The Desmond defence
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HiDeHo
Loopdaloop
Chris
Angelique
gillyspot
Oldartform
AnnaEsse
malena stool
IAMBAZZA
Wallflower
ELI
Annabel
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Re: The Desmond defence
I quite liked Mr Desmond,
He also made an apt analogy here which I took to be a reflection on his attitude to the Mccann situation.
In 1975 when we started International Musician, you
24 know, when you start a new publication and you're 22,
25 23, it's very important -- the advertising is very
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1 important. And basically in the first issue one of our
2 major advertisers was called Marshall, Marshall
3 Amplifiers. In the first issue, Marshall had brought
4 out an amplifier which was solid state. Before that he
5 was known for valve amplifiers. The reviewer in the
6 first issue said, "This amplifier will electrocute you,
7 this amplifier should be withdrawn from the market."
8 You know, you can imagine how I felt, having sold
9 Marshall loads of advertising and, you know, a friend,
10 in inverted commas, a business friend in inverted
11 commas, but at the end of the day the article went in,
12 Marshall went berserk and we lost the advertising for
13 six months. But what happened was after six months
14 Marshall did withdraw the amplifier, yeah? And he did
15 then put his advertising back in for his valve
16 amplifiers.
17 The point of a long-winded story is that I learned
18 at the age of 22 that actually the editorial integrity
19 is the most important thing, and you -- you know, thank
20 God we did the right thing and nobody was electrocuted,
21 and back to papers, to answer your question directly,
I think he was saying, look the editiorial was right on the Mccann's, we initially lost money for it but one day we'll be proved right!
With regard to Panda and the negative things written about him, he explains why all the other papers did that in the enquiry.
http://www.levesoninquiry.org.uk/hearing/2012-01-12pm/ - In short he was making commercial business decisions and turning around a newspaper that was making a 24million loss, He stated that the newspapers accused him of everything! short of murder
Q. I might come back to that point in a moment, Mr Desmond,
14 but I'm dealing now with general points. Mr Ashford
15 told us that when you started in 2000 you were somewhat
16 of an outsider, culturally and geographically?
17 A. Oh, did you see the cuttings?
18 Q. Mr Desmond, it helps if you don't ask me questions.
19 A. Okay.
20 Q. Just give me an answer which makes it clear where you're
21 coming from.
22 A. We were vilified, we were pillared, we were attacked.
23 The only thing I wasn't accused of was murder. I think
24 that was the only thing I wasn't accused of. I think
25 I was accused short of murder.
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1 Q. Are you referring to all your competitors or are you
2 referring just to some of them?
3 A. Well, no, pretty much -- you know, I mean the Mail were
4 the worst, because they were upset that they hadn't
5 bought the Daily Express. In fact, you know, a day
6 after we bought the Express, they came in and said
7 aren't I lucky I made £100 million because they wanted
8 to buy it from me and I said that's not what I want to
9 do.
10 The Mail were upset. The Telegraph were upset
11 because they had this joint venture with a printing
12 company and basically they were having, you know,
13 a great time with the previous management of Express
14 running rings around them and they knew they weren't
15 going to run rings around me.
16 So they were upset because they weren't able to
17 steal the printing plant from us. Then the Guardian
18 were upset because we came from left field, so nobody
19 knew who we were and, you know, we didn't really, you
20 know -- you know, we were cutting their friends' jobs,
21 so they didn't like us. Then we had the Sunday Times,
22 I can't remember why they didn't like us, but, you know,
23 they wrote lovely things about us.
24 No, it was pretty evenly spread. The Independent.
25 The Mirror, the Sun, I can't remember them, but they
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1 probably did have a go, but compared to the others,
2 I think we were let off lightly.
3 Q. So the notional proposition that there might be some
4 sort of anti-aggression pact between you as a proprietor
5 and other proprietors is something you would laugh out
6 of court, wouldn't you?
7 A. I would. I mean, only two weeks ago, Baker vilified me
8 in his horrible rag.
12 Q. I think you made it clear that the Daily Mail is, as it
13 were, your worst enemy. Is that a fair way of
14 characterising it?
15 A. I think it's Britain's worst enemy, the Daily Mail.
and here relates to him annoying the status quo when he went in.
MR JAY: So when you took over this business, you grabbed it
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1 by the scruff of the neck, you reduced costs where they
2 could be reduced, you sought to increase advertising and
3 were you successful in both of those objectives,
4 Mr Desmond?
5 A. Yes, we were. It was very easy, very quick. Within
6 three months we had it into a profit. You know,
7 I remember one of the things -- we were talking about
8 the private investigators, and one of the things
9 I remember is walking around the floor and there was
10 a room with a lot of scruffy geezers and I said to the
11 editor, "Who are they?" "Oh, I can't tell you who they
12 are". "What do you mean, you can't tell me?" "Oh, it's
13 the investigative department." So I said, "What is it?"
14 "I can't tell you." So Paul, who is in charge of that
15 area, found out what they did. They were special
16 investigators, you know, sort of bugle stuff, Dan Dare
17 stuff.
18 And then the final thing was I think the first week
19 they asked for £5,000 or £10,000 of cash, or the editor
20 at the time asked for that, to pay these geezers, shall
21 we call them, to do their private investigative work.
22 My reaction was the last thing we're going to do is to
23 start paying out cash to people, we don't know what
24 they're doing, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So
25 I said to Paul, "You know what? I don't like the whole
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1 thing". Paul didn't like the whole thing. "You know
2 what, cut the whole area. No one knows what it is and
3 it seems a bit dodgy."
4 What makes me laugh is a few weeks ago we're sitting
5 on the Parliamentary Committee around the table and
6 there's my friend Lord Hollick sitting there asking me
7 about newspapers, whereas he was the chief executive of
8 that company that employed these people. I do find it
9 ludicrous, frankly.
10 Q. Were these people, as you've put it, were they employees
11 of the company?
12 A. Yes. Employees of the company.
13 Q. So they weren't freelancers, they weren't independent
14 contractors?
15 A. No. It was a very important area, you know. Very
16 important, very secretive, important area. But we cut
17 it out within -- I think within a week or two weeks.
18 I think that's probably why we made so many friends in
19 the first few weeks, because we did cut a lot of these
20 type of people out. If we didn't know what they did, we
21 got rid of them.
Loopdaloop- Golden Poster
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Re: The Desmond defence
Lillyofthevalley wrote:Desmond is no fool you could see that when he was questioned, he's a thorn in Team McCanns side (I say that because he will have tons of stories regarding the whole lot of them waiting to go to print), he is just waiting for his chance, imo he is the Man who is going to start the ball rolling, you see![]()
I have always felt he is just biding his time and will retaliate big time when the time is right.
He used Carter Ruck for a 2009 libel case.....so if something WAS to happen, will CR be involved, and if so, will their choice of clients depend on who has the most money?
Re: The Desmond defence
Chris: I think some are forgetting the Express has been one of the worst for simply trotting out the PR stories over the past couple of years. RD is only interested in what sells his papers whether it be Fayed fed Diana stories or Clarrie inspired fairy tales from Rothley.
loopdaloop: With regard to Panda and the negative things written about him, he explains why all the other papers did that in the enquiry.
http://www.levesoninquiry.org.uk/hearing/2012-01-12pm/ - In short he was making commercial business decisions and turning around a newspaper that was making a 24million loss, He stated that the newspapers accused him of everything! short of murder
As usual in such matters the truth about Desmond is somewhere in the middle. To assess this position as regards the establishment and other newspapers, it's worth reading the vitriol printed about him in yesterday's Telegraph and take that together with what is written about the McCanns in the same article. IMO it's a perfect demonstration of 'the establishment' prepared to back anyone in order to score against someone they hate. Hence we have all the platitudes trotted out about the McCanns' grief for their missing daughter etc. ad nausem with no mention of the doubts which surround their role in the affair whatsoever. anything to condemn that 'evil', *heartless' Mr. Desmond. This is what we on this forum are up against, as is Desmond. But, Desmond is in a better position to actually do something about it and I am sure that he will not let the opportunity slip by if it presents itself. Perhaps he'll even do something to precipitate that opportunity? Yes, the Express has 'form' in trotting out the PR stuff from the spokesman, but they also have form in not always towing the line. Wasn't the Express the only newspaper to actually debunk the socalled 'investigation' into the Barcelona Posh spice lookalike with a bit of investigative journalism?
[url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/leveson-inquiry/9013579/A-close-up-of-Richard-Desmond-that-I-wasnt-ready-for.html ]http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/leveson-inquiry/9013579/A-close-up-of-Richard-Desmond-that-I-wasnt-ready-for.html [/url]
T4two- Platinum Poster
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Re: The Desmond defence
HiDeHo wrote:Lillyofthevalley wrote:Desmond is no fool you could see that when he was questioned, he's a thorn in Team McCanns side (I say that because he will have tons of stories regarding the whole lot of them waiting to go to print), he is just waiting for his chance, imo he is the Man who is going to start the ball rolling, you see![]()
I have always felt he is just biding his time and will retaliate big time when the time is right.
He used Carter Ruck for a 2009 libel case.....so if something WAS to happen, will CR be involved, and if so, will their choice of clients depend on who has the most money?
I have to agree with you both. He's biding his time.
wjk- Platinum Poster
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Re: The Desmond defence
HiDeHo wrote:Lillyofthevalley wrote:Desmond is no fool you could see that when he was questioned, he's a thorn in Team McCanns side (I say that because he will have tons of stories regarding the whole lot of them waiting to go to print), he is just waiting for his chance, imo he is the Man who is going to start the ball rolling, you see![]()
I have always felt he is just biding his time and will retaliate big time when the time is right.
He used Carter Ruck for a 2009 libel case.....so if something WAS to happen, will CR be involved, and if so, will their choice of clients depend on who has the most money?
HiDeHo
![The Desmond defence - Page 2 306321](/users/1413/63/09/92/smiles/306321.gif)
Carter Ruck like a lot of lawyers/solicitors will be happy to be connected to the McCann case it does get a lot of publicity worldwide, but if you can't afford them they arn't going to work for you for free, maybe "no win no fee" (if they no they can win the cases), but certainly not for free, this is why they are happy to beg for money for the fund, its keeping CR ticking over AIMO.
Lillyofthevalley- Platinum Poster
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Re: The Desmond defence
I read somewhere that Desmond was looking for Government approval on some purchase application he was making and did a deal with Tony Blair not to
contest the Tapas 9 case. It resulted in a payment by the DE of nearly £1 million to the Tapas 9 plus their Legal Fees and Court costs, and the application was passed.
This seems the most likely scenario knowing the two Men.
contest the Tapas 9 case. It resulted in a payment by the DE of nearly £1 million to the Tapas 9 plus their Legal Fees and Court costs, and the application was passed.
This seems the most likely scenario knowing the two Men.
Panda- Platinum Poster
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» Daily Mail Report on Desmond interview
» The Guardian Hugh Muir Diary - Desmond and Clarence
» Australian Report on Desmond Statement at Leveson Inquiry
» Media tycoon Richard Desmond in 'grotesque' Madeleine McCann claim
» DESMOND TUTU CALLS FOR DIVESTMENT CAMPAIGN AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE
» The Guardian Hugh Muir Diary - Desmond and Clarence
» Australian Report on Desmond Statement at Leveson Inquiry
» Media tycoon Richard Desmond in 'grotesque' Madeleine McCann claim
» DESMOND TUTU CALLS FOR DIVESTMENT CAMPAIGN AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE
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