Earlier today, The Irish Times ran an “article” titled “Brussels broke the rules in its pursuit of Apple’s â‚¬13bn”. That sounds serious, and would definitely have you click. Once you do, you read an article written by “Liza Lovdahl-Gormsen” without any sources, which is basically an almost word-for-word rehash of letters and answers from Tim Cook about the tax deal. The lack of sources and Tim Cook-ery tone of the piece should set off thousands of huge and loud alarm bells in anyone’s mind, but it isn’t until the very last paragraph of the “article” that the reader stumbles upon this:

Liza Lovdahl-Gormsen is director of the Competition Law Forum and senior research fellow in competition law. This article was commissioned from her by Apple and supplied to The Irish Times

Pathetic and disingenuous at best, intentionally misleading and ethically reprehensible at worst. The fact that the biggest, richest, and most powerful company in the world has to resort to this kind of unethical behaviour should tell you all you need to know about how certain Apple is of its own claims about the tax deal.