More from PCC chairman Baroness Peta Buscombe (last night’s speech in full here / report here) on this morning’s Radio 4 Today Programme. She argued that a free press plays an important role in scrutinising government policies, but would not be drawn on the Sun’s use of the Jacqui Janes / Gordon Brown tape.
This is a cross-post from Malcolm Coles’ website www.malcolmcoles.co.uk.
Update: There are suggestions on a Guardian story that the Sun moderators haven’t been putting through comments that are critical of the Sun’s position …
Is the Sun censoring pro-Brown comments?
Original post
The Sun is running a campaign against Gordon Brown. But I’ve analysed the comments on its website – and readers disagree with its stance by a ratio of more than 3 to 2.
Gordon Brown letter story in the Sun
The paper has exploited the grief of Jacqui Janes over her son Jamie’s death in Afghanistan to attack the PM – because his handwritten letter of condolence was supposedly disrespectful due to sloppy writing and (disputed) spelling errors.
It’s loathsome journalism that ignores the effect of his disability (the PM is blind in one eye).
And it seems Sun readers are mostly on the Prime Minister’s side.
Of the 100+ comments on the story (don’t worry, I’ve nofollowed those links) when I checked, 111 expressed a view for or against Jacqui Janes or Gordon Brown (the rest commented on other issues or corrected people’s spelling errors). Of these:
So that’s more than 60 per cent who don’t agree with the Sun, and less than 40 per cent who do.
Sample comments from those who agree with the Sun’s stance:
Comments agreeing that Gordon Brown is “discusting”
Some comments from those opposing it:
Comments defending Gordon Brown
Conclusion
The Sun is channeling this woman’s grief into a personal attack on the Prime Minister.
It’s refusing to make allowances for his disability (maybe we could next attack the war wounded for being workshy benefit scroungers?).
And it’s facilitating her breaking data protection laws by releasing a recording of a private phone call.
The whole thing is sickening – let’s hope that observing its readers’ reactions will lead to an end to this (not that this happened in the Jan Moir case) – and preferably prosecution of the Sun over the data protection offence.
MediaGuardian reports that the Times and the Sun are to move into new offices next year – the other side of the car park from the News International Wapping Complex. The Sunday Times and News of the World will move into the Times’ old office building, once it has been refurbished.
Community Care has once more challenged the Sun’s attitude to social workers following an invitation from the General Social Care Council to its annual conference to the paper’s problem page editor ‘Dear’ Deidre Sanders.
According to a blog post from workforce editor Daniel Lombard, Community Care forum users were outraged by the move, arguing that the views of Deidre’s employers would prevent the two parties from working together. Some called for the invitation to be revoked.
The agony aunt responded with an article for the magazine’s site in which she outlined her commitment to improving the sector and using her clout within the newspaper industry to build bridges.
But according to Lombard, her mention of the baby Peter case in the piece undermined the agony aunt’s intentions:
“It was a clear and convincing argument – until the arrogance of her employers seeped into an otherwise sensible contribution to the debate (…) Was it really necessary to once again seek to justify her employer’s misguided attack on the profession in the wake of the baby Peter case?”
ComCare’s campaign to improve media coverage of social work, Stand Up Now for Social Work, was launched partly in response to the Sun’s coverage of baby Peter’s death. The newspaper ran a petition calling for every social worker who had been involved in the case to be sacked and prevented from working with children again. Readers were encouraged to contact the newspaper if they knew any of the social workers involved, community editor for Community Care, Simeon Brody, told Journalism.co.uk back in March.
The magazine also recently ran a survey of journalists to gauge their knowledge of social work in the UK. Sixty-eight per cent of respondents thought that a care worker was a social work post, while 37 per cent said they didn’t know if social work was better today than 15 years ago.
The Sun is ‘praying’ for the Tory leadership today, winning lots of coverage overnight for Britain’s highest selling daily newspaper. If you somehow managed to miss it, it reckons ‘Labour’s Lost It’.
Once again, in true lightbulb / ‘wot won it‘ style, it proclaims its political influence:
“At the 2005 election, we and our readers believed Labour had many failings but gave them one last chance over a lacklustre Tory party. They have had that chance and failed.”
Gordon Brown says he doesn’t care: “it is people that decide elections”.
