#it’s been like this for decade I remember that long string of stalking incidences in 2017

[iwatcheditbegin]

The fact that Taylor has so many documented stalkers that she has restraining orders against is very scary , especially when you consider how hard it is to even obtain a restraining order regardless of how rich and famous you are. Someone has to have already done something for that to happen.

[ingek73]

Game, set, and twat: Whether it’s Meghan or Naomi Osaka, Piers Morgan’s MailOnline-enabled bullying has a pattern...

... the mediocre hack’s mediocre hack hates women who don’t dance to his tune.

Mic Wright

11 hr ago

If someone had a blog and Twitter account where they relentlessly attacked a series of high profile women — many of them women of colour — for perceived slights and their refusal to pay the writer attention, we’d usually call that person a bully and a troll, and if they persisted in that behaviour they might even find themselves facing legal consequences.

But Piers Morgan has a TV career and a MailOnline byline so he’s given impunity to mock, abuse, and denigrate women while claiming he’s just a ‘critical voice’. His latest target is Naomi Osaka, the 23-year-old tennis player who is currently ranked number 2 in the world, is the reigning champion of the US Open and Australian Open, and became the first woman to win back-to-back grand slams since Serena Williams in 2015.

By contrast, Piers Morgan is a mediocre hack who owes his controversy-baiting career to Simon Cowell who pulled him out of the dumper of history and plonked him on the America’s Got Talent panel after he was frog-marched out of Fleet Street for slapping faked photos on the front page of a national newspaper. That incident was the last in an ignominious run at The Daily Mirror and, before that, in the Murdoch press, which I have covered extensively in the past.

[image description] Twitter avatar for @Nabilu

Nabil Abdulrashid

@Nabilu

If time machines existed Piers Morgan would go backwards in time to chat shit about Rosa Parks

May 31st 2021

346 Retweets2,456 Likes]

Morgan’s latest creepy obsession was triggered — I use that word deliberately — by Osaka’s decision not to speak to the press during the French Open at Roland Garros because interviews were affecting her mental health. She subsequently withdrew from the tournament altogether after winning her first match, having been fined $15,000 for not speaking to the media and warned she was at risk of being expelled from the event.

In her statement yesterday, Osaka wrote that she had suffered “long bouts of depression” since she defeated Serena Williams in the 2018 US Open Final and received significant media attention. She continued:

I never wanted to be a distraction and I accept that my timing was not ideal and my message could have been clearer. More importantly, I would never trivialise mental health or use the term lightly.

Nothing in either of Osaka’s statements support Morgan’s sneering labelling of the player as “Narcissistic Naomi” or “world sport’s most petulant little madam”. Once again a 56-year-old man is using his vast and undeserved media platform to bully and harass a woman half his age. And — surprise, surprise — it’s actually just a new front in his obsessive one-sided war on the Duchess of Sussex.

Beneath the frankly unhinged headline, Narcissistic Naomi's cynical exploitation of mental health to silence the media is right from the Meghan and Harry playbook of wanting their press cake and eating it, Morgan writes:

Naomi Osaka is a brilliant tennis player…

… She is also the highest-paid female athlete in the world, raking in $55.2 million in the past 12 months, $5.2 million from tennis winnings and $50 million from endorsement deals with the likes of Nike, Beats by Dre, Mastercard and Nissin…

… Unfortunately, Ms Osaka is also an arrogant spoiled brat whose fame and fortune appears to have inflated her ego to gigantic proportions.

How else to explain her extraordinary decision to announce she will no longer participate in media press conferences, supposedly to protect her mental health?

Morgan is pretending that he doesn’t know that money is not an impregnable suit of armour to protect your mental health. Osaka could be the richest woman in the world and still face anxiety and depression. In fact, at just 23, the pressures of her performance-driven, endorsement-laden life are arguably more likely to lead to those feelings than a ‘normal’ one.

But rather than seeing Osaka as a young woman in an extraordinary position who is struggling with those demands and finding the hectoring, hostile, and entitled attitude of the press hard to handle at the moment, Morgan calls her “petulant” and continues:

[She] was fined $15,000 for refusing to appear in front of the media… Of course, given that she earns around $6,000 an hour, Osaka will recoup this fine while she sleeps tonight, rendering the fine utterly meaningless.

What's not meaningless is her frankly contemptible attempt to avoid legitimate media scrutiny by weaponizing mental health to justify her boycott.

