This is all really confusing. If Dan hasn’t done any of this and isn’t this Martin Branning alias…then surely he would straightforward state that. His lack of response on that makes him look guilty.
In his tv response, he mentions doing vague things but nothing illegal…and basically accused others of a witch-hunt…implying it was wrong and unfair to attack him if indeed nothing crossed the line into illegality. Yet…look how he treated Philip Schofield..who it appears also did nothing that crossed the legal line. Look how he treated Johnny Depp, who had no police charges against him yet Dan made himself judge and jury both moral and legal as the things he was accused of wild have been illegal. Look how he treated Huw Edwards, again unclear whether anything illegal happened, you then have Caroline Flack…who had been arrested but the criminal proceedings hadn’t gone through and the victim was wanting charges dropped. He has a long history of writing articles about people who haven’t had any proven wrongdoing…other than by journalistic investigation standards, often moral standards as well, rather than legal.
So why, as a tv presenter and as journalist who likes to put his photo on his articles, and as someone with a public presence on social media…does he think it is different for him? If there are accusations…whether they are true/false, illegal/immoral…why shouldn’t they get published by the media in exactly the same way he has been doing to other people for the last decade?
You’ve also got the hounding of the Sussex’s. I don’t have much sympathy for them…but Dan’s own constant commentary on them has been excessive…he doesn’t just do it when they have a tv show or a book released etc, he has been at them when there is literally nothing new to report…he just wants to stoke that fire of hatred towards them as they are good for clickbait. The majority of the time the Sussex’s are keeping by themselves out of public view unless they are releasing some illadvised tv/book, which they then should expect whatever criticism that attracts…but why was he writing/tweeting about them on such a constant, almost daily, basis?
The fundraiser also doesn’t make sense, he will have been earning five figure salaries at the newspapers and tv studio. If he has no money that surely only adds weight to the accusation that he’s been paying large sums for these videos or for NDAs. Either that, or he has done it as a PR exercise to try to show how many members of the public are on his side…which I think has backfired. It’s also not clear what legal action is being taken, so what is the money actually for? Defence fees because some of this apparently has been reported to the police? Defamation action taken by Dan himself? Threat letters to try to silence his accusers?
His ‘dark forces’ relating it to GB News was also a fail, he’s trying to tap into their viewership loyalty and get them behind him thinking it is actually an attack on the channel. Yet the ‘evidence’ that is coming out relates to before that channel even existed…and the guardian and byeline refer to investigating this alias before that channel existed as well.
The facts as I see it. Martin Branning and the emails and videos all exist…seems like there are too many people reporting this alias for it to be fake. The question is…how did Dan’s ex-boyfriend get hold of all this..found behind a washing machine etc…if it’s not Dan, then someone, including maybe the ex, has done a very good job of setting him up. Then we have the rape claim from Kev, someone who went to jail for blackmail so not a reliable witness…yet he’s putting it out publicly and not afraid of the consequences…as of yet it’s unclear how Kev profits from this, and it’s all a bit of a co-incidence that he is saying all this at the same time as the other stuff coming out…something co-ordinated may be going on.
Is Dan guilty? I’m not sure, but actually I don’t think it matters…he’s getting a taste of what he has been doing to other people for years…so he deserves it either way!
www.theguardian.com
