by John B

Gordon Brown isn’t the most loved Labour leader ever. But he has a bit of an air of authenticity to him: the kind of man who wouldn’t sell his kid’s illness for political advantage, for example.

So whenever the details of his first kid’s death and second kid’s illness [*] appeared in the Sun, it genuinely made me think less of him. After all, it’s a perfect NewLab, Alastair Campbell media strategy to humanise the dude.

But it turns out that Brown never leaked to the Sun at all, and that this – like, apparently, every other story News International has won – was obtained by thievery.



Either from an insider, or from hacking Gordo’s voicemail; it doesn’t really matter. They stole the details of two upset parents, made them into news, and we’re all so cynical we thought it was leaked by the parents anyway.

But it wasn’t.

Worse, whenever the Sun first published the story, it ran a giant “no bugger can diss us” claim, “in partnership with the Cystic Fibrosis Trust“.

Having spoken to the Cystic Fibrosis Trust today, this is bullshit – the Sun told the CFT that it had the story, and asked them for some quotes on CF. At no point was the CFT aware that the original story was stolen, rather than the Browns seeking public sympathy.

So, the News Of The World is rightly dead. But the Sun has done exactly the same thing as the NOTW, and on at least one well-documented occasion it’s lied that a charity was on its side and happy with its coverage.

Let’s not rest until the weekday paper is set to rest with its naughty sister, eh?

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[*] Sorry, I got confused between Gordon Brown’s kids. This has been corrected. I don’t think it makes any difference to the main point.

You can donate money to the Cystic Fibrosis Trust here.