There is, as they say, only one story the political world is sniggering about today. In an unambiguously hostile biography of David Cameron, it is reported that as a young man the Prime minister placed his private parts in the mouth of a dead pig. This is said to have been part of an initiation for an aristocratic Oxford University dining club. There is a photograph, it is said.

First, the truth. Is it true? It doesn't matter. As Lyndon Johnson knew, the real point of accusing your enemy of sex with pigs is to force him to deny it. True or not, the image is so vivid it sticks in the mind, indelibly colouring someone's reputation. And LBJ was operating in the pre-internet age. Today online debate is emotion first, facts a long-distant second.

Barely 12 hours after publication, the internet has decided that David Cameron did something unspeakable with a pig. Nothing can change that. Even a the most convincing and comprehensive refutation of the story, a sworn confession from everyone involved that they made it up, won't change the story: it would just become a footnote on a Wikipedia page, a thing clever people say in years to come when the story is retold in pubs ("actually it wasn't true"). Some stories are so compelling the truth can't change them. Look up who really deleted Milly Dowler's voicemails to see what I mean.

Quote from: BerzerkCommando on September 22, 2015, 04:18:43 AM

It's odd but of course there's going to be assholes making a big deal out of it just like the Bill Clinton blowjob thing which wasn't a big deal at all.

I know right

Only faggots would get mad at somebody for getting their dick sucked.

Journalism is dead.