Once again, Rupert Murdoch’s Sun newspaper has failed to report the latest sickening revelations in the phone hacking scandal, reports Shamik Das.
Once again, Rupert Murdoch’s Sun newspaper has failed to report the latest sickening revelations in the phone hacking scandal, as the spotlight is further shone on the discredited, disgraced former editor Rebekah Brooks. For them, no mention of Gordon Brown on the front page, nor anywhere.
In stark contrast to when the paper invaded his privacy by reporting the news his son Fraser had cystic fibrosis, causing untold distress to Gordon and Sarah just to sell a few more papers and further line Murdoch’s pockets.
The head-in-the-sand blindness to what is going on was evident all last week at the Sun, which failed to report the original Milly Dowler phone hack scandal last Tuesday, and didn’t report the phone hacking story on its front page at all till Friday, when it splashed on the end of the News of the World.
This morning, Mr Brown accused Murdoch’s News International of using “known criminals” to gain access to personal information, and of having links to the “criminal underworld”. On the gross invasion of privacy by Brooks’s Sun publishing details of Fraser’s medical records, he said he was “in tears” when told by journalists the story was about to break.
He said:
“Sarah and I were incredibly upset about it, we were thinking about his long term future, we were thinking about our family.”
And on the hacking into his bank details, and the phone hacking scandal overall, the former prime minister added:
“I’m shocked, I’m genuinely shocked to find this happened because of the links with known criminals who were undertaking this activity, hired by investigators who were working with the Sunday Times.
“If I, with all the protection and all the defences and all the security that a chancellor of the exchequer or a prime minister has, is so vulnerable to unscrupulous tactics, unlawful tactics, to methods that have been used in the way that we’ve found – what about the ordinary citizen?
“What about the person – like the family of Milly Dowler – who were in the most desperate of circumstances, at the most difficult occasions in their lives – in huge grief… and then they find that they are totally defenceless in this moment of greatest grief from people who are employing these ruthless tactics?”
In other developments, Met Assistant Commissioner John Yates, who failed to fully investigate the scandal, will be grilled by MPs on the home affairs select committee, from 11:30am; watch it live on BBC Democracy Live here.
44 Responses to “Yet again, the discredited Sun fails to report the main story”
Ed's Talking Balls
Richard,
I presume that since you quoted me you meant to respond to me, not eastie? And to what ‘poison’ do you refer? I assume you aren’t tolerant of different opinions.
Anyway, you’re only partially right about the press. Of course newspapers take on causes and try to influence opinion. But you’re deluded if you think that they shape more than they follow. Tabloids write articles in favour of stricter immigration controls, harsher sentencing for prisoners and less European interference in British affairs, among other things, because those views reflect what their readership thinks. If they kept writing stories with which their readers disagreed then circulation would head south.
Exactly the same with Gordon Brown. The papers didn’t force the public to dislike the man. He did that all by himself. He would have lost the election with or without The Sun’s backing and even if he hadn’t been criticised in other newspapers over the years. You can’t polish a turd; Labour backed a dud who was allowed to usurp a proven winner and the party reaped what it sowed.
Anon E Mouse
Richard – Why not respond with something other than the typical Labour smearing comments and play the ball not the man? If I hadn’t been a Labour voter my whole life why would I say I was? Despite a huge majority, the way the party treated the poor and rewarded the rich in the last 13 years is hardly something to be proud of. Perhaps you are.
Unquestioning individuals like you do Labour no favours and result in the likes of Wheelan, McBride, Draper and Brown having influence in a once creditable party.
For doing the coalition’s job by reminding people like me that my Lib Dem vote wasn’t wasted I say well done Richard.
Stay insulting and keep convincing “Middle England” to never vote for Labour again – the party of wars and big business seem perfect for an individual with your unattractive views…
Robbert
“Of course newspapers take on causes and try to influence opinion. But you’re deluded if you think that they shape more than they follow.”
It’s an argument often heard, but one that strikes me as completely false; a justification for what the papers are doing and little else. Whenever you come across somebody – either at work, in the pub, or wherever – who bangs on about Muslims, immigrants or other tabloid pet subjects, it is telling that they always copy the tabs phraseology to a tee. You hear arguments and ‘facts’ that are lifted wholesale from stories that have appeared in print. Not an original thought to be found. These are not people who’ve made up their own mind first and then picked the paper to go with it, these are people who have been led to believe by the papers that certain things are true by continual repeptition of the same narrative. Like Gillian Duffy, who attempted to express the tabloids’ standpoints but didn’t manage to get it entirely correctly because they weren’t her own thoughts, she was just trying to repeat what she’d been taught.
Ed's Talking Balls
I find it more telling that the self-proclaimed left wing intelligentsia (certainly something of a misnomer) caricature those who have grave concerns about mass immigration, a dependency culture or the EU’s creep towards federalism as tabloid readers, incapable of forming their own opinions.
You’re probably right that some people fall into that category, but it would be unwise to think, condescendingly, that most do, less still all of them.
Gillian Duffy is a good example of a victim of this misplaced intellectual snobbery. A core Labour voter, with a mind and a vote, dismissed as a bigot by an arrogant man who was supposed (and was, in fact, paid) to represent her. Under the glare of the mass media, hungry for news in the middle of an election campaign, she may not have come across as the most eloquent of people; she may even have resorted to tabloid-speak, should memorable phrases have sprung to mind while the cameras pointed at her. But her concerns were legitimiate and her sentiments genuine.
Shame on a party, supposedly formed to represent the interests of the working classes, for turning on one of their own.
It’s a convenient delusion to convince yourself that people think a certain way because the papers tell them to. It’d be healthier, in the long run, simply to accept that not everyone subscribes to The Guardian’s world view. Thank goodness for that!