Red Rag

Oooh! Scandal!

When Miranda’s post about the lovely Andrew Bolt first appeared, it was introduced thusly:

Following my conversation with Andrew Bolt earlier this week, Andrew’s column in the Sunday Herald Sun featured this article. However, since the Herald Sun deadline, we at Two Cents have discovered further evidence to suggest that the name ‘Marieke Hardy’ is a pseudonyn for Diana Elgar (see Alexander’s upcoming post).

Ben Butler adopted his best Media Watch tone and emailed Bolta:

Why didn’t you tell your readers that you’ve met — and been interviewed by — Airey-Branson?

Why didn’t you tell your readers that your column was the result of a conversation with Airey-Branson?

He replied:

I have never met Miranda, and had not talked to her before I wrote that article.

Strange. I could have sworn she interviewed him in Farrago (where she admitted that, “Being a Liberal is not sexy.” You got that right).

Stranger still is the fact that Miranda’s post has now changed:

Andrew Bolt’s column in the Sunday Herald Sun featured this article.

That’s it. No mention of her amazing influence with a Respected National (read: Victorian) Journalist, and no mention of Alexander’s kooky conspiracy theory.

Unfortunately, she is too thick to do the job properly, and this later comment remains intact:

I first alerted Andrew Bolt to the smear campaign being launched against me.

Bolt is obviously ashamed of the fact that he sources his columns from bitter Liberal students who can’t hack a little bit of criticism on the internet.

It really is quite embarrassing. To quote the subject of his rant:

Can we just leave it by saying that in a week where Yasser Arafat is close to death and George Bush wins the US election , Andrew Bolt chose to write his column on…. me?

If you want to drop Bolt a line to ask him about his priorities — and his [honesty] — you can reach him on bolta@heraldsun.com.au(.)

(This just keeps getting better.)

Update: This post has been slightly altered. Details here.

Update: New information in point 22 here.

I’ve been waiting for days to see what the Two Cents crowd would dig up about Ms Fits’ secret past. It all started when they told us she has a string of aliases:

Diana Elgar (who we believe writes professionally under the name Marieke Hardy)

The idea that she writes professionally under the name Marieke Hardy because that is her name didn’t cross the minds of these conspiracists. No, there had to be more to it, and we were urged to:

Stay tuned for an update.

Well, the “update” came, in the form of an Andrew Bolt “hatchet job” and another Two Cents post entitled “Watch it, Diana!” In it, Miranda Panda quotes Bolt’s ludicrous column, but replaces references to “Marieke Hardy” with “[Diana Elgar]“.

Tantalisingly, Alexander then promised he would pull off her mask to reveal the truth:

[M]y story as to how we found out that Ms Fits is Marieke Hardy is Diana Elgar… will (pending legal clarification) be made public either tomorrow or [T]uesday.

So when I checked back after a day in the library, eager to hear the latest about Alexander’s super-sleuth abilities, what did I find?

If this blogger is right, then our theory that Marieke Hardy’s real name is in fact Diana Elgar could be incorrect.

Really? The Two Cents collective “could be incorrect”?

I bet that came as a shock to most of you.

Here’s a clue, Alex:

Biography for Marieke Hardy

Birth name:
Marieke Josephine Hardy

Trivia:
Daughter of Alan Hardy and Galia Hardy
Granddaughter of Frank Hardy

Well, gee, that was difficult.

(Oh, and Alex? This is not real.)

I’ve collated all my posts about Pandagate. Start at the bottom and work your way up.

Anyone else think it’s telling that Miranda “Ooh, you’re so sexy Mr Bolt” Airey-Branson describes her hero’s latest effort as “a hatchet job”?

Move over Nostradamus. Buck Fudd predicted the subject of Andrew Bolt’s column. Miranda must be pleased with herself — pathetic and predictable.

I always suspected Andrew Bolt was crazy. Now we have proof: he thinks Blue Heelers “is unwittingly helping to push us into the abyss of despair.” Blue Heelers! (Actually, I agree with him, but not for the same demented reasons.)

Another Melbourne Uni tory blog bites the dust.

I wrote earlier that Alex Lew had second thoughts about posting Michael Danby’s fiancee’s photo to Hot or Not. I thought he must have realised how truly pathetic that would be, and decided to take the high ground.

How wrong I was.

Instead, he decided to crawl even further into the gutter. He’s posted her picture to the site, but is too gutless to admit he did it, writing instead that

some enterprising young chap has posted a photograph of Ms Amanda Mendes da Costa on hotornot.com. I am not one to judge people by their looks, but that doesn’t stop you.

Hot or Not — and Mr Danby — have been notified about Lew’s disgusting behaviour. He in not only using the site to harrass someone, he’s also submitted an image whose copyright is held by the Victorian Bar, so I doubt if it will remain on the site for long.

Meanwhile, it’s come to my attention that some of my readers think along the following lines:

It’s cheap humour to pay out on someone’s looks. That said, I believe Darp raised the valid point that Miranda has seen fit to mock and humiliate the appearance of others on her own blog, so perhaps the lesson is a bit of old school Bible eg “Do unto others…” It would seem that insulting other people’s appearances for easy laughs is great fun, until it happens to you in which case it’s time to get outraged.

If there’s someone out there that wants to test that theory, I’m sure the necessary ingredients can be found around the place.

