What could explain the publication, then mysteriously swift deletion of national media stories concerning the charging of Michael Gove’s former partner and Oxford professor Lola Salem with possession of indecent images of children?
When the news broke last week, articles were rushed online by the Daily Telegraph, Mail, GB News, LBC and others… only for them to be hastily deleted. Two contending theories ran on social media, which as usual filled the void of actual information with wild conspiracy.
Suggested Reading
How Milo can Gove’s Spectator go?
Theory 1: That some sort of court order was in place that had been missed by the newspapers who – upon realising their grave error – swiftly killed the articles.
Theory 2: The highly improbable (given the inevitable outcome of such an action ever being made public) notion that Gove, who lived with Professor Salem for two years, himself pulled in favours to have the story killed.
Whatever the truth, the story suddenly re-emerged on Tuesday afternoon in precisely the same detail as the articles that mysteriously disappeared just two days earlier. This has not put an end to any speculation.
Nor has the mass deletion of articles from publications Ms Salem wrote for; most notably the Spectator magazine, currently edited by… Michael Gove.
Salem’s recent Spectator article headlined “You cannot devolve a culture that you cannot define” has been vanished from the magazine’s website, along with her author page. Good news for fans of the right wing art historian though; it is now republished on her own Substack alongside the note: “This is a reprint of my article in The Spectator, published on 9 October 2026, which mysteriously vanished.”
Suggested Reading
Kemi Badenoch finally admits: I don’t know what I’m talking about
The Catholic Herald, to which she contributed regularly, has also eradicated Salem’s back catalogue from their website, although other right wing publications are proving more loyal than the Spectator – her work still appears on the websites of the Daily Telegraph and The Critic magazine.
The conspiracies have plenty of time to fester; according to TNW contributor Mic Wright’s media Substack, Conquest Of The Useless, Professor Salem, suspended since June from her role at Oriel College, Oxford, and free on bail, will not face trial for another 18 months – in March 2028.
It is understood her defence will centre on her being sent the four images, three Category B and one Category C, unsolicited. By whom, it is not known.
Most popular
How Trump and the Republicans screwed it all up
Suella Braverman’s book has sold only 106 copies. This is why
Trump’s snuff politics is a new low in American cruelty
I was at Eton with Charles Spencer – this is how it explains his battle with the royals
