The Sun and That Letter

Pross

OK what's your opinions on this? I'm no fan of Gordon Brown but think the way he's been treated by The Sun on this is disgraceful. I'm not going to say he is going out of his way to write as I feel it's the least he can do when someone dies after being ordered into a conflict by him and he should have had the common sense to start again when he made a mistake rather than crossing it out. However, how does his poor hand writing and spelling make him disrespectful in any way? It is well known he has very poor eyesight and apparently he is renowned for his poor handwriting (many intelligent people have). People are suggesting he should have had the letter proof read but he obviously felt it was a personal letter between himself and the mother so it's a shame that she didn't treat it the same way. Also, if he had had the letter type and signed it he'd have been accused of not being personal enough.

I obviously can't come close to understanding the grief and anger the mother is feeling but it seems completely the wrong way to go to air it by printing a private letter (and even worse, recording the subsequent "private" telephone conversation apologising). If the letter was so upsetting surely she would have been better served in writing back to Brown with her comments in private? It is more disrespectful in my opinion for The Sun to use a dead soldier as a pawn to carry out attacks on the PM and sell "newspapers".

markwalker

Im mixed on this one, on the one hand he is geting a hard time. I am surprised he called to appologise and think better of him for it.

On the other he just should not make a mistake on something like this. end of. If his eyesight is failing then he should have someone check his note. It's too important to get it wrong.

dov2711

I feel this is such a tasteless attack on GB by the Sun.

The woman has recieved a personal letter as well as a phone call where she has the private opportunity to speak her mind and share her story.

To allow the Sun to tape the conversation and allow what was IMO a sincere approach to be soiled in this manner does nothing to represent the ladies grief nor the paper in a positive light.

Sure the spelling should have been better but that IMO shows that it was a personal approach.

Ive interviewed GB a couple of times through the football and though Im not a supporter of his political party he was generous with his time, thoughtful in his responses as well as in his own questioning on the topic. Spoke on each occasion for longer than he had to and was able to recall small details which showed he had listened to comments made in the past.

The guy will never win over people given the timing of the job he inherited but this particular incident is IMO evidence of something more sinister amongst the media commentators.

alfablue

The woman is being exploited by the newspaper.

Smokin Joe

The Sun supported the invasion of Afghanistan, which it now regrets as it is a paper which follows public opinion to keep it's readers rather than leads it which it would like people to think.

Having seen that the war is deeply unpopular and a huge mistake it has to find a way of attacking the government without laying itself open to a charge of hypocrisy, so we get the "Our Boys being shafted" tosh to beat the government with and keep itself onside.

I don't have much time for GB, but spelling mistakes and corrections on a handwritten letter? F me, I don't think I ever wrote one without loads of both.

skellator3

well the sun has made its position clear anyway by saying it was not backing labour in the next election and now is going all out to turn the voters off labour. So this is their way of doing it, i agree that the letter was a personnal and private thingfrom him to the mother and she is now wrong for going public with it

Pross

Not just me then! It made my blood boil yesterday but recording the telephone conversation has taken it to another level. Presumably a hundred or more other service personel's relatives have received similar letters and accepted them at face value. It is the sentiment of the letter that is important not the spelling although as I said in my OP he should have started again once he realised he'd made a mistake on the soldier's name.

Wooliferkins

I agree with all the above, but; If you know your hand writing is poor and eyesight not the best then take a little time and effort. As an ex serviceman I don't envy him the task but looking at the letter in the Times today I could not let that be sent to anyone.

eh

Does this change anything really, I mean we all know GB is f**king useless and this proves it again. Whatever happened to the old saying "If it is worth doing, it is worth doing well." And then the Sun is a nasty piece of work, no shock there surely. However, ultimatly the fault lies with GB he is responsible for the troops, , and he has had something like 200 previous letters to perfect his spelling on previously

Dunno how he managed to find the time to be honest, what with doing interviews for GQ and watching X factor :roll:

owenlars

Alfablue is right the woman is being totally exploited by the Sun who will drop her like a hot potatoe as sson as they have no more us for her.

softlad

The Sun has always been the nastiest, pile of shite excuse for a newspaper in the UK media. They are just re-affirming their position.

Many years ago, the company I worked for had a spate of high-profile suicides. We had calls from nearly all of the media, who all ran stories. The Sun never bothered to call - but they still ran the biggest story....most of which was pure fantasy designed to sell papers, nothing more.

Pross

I know from my own handwriting that no matter how much time and effort I put into it it still looks terrible - it's just how his writing is. The alternative is to get someone else to write it or type it and then it loses the personal touch.

nasahapley

Pross, your original post sums up my sentiments exactly. It takes a lot for me to feel sorry for Gordon Brown, but this episode has managed it. Do we know the exact circumstances surrounding how the letter came into the hands of the Sun? A grieving mother has to be forgiven for acting unreasonably, but it does seem as if she has indeed acted unreasonably by letting old Rupe use her dead son to score political points. The real villain of the piece is undoubtedly the Sun though, it seems it's got a bit of a self destructive streak (Hillsborough and all that).

mingmong

dov2711 wrote:

To allow the Sun to tape the conversation and allow what was IMO a sincere approach to be soiled in this manner does nothing to represent the ladies grief nor the paper in a positive light

Well said.

+1

Pross

Maybe they haven't changed their political allegiance after all (Murdoch quoted today as saying he wouldn't have switched and that Brown is a friend). Perhaps they are hoping that in going so personal people will start to side with Brown.

nasahapley

Pross wrote:

Maybe they haven't changed their political allegiance after all (Murdoch quoted today as saying he wouldn't have switched and that Brown is a friend). Perhaps they are hoping that in going so personal people will start to side with Brown.

Interesting theory, but I get the impression that old Rupe wouldn't lift a finger to help his own granny if there was the slightest possibility it would affect his paper's circulation. I know what you mean though, I can't believe the editor didn't at least consider that this could backfire; maybe the Sun want their very own Jan Moir moment?

Smokin Joe

Pross wrote:

Maybe they haven't changed their political allegiance after all (Murdoch quoted today as saying he wouldn't have switched and that Brown is a friend). Perhaps they are hoping that in going so personal people will start to side with Brown.

The Sun doesn't decide on which party to support, the polls decide for them. The paper likes to present itself as a leader of public opinion, the reality is that it knows which side it's bread is buttered on and slavishly follows the public mood, be it on politics or peados.

They are terrified of repeating the Hillsborough mistake and avoid taking a stance that might be seen as controversial like the plague.

term1te

I agree with the OP. I'm no fan of Gordon, but I have more respect for him now than I did before this farce of a story.

pedylan

I would like to believe GB actually decided to write and to do so in a personal, handwritten letter as a sincere act of compassion towards the bereaved.

Trouble is he made a bit of a mess in the execution - not a great surprise.

So that's it really until the Sun comes along. And it then pursues its own agenda of attacking Labour through having a personal go at Brown.

But why would it do this? Well it is supporting the Conservatives and why is it doing that? Because after Murdoch junior's anti BBC speech we get a shadow minister expressing exactly the same concerns about BBC power and the way it inhibits private media activity.

So the Sun is running the letter story in the way it is purely because it will help defeat Labour, get the opposition elected, bring about a regulatory change of policy towards News International's competitors and so improve future profits.

The mother who lost her son is in no way to blame for what she did - a parent losing a child isn't to be criticised by us from behind our keyboards.

No, the simple exploitation of the woman for cynical future gain is dripping with excrement - like much of the Sun's activity. Makes Brown's simple errors look like the act of a paragon by comparison.

daviesee

MingMong wrote:

dov2711 wrote:

To allow the Sun to tape the conversation and allow what was IMO a sincere approach to be soiled in this manner does nothing to represent the ladies grief nor the paper in a positive light

Well said.

+1

And +1 again.

The poor mother is being used, abused and will be dropped once the Sun moves on.

Shame

Pross

The mother who lost her son is in no way to blame for what she did - a parent losing a child isn't to be criticised by us from behind our keyboards.

No one has criticised the mother, her grief has been hijacked by people with an agenda.

de_sisti

I thought the least he could have done was to use a decent pen. I mean, on his salary
he could easlily afford a Mont Blance fountain pen. There's no excuse for him using a felt
tipped pen to write a letter, no excuse at all. :!: :roll:

Cressers

There may be if as he is suffering from a Visual Impairment, as I do.

That said there can be no excusing him, or the mess he's made of the nation with his 'Labour' cronies.

de_sisti

Cressers wrote:

There may be if as he is suffering from a Visual Impairment, as I do.

That said there can be no excusing him, or the mess he's made of the nation with his 'Labour' cronies.

In his day to day work I agree, but for writing letters to bereaved families, a decent pen
should be use. Why not, he can afford one. :roll:

markos1963

Guess what? my surname is JANES!!! I have had 46 years of people getting my name wrong(Christian and surname). One newspaper, after I had phonetically spelt it for them, had me in print as Mick Jones( don't mind as I'm a fan of The Clash)

Whilst I appreciate Gordon Brown writing personally to the mother and the fact we are all human and can make mistakes( my spelling can be truly awful) you would have thought with all his advisors and hangers on he would get the letters proof read before posting.

thejesusandsedischain

is max clifford involved in any of this,it seems to have his grubby paw prints all over it.

Pross

Guess what? my surname is JANES!!! I have had 46 years of people getting my name wrong(Christian and surname). One newspaper, after I had phonetically spelt it for them, had me in print as Mick Jones( don't mind as I'm a fan of The Clash)

It wasn't the Sun by any chance was it? That would be irony!

is max clifford involved in any of this,it seems to have his grubby paw prints all over it.

Almost certainly and if he is he won't be doing it free of charge!

andy162

Although I don't 100% agree with our troops fighting in Afghanistan( strengthen our borders IMO) nor am I a big fan of GB. But I think he is "decent" & has tried to the right thing. The Sun ( Torie rag again) are wretched, always have been really. But that's the nature of a Tabloid I guess.

If my fish & chips came wrapped in The Sun I'd have to think twice before stuffing the face. Although I would happily wipe my ar$e with it.

sonicred007

A friend of mine said something very interesting:

"Dear The Sun, my son joined a heavily armed branch of government whose explicit purpose is violence and was trained... to kill. Someone killed him. I blame everyone but me and my son, can you put me in the paper?"

I added it's interesting it was all about spelling and very little about the rights and wrongs of war

softlad

sonicred007 wrote:

A friend of mine said something very interesting:

"Dear The Sun, my son joined a heavily armed branch of government whose explicit purpose is violence and was trained... to kill. Someone killed him. I blame everyone but me and my son, can you put me in the paper?"

I added it's interesting it was all about spelling and very little about the rights and wrongs of war

your 'friend' clearly has the knack for entirely missing the point.....

sonicred007

It's a difference of opinion that's all ...