Was the nation’s press trolled grayled by the justice secretary?
The legal Twittersphere spent yesterday loudly venting its frustration at the mainstream media’s reporting of the “news” that the maximum sentence for online trolling had been quadrupled.
As lawyer and blogger David Allen Green (@JackofKent) pointed out, this is an old story, with the trolling sentence increase part of the Criminal Justice and Courts Bill since July.
Yet, the Mail on Sunday seems to have been duped into treating it as some kind of exclusive, writing yesterday:
“Justice Secretary Chris Grayling revealed to The Mail on Sunday that the maximum six month sentence for internet abuse will be quadrupled.”
The story was then picked up by pretty much every other media outlet in the country. Had they been trolled by Grayling?
Wonder if Grayling has been cynically misleading people just so to get a response?
There's a word for that, you know.
— Jack of Kent (@JackofKent) October 19, 2014
Or, put more succinctly, had they been “grayled”?
Let's change it from "trolling" to "grayling".
— Al Murray (@almurray) October 19, 2014