The Sun protects its own: Virginia Wheeler and John Kay are no Gazza and Shirlena
WHY did the Sun not report on Virginia Wheeler and John Kay (more on him here), the alleged subjects of the London Evening Standard’s story of March 6 entitled “Two Murdoch reporters feared to be in suicide bids”. The subjects were “two senior journalists at News International”.
The reporters appeared to try to take their own lives after the company turned over 300 million emails and internal papers to detectives investigating phone-hacking and alleged bribery of public officials. The journalists, whom the Standard has decided not to name, were checked into hospital at the expense of News International on the orders of Rupert Murdoch.
Grim news. The paper added:
The tragic developments happened after News Corp’s Management and Standards Commitee, a branch of the empire that reports directly to independent board directors in New York, passed evidence to Scotland Yard… The MSC’s co-operation with the police has triggered a civil war inside the Murdoch empire. Bosses at News International, its UK-newspaper subsidiary, are furious that the committee, headed by Lord Grabiner QC, has “sold journalists down the river”.
Reuters had more:
“People think that they’ve been thrown under a bus,” one News International employee told Reuters. “They’re beyond angry – there’s an utter sense of betrayal, not just with the organization but with a general lynch-mob hysteria.”
Could the lack of information be down to the fact that Virginia Wheeler (the Sun’s defence editor) and John Kay (the Sun’s chief reporter) have been arrested in connection with Operation Elveden? Of course, it might not be them in the Evening Standard’s story .
PopBitch, however, claimed to know:
Two people arrested in a blaze of publicity then go on to try to commit suicide, one very publicly… sounds like the perfect story for The Sun? Not when the people involved were their journalists and the arrests occurred as part of Operation Elveden, it isn’t. So it’s unlikely you’ll read a word about Virginia Wheeler’s recovery in the Priory or that chief reporter, John Kay had to be talked down from Blackfriars Bridge by the police…
That followed a tweet on March 2 by @tabloidtroll:
True toll of Op Weeting: Cops unable to quiz Virginia Wheeler after she turned up at police station with wrists bandaged. MSC happy now?
All hideous, of course. But why does the Sun not report the whole story, even if it is just to deny the rumours? The Guardian, Mail and Sun ignored it.
The Independent offered a clue:
Both journalists had recently been arrested and are receiving medical treatment.
If it is Wheeler and Kay, only a nutter could take anything good in their suffering.
It’s just that the Sun has been less sensitive when dealing with other people stressed out by being in the police’s line of vision. Wheeler once wrote:
SOCCER legend Paul Gascoigne was back inside a mental health unit last night – after terrifying hotel guests with his bizarre behaviour…Gazza entered the mental health clinic three weeks ago following an apparent suicide bid
Gazza is famous. Shirlena Johnson only wanted to be. Wheeler wrote of her:
WORRIED medics last night claimed X Factor star Shirlena Johnson is a “ticking timebomb” — as fragile as troubled singer Susan Boyle.
And they warned that, unlike TV talent show songstress SuBo, she has a child who might be put at risk by her string of mental problems.
Single mum Shirlena, 30, showed off three-year-old daughter Mariah before her bizarre rendition of Duffy’s hit Mercy on Saturday’s opening X Factor episode on ITV1.
Last night she was facing the axe from the series after a Sun investigation revealed she had been diagnosed with serious mental issues..
And not word on the matter from the Sun’s Gordon Smart, who said of Amy Winehouse:
AMY WINEHOUSE has been given more health warnings than a deep-fried Mars Bar. But the singer really must listen to her latest ultimatum — quit boozing or die. Doctors at The Priory, where she is currently being treated, gave her a final warning along with enough home truths to put her off turbo shandies for life.
So. The Sun can report and make jokes about that other people’s suffering but offer no comment on two of their own, allegedly…
Posted: 21st, March 2012 | In: Reviews Comments (5) | TrackBack | Permalink
