80 thoughts on “De Thursday Papers”

    2. martco

      Yeah spinners will be busy now for rest of week, wonder if that yoke Arnett will be deployed again on all the chat shows…or is she already a senator heheh

  2. ahyeah

    Sicko Johnson facing 10 years in jail, says the Sun.

    Disgraced footballer faces 5 years in jail, says the Guardian.

    1. Dόn 'The Unstoppable Force' Pídgéόní

      Either way, nice to reaffirm that having sexual contact with 15 year old children is criminal

          2. Dόn 'The Unstoppable Force' Pídgéόní

            Yeah I see what you’re insinuating and it’s typical topsy geebag behaviour

  3. poppy

    Fame, money gone to Johnson’s nether regions. With Rooney it was a grandma. With johnson a 15 year old…a adoring stalker. Wish Twink had been his mum. Poor ault bastard , life ruined. Victim ‘cute’ in recording him is an insult to victims.

    1. Mick Flavin

      Rambling, a bit too obvious in intent to offend, posted at time of low traffic on site, repetitive, double-posting.
      No finesse. Drink taken?

      2/10 troll points.

    2. Dόn 'The Unstoppable Force' Pídgéόní

      His life wouldn’t have been ‘ruined’ if he hadn’t had sexual contact with a child.

  5. poppy

    I wish Twink had been his mom …..keep your mickey zipped……adoring fans, hormones (whore-moans) , fame , ah the sadness of it. She groomed him as much as he groomed her.

    2. Anne

      Jesus, I never thought of it that way.. Poor Jimmy Saville is probably a bit misunderstood.

      1. Lorcan Nagle

        A bunch of MRAs have actually argued that Jimmy Saville was groomed by the kids he abused.

          1. Bertie Blenkinsop

            “Such lovely long black hair, all down her back…
            none on her head, just on her back.”

      3. kellma

        LOL, but seriously Poppy….. get a grip. She was a child, a silly little teenager. He was a grown man who abused that silliness. There is a reason that it is criminal.

        1. poppy

          Im truly sorry if i offend with my comments. I was actually thinking of Chris de Burgh sleeping with his babysitter , a young teenager. All forgiven. A terrible mistake. Forgiven by his wife and still a loving father to his adult kids. What i was trying to get across was the likes of Johnson is no Robert Black. And we only have to look at footage of junior cert girls pissed as parrots publicly offending decency. At the moment we have 6 lads on bail…leaving cert boys up for trial for sex with a drunken girl in dublin. The word im going to use is “sad”. Sad she was pissed, sad at teenage boys ruining their lives, devastating their parents. When drink is in sense disappears.

          3. MoyestWithExcitement

            “What i was trying to get across was the likes of Johnson is no Robert Black.”

            “”Adam Johnson text to girl: “You in the last year of school?” Girl: “Year 10. Will you still send me a signed shirt?””

            “”When you 16?” Johnson asked schoolgirl on New Years Eve 2014. “November,” she replied.”

            “Johnson: “Where do you go out?”
            Girl, 15: “I’m not old enough to go out.”
            Johnson: “Yeah but you look old enough.””

            “Johnson texts the girl to ask if she’ll sit in his car for a bit. “Though you might be too shy to sit in,” he said”

            He was a predator and she was a victim. End of discussion.

          4. classter

            The nanny in Chris deBurgh’s case was 19 & thus considered an adult.

            Still a bit off, I agree, but very different to Johnson.

  6. Kieran NYC

    So The Scum thinks Johnson is a ‘sicko’ and a ‘perv’, and then goes to show him in his underwear on the front page.

    Ugh.

    1. Lorcan Nagle

      This isn’t new behaviour for the tabloids. In 2001 or so the Mail had an article attacking the Brasseye paedophilia episode (which was mocking the media’s coverage of same), which totally missed the point of the show, of course. The oppose page had an article about then-teenager Charlotte Church’s developing breasts.

      1. Lorcan Nagle

        Wait, sorry. The Star had the Charlotte Church article. The Mail had photos of Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, then 13 and 11 respectively in bikinis a few pages before their article attacking Brasseye.

        3. Dόn 'The Unstoppable Force' Pídgéόní

          Which one had the count down to when Charlotte Church reached the age of consent?

          *shudder*

  7. Stumpy

    Lads – How big a bribe will it take for you to stop including the Sun in De Papers round-up? Name your price. Odious, sh1te-bag of a paper.

    1. classter

      Like them or not, they are a prominent part of the media landscape.

      Closing your eyes doesn’t make them go away.

  9. Dόn 'The Unstoppable Force' Pídgéόní

    I’d say there’s a fair few celebs around who would be a bit nervous after that Johnson trial. And rightly so.

      1. Dόn 'The Unstoppable Force' Pídgéόní

        Yup, a fair few dead ones too but you can’t even mention it for “ruining” their legacy.

        *rolls eyes*

          1. Dόn 'The Unstoppable Force' Pídgéόní

            And Jerry Lee, Bowie, John Peel and basically everyone else from the 60/70s. R Kelly!

