It is no secret that I am not a fan of the British tabloid newspaper, the Sun. Actually, that is an understatement. I have nothing but contempt for the way people are treated by the British tabloids: dehumanised fodder in ratings wars.
The big news yesterday was about the ‘scandal’ of the Prime Minister having written an inadequate letter to the mother of a young soldier who died in Afghanistan. Apparently, the Prime Minister wrote by hand a letter of condolence in poor handwriting – a letter that was then found to contain spelling errors. The outrage of the bereaved mother was then caught in newspaper print and in the broadcast media. Gordon Brown was put onto the defensive, having to explain to a watching world what should have been a private matter.
And this is where the Sun comes in. It appears that this ‘newspaper’ has generated a story in order to put political pressure on the Prime Minister and the Labour Government. In other words, this is a political maneouvre aimed at causing embarrassment to the party the paper has decided to oppose in the next election.
So, what happened next? Well, the Prime Minister phoned the bereaved mother – beyond the call of duty? The Sun had provided her with the means to record the private conversation – and now the recording has been made public, is being picked over in the media and yet might invoke sympathy for Brown.
Why do people buy a newspaper that so blatantly abuses a bereaved woman such as Mrs Janes? She is being cynically exploited for the Sun‘s gain. As another bereaved mother put it on the BBC news earlier: this is a private matter and bereaved people should be directing their anger where it is due – not by making political capital for a newspaper by allowing her privacy to be compromised by people you can’t trust.
Whatever you think of Gordon Brown or his Government or his policies in respect of Afghanistan, this behaviour cannot be condoned. The Prime Minister didn’t simply send out a standard letter of condolence with a brief hand-written sentence at the end to ‘personalise’ it; he writes an individual letter to each bereaved family. That should be recognised and applauded … and then left to the confidentiality it deserved.
No one will fail to sympathise with those bereaved through the horror and violence of this conflict. But the Sun is behaving exploitatively and with a dehumanising contempt for the people involved as well as for any notion of privacy or confidentiality.
Can’t the great British public see what is going on here – and how they/we are being manipulated by this stuff?
There is a place where the Sun don’t shine…
Nick Baines's Blog 
November 10, 2009 at 3:40 pm
Well said! The whole thing is an attempt to exploit grief by the Sun. I have no time for Mr Brown, he stole my pension and has taken away far too much of my freedom. However, I think on this he has been badly treated and I feel sorry for him. He had the guts to ring and apologise and so he goes up in my estimation. The sun couldn’t go any lower than it already was, in fact their support of the Tories might make me vote for somebody else.
November 10, 2009 at 3:55 pm
We actually discussed this in our Parish today, and the opinion of all, coincides with yours.
Mrs Janes is being abused by the Sun, whose agenda is wholly opposed to that of protecting and supporting the bereaved.
While I hold no brief for Mr Brown, this intrusion into the privacy of communications between two individuals is wholly amoral and demonstrates the distasteful and totally lack of compassion of the Sun, and of course, Sky News, which has also been using the tapes provided by the Sun.
My hope is that Mrs Janes will on reflection come to see that it exploitation and privately, come to some consensus with Mr Brown.
November 10, 2009 at 4:41 pm
Why do people buy this paper? page 3, simple as that. We may not like it but that’s a big draw to big sections of the population
November 10, 2009 at 4:43 pm
Their behaviour is so transparent, and wrong – and yet, why is it that it was the lead story on the BBC and ITV News right through the day? That in itself is shameful, especially from the BBC, because any thinking person can see it is a non-story. Especially on the day of the 20th anniversary of the collapse of the Berlin Wall. Priorities, oh media editors, priorities.
November 10, 2009 at 5:20 pm
Well said. The media have been very quiet in their criticism of The Sun. Why? There are lots of questions: Who provided the telephone recording facility? Did The Sun ‘coach’ Mrs Janes? Would the conversation have been different if it had not been recorded?
Early reports are indicating that Guardsman Janes was air-lifted immediately by a helicopter that landed during the fire-fight. Apparently he died on the helicopter although he reached medical facilities within the ‘golden-hour.’
The Sun should be ashamed – is this the way they ‘Support our lads?’
November 10, 2009 at 6:20 pm
For the very first time I feel Gordon is worth my vote which the Sun may have taken away in exploiting Mrs Janes. (In case of interest I’ve a Guardian letter – probably!)
And of course it does get worse as submergedgate points out…not only was there a helicopter but it was fitted out with emergency transfusion equipment. Galileo was wrong – the earth does not go round the Sun.
November 10, 2009 at 6:59 pm
The standard of newsworthiness these red top newspapers provide is disgraceful.
