I shot the Clerk.

It would appear that I am a misogynist. I know this may come as a surprise to some of you, but it is what it is.

This morning, Louise Mensch, MP for Corby and canny social media user, added some of the horrifying sexist abuse that passes for how to treat a woman on the internet to her favourites list so she could share it with the world. This is the sort of thing that should be done to expose the seedy underbelly of sexist, racist and downright hateful idiots that prove the Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory daily. There was just one problem; I was on that list.

Now, hopefully, many of you would instantly see that my jibe isn’t one suggesting Louise Mensch get her kit off, but one that conflated her outrage at misogyny with her undying and over-the-top support of Rupert Murdoch, purveyor of The Sun, famed for its topless women paraded on Page 3, and hopefully laid out its utter hypocrisy in one short tweet.

Unfortunately, it didn’t get interpreted that way. I expect this from The Telegraph, as this falls firmly into their narrative, but even The Independent labelled me as one of the worst examples of misogynistic tweets.

As I don’t buy my ink by the barrel, this little blog post will not make anywhere nearly the same sized splash as the original reporting, but that’s the price we willingly pay for a free press. I’m sure Ms Mensch agrees with me on that point, at least. I stand by my stance that supporting Rupert Murdoch while, at the same time, railing against misogyny is hypocritical, but I do regret, if nothing else, the timing of my statement.

Update: @Hannah_Furness of the Telegraph contacted me and updated her article accordingly. Oh, and Darren Saunders said nice things about me, too.