and posing in her underwear for the photographer), I take it for granted that she is not in it for the money, but that the bylined interviewer threatened to drag her character through the vilest shit with a smear job if she did not play ball.

I also remember the morals of journalists and editors when they make pious pronouncements about how a privacy law would "not be in the public interest". Scum.

Well, credit is due to those who published the disgusting Nicholas Hellen's threatening e-mail. This is well below the belt.

Maybe someone should visit Mr Hellen's home and spy on his family. I'm sure he'd recognise the public interest in that...

BW SCUM OF THE WEEK prize goes to Nicholas Hellen , tel, adress, email, clubs,car number-plate, favourite pub and restaurants, parents and in-laws , other family members, even details of kids' schools.

By employing one of those scum investigators, we could get medical histories, tax returns, court records, they are not that expensive !

But we won't have that whipround, cos we ain't scum like him. Most of us have kids, and I think all of us would be ashamed to make potsamoney in such an odious fashion. If the creature has kids, let them find out for themselves where the £'s come from .

A tempting thought tho, m'sieur chuck, a nasty weapon for future use by someone... but not me..........yet, or ever. The possibility of someone suiciding is the deterrent.

This sad tale is really only a reflection of how shitty the Sunday Times has become since it's been owned by the Dirty Digger. And the reader now pays £2 for the priviledge! No wonder it's such a money-spinner for him. But with the great British public as supine as it is, the only course of action which would make him take notice - ie, a boycott - is never going to happen.