Richard Desmond's brazen hypocrisy

The brazen hypocrisy of Richard Desmond

The pornographer Richard "porn baron" Desmond has repeatedly
stated that he hates being called a "pornographer" and a "porn baron".

In September 2012 the Irish Daily Star published topless pictures of a woman called Kate Middleton who happens to be married to some bloke called His Royal Highness Prince William Arthur Philip Louis, Duke of Cambridge, Earl of Strathearn, Baron Carrickfergus, Royal Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, Knight of the Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle.

The proprietor of the Irish Daily Star is a man called Richard Desmond who also owns a number of other newspapers, magazines and TV channels through his Northern and Shell company. Desmond was reportedly "angry", "furious", "disgusted", "horrified" and "profoundly dismayed" at the decision to publish the semi-naked paparazzi pictures. Within hours of the publication Desmond began taking measures to completely shut down the Irish Daily Star.

The first element of Desmond's hypocrisy is the fact that OK! magazine (published by Desmond's company since 1993) has contributed massively to the development of the paparazzi business by repeatedly publishing invasive paparazzi shots of celebrities and their children. To rail against the invasion of Royal privacy by the paparazzi (and the publications that chose to print the topless paparazzi snaps), is grotesquely insincere given that one of his own magazines is the world's most widely read publisher of invasive paparazzi photography.

The next element of Desmond's hypocrisy can be seen in his other business interests. Before he bought into the newspaper and TV businesses, he made £millions from pornography. Amongst the 45 pornographic titles he eventually offloaded in 2004 were magazines such as Asian Babes, Readers Housewives and Mega Boobs.

This is the kind of blurry long lens image Desmond is railing against. I'm
 sure he'd prefer it if people got their smut fix by paying a subscription
to his high definition pornography Television X channel instead.

Desmond has repeatedly stated that he hates being called a "pornographer" and "porn baron", however his Northern and Shell company still operates a number of pornographic enterprises. They may have moved away from the outdated print pornography model, but they have certainly embraced more modern porn platforms such as Pay TV and Internet porn with gusto. Northern and Shell operates a number of pornographic pay-per-view TV channels including RedHot TV and Television X.

A quick browse of the Television X website reveals that they provide content such as "double penetration", "teen sex", "cum swapping", "pissing", "interracial", "rimming", "old on young" etc. I'm no moral puritan (each to their own and all that), but to generate vast profits from severe sexual exploitation whilst vigorously condemning the publication of pictures of nothing more than a pair of boobs is an incredibly brazen display of hypocrisy.

One particular part of Desmond's condemnation of the publication of the Kate Middleton pictures really stands out. His claims that the pictures are "grotesque and totally unjustifiable" and that "there can be no motivation for this action other than greed."

I wonder what higher motivation than "greed" Desmond uses to justify his company broadcasting scenes such as women taking several penises up their rectum, old men pissing into the mouths of teenage girls and women spitting ejaculate into each others mouths? What higher purpose than "greed" could the broadcaster of such scenes be serving?

There is only one thing more revolting than the broadcasting of this kind of extreme pornographic smut itself, and that is seeing a man that purveys and profits from the dissemination of such smut taking such a high profile "moralistic stance" against the publication of some boobie pictures.

Desmond seems to be suffering from a strange kind of moral dissonance, where the rich and powerful elites deserve every protection from those that would be interested in seeing them partially nude (pictures that are no more shocking than an average day on the beach in Ibiza) whilst maintaining that there is absolutely nothing wrong with the extreme sexual exploitation of non-elite people in order to generate corporate profits. Operations like Television X and their website grossly exploit both the porn "actors" themselves and the dupes that pay up to £126 a year to access the kind of sexual content that can easily be found elsewhere on the Internet for free.

Not only do Desmond's companies disseminate extreme pornographic images, they often do it in breach of regulations that are there to protect children from accessing such extreme content. So in Richard Desmond's "moral world" the wealthy elite should be protected at all costs from those who would like to have a peek at their boobs but the protection of children from extremely explicit sexual content is just a tiresome regulatory burden that can be repeatedly overlooked.

There are many people working at the Irish Daily Star that had absolutely nothing to do with the publication of the Kate Middleton paparazzi pictures. Desmond is going to collectively punish them in a fit of moral puritanism, whilst he continues to generate personal profit from, and protect the jobs of those working for his smutty porn channels and websites, despite their history of non-compliance with broadcasting regulations. The man is a raving hypocrite who rails against the publication of paparazzi boobie pictures, whilst simultaneously running a company that publishes the world's most widely read paparazzi magazine and broadcasts extreme pornography.

See Also

The Daily Mail: Fascism, Racism & Homophobia

Rupert Murdoch and his evil empire

Why I like SlutWalk

The contrasting fates of Alan Turing and Lord Sempill