Time For The Sun To Set

In the end, it was his wife who identified the “BBC Presenter” pursued for the past week by the Murdoch Sun: Vicky Flind told the world “In light of the recent reporting regarding the 'BBC Presenter' I am making this statement on behalf of my husband Huw Edwards, after what have been five extremely difficult days for our family. I am doing this primarily out of concern for his mental well-being and to protect our children”. There was more.

“Huw is suffering from serious mental health issues. As is well documented, he has been treated for severe depression in recent years. The events of the last few days have greatly worsened matters, he has suffered another serious episode and is now receiving in-patient hospital care where he'll stay for the foreseeable future”. Thus the motivation for the Murdoch mafiosi came clear.

And what was laid bare, not that many in and around our free and fearless press want to admit it, was a sick and cruel mindset, a media empire prepared to drive someone they knew had issues with depression over the edge if need be, so that the hated BBC could be irretrievably damaged.

The inmates of the Baby Shard bunker got wind of Edwards’ complicated private life. This in itself did not justify publication. But the temptation was too great: Huw Edwards was for so many the face of the BBC. By damaging him, the Murdoch goons would damage the Corporation, and possibly gain great favour from Don Rupioni himself. The end would justify the means.

But how could the paper justify its pursuit? There was no public interest defence - until the Sun claimed that the law could have been broken, and this they duly did. Last Sunday, in an article that is still live on the paper’s website as I type, came the claim “Top BBC star who ‘paid child for sex pictures’ could be charged by cops and face years in prison, expert says”.

Otherwise, the story depended on “concerned parents”, despite the young person at the centre of the claims, who had allegedly been paid by Edwards for sexually explicit images, putting out a statement via their lawyers saying the Sun’s story was “rubbish”. The paper stood by its single source story.

Why would they do this? Ah well. This is where it becomes seriously sick: those directing the story, such as Sun editor Victoria Newton, and her boss Rebekah Brooks, knew they were pursuing a depressive. Just imagine the mindset at work: ratchet up the pressure bit by bit, day by day, front page splash by front page splash, until he breaks. That was the Sun’s game. They ratcheted up the pressure bit by bit, and their target duly broke.

This is, after all, the same paper that went after Caroline Flack and duly drove her over the edge, blaming everyone else in the aftermath of her death. Now they have their target effectively on suicide watch. Worse, this is not an isolated occurrence of recent tabloid pursuit of the vulnerable.

Chris Godfrey of the Guardian had been watching Gary Neville interviewing Dele Alli. “A small detail from this which chimes with what we’ve seen this week: early on in this interview Dele Alli tells Neville that he’s been in rehab and got out three weeks ago. While he was there he said the tabloids kept contacting his team to let them know they knew where he was”.

I’m sure the Sun will claim it was absent from that pack and therefore totally innocent. Past form, as the Tweeter known as Sun Apologies reminded us, suggests otherwise: “Just remembered that time when The Sun spent a large part of 2016 waging a hate campaign against Chris Evans for getting the Top Gear job. Hounding him and following him around until he broke. Then they pretended they cared once they'd finished him”. All heart, the Sun.

Worse, the BBC itself does not emerge from this episode looking as pure as the driven snow, with some of its own staff running news items claiming they have found more bad behaviour from Edwards. Nothing quite like trying to “both sides” the whole business and join the Sun in the sewer, is there? Meanwhile, the real news, as Andrew Marr observed, is crowded out.

The solution for BBC News is, as I’ve told previously, straightforward: remove the likes of Robbie Gibb from the Corporation permanently, whether he was involved this time or no. And remove former fizzy pop salesman and occasional Tory Tim Davie. Get a DG with some cojones instead.

For the Murdoch media empire, Leveson changed nothing. The Huw Edwards saga has proved that beyond all doubt, the Baldwin paradox exemplified in all its seedy, sick, sadistic, creepy, cruel nastiness: power without responsibility indeed. Worse, this is power without accountability: with press regulation in the hands of sham regulator IPSO, the press can do as it pleases.

The Sun has enjoyed a malign influence over our country, its politicians, its institutions, and most importantly its place in the world, for far too long. We don’t need Rupert Murdoch and his mafiosi sticking their bugle in, gaslighting us, all too often into making calamitously bad choices. What we do need is elected representatives and other public figures to stand up to the SOB.

The time has come for the Sun to set for good. Close it down, Rupe. NOW.

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