The Kid Is Not My Son

But it could be an osteopaths daughter! Yes, even sleepy old Cheltenham is now part of the on going media frenzy surrounding the aftermath of Michael Jacksons death. One of the national Sunday newspapers reported that former Oliver! child star Mark Lester (who is now a Cheltenham based osteopath) has claimed he is the biological father of Paris Jackson. Lester is godfather to the three children and had been a friend of Jacksons for many years. He says he gave Jackson a gift of his sperm (well, what else do you get the man that has everything?! Don't even ask how he gift wrapped it!) and that Michael told him he was the father. Obviously this claim has been denied by a Jackson family spokesman.

But it was reassuring to see that the Gloucestershire Echo has jumped on the bandwagon. Nothing like lazy journalism, their story is just a re-hash of the News of the World story. Nice work Echo. Hold the front page!

_

Read All About It

The headquarters of Cheltenham's daily newspaper, the Gloucestershire Echo, is in the heart of town on Clarence Parade. The paper started out in 1873 as the Express & Telegram and was the towns first regular source of local news. In 1883 the paper changed its name to the Gloucestershire Echo. The newspaper was bought in 1929 by the Northcliffe Newspapers Group, it is now owned by Gloucestershire Media who also publish The Citizen (Gloucester's daily paper) and The Forester (the weekly newspaper for the Forest Of Dean.) The Echo (as its known) is a good source for local news, as well as classified listings and also has a weekend supplement with a 'Whats On' guide containing reviews of shows and restaurants. In my experience The Echo don't always get their facts right and it sometimes feels like they try to make a minor story into something as important as the end of the world! That's local media, I suppose!