Amid all the ominous news surrounding Independent News&Media a more positive story for the company has surfaced:
A £40m print deal will make Northern Ireland one of the biggest producers of daily newspapers in Europe, after INM signed contracts with the Daily Telegraph and Daily Mirror.
INM will now be printing all Mirror titles and the Telegraph titles, as well as the Sun, News of the World, the Daily Express and Sunday Express, the Daily Star and the London Independent.
The Belfast Telegraph reports:
“The first deal sees all sections of the Daily Telegraph printed in the company’s high-tech plant at Newry for the next 15 years. The second deal brings the Daily Mirror to the Belfast Telegraph print plant for a seven-year term.
“The deals represent two of the longest print agreements signed in the region and have been made possible by an IN&M investment strategy which has seen more than £50m spent on new presses in both centres.”
This is a story of how self-declared ‘terrorism expert’ Glen Jenvey, acting as an agent provocateur under the name of Abu Islam, reportedly created a false story by posting allegations on an internet forum, and then passed that story to the national press on his own behalf and made the front page of the Sun.
This process has been investigated and uncovered by two bloggers over a number of months, and featured on the Donal McIntyre programme on Radio 5 yesterday.
The key spadework has been done by Tim Ireland of Bloggerheads, and Richard Bartholomew of Barth’s Notes, who have been digging into this for some time. Both Richard and Tim have posted again this weekend.
Inayat Bunglawala has a detailed commentary on this story on Islam Online, and makes a series of excellent points.
The bizarre aspect is that Glen Jenvey has apparently confessed as a result conversion to radical Islam.
There is a potentially sinister aspect to this story – that of gung-ho coverage of anti-Islam stories in the British media provoked and seeded by commentators whose political attitudes are sympathetic to such stories. A good example of this style of coverage was the inflammatory coverage of the demonstration by approximately 20 extremists during a parade of soldiers returned from Basra in Luton, in March this year. By contrast, a far more balanced report, in my opinion, was published by the Nofolk Unity blog.
This is another story which asks serious questions of the quality and professionalism of the processes of journalism in our national media – following on most recently from the Baltimore spoof. In turn this asks the question whether there is actually much material that is worth putting behind firewalls – and whether discerning readers will be willing to pay for it for long.
It also highlights how digging by bloggers can help uncover stories, which then get wider attention than is currently delivered in the UK by blog sites.
Finally, I’d note that bloggers can have exactly the same biases as newspapers for stories which fit in with our own opinions, and none of us are immune to that – including me. So we need to pay attention to all the traditional disciplines of good journalism – multiple sourcing, sanity checks by a third party if we have a concern, and the separation of reporting from opinion.
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On the Editors’ Blog:
Dominic Mohan has been appointed the new editor of the Sun, News International confirmed earlier today.
Mohan, who has worked at the Sun for 13 years, most recently as deputy editor, will become the seventh editor of the red-top since Rupert Murdoch bought the Sun 40 years ago.
Mohan joined the Sun from the News of the World and worked on its showbiz column, Bizarre, in 1996. He was promoted to editor two years later, taking the helm in 1998. Bizarre’s longest serving editor, he left after five years to write a weekly opinion column.
Before Mohan was deputy editor, he spent three years as associate editor, features, and prior to that, two years as assistant editor.
“I believe the Sun is the best paper on the planet. It is a privilege to take over as editor and I cannot wait to get started,” said Mohan, commenting on his appointment.
The vacancy arose when Rebekah Brooks was appointed as News International chief executive in June. Brooks said Mohan had been an ‘outstanding leader at the paper, supporting me with energy and enthusiasm’.
“He has an unrivalled understanding of what makes the paper tick and a real grasp of what makes a great Sun headline. I am delighted to be handing the reins over to such a talented successor. I look forward to continuing to work with him in my new role,” she added.
Both Rebekah Brooks and Dominic Mohan will be starting in their new roles on September 2.
(Picked up from Brand Republic) The Sun is offering free job advertising to businesses online.
The move is part of the title’s newly launched campaign against UK unemployment (or ‘Sunemployment’ as it shall now be known).
According to the website, the Sun has been ‘bombarded with calls from employers earlier today begging our readers to fill thousands of empty jobs’.
A few points here: