Justice for Michelle Palmer

The British press have been reporting heavily on a story about a British couple accused of having sex in public in Dubai, a crime with serious penalties—I'm sure you've heard about it. But the story that they're continuing to push has changed in significant ways. Instead of a story about a British couple committing a felony abroad that would barely merit a misdemeanor at home, in headlines and ledes papers like the Guardian broadcast that a British woman, singular, has been arrested for having sex. Vince Acors, the man who is associated with the accusation (that is, the other person having sex in that spot on the beach), is only ever introduced several grafs into the article—and in such a way that the reader would be forgiven for guessing that the woman will be convicted while the man will be vindicated by circumstances as a hapless accomplice. Acors, described as the "co-accused," appears only in the fourth graf of this Times story, which features a profile picture of the sultry Jezebel.

Of course, this whole thing is a crying shame—but the British press can hardly say so. By focusing on Palmer, by peddling the subtext that the real sensation here is that a slut had sex in public, British editors are basically knowingly toeing the Islamofascist line.