Dear Gossips,  

Trigger warning for sexual assault: 

Dan Wootton was a tabloid reporter working for the News of the World before it shut down after the phone hacking scandal, and then he moved over to the Sun and the Daily Mail. He’s now a presenter on GB News, which is basically the UK’s Fox. He’s always been a controversial personality and has become even more notorious these last few years for his attacks on Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. 

 

For years, however, there have been underground rumours circulating about Dan himself. Last week those rumours started to surface. 

 

And then on Friday, this Twitter post went viral. 

 

Dan was on holiday in New Zealand last week. He returned to England and was back on the air yesterday. And just as he was broadcasting, this was published: 

A three year investigation. Documents handed over to the Metropolitan Police last month. And this, of course, follows the scandals of two other presenters – Phillip Schofield earlier this year and Huw Edwards a week ago which the mainstream media is still covering right now. 

 

And yet, there’s been no mention of the allegations against Dan Wootton, which he reportedly denies, in the mainstream or the tabloid media even though the Mail and the Sun and GB news were all over Schofield and Edwards. 

 

Dan Wootton is credibly accused of sexual assault, sexual harassment, catfishing, extortion, bullying – heinous f-cking behaviour. And somehow if you google his name (I write this at 8am ET on Tuesday 18 July) what comes up at the Daily Mail about him is the last bullsh-t column he wrote several weeks ago about Harry and Meghan. The tabloids ignoring a television presenter’s sex scandal?! What is this world? 

And you will note, these are the same tabloids that have shaped public opinion on so many public figures, often negatively. So there are the stories – and lies – they choose to cover and publish and then those that they arbitrarily avoid. Think about the effect that has on public opinion, on how those subjects are perceived over the course of not just weeks and months but years. That damage is almost irreversible. Dan Wootton is an active participant in that process. And the powerful media outlets that he’s associated with seem to be protecting him. 

Yours in gossip, 

Lainey