I am disgusted to think that the Tory party supports such views.
I am also appalled that common young women cheapen themselves by exposing so much flesh.
The Sun is only fit for dogs bedding in a veterinary hospital, as much as the Daily Telegraph is for the bottom of my parrot’s cage .
November 10, 2009 at 7:23 pm
This is one of the tackiest bits of exploitation by the Sun I’ve ever come across. I’m no fan of the war, indeed there are hard questions to be asked about policy and the war, but this isn’t the way to do it.
November 10, 2009 at 8:42 pm
Well said Nick and indeed a topic that’s driven me to blog myself!
As parents of a serving soldier, my husband & I have discussed this story & we would be pleased if we recevied a handwritten personal letter of condolence, had we lost our son on active service. It doesn’t matter what people think of the PM, he actually sits down and takes the time to write personally to each of the bereaved parents/spouses.
My greatest fear in all of this is that after this debacle, he will be advised not to and then families will get a standard typed No.10 template letter.
I agree with ‘submergegate’ above…The Sun is supposedly a paper that ‘Supports our lads’
November 10, 2009 at 8:44 pm
I agree wholeheartedly! The Sun is no newspaper. I’ve also posted on the topic today: http://lankyanglican.blogspot.com/2009/11/bloody-shameful.html
November 10, 2009 at 9:22 pm
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Nick Baines and Croydon Labour Party, Church Times Blog. Church Times Blog said: "The Sun is behaving exploitatively and with a dehumanising contempt for the people involved" @nickbaines http://bit.ly/1jlyHI […]
November 10, 2009 at 10:17 pm
Well said, Bish! I have found it interesting that even a lot of people who have very little time for Gordon Brown are very uneasy by this series of stories which The Sun seem hell bent upon stringing out for as long as possible.
The paper that gave us Hillsborough and Gotcha is not fit to lecture anybody about honouring the dead.
November 11, 2009 at 7:45 am
Couldn’t agree more. Gordon Brown and this grieving mother are both being abused here for The Sun’s selfish gain. When the Sun’s rays move on and ‘shine’ elsewhere, let’s hope there will be someone thee to pick up the pieces of this distorted and tangled grieving process.
A Prime Minister who puts pen to paper, rather than getting an underling to do the dirty work, is to be honoured, surely?
November 11, 2009 at 11:27 am
[…] And then all this ridiculous furore over Gordon Brown’s letter to a deceased soldiers mother, cruelly exploited by The Sun. Could it be that the same people who got all animated over that letter are the same […]
November 11, 2009 at 12:13 pm
I assume that the PM was unaware that the call was being recorded, which is illegal, and the Sun is publishing a recording obtained under deception.
November 11, 2009 at 4:31 pm
I used to work at Westminster as a political correspondent and I am suprised at the Sun; not because of what it’s done, which is to be expected(look at its coverage of Major’s government 96-97) but by how crass their attempts to undermine GB are. I would have thought they’d have been a bit smarter.
November 11, 2009 at 5:37 pm
To add insult to injury I have just listened to PM on Radio 4 interviewing an unrepentant editor of the Sun. What annoyed me was the moral tone that the interviewer adopted as he accused the Sun of exploitation. This is the same BBC that has given the whole sordid episode coverage and credibility when it should have ignored it. The Sun only does it to get coverage, it doesn’t give a fig about anything else. Why do the rest of the media play their game?
November 11, 2009 at 8:16 pm
[…] Where the Sun don’t shine: Nick Baines, 10/11/2009 Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)What they wanted you to seeGordon Brown’s Press Officer Harasses Journalists […]
November 11, 2009 at 8:51 pm
[…] newspapers, Prime Minister, Sun, tabloid | Leave a Comment Further to the furore over the Sun’s handling of the Jamie Janes hand-written (by the Prime Minister) letter saga, I can’t quite believe I […]
November 22, 2009 at 8:15 am
Brown has not given the funding for troops to have armored funding they are going around in light armored land rovers.
There were no IED’s in afghanistan before the iraq war which Brown supported.
And Mandelson and Brown are now using this SUN incident for votes.
Cameron has nothing to do with this.
Brown wins and Labour now gets a fourth term because of a bad tabloid. I can’t believe the wave of sympathy over a bad tabloid. No lets not vote on the real issues lets vote because of what a tabloid did.
This SUN incident has resulted in real votes now Labour is surging. What a disgrace.
Labour flooded the country with massive immigration to tick off the tories for political gain and that isn’t the issue but the stupid sun is.
I give up with politics.
November 22, 2009 at 11:13 pm
Jason, the offence I took against the behavious of the Sun should not be equated with assumed support for the politics of Gordon Brown.