Tag: reporter

  • Who REALLY is Omid Scobie?

    Who REALLY is Omid Scobie?

    An examination of the true character traits of the Duchess of Sussex’s PR peddling biased ‘bestie’ Omid Scobie by Nikolay Kalinin

    Apart from being a royal editor for Harper’s Bazaar, Omid Scobie claims to be “an authoritative voice on the lives and philanthropic endeavors of the royal family’s younger members.” Strangely though, very little is actually known about this mysterious meddler and given his supposed “fame,” isn’t it strange that there isn’t even a Wikipedia page about him?

     

    On his Twitter feed, Scobie does pompously announce that he’s written a “Sunday Times bestseller” called Finding Freedom about Prince Harry, Meghan Markle and their subsequent marriage and defection from the royal family to contradictorily being “private” in the commercial sector. He doesn’t, however, add that said tosh filled tome went to half-price, bargain basement in most bookstores.

     

    Omid Scobie Jodie Marsh Heat
    In August 2020, the ‘Daily Mail’ shared that plastic-not-fantastic Omid previously worked at gossip magazine ‘Heat’ and partied with the ‘glamour model’ Jodie Marsh. They mentioned how somebody had “airbrushed” Meghan Markle’s “entry on the online encyclopedia Wikipedia… to include more flattering details days before her romance with Prince Harry became public” and illustrated the ‘Finding Freedom’ author’s “drastic transformation” in two very different photographs.
    Omid Scobie Women in Leadership Publication
    Illustrating himself to be anything but a real journalist, “influencer” Scobie told the ‘Women in Leadership Publication’: “A casual follower be forgiven for thinking that royal news is just fizzy commentary on the pomp and soap opera of The Firm” in their spring 2021 edition. He self-importantly added: “Reaching millions on Twitter has also enabled my own views and advocacy to travel further” and concluded: “I want to do everything I can to ensure that individuals from every background can get a seat at the table.” Here is someone far from a journalist; here, in fact, is someone who should just be called out as the Duchess of Sussex’s PR peddler.

    According to HITC, Scobie was born in Oxfordshire to an Iranian mother and a Scottish father. His papa, Bill Scobie, runs a marketing group called Lingo; it has only one Twitter follower and he purports also to be a musician.

     

    Scobie’s journalistic career began when he worked as a reporter for the gossip go-to Heat. He quit the magazine after he claimed that an executive called him a “P**i” in an email. Whether he was compensated or got an apology for this unproven allegation remains unknown.

     

    Meanwhile, WaliKali suggests that Scobie’s net worth is $800k. It is not only mysterious as to how they managed to calculate that, but it’s also impossible because this means that his net worth is more than that of say LBC host Nick Ferrari even though the latter has a bigger audience than Scobie and is certainly a far better-known figure.

     

    Scobie’s circle of associates is just as curious; for example, Markus Anderson – a man who mysteriously went from a waiter at Soho House to become one of their top consultants – supposedly introduced Scobie to Markle and was the one who led him on the path of becoming an unofficial spin doctor for the Sussexes. Not much is known about Anderson in general; he was born in Canada and according to Town & Country, “his upbringing has influenced his taste in beverages.”

     

    Scobie has a verified Twitter account with over 70,000 followers, which sounds legitimate, except for the fact that in reality 26% – almost 19,000 – of those followers are fake. If you’re the kind of person who uses fake followers, that means you are the kind of person who has no legitimacy in the media industry.

     

    Things are no better for Scobie’s associate Carolyn Durand, who co-wrote Finding Freedom. She has over 12,000 followers on Twitter, of whom almost 44% – in other words 5,293 followers – are fake. It’s surprising how she is also verified on Twitter.

     

    The “Sunday Times bestseller” Finding Freedom has 4/5 stars on Amazon.co.uk, which gives the impression that it was well-liked by readers. It is true that the book did top the charts in the UK, selling 31,000 copies in almost a week. However, what many forget is that a group of people called “Sussex Squad” – which sounds like a battalion of people who could execute anyone who dare criticise the Duchess of Sussex – had been leaving fake 5-star reviews on Amazon on purpose, until Amazon stopped that by limiting reviews to “verified purchases.”

     

    The analysis of the book from esteemed media outlets were no better; whereas on Amazon the book is listed as being described by the Daily Telegraph as “utterly gripping,” the actual review references it as “a one massive moanathon – a one-sided, highly biased, self-pitying account of the relationship (between Harry and Meghan).”

     

    What’s even worse is that both the Duke and Duchess of Sussex actually disowned the biography before it was even published; as the Daily Express reports, the Duchess of Sussex’s lawyer had claimed that the book is “either extremely anodyne and/or I understand are the product of creative licence and/or are inaccurate.” Bizarrely, later, her representative argued that she contributed to the book, but did not provide the authors with the contents of the letter sent to her estranged father.

     

    Scobie’s unreliability can also be evidenced by the fact that he accused the Duke of Cambridge’s aides of planting reports that the latter was “worried about Harry’s mental health,” while not providing evidence that this was the case. Honestly, if you want some-one to believe your side of the story regarding the affair, you have to provide solid evidence, and that goes for both sides.

     

    It seems that ITV too have become suspicious of ‘Spin Doctor Scobie’ as his comments about “planted reports” were cut at the last minute from their documentary Harry & William: What Went Wrong? It aired last night and told opinions on the story about Princes Harry and William’s supposed “rift.”

     

    Scobie is also advertised on the HarperCollins website as the host of ABC’s “popular” podcast The Heir Pod, yet the podcast is anything but popular. If you go to Chartable, a service which provides statistics on podcasts, the podcast does have a rating of 4.7 stars out of 5, but only on the basis of 735 reviews. Meanwhile, popular podcasts within the news category – of which The Heir Pod is listed in – such as the BBC’s Global News podcast and The Ben Shapiro Show have thousands of reviews, which demonstrates that there is practically no engagement with Scobie’s podcast.

     

    Another piece evidence of the podcast being anything but “popular” is the fact that it doesn’t chart in any of the big markets such as the US, UK, Canada or Australia. At the time of writing, The Heir Pod charts in Argentina (160th place), Kyrgyzstan (248th place), Antigua and Barbuda (125th place) and Bhutan (138th place). It thus seems to me like ABC is pointlessly wasting millions on a podcast which its target audience doesn’t even want to listen to.

     

    I find it hilarious how instead of trying to present himself as a mature individual, Scobie has decided to try and “cancel” people online such as ‘Yankee Wally’ because she called him a “bloody foreigner” – even though she did not actually mean what she said in an especially derogatory way.

     

    Similarly, Scobie and other members of the sanctimoniously sinsister “Sussex Squad” have silenced and attacked Kate Robertson, a youth organisation leader who criticised the Duchess of Sussex on Twitter for not resolving her grievances with the royal family in private. Eventually, they forced her to delete the tweet and apologise.

     

    Later, Scobie went on Good Morning Britain and justified what happened by saying: “Everyone’s allowed the right to have an opinion on this,” but then also stated: “It stands out when someone speaks so against the couple.” To me, this sounds like pure reinforcement of double standards. Honestly, if you have to rely on ‘cancel culture’ and suppression of freedom of speech in order to defeat your opponent, you don’t deserve to be called a journalist and you certainly should be seen as a threat to society rather than a respected public figure.

     

    What all of this demonstrates is that Omid Scobie is not a genuinely honest reporter and most certainly not the “authoritative voice on the lives and philanthropic endeavors of the royal family’s younger members” that he claims to be. The truth, instead, is that Omid Scobie is a washed-up, childish clot who tries yet fails to portray himself as someone with legitimacy and it’s about time that he got exposed for being nothing but ‘MeGain’s’ number one PR peddler.

     

    Omid Scobie TheHeirPod Chartable Podcast Chart Rankings
    Whilst Omid Scobie’s podcast, #TheHeirPod, was “downgraded from ‘a real chore’ to ‘unlistenable’” according to ‘Royal Analysis,’ the true revelation is that it isn’t even popular in the places where it surely should be most relevant, Britain and America.
    Omid Scobie Twitter Fake Followers
    An analysis of Omid Scobie’s Twitter feed clearly shows that a large proportion of his followers are a bit like himself: FAKE.
    When he’s not bragging about wearing Balenciaga, Gucci, Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior or sharing photos of his dog, Yoshi, on his Instagram account, the ‘Finding Freedom’ author constantly bangs on about how he believes the royal family to have racist elements. His speculation is rarely supported by anything other than unnamed sources that give his suggestions little to no credibility.
    Meghan Markle Markus Anderson Omid Scobie Prince Harry
    Markus Anderson with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex and her mother, Doria Ragland.
    Canadian waiter turned Soho House director Markus Anderson was allegedly the person to have introduced Prince Harry and the then Meghan Markle. This “champagne partial” individual has been repeatedly linked also to Omid Scobie online on sites such as Quora whilst the site ‘Royal Analysis’ has reported: “Well, apparently, Omid and Markus used to be very close. I don’t think it’s out of the question for Markus to have facilitated Meghan and Omid getting together to strategize about what positive press coverage Omid could give to Meghan.”
  • A Metropolitan Mess

    A Metropolitan Mess

    Though Darren Grimes is frankly nothing but an irritating Brexiteer brat, the Metropolitan Police investigation into his conduct as an interviewer is nothing but ludicrous

    Darren Grimes, quite frankly, is someone nobody rational would normally feel any kind of affinity with. Aside from his grating nasal tones, this ropey right-wing Brexiteer brat defended the indefensible when he blubbed: “This is actually breaking my heart” over Dominic Cummings’ Barnard Castle incident and his involvement in the 2016 referendum itself was nothing but a disgrace.

     

    Now, however, with news that Grimes is to face a Metropolitan Police investigation over an interview he conducted with the out-and-out racist historian David Starkey, we unsurprisingly find ourselves agreeing with even Brendan O’Neill of Spiked whom rightly termed such “a disgraceful attack on press freedom.”

     

    Whilst the personal views of Grimes, like those that inspire him including Milo Yiannopolous and Andre Walker, are undoubtedly laughable, no supporter of democracy would justifiably prevent his right to hold such opinions. Equally, investigating him for what was essentially a discussion where a historian made a clearly racist remark is anything but rational.

     

    As O’Neill points out in his analysis: “This is about the fundamental right of journalists, reporters and podcasters to discuss anything they want with anyone they choose. For the police to investigate a journalist simply for facilitating a discussion, for asking a public figure questions, is an extreme act of authoritarianism.”

     

    The Metropolitan Police need to see sense and cease their investigation into Darren Grimes. To do otherwise will simply be yet another own goal by their crackpot chief Cressida Dick and another nail in the coffin of rationality and reason.

     

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    https://twitter.com/darrengrimes_/status/1314608615077052417
  • Crackpot Cassandra meets AWOL Assange

    Crackpot Cassandra meets AWOL Assange

    Julian Assange achieves a new low by hanging out with a whack job Trump supporter who previously supported Black Lives Matters and Bernie Sanders

     

    Julian Assange’s pathetically small ragbag of supporters are once again bleating and this time that bleating comes from the mouth of a most confused young lady.

     

    In an article for The Gateway Pundit – a little known hotchpotch rant sheet that cites itself as being “Where Hope Finally Made a Comeback” and a publication that claims: “We report the truth – and leave the Russia-Collusion fairy tale to the Conspiracy media” – a Donald Trump supporting “political activist” named Cassandra Fairbanks claimed Assange’s living conditions are “more akin to [a] Stasi-era dissident than an award-winning publisher with asylum.”

     

    “Social media star” Fairbanks – whose favourite quote is said to be “Build the Wall” in spite of her previously being a backer of Bernie Sanders – is, in fact, just like Assange in several regards: This queen of contradictions is a bit of self-promoting, self-obsessed sort and she plainly craves constant attention.

     

    On Twitter, this Silver Springs, Maryland based former liberal tells her 156,000 followers that the “Federal court says ‘I trolled the web through Twitter’” and that she is “an information terrorist according to Wired.” She previously was said to be “distinguished for her liberal campaigns” but has now wholeheartedly U-turned and become a fully-fledged Trumpette.

     

    In spite of helping to organise the ‘DeploraBall’ to celebrate the inauguration of Donald Trump in 2017, Fairbanks has also been involved with the “hacktivist” group Anonymous and once came out in support of immigrants by saying: “Why should an invisible line created by some [politicians] dictate where we can and cannot go? If I want to go to the beach at 11pm I should be able to. If I feel like rowing a boat to Australia, why can’t I just go?”

     

    Wally of the Week – Russian born Max Hammet-Millay has benefitted from all the privileges of being welcomed to Britain; he now wants to pull up the drawbridge. This private school educated adopted Russian brat called Anna Soubry MP a “Nazi” and a “traitor” on 7th January 2019.
    Cassandra Fairbanks at the White House

     

    Previously a reporter for the Russian state funded news agency Sputnik News and also at one-time a supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement, Fairbanks lost a defamation suit in June 2018 against a former Fusion journalist, Emma Roller. Fairbanks had claimed Roller “maliciously” retweeted an image of her allegedly giving a white power hand gesture.

     

    In her article for The Gateway Pundit, published Thursday after Fairbanks having visited Assange at the Embassy of Ecuador in Knightsbridge the previous Monday, the self-proclaimed “grassroots journalist” claimed his hosts were imposing “draconian” conditions on the bail dodger and keeping him in something “like a scene from the Stasi spy drama The Lives of Others.”

     

    Refusing to acknowledge that Julian Assange chose his very own path is one thing, but that Fairbanks moaned about his hosts being “spies… even noting his general mood” is another. She refers to the Ecuadorians as “menacing” and “shadowy state actor[s]” and their embassy as like a “federal penitentiary.” In doing so, this plainly delusional woman ignores the most important fact: Nobody is forcing Julian Assange to remain holed up with people she views to be baddies. He could end this farce and he could finally do the decent thing: It is time for Julian Assange to surrender himself to the British police.

     

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  • Robin Leach (1941 – 2018)

    Robin Leach (1941 – 2018)

    “With champagne wishes and caviar dreams” was the famous signoff of London born Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous host Robin Leach. Harrow High School educated, this one-time Daily Mail reporter moved to the US in 1963 with $145 in his pocket and after briefly becoming a shoe salesman founded a music publication named Go Magazine.

     

    After selling up “at considerable profit,” Leach worked for The National Star and CNN before coming up with Lifestyles in 1984. He attributed the show’s popularity to Jimmy Carter exiting the White House and boasted: “[It was] because the Reagans brought in an aura of wealth. Jimmy Carter was too ordinary. So, when Reagan came in, it was time for a show about wealth and success… Hear this: In the course of an hour, I deliver twice as much audio information and visual images as any other show on television. I’m fast and loud on purpose. I cram 10 pounds of caviar into an eight-pound pack.”

     

    “Sensational, not scandalous” in his approach, twice married, father of three Leach’s subjects numbered everyone from Celine Dion to Madonna and Adnan Khashoggi and Donald Trump. As a result this celebrant of wealth and capitalism became a millionaire and pretty famous himself and in 2007, in the Fergie song Glamorous featuring Ludacris, the latter rapped: “Lifestyles so rich and famous, Robin Leach’ll get jealous.” With his passing, most certainly, this much parodied “life of the party” has most definitely moved to the skies.

     

    Robin Leach (1941 – 2018) – “With champagne wishes and caviar dreams” was the famous signoff of London born Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous host Robin Leach.Robin Leach (1941 – 2018) – “With champagne wishes and caviar dreams” was the famous signoff of London born Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous host Robin Leach.Robin Leach (1941 – 2018) – “With champagne wishes and caviar dreams” was the famous signoff of London born Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous host Robin Leach.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrZtqe_zrOw

     

  • Politics With The Pun

    Politics With The Pun

    David Pun gobbled his way through General Election 2017 and was captured on camera by a Mail on Sunday reporter

     

    Mail on Sunday reporter Ned Donovan secured the photo of the evening on General Election night 2017 in capturing party crasher extraordinaire David Pun at the Institute of Directors in Pall Mall, London in the early hours of 9th June.

     

    In the image, shared on Twitter, Pun – whose claims to his connections at both Harvey Nichols and Peninsula Hotels frequently astound those he meets and whose position on a roll call of ‘shoppers’ in Queensway brought laughter to readers of The Steeple Times in April this year – is pictured raiding a tray of bacon baps as Lady Nugee (AKA Emily Thornberry MP) looks down from an overhead television screen.

     

    Whilst Pun’s voting preferences got no mention, sadly nor did where fellow liggers Denis Doble and Sandra Shevey ended up on that night’s rampage. Whether they got trolleyed with ‘Team Theresa’ at Conservative Central Office or naughty with Nigel Farage at 5 Hertford Street, no doubt canapés aplenty were snaffled.

     

    #Puntastic #NoPunNoParty

     

    Politics With The Pun – David Pun spotted on #GE2017 night – Party crasher David Pun gobbled his way through General Election 2017 and was captured on camera by Mail on Sunday reporter Ned Donovan.

  • Trumping a Visa

    Trumping a Visa

    Kushner family exposed for promoting their links to the Trump presidency to flog flats (with visas) to Chinese investors

     

    Yesterday, The Washington Post, in revealing that the Kushner family are hawking properties complete with investor visas, illustrated yet another appalling example of what is fast becoming the shadiest presidential dynasty in history.

     

    According to the paper, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner’s sister, Nicole Kushner Meyer, was in Beijing on Saturday to promote a New Jersey apartment complex named Kushner 1 to “a ballroom full of wealthy Chinese investors”. The event, which had been promoted with a brochure tagged: “Invest $500,000 and immigrate to the United States”.

     

    Of the way in which the Kushner family behaved, Richard Painter, former chief White House ethics lawyer in President George W. Bush’s administration remarked:

     

    It’s incredibly stupid and highly inappropriate. They clearly imply that the Kushners are going to make sure you get your visa… They’re [Chinese applicants] not going to take a chance. Of course they’re going to want to invest”.

     

    Unsurprisingly, journalists found themselves evicted from the shindig. The Kushners’ reasoning? “The presence of foreign reporters threatened the ‘stability’ of the event. This is not the story we want”.

     

    Pictured above (left to right): Nicole Kushner Meyer, Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump Kushner and Donald Trump.

     

    Trumping a Visa – Jared Kushner’s family exposed for promoting their links to the Trump presidency to flog flats (with visas) to Chinese investors by The Washington Post – Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump Kushner, Donald Trump, Nicole Kushner Meyer, Kushner 1, China.

  • You’ve been fenced!

    You’ve been fenced!

    ‘Daily Mail’ publishes a non-story about a couple who are wrongly claiming to being “held prisoner” by their neighbours (more…)

  • Bloomberg blooms

    Bloomberg blooms

    Michael Bloomberg back at the helm at Bloomberg

     

    Billionaire businessman Michael Bloomberg is to unexpectedly resume control of his eponymous financial data and media company at the end of the year just eight months after ending his final term as New York’s mayor. (more…)

  • James Foley (1973 – 2014)

    James Foley (1973 – 2014)

    James FoleyThis twice kidnapped “man of courage and dignity” was a “miner of truth” who bravely reported from war zones. Photojournalist James Foley was born in Rochester, New Hampshire and killed by a cowardly hooded ISIS executioner in Syria. As his friend and fellow Libyan hostage Nicholas Hénin commented: “He stayed upright and dignified to the end”.

     

  • Investigating Tulisa

    Investigating Tulisa

    In the wake of the collapse of the Tulisa Contostavlos drugs trial, we examine the merits of investigative journalism

     

    Tulisa Contostavlos declared she’d had a “rollercoaster of a week” after she was convicted of assault in one case yet saw off another after it was thrown out due to the “serious misconduct” on the part of key witnesses for the prosecution. Tonight, the singer will appear in a BBC Three documentary that will “lift the lid” on that trial and provide her with a sounding board to share her thoughts on investigative journalism in general. (more…)