Morgan departed Good Morning Britain after the row that followed his comment that he “didn’t believe a word” of the Duchess of Sussex’s statements about her mental health during the Oprah interview. Now, the mental health analyser has logged on again and he has determined that Naomi Osaka does not meet his standard of distress. Sadly, he secured his professional qualifications in this area by scrawling a certificate in crayon on the back of a Pizza Express kids menu.

[image description] Twitter avatar for @PaulbernalUK

Paul Bernal

@PaulbernalUK

What is it about Naomi Osaka and Meghan Markle that gets Piers Morgan so worked up, I wonder. Image

May 31st 2021

1,726 Retweets10,537 Likes

-

He claims that after reading Osaka’s Instagram post about press conferences, which he calls “an orgy of narcissistic twaddle”, “several times” he experienced “mounting fury”. Remember, this is a 56-year-old man contorting his melted waxwork face into an angry rictus over a 23-year-old woman he doesn’t know choosing not to appear at a press conference. I am not convinced that Osaka is the narcissistic one here.

Morgan continues:

One thing’s very clear: This has got nothing to do with mental health.

What Osaka really means is that she doesn’t want to face the media if she hasn’t played well, because the beastly journalists might actually dare to criticise her performance…

… This is straight out of the Meghan and Harry playbook of wanting to have the world’s largest cake and eating it, by exploiting the media for ruthless self-promotion but using mental health to silence any media criticism.

One thing’s very clear: This has got nothing to do with Naomi Osaka.

What Morgan really means is that he’s still beetroot red over a perceived slight by Meghan back in 2016, which he only started ranting about after he didn’t get an invite to her wedding and was “ghosted”. That came after two years of him tweeting about her as a “friend”.

Piers Morgan is simply using Naomi Osaka as another way to wage his sad fuck guerilla war against the Sussexes. And Osaka is just the latest in a long string of young women to fall short of his weirdo expectations.

He berated Lady Gaga on social media, attacking her after she spoke about dealing with PTSD after being raped, and goaded her so much that she agreed to an interview clearly in the hope of getting him to stop.

He attacked Arianna Grande after the Manchester Arena attack and kept up his bullying for six months until she agreed to have dinner with him after what he said was a “chance meeting”. After she had conceded to spending time in his fetid presence he shifted tack and started creepily calling her his “soulmate” — she was 26 at the time.

These obsessions with young women are often framed as “feuds” in the press, but they are, in fact, byline-enabled stalking. Morgan has a huge platform and he abuses it to get women to concede to him, to make mollifying noises, to pretend that they are his friends just to get him to stop.

The only difference between Piers Morgan and a street harasser screaming at a woman to smile is that MailOnline and ITV pay him handsomely for the privilege. Tonight, Morgan’s ‘Life Stories’ interview with Keir Starmer goes out on ITV and he’ll once again get a chance to dominate the headlines. His views are given credence by the political elite even as he continues to abuse women for attention and praise.

It’s a tactic he’s used for decades, stretching back to his time on The Sun’s Bizarre column, where he insisted on inserting pictures of himself cuddling up to celebrities. His ‘feud’/obsession with Madonna has run on for decades, beginning in his Fleet Street days when she didn’t give him the exclusive on her first pregnancy and continuing right up until now.

As with Lady Gaga, Morgan has repeatedly mocked and dismissed Madonna for saying she was raped in the past. However, unlike Gaga, Madonna has refused to pay homage to Morgan with an interview. He preemptively ‘banned’ her from his CNN show back in 2011 though she had shown not one scintilla of interest in appearing, and tried to reignite interest in his hatred for her in 2016 by saying he would end “the feud” if she apologised to him. He’s still waiting for that call.

Morgan’s attack on Osaka, which is simply another attempt to get at Meghan, came two days after a Daily Mail interview with Jan Moir in which he grumbled:

[Meghan] thinks she’s beaten me? She might be in for a surprise because I suspect I’ll be back soon. If Meghan thinks she has cancelled me or won the battle, she is in for a big shock. I’ve never been more popular.

It made me think of this moment in Mad Men:

Michael Ginsberg: What do I care? I got a million of them… a million…

Don Draper: Good. I guess I’m lucky you work for me.

Michael Ginsberg: I feel bad for you.

Don Draper: I don’t think about you at all.

Meghan is Draper. Morgan is a total Ginsberg — smug and self-satisfied, convinced that Meghan is as obsessed with him as he is with her, certain that they are having a feud between equals and not the same dynamic as every woman cursed with a sad but sinister stalker.

And while Morgan acts like he’s a brave truth-teller, he only dares pump his horseshit opinions into MailOnline’s open sewer once he’s fairly sure that there are enough other media bullies taking the same line. The Australian’s tennis correspondent Will Swanton filed his misogynist screed a full day before Morgan got round to his.

There’s a clue as to how Morgan expects young women to act around him in the latest instalment of his journals — The Diary of Samuel Creeps — which are published in The Mail on Sunday.

Recounting his visit to what sounds like a truly mind-numbing party (“…drinking cocktails, nibbling canapés and having actual ‘fun’ in the garden of the Notting Hill home of Gabriela Peacock, nutritionist to the stars.”) he describes an encounter with Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie:

Princess Beatrice arrived with her husband Eduardo. They announced her first pregnancy today, and both seemed ecstatically happy.

‘Please thank your mum for her supportive texts when I left GMB,’ I told her. ‘She’s always been very loyal to me, and I greatly appreciate it.’

‘Well, you’ve been very loyal to her,’ Beatrice replied, ‘and she appreciates that too.’

I’ve always had a soft spot for Fergie.

Princess Eugenie, who gave birth to her first child three months ago, joined her sister. ‘If you two need any parenting tips for your expanding Royal creche, I’ve had four kids so am something of an expert,’ I suggested.

Their regal eyebrows shot up in synchronised horror. ‘No, we’re good thanks, Piers,’ came the firm, unified response.

I’ve known both Princesses since they were very young, and they’ve been through a lot of tough times in the media spotlight, especially lately over their father Prince Andrew’s shameful friendship with billionaire paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

But they never complain, or give whining interviews, or publicly trash their family, and they’re always incredibly nice, polite and good fun – which all makes such a refreshing change from their narcissistic, self-pitying, family-abusing, spoiled-brat cousins over in California.

Piers Morgan wants to be treated as famous rather than infamous, and likes women to indulge his antics and act as if they’re amused by his sweaty-handed attention. Fergie — a woman devoid of discernible talent beyond tolerating her ex-husband’s second career as the top Yelp! reviewer at Jeffrey Epstein’s houses — is a-ok with Piers because she sucks up to him. Similarly, her daughters are delightful because they’ll tolerate Morgan’s dad jokes and fetid familiarity.

Morgan is not a journalist, a truth-teller, a maverick, or a commentator in anything but bad faith. He’s nothing more than a misogynist with a MailOnline byline and some big money contracts. Don’t let him pretend to be anything else.

[jenmedsbookreviews]

Well. This has been a long week. Not a bad week but a long week. Lots of thinking, lots of pondering and, strangely, actually less reading than last week but hey ho. No bad thing. Can’t say I’ve been busy at work but I’ve a busy week coming up to make up for it. Off to Dublin today to deliver a bit of training and talk about labelling. Can’t contain my excitement at that one. Tuesday and Wednesday back in the office and then I’m off right up north. Dundee on Thursday/Friday and then a weekend at Granite Noir before spending Monday morning with my team in Portlethen. Busy bee I am then.

On the positive side, I’ve got about sixteen hours of driving ahead of me so I get to listen to a couple of audio books which will be nice 🙂 And all that airport time today will mean another on of my ARCs will be completed too so it’s not all bad.

One of the things I’ve been thinking about this week is the responsibility of being a book blogger. I think that it’s one of those things that novice bloggers don’t always think about when deciding to get into the game. And, trust me, a game is exactly what it can be. Getting caught up in blogitics can be a perilous pastime. Some readers will love you, others will hate you, for no clear reason, and accuse of not being a real reader. They will assume you’re on a publishers payroll (some bloggers are paid for reviews but that is a whole other can of worms and not one for a round up post). Some authors will love you, some will get very personal and (thankfully only on occasion) quite aggressive over a less than perfect review. Some authors may say thanks, some don’t even notice. Most, however are great and actually do take the time to read your review policy which states quite politely that you don’t EVER EVER EVER review erotica…

Anyway. Back to responsibility. Blogging, book blogging especially, is, for most, a hobby and one you should always strive to enjoy. Don’t let it get you down. Don’t let it make you angry. Don’t feel pressure to agree to a review if you cannot commit and try not to feel bad when you say no. It’s okay. However, we do have a responsibility to be fair in those books we do agree to review. While it is a hobby for us, there are seldom few, if any, authors for whom writing is merely a hobby. It is something they do for work, for the love of books, and it is entirely personal. Their baby. Their precious. We have to remember that when reviewing as while praise is great, unqualified, unfair criticism and being personal or attacking an author through review is not only wrong but uncalled for. And so is simply not providing feedback at all. In that respect I know I must try harder.

I have joked in the past about having no book post. The reality is that the idea of unsolicited book post terrifies me. I know the word ‘unsolicited’ infers there is no guarantee of a review, but authors do count on our reviews and feedback, and on bloggers spreading the word. Yes – maybe it is free PR and they should be happy with what they get, but then we hardly got into blogging so our thoughts and feelings on books stayed locked up in our heads never to be shared now did we? We want to share the book love. At least, that is why I blog. I’d hate to think I ever take for granted the opportunity I am afforded by publishers (via Netgalley and direct approach) and authors to review their books, often ahead of general release. I’m in a very privileged position. I do know that. I fully intend to review every book I have been sent. It may take me a few decades but I’ll get there.

I still see debates around the tinterweb about freebies. Where can I get them? How do I get #bookpost? Well … you get regular ‘free’ books on Netgalley by being a trusted reviewer, one who leaves an adequate review not just a ‘I liked the book’ one liner. That may get you one approval but won’t necessarily lead to more. Auto approval is a privilege, not a right. You get #bookpost by giving honest and detailed feedback on how you liked (or didn’t like) a book without any expectation of anything in return. This attitude will get you noticed. This will get you respect. This will get you feeling all the #bloglove.

I’m very lucky. I can afford to purchase lots of books and don’t have to wait for the Amazon daily deal to do so. Every ‘freebie’ I receive I either buy on Kindle or in physical form, even all of those Netgalley ARCs. I may not always be able to review bang on time for ARCs, but I do pay my way in the event I let everyone down. (And new bloggers – never, ever feel you are letting folk down. You aren’t if you maintain honesty and fairness in your reviews when they evntually come.)

The truth is we all have lives outside of blogging. Mine is fairly limited so I do read rather a lot, however I will never take for granted the wonderful gifts I am given by Authors and Publishers alike. Please, in return, do not take for granted, or ignore, my review policy, or the fact that sometimes I am just too busy. Important job, lots of travel don’t you know.

Get me all serious and stuff. Who knew?

Well … speaking of #bookpost, I have more this week. My postman/woman/gender-fluid person (who knows) must be starting to hate me. Some was a ‘freebie’ other was my long awaited Goldsboro books parcel.

Starting with my purchases I received my limited edition copy of The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton. Very pretty, red edged pages, ribbon book mark, maps and everything. Total #booklove. I also got my signed copy of This Is How It Ends by Eva Dolan.

My #bookpost for the week was plentiful by my standards. First up was The Ice Swimmer by Kjell Ola Dahl courtesy of Orenda Books. Three in one day with My Little Eye by Stephanie Marland from Trapeze; The Emperor of Shoes by Spencer Wise from Oldcastle Books/No Exit and The Fear by CL Taylor from Avon. Last, but my no means least, I also received a copy of Never Go There by Rebecca Tinnelly from Hodder. So lucky.

Netgalley wise I only picked up one book as I need ot for a blog tour. That was Emma Robinson’s The Undercover Mother.

From Audible I picked up Anatomy of a Scandal by Sarah Vaughan and Lucky Ghost by Matthew Bakstad.

Reading wise I was pretty poor with just four books this week.

Books I have Read

Found Drowned – BK Duncan

Are you looking for an unmissable historical mystery? Then you’ll love BK Duncan’s Found Drowned.

Smuggling. Prostitution. Murder.

London. 1920 and coroner’s officer May Keaps is tasked with solving the mystery that surrounds the death of a young boy, found drowned in The Thames.

But was it murder or an accident?

May knows that when children go missing, the reason is often linked to money but she is in danger of underestimating the corrupting influence of power . . .

On streets where poverty and exploitation walk hand-in-hand everyone has a price. And some are more valuable dead than alive. But who is pulling the strings?

May must journey into the dark underbelly of London to find the answers.

I will be reviewing this for the blog blitz next week. Book two in the May Keaps series this touches on some very hard to read issues as our heroine tries to find the identity of a young boy who was found in the Thames. You can preorder a copy of the book here.

…

Let Me Lie – Clare Mackintosh

The police say it was suicide. Anna says it was murder. They’re both wrong.

One year ago, Caroline Johnson chose to end her life brutally: a shocking suicide planned to match that of her husband just months before. Their daughter, Anna, has struggled to come to terms with their loss ever since. Now with a young baby of her own, Anna misses her mother more than ever and starts to ask questions about her parents’ deaths. But by digging up the past, is she putting her future in danger? Sometimes it’s safer to let things lie . . .

The stunning, twisty new psychological thriller from number one bestseller Clare Mackintosh, author of I LET YOU GO and I SEE YOU.

Clare Mackintosh’s third book and quite different in pace and tone to it’s predecessors. Following a woman trying to come to terms with her parents’ suicides, she cannot begin to comprehend the truth she is yet to uncover. A gripping mystery I’ll be reviewing next week (fingers crossed). You can preorder a copy here.

…

Evidence of Death – Peter Ritchie

Scarred by the Troubles in Belfast, Billy Nelson returns to his loyalist roots following his discharge from army service. But Belfast and the people he knew have changed, and after his gang are responsible for a series of violent attacks on innocent victims, he is forced out of the city and moves in on the drugs business in Edinburgh.

Taking on the family who have been the main players in the city for years, a battle for control amongst the criminal underworld of Edinburgh, Glasgow and Belfast ensues, and the balance of power is upset…

Grace Macallan, recently promoted to Superintendent in the Specialist Crime and Counter Terrorism Directorate, has her hands full as a series of incidents leaves a trail of victims. As the old demons of the Troubles come back to haunt her again, can Grace keep the streets of Scotland safe, as well as balancing the conflicting interests of the police in Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Security Services, who all have an interest in Nelson and his paramilitary contacts in Belfast…

This is the second book in the Grace Macallan series but the first I have read. Set in Edinburgh there is a gang war about to begin which Grace and her team need to halt before things go a step too far. Out on 22nd Feb you can preorder a copy here.

…

A Known Evil – Aidan Conway

A serial killer stalks the streets of Rome…

A gripping debut crime novel and the first in a groundbreaking series, from a new star in British crime fiction. Perfect for fans of Ian Rankin.

A city on lockdown. In the depths of a freakish winter, Rome is being torn apart by a serial killer dubbed The Carpenter intent on spreading fear and violence. Soon another woman is murdered – hammered to death and left with a cryptic message nailed to her chest.

A detective in danger. Maverick Detective Inspectors Rossi and Carrara are assigned to the investigation. But when Rossi’s girlfriend is attacked – left in a coma in hospital – he becomes the killer’s new obsession and his own past hurtles back to haunt him.

A killer out of control. As the body count rises, with one perfect murder on the heels of another, the case begins to spiral out of control. In a city wracked by corruption and paranoia, the question is: how much is Rossi willing to sacrifice to get to the truth?

Set in Rome, this is the opening book in the MIchael Rossi series and what an opener it is. A violent killer is stalking the streets of Rome but just what is their story and what message are they trying to convey. I’ll be reviewing next week for the blog tour. IN the meantime preorder a copy here.

…

Blog wise I took the weekend off but still a few reviews out there last week if you’d like to peruse the archives…

The Reunion by Samantha Hayes

Review: Quick Reads – Cut Off by Mark Billingham

Review: Quick Reads – Inspector Chopra & The Million Dollar Motorcar by Vaseem Khan

The Collector by Fiona Cummins

Cover Reveal: Sue Featherstone and Susan Pape

The week ahead is littered with reviews and blog tours. As you do. On Wednesday I have a blog tour review of The Little Cottage on the Hill by Emma Davies; Thursday it’s Come A Little Closer by Rachel Abbott (which may have a little added bonus feature); Friday and it’s The Last Laugh by Tracy Bloom. Do stop by for those and other reviews and features.

So. I’ll be a bit busy this week. Might not be a weekly round up next week either, depending on how it all goes at Granite Noir. I might be too busy. But I’ll be back. Already prepped my posts for Tuesday/Wednesday at least so you don’t get rid of me that easily.

Have a fabulous week all and please don’t hate me after Thursday. Check out my post. Remember folks – I’m just an amateur.

Jen

    Rewind, recap: Weekly update w/e 18/02/18 Well. This has been a long week. Not a bad week but a long week. Lots of thinking, lots of pondering and, strangely, actually less reading than last week but hey ho.