Pete's situation

["L. Bird" <pkeets@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Here's something posted in response to discussion on another list, but I 
though it might be of interest here, too:

If we are to believe the press had correct information, then Phil Collins 
was the other major UK rock star who was implicated in the investigation.  
About a week after Pete's announcment, media reporters camped on Collins' 
lawn.  There were some differences in how it was handled--probably because 
of the personality of the star concerned, and also because of the example 
set with Pete's case.

The reporters failed to trap Collins in his Swiss house--he was gone to 
Cannes and not at home.  He made no statement whatever on the matter.  His 
management company and the Swiss authorities both denied that his name was 
on a list provided to the Swiss authorities (which is not to say it wasn't 
on a UK list).  The story quickly fell out of the news.

Assuming Collins is guilty, he hasn't lied because he hasn't said 
anything--he's only avoided the matter, so it's possible something could 
come out later.  It's still hanging over him, in other words.  Pete took the 
course of honesty.  This is always good for the soul, but it has had obvious 
problems.  The press was unsympathetic and presented Pete as guilty.  
Because of this, the sin is now on them.

I think the only alternative would have been for Pete or his agent to deny 
the accusations, which has the risk of being misunderstood as a lie. There's 
no sign that the press would actually have left him alone if he had refused 
to make a statement.  He didn't have a residence in a different country to 
obscure the issue, and I gather you can't call up the police in the UK and 
ask to have the press run off your property.  Plus, he had already stated 
publically that he had been to child porn websites, both in interviews and 
on his website, and this would have been easy for the press to find out.  
I'm sure they would have continued to hound him, and the story would have 
gotten around one way or the other.

The only real use for making this kind of splash in the media is to point 
out the issues involved.  For one thing, this does seem to have generated a 
new Sex Offenses Bill.  If this was already planned (does anyone know?), 
then I think Pete's case has at least affected the content.  If Pete turns 
out to be clean, then he has a certain amount of political karma to ask for 
social change because of where the sin lies, but I guess the choice of what 
to do with it lies with him.  Working on the child porn issue is one 
possibility, but another would be the way celebrities are treated in the UK. 
 It does look very bad internationally.

keets

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