            I genuinely don’t understand why some people get a pass and are heroes of our time and others are paedo scum.

          2. bertie blenkinsop

            Likewise – seems strange alright.
            I have to say, I still like some of Gary Glitter’s songs regardless.

          3. Spaghetti Hoop

            Because there is still that old ‘but they were throwing themselves at me’ defence. Good to see the British courts set another precedent here.

          4. MoyestWithExcitement

            “I genuinely don’t understand why some people get a pass and are heroes of our time and others are paedo scum.”

            Theory; we think of paedos as heartless and emotionless monsters who drink their victims tears. Then we find out “nice people” who we respect have been at it. We’re good people who’d never idolise a heartless monster so those paedos couldn’t be heartless monsters and so either didn’t do it or had a really really good excuse.

          5. Dόn 'The Unstoppable Force' Pídgéόní

            @Hoop – very true, a prominent theme in the grooming ring trials in the UK as well which is frankly, sickening. And also in the allegations of historical child abuse as well come to think of it – she wanted it, she knew what was happening, it was a different time, she’s lying and after publicity.

            @Moyest – possibly, maybe it reflects badly on how we view others and how we think we could id a nonce? But why not admit it, and say you know what, they may have been a excellent [performer/singer/writer/whatever] but also what they did was wrong and they should be punished for it if possible.

          6. MoyestWithExcitement

            “But why not admit it, and say you know what, they may have been a excellent [performer/singer/writer/whatever] but also what they did was wrong and they should be punished for it if possible”

            A mixture of pride and love. If you’re a fan of someone, often that means you have an emotional connection to them. Bowie’s fans didn’t just love his music, they loved *him*. Zeppelin were ‘the best rock band in the world ever, maaaaan.’ It goes beyond appreciating art. You don’t want to admit someone you “love” (even in a deluded fan way) or a band that was an important part of your childhood, were paedophiles. In a lot of cases, it’s the same thinking that will see a mother make a million excuses for her son rather than admit he’s a wrong’un.

          7. rotide

            It also has a lot to do with the moveable feast that is the age of consent.

            In a fair few countries, dear old AJ wouldn’t have been in any trouble.

          9. Dόn 'The Unstoppable Force' Pídgéόní

            I don’t see what that has to do with it rotide given that most countries, at least in the West, have an age of consent of around 16 and have since at least the 20s

          10. Dόn 'The Unstoppable Force' Pídgéόní

            @Moyest – I guess. Shocking thing is that child abuse is massively under-reported anyway so true rates are much much higher than those that turn up on the news

          11. MoyestWithExcitement

            Right but thanks to smartphones and social media, it’ll be much harder for them to get away with it should they be reported in future. Case in point, Johnson. Disregarding the seriousness of his clearly predatory actions, WTF was he thinking texting her and putting it all on a permanent record? It’s a sort of perverse luck which has criminals generally being a tad dim.

          12. Bertie Blenkinsop

            It only really dawned on me yesterday that the reason I had a slight twinge of sympathy for Johnson was the fact that he looked like Ian Curtis in his court suit.

          14. Dόn 'The Unstoppable Force' Pídgéόní

            Yup John Peel. I haven’t read his book but in it he apparently talks about going to the States and having girls line up outside the studio. He knew they were underage (some as young as 13) and gloats about it.

            And yet, he is revered.

          15. Bertie Blenkinsop

            That was during his “fake scouse accent” phase iirc.

            Where’s Neilo, he’d have all the facts!

          16. ReproBertie

            Speaking of child abuse and smart phones, did anything ever happen with that Dublin based sports journalist who was caught through his texts with an underage girl? The media seemed to initiate Omerta on that one within minutes of the story breaking.

          18. ReproBertie

            So five years and counting using a sick note to avoid court? If he had gone to court and been found guilty he’d probably be out by now.

          19. Lorcan Nagle

            I think rock stars definitely get an easier time of it than other celebrities. Perhaps it’s the appeal of the lifestyle – there’s an assumption that these girls were groupies (which, of course they often were) and therefore they were throwing themselves at Jimmy Page, Bowie or whomever and as such he wasn’t to blame. Now that’s obviously not an excuse, it’s just a variant on “she was asking for it” and similar victim-blaming arguments, but we’re great at holding multiple opposing viewpoints at the same time. And like Moyest says we have that attempt to identify with the band or singer in a way we don’t get with other media personalities.I mean, I love Bowie’s music, I’m still upset about his death, but I don’t want to let that downplay the horrible things he did in the past.

            If you compare all that to the scandals in the UK, the abusers there were portrayed as conspiratorial and shady, covering up what they did and hiding in the shadows all the time. That’s an accurate description from all reports, but it’s a very different framing than the excesss of rock superstardom. It also explicitly portrays their victims as victims. They’re shown as having no agency compared to groupies. It doesn’t help that Jimmy Saville was creepy weird while Bowie was arty weird.

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