And another thing: Andrew Bolt mentions Pandagate in his latest column, a 700-word whinge about Ms Fits and swearwords. Diddums, you big fucking sook.

After I told Rohan D’Souza he could run but he couldn’t hide, he has owned up to authorsip of the defamatory anti-Danby post, and is once again named on the Two Cents sidebar. Meanwhile, Alex Lew posted a quiz about Yasser Arafat, but now it’s unavailable from the main index. That’s the second post he’s deleted today. Come on, guys, make up your mind. Update: Okay, now the poll is back, but this time it’s posted by Miranda. Apparently, Alex thinks for her.

Remember I said the Liberals were a bit sad for accusing Alex of “stalking” when they’re the ones who dig up personal information about people and harrass their employers? Well, here’s another endearing tale:

I got a phone call today. It was some random guy who wanted to talk about the political views expressed on my blog: he called me cynical, left-wing and against America, and asked me why I was obsessed with student politicians; why I chase after them. He’d hacked through the LJ friends-lock to get my phone number.

This is just plain rude. My email address is on the info page. Anyone who wants to converse with me privately can use that. If you want to converse publicly, just comment on an entry. If you think I’m too cynical, hacking into my journal doesn’t exactly inspire faith in human nature.

The student politician allegedly “chased” was Miranda Airey-Branson, who the LJer knows from high school.

Charming people, aren’t they?

A little while ago I read Graham’s comment that while “Pandagate seems to be hot topic” at the moment, “we’ll all be bored with this by Monday.”

He’s probably right, I thought, this hasn’t got far to run.

Oh, but it does.

I popped back to Two Cents, the current affairs blog, to see what was happening in the thread on Miranda’s latest post.

I’d pointed out that it was hypocritical to complain about people teasing your physical appearance, and then to criticise Michael Moore’s physical appearance. Later, I argued that Alex Lew’s censorship policy was based on flawed premises. It’s hard to complain about personal attacks in a thread that started with Miranda’s personal attack on Moore.

I also pointed out that it was hypocritical to delete comments containing “allegations that you cannot backup” when Rohan D’Souza’s defamatory rant about Michael Danby was allowed to stay on the site. I guess that last comment struck a nerve, because it was deleted. I know it’s hard to cope when someone makes a good point, but do you have to delete it?

It’s not just me who thinks it’s a good point. Rohan’s obviously a bit worried about his defamatory words, because his name has disappeared from the list of contributors in the blog’s sidebar, and the post now claims to have been written by “Global Warming”. The Liberals might think global warming is a mythical creature, but we know it’s real — and we know its name is Rohan D’Souza.

You can run, but you can’t hide.

Meanwhile, how has the Panda Gang’s harrassment campaign been going? Perhaps inspired by Dear Leader, they decided it would be a good idea to spam a member of the Victorian parliament. The reason I mention this again is that they’ve hit a slight snag — the email form provider has (shock, horror) decided to suspend their account.

Alex Lew says he’s not sure what the problem is, but those of us living in the real world will have little difficulty in understanding this provision of the Bravenet terms of service:

You may not use the Products and Services to:

(v) “Stalk” or otherwise harass another…

It’s quite sad that if Alex takes a photo of Miranda campaiging in the Melbourne Uni elections, they jump up and down about him “stalking” her — but apparently it’s okay for them to send bulk emails to his boss, or, more recently, to dig up information about Ms Fits and spam her employer, too.

Unfortunately for the Liberals, Bravenet has more common sense than they.

I’m getting tired of using the word “hypocrite” so frequently, so pick a nice synonym yourself.

Update: Poor Miranda. Or rather, poor Miranda’s sister. Apparently everyone at Girton Grammar School — including sis’s friends and teachers — are following the saga, and “think she’s gone nuts”. Hardly surprising, really.

Update: Rohan’s decided to put his name to his work again.

Before I move on from the Miranda Panda story, I should say I’m not impressed by people bagging Ms Airey-Branson’s physical appearance. She had an eating disorder at one point, so it’s hardly the most tactful approach to take. That said, she and her clique have been relying on Alex White’s weight and sexuality in their cheap shots against him. Another example of Liberal hypocrisy.

Yeesh. I first read about Miranda Airey-Branson when her lacklustre stint as editor of Farrago came up at Make Believe.

Then she and her tory mates showed up at Alex White’s blog and, when they couldn’t hack losing the Melbourne Uni elections, started spamming his boss.

Yesterday The Age mentioned Miranda — and her bizarre online rantings — in an article about the Liberals’ dodgy tactics in the seat of Melbourne Ports:

Young Liberals posed as “bogus Green campaign workers” on election day to trick Green supporters into voting Liberal, federal Labor MP Michael Danby has claimed.

In a formal complaint to the Australian Electoral Commission, Mr Danby said the Green how-to-vote cards for his seat of Melbourne Ports – handed out by young women in green T-shirts and caps — misled voters.

[...]

One of the young women named in the complaint was Miranda Airey-Branson, 20, a Liberal editor of Melbourne University student newspaper Farrago.

She is also known for her webdiary, which promotes her fake tanning regimen, gives the size of her breasts, advertises her dislike of “prudes” who attack Paris Hilton’s sex video, and tells of her love for horses.

“Society is all talk and no erection,” she recently wrote online, followed by the observation: “I have morals, you know — I keep them in a shoe box under my bed.”

That’s when the fun started.
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