Giving air to the "pervs"

Although, not specifically about The Sun, The Sun is mentioned heavily in an article by Peter Wilby in the Guardian on the hypocrisy of the tabloids in the treatment of Gary Glitter/Paul Gadd.

Sparked by a comment by the Daily Mails' columnist Amanda Platell

"Who gave this reptilian exhibitionist the oxygen of publicity? Who propelled him to world notoriety and made his claims for state protection legitimate?"

Strangely (or not) blaming Jaqui Smith.

The paragraph that is of most interest to us, is the following:

[the] "pervs" play an important role in defining the boundary between the respectable folk who read and produce redtop papers and what sociologists call "the other". The Sun may publish revealing pictures of women just above the age of consent, as well as of flat-chested models, sometimes dressed as young schoolgirls. Anybody who objects is roundly denounced as "politically correct". But to assure us they are not encouraging paedophilia, the redtops must denounce, even more vehemently, anybody who lays a finger on anyone aged 15 years 364 days or less. This explains why Glitter's name can never appear without being shepherded by such words as brute, evil, foul, depraved, monster, scum and, specially brought out by the Sun's Lorraine Kelly for the occasion,"toxic effluent".

.

Also a slightly shorter quote from Matthew Norman in his diary, specifically about the Sun, that is just as scathing:

We've all witnessed some horrendous abuses of power by that newspaper down the decades, but nothing, I think, as viscerally repulsive as this.