The leeching Sun turns Donna Summer’s death into a murder mystery

DONNA Summer has died. the media’s ‘Queen of Disco’ was just 63. The singer born Ladonna Adrian Gaines is on three front pages:

The Times: “Donna Summer, Queen of Disco, dies of cancer”

The Independent: “Death of a disco diva”

And the Sun, which pays tribute to a rare talent who gave pleasure to millions with the front-page screamer:

“‘9/11 dust’ Kills Donna Summer”

When a star dies the media races to put out an obituary. If the star dies young, the talk if of mystery, murder and a demand to see the body lest we have been duped and the singer / actor has retired to live in obscurity, most likely working in an Arizona burger bar or on ITV2. If you’re the Sun scouring about for a story – no longer in this post-phone hacking world able to showcase its care for abused children, battered wives or the rule of law – you entertain the idea that Summer was a victim oif the Twin Towers horror. You say:

“DISCO legend Donna Summer died yesterday of cancer — feared to be triggered by toxic dust from the 9/11 attacks.”

This ia based on two facts:

1. Summer was in New York on that terrible day in 2001.

2. Summer died of cancer.

The Sun did not use it considerable resources to investigate this link when Summer was alive. More’s the pity. We are just told:

And she is thought to have believed that breathing it triggered her cancer. Speaking of her trauma, devout Christian Donna once said: “I was really freaked out by the horrific experiences of that day. I couldn’t go out, I didn’t want to talk to anybody. I had to keep the blinds down and stay in my bedroom. I went to church and light came back into my soul. That heaviness was gone.”

What else do Pete Samson and Richard White have to back up that front-page headline?

It is believed that around 1,000 people exposed to the dust have died — 350 of them from cancer.

Thought. Believed. Feared. Believed. The facts keep on coming:

Dr John Howard, the 9/11 Federal Health Director, said: “I think it is plausible that many people will die of the many conditions we’ve seen due to their exposure.”

Plausible.

And this give us the headline that Donna Summer fell victim to lung cancer because of the attack on New York.

What the Sun fails to tell its readers is that it’s front-page sensation is based on two lines of theory published on gossip website TMZ:

9:27 AM PST- TMZ has learned … Donna died from lung cancer. Several sources are telling us Donna believed she contracted it by inhaling toxic particles after the 9/11 attack in New York City.

Such is the parlous state of the soaraway Sun that a throwaway, unattributed comment on a website in the US is front-page news. Yours for 30p.

RIP Donna Summer.