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Sunday 12 July 2015

Andy Burnham Defies The Sun

The Murdoch empire is no stranger to hypocrisy, nor to its tendency to call it on others as a means of diverting attention. So it was that Rupe’s downmarket troops launched a bitter and petulant attack on Labour leadership front runner Andