We entrap, judge decides

Poor Posh Spice. Famous now mainly for being married to David Beckham, trying to get a US publicity machine going, and now it turns out she can't even get kidnapped! Trashy UK tabloid the News of the World, sister media organisation to the Fox News Channel within the glorious Murdoch Empire, had trumpeted a big scoop last November in which they claimed to have infiltrated and broken up a plot to kidnap Posh. The suspects identified by the World were on trial for conspiracy to kidnap, but the case has now collapsed. It was revealed that the World's source had a dodgy criminal record himself, and more alarmingly, had been paid for his story. The prosecution saw just too many holes in his story and decided to abort the case. The paper could now be prosecuted itself.

We think it's only a matter of time before a similar journalism-induced legal fiasco hits the US. It's impossible not to notice the UK tabloid influence on the US operations of Rupert Murdoch, and in fact it's sometimes forgotten that pompous Scottish twit Andrew Neil was an important influence in the early days of the Fox News Channel, even though Roger Ailes (not the blogger) seems to taking all the credit for it now. Then again, the type of media that can get so worked about some funny stuff at the New York Times would never engage in any funny stuff of its own, right?