NOTW sister paper finally acknowledge scandal ramifications, remains objectionable while doing so
It was alleged that the Sun got hold of the story of Gordon Brown's son Fraser's cystic Fibrosis via dodgy channels.
News International said that:
Following allegations made yesterday by Gordon Brown against The Sun, we have been conducting an inquiry. This is in line with normal practice and procedure.
We are able to assure the Brown family that we did not access the medical records of their son, nor did we commission anyone to do so.
The story The Sun ran about their son originated from a member of the public whose family has also experienced cystic fibrosis. He came to The Sun with this information voluntarily because he wanted to highlight the cause of those afflicted by the disease. The individual has provided a written affidavit this afternoon to a lawyer confirming this.
On receipt of the information, The Sun approached Mr Brown and discussed with his colleagues how best to present it. Those colleagues provided quotes which were used in the published piece which indicated his consent to it.
We believe that the article was written sensitively and appropriately. We are not aware of Mr Brown, nor any of his colleagues to whom we spoke, making any complaint about it at the time.
The publication of the story and the further responsible, sympathetic and informative coverage The Sun continued to give to the disease resulted in renewed interest for those affected by it. Donations to the Cystic Fibrosis Trust nearly doubled over the next year.
We continue to inquire in to other allegations made by Mr Brown, and implore him to provide details to us so we can establish the facts.
From the interview with Brown seen here, he said that: "They told me they had this story about Fraser's medical condition and that they were going to run this story."
Asked how he responded to the news, Brown replied:
In tears. Your son is now going to be broadcast across the media. Sarah and I were incredibly upset about it. We were thinking about his longterm future. We were thinking about our family. But there's nothing that you can do about it. You're in public life. And this story appears. You don't know how it's appeared. I've not questioned how it's appeared. I've not made any allegations about how it's appeared. I've not made any claims about [how it appeared]. But the fact is it did appear. And it did appear in the Sun newspaper.
In the same interview he also accused NI of acting criminally, invading his privacy, distorting stories and undermining Labour under his leadership. (See in full here)
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There is an obvious conflict here. It is unclear whether Brown did, in fact, ok the running of the story. It is unclear whether they acted illegally in gathering the information to run a story which was arguably NOT in the public interest (increased donations to cystic fibrosis charities or not).
What pisses me off is that after an entire week of ignoring the phone-hacking scandal or giving it virtually no prominence the Sun have gone with this front page splash. They are banking on lingering dislike of Gordon Brown (orchestrated by them in the first place) and a dose of faux moral outrage.
(I'd even allege that the Sun, being a daily, is actually more insidious than the NOTW with its "SHOCKING EXCLUSIVES" ever was. It is an editorially capricious lying rag. [I dontcurr that this story has no relevance in this instance tbh])