Homeless Journalist=Media Lies?

[conspiracy analyst]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/dec/15/tvnews.television

Housing benefit exists.
Even child benefit is issued to EU citizens who don't live in the UK.

Can he not fill a form in? Or has the form become too difficult?

A 'homeless' journalist who used to be on a six-figure salary.
Whatever next? A journalist that deals with truth in the news?

April fools is still a long way away.

[TonyGosling]

Sympathy might be appropriate for someone whose life has gone through the floor.

[marky 54]

ive seen lots of homeless people and have experieced hardship myself bar losing the roof over my head and let me tell you most are not clean shaven well fed and walking around in cloths that look as new as the day they were bought.

there is something false about that photo or maybe im just to mistrusting.

[catfish]

Blessed are the meek and poor. When I was homeless I kept myself and my clothes (all two of them) clean in public toilets. Maybe everyone forgets or doesn't know that is easy to fall by the wayside. To find that everything has gone. It takes a special kind of person to pull you out of that. I thank the beautiful big world that somebody did see fit to pull me out of that. kiss. kiss. cars run on water. find out for yourself. don't wait for someone to prove it to you. It'll probably be too late.

Love and peace

David

[conspiracy analyst]

[utopiated]

I've been in squats and homeless in the past. On one level it's true that these days you can get housed and need not get chucked out on the street if you don't blow your rent on crack, smack and 'ho binges.

However we need to look at why some ppl choose/decide not to use the facilities that are there. This is because it's a fair task to get sufficient status to qualify. Secondly we need to ask why we put vulnerable ppl in sh*t housing... some people either come out of jail or rehab and are back into the usual social pits of dispair - so no wonder they up and leave or subconsciously screw things up.

There is NO COMMUNITY any more which used to be a support network. Instead we have faceless DSS bureaucrats etc who are meant to fulfill that role with endless form filling and sitting in urine-stinking drop-ins/offices.

[conspiracy analyst]

My post wasn't a general one regarding homelessness in general though I don't have a problem debating that one. It was specific to this media story.

It has now emerged from an interview with his mother who is 82 that he has been living with her for three months in the summer, months he alleged he was homeless on the streets, has thousands of pounds of designer clothes and is nothing more than the average pisshead.

In other words the whole story was fake from beginning to end.

[utopiated]

[conspiracy analyst]

[conspiracy analyst]

You couldn't make this up taking into account he fronts Business News for CNN. Or is it a typical clearout from the the company under dubious allegations?

http://tinyurl.com/5qsfsq
KINKY NEWS NETWORK
CNN'S QUEST A VERY 'KNOTTY' BOY
By DAREH GREGORIAN and PHILIP MESSING
TYING ONE ON: CNN broadcaster Richard Quest was busted in the wee hours in Central Park yesterday with a rope tied to his neck and genitals. "I've got some meth in my pocket," he helpfully told the arresting officer.


April 19, 2008 --

This is CNN? Kinky!

CNN personality Richard Quest was busted in Central Park early yesterday with some drugs in his pocket, a rope around his neck that was tied to his genitals, and a sex toy in his boot, law-enforcement sources said.

Quest, 46, was arrested at around 3:40 a.m. after a cop spotted him and another man inside the park near 64th Street, a police source said.

The criminal complaint against Quest said the park was closed at the time - something Quest should have known because of all the signs saying "Park Closed 1 a.m. to 6 a.m."

Quest was initially busted for loitering, the source said. Aside from the oddly configured rope, the search also turned up a sex toy inside of his boot, and a small bag of methamphetamine in his left jacket pocket.

It wasn't immediately clear what the rope was for.

The criminal complaint says the officer at the scene was able to ID the drug because of "his prior experience as a police officer in drug arrests, observation of packaging which is characteristic of this type of drug, and defendant's statements that . . . 'I've got some meth in my pocket.' "

He was charged with loitering and criminal possession of a controlled substance. His unusual get-up didn't lead to a lewdness charge because he wasn't exposing himself, the police source said.

Quest's unidentified companion was given a summons for not carrying any identification, the source said.

Quest's lawyer, Alan Abramson, had a much more innocuous version of events.

"Mr. Quest didn't realize that the park had a curfew," Abramson said. He was simply "returning to his hotel with friends."

At a hearing in Manhattan Criminal Court, Quest agreed to undergo six months of drug counseling in return for an "adjournment in contemplation of dismissal," which means the misdemeanor charges against him will be dropped and the case sealed if he stays out of trouble and completes his drug program.

He was released with no bail after spending most of the day behind bars.

Abramson predicted after the hearing that "the case will be dismissed." He declined to answer questions.

Quest, known for his hollering antics and stunts on the cable news network and its international counterpart, declined comment, as did a CNN spokeswoman.

On his official CNN bio, the network calls him "one of the most instantly recognizable members of the CNN team."

"He has become one of the network's highest profile presenters," and his "dynamic and distinctive style has made him a unique figure in the field of business and news broadcasting," the network's Web site says.

He was reportedly once offered a position for the English-language version of the controversial Al Jazeera network, but said he turned it down because being gay and Jewish, he didn't think it would be a good fit.

Additional reporting by Adam Buckman