When asked whether he minded being referred to as a "porn baron" or a "porn king", Desmond says the terms were "inaccurate". He says: "Porn to me is illegal and we had magazines which were sold through WH Smith, John Menzies."
He has tried this trick before - in December, he told an interviewer:
'First of all, it's not "porn"...It's adult magazines that were sold through the same distribution channels as all newspapers and other magazines. It was all regulated. It was honest.'
While adult material may have to be 'illegal' for him to consider it 'porn', that's not a definition that most other people would recognise.
Then again, it doesn't seem to be a description Desmond himself believes when it suits him.
Desmond is the founder and chairman of Northern and Shell, the company that owns the Express, Star, OK!, Channel 5 and other media outlets. N&S also owns Portland TV which runs Television X, a television channel that N&S proudly talks about on its website.
And Television X is very sure that what it broadcasts is 'porn' - the word is repeated several times on its website, including:
Television X has a broadcasting licence from Ofcom, so it is definitely not illegal. But it is, in its own words, 'porn'.
Desmond has previously said he won a court case he actually lost, publishes a paper that claims living people are dead, pays out libel damages with some regularity and has withdrawn his newspapers from any form of external oversight. Somehow, it's no surprise to see him trying to come up with new meanings for words.
But whatever he tries to claim, Desmond's company used to publish porn magazines, and now broadcasts porn on television.
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So porn is only porn when it's illegal? So what is Television X meant to be? Art?
ReplyDeleteAlthough TVX has been condemned numerous times for broadcasting porn before the watershed to kids so maybe they're counting that as the illegalities required for the porn moniker.
ReplyDeleteI'd let CNBC see this evidence and see if they ask Desmond to come back to defend his statements.
ReplyDeleteOf course, he won't do a follow up interview and if CNBC did broadcast the evidence that he does have self proclaimed porn channels (and thus is a porn baron as he owns the vast majority of such channels in the UK) then he won't have a leg to stand on as they are in no way being slanderous or libellous! Lose Lose for Desmond!
It's crap porn as well by all accounts. I work for a debt collection agency and "Extra Services" (which is the name that TVX, Red Hot et al come under these days) is one of our clients (people don't know they're being trapped into a 12 month contract so get an unexpected bill in excess of £100 which i have to argue with them about!) and one of the biggest complaints i get is that they shouldn't have to pay as the porn was crap.
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