What would the Sun do if this story was about Jeremy Corbyn?
These are the times that try men’s souls.
Claims the prime minister placed his honourable member in the mouth of a dead pig’s head while a student at Oxford, are like manna from heaven for the tabloid press.
All things being equal, Lord Ashcroft’s claims, published in today’s Daily Mail, would (to mix animal metaphors) be milked for all they are worth by a newspaper like the Sun.
But for Rupert Murdoch’s flagship red-top, some animals are more equal than others.
For while the Sun delighted in running cartoons about Ed Miliband every day for the last five years, never missing a chance to ridicule the Labour party leader, his rival David Cameron has been largely spared the same treatment.
Now the paper is faced with a choice.
Will the Sun cover the pig’s head claims as if the ‘private parts’ in question belonged to a Labour rather than Tory minister?
Put simply: what would the Sun do if this story was about Jeremy Corbyn?
Already the paper has begun cartooning Miliband’s replacement – including over his love life, decades after events took place.
How can it justify leaving a target as fat as this go by?
The Sun’s websites have started the bidding today in typical style. Now the question is:
Will the Sun put #piggate on its front page tomorrow?
Will there be giant headline puns and mock-up photos and cartoons?
Or will the paper lay bare its party bias, and make a joke of its claim to equal opportunity irreverence?
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Adam Barnett is a staff writer at Left Foot Forward. Follow MediaWatch on Twitter
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34 Responses to “Will the Sun put #piggate on its front page tomorrow?”
Mark Myword
Has everybody lost all sense of honour and decency? This disgusting allegation about David Cameron has not been substantiated by a named source or photographic evidence and yet people speak as if it gospel truth. I am not a fan of the PM, but I do feel a degree of respect for his office and for his family. What have we come to? A slavering mob that has lost all sense of discretion and fair play, and Mr Barnett wants the Sun to continue the withch hunt. I despair of this country.
andagain
If the worst thing anyone can bring up against Cameron is an anonymous, unsubstantiated allegation that while at university he may have taken part in an absurd and embarrasing initiation ceremony, he is perfectly safe.
Equality
Yes, they did. Full front page. Complete with pig line. So now what? Anything change for you?
.
Perhaps it’s time the left’s obsession with newspapers was abandoned in favour of tackling things that actually matter.
Patrick Nelson
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/09/20/22/2C8C1B4400000578-3242504-A_distinguished_Oxford_contemporary_claims_Cameron_once_took_par-m-25_1442785115159.jpg
Patrick Nelson
http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/304/media/images/82294000/jpg/_82294092_cameronwithpig.jpg
Yes but now the alleged photo is worth hundreds of thousands of pounds. There are probably a few digital copies out there. It is possible the porky clock is ticking for David Piggywinkles Cameron, rumour is survivable but the arrival of the alleged image could probably finish any PM : )