Can anyone explain the Dan Wootton "Martin Branning" story? Am I naive?

[muriel_volestrangler]

The Sun’s parent company has hired external lawyers to help investigate “very serious” allegations regarding Dan Wootton’s time at the tabloid, the Guardian has been told.

Wootton is facing allegations he used a pseudonym to secretly offer current and former Sun colleagues tens of thousands of pounds in return for sexual material.
...
The presenter denied any illegal behaviour but he did not directly address whether he had ever sent emails using the name Martin Branning. It is claimed that this pseudonym was used during Wootton’s time at the Sun to approach many serving and former Sun employees with the offer of five-figure sums in return for performing sex acts on camera.

The Guardian has spoken to seven current and former Sun employees who say they received emails from Martin Branning – understood to be a portmanteau of EastEnders characters Martin Fowler and Max Branning. All claim they were offered large sums of money in return for pictures.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/jul/19/news-uk-hires-lawyers-to-look-at-claims-against-former-sun-columnist

An ex-boyfriend of Wootton says he used the "Martin Branning" pseudonym.

What I can't understand is how he (or anyone else using a pesudonym) expects an anonymous solicitation for something that would probably leave you open to blackmail would be received. Is it that the "five figure sum" was really substantial to the recipient, and that they knew they would face little embarrassment if it was made public (eg if it was Wootton, he knew they didn't earn that much, and/or were unattached)? Or was "Branning" just confident the connection to the real person would never be made, so that it was all worth a try?

Is there something unsaid that I'm missing here?

[T_i_B]

1. How Laurence Fox turned on Dan Wootton for GB News rant apology

Difficult to have any sympathy whatsoever for either Fox or Wooton. Today is one of those days when GB "news" just comes across as an incredibly toxic workplace.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/sep/27/gb-news-suspends-laurence-fox-over-comments-about-female-journalist

GB News has suspended the presenter Laurence Fox after he went on a misogynistic on-air rant about the political journalist Ava Evans.

Fox appeared on Dan Wootton to discuss comments made by Evans about men’s mental health, before commenting at length on the journalist’s appearance and why he would ignore her in a bar.

In the segment, Fox called Evans a “little woman” and went on to say: “Show me a single self-respecting man that would like to climb into bed with that woman ever, ever, who wasn’t an incel.

“We need powerful, strong amazing women who make great points for themselves. We don’t need these sort of feminist 4.0. They’re pathetic and embarrassing. Who’d want to shag that?”

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/sep/27/why-laurence-fox-turned-on-dan-wootton-gb-news-rant-apology

As the GB News drama continued to unfold – after Lawrence Fox’s suspension from the broadcaster for an on-air misogynistic rant – the story took an unexpected twist.

It was little surprise that Fox, the darling of rightwing culture warriors, would double down on comments that even GB News deemed too offensive to let slide. But Fox’s decision to turn on Dan Wootton – whom GB News has refused to investigate over allegations of historic inappropriate sexual messaging – was more of a curve ball. By Wednesday night Wootton had also been suspended by the channel and GB News insiders were in shock at the loss of two of their highest-profile presenters.

A little after 9am, Fox posted on X, asking for criticism to be directed at him, not Wootton. “First of all, don’t take a pop at @danwootton for something I said. That’s not fair,” he posted, before going on to say he stood by “every word of what I said” and he was “totally within my rights to say that I wouldn’t want to shag a hyper-offended 4th wave feminist and not apologise.” But an hour later, after he was suspended by GB News, his tone appeared to sour. “A phone call might have been polite,” he said, adding that GB News, and by implication Wootton, “knew exactly what I intended to say”.

Then, at 11:04am, Fox went nuclear. Reposting Wootton’s apology, he wrote: “Honesty is the best policy”, followed by a photograph that appeared to show an exchange between the pair – although names were not included – suggesting that Wootton had found the exchange amusing. “Making you giggle is my weekly joy,” said the first message, sent apparently at 9.55pm, followed by several laughing emojis. The response was several laughing emojis, followed by: “You can imagine them freaking out in the gallery!!!!!”, to which the response came: “So much fun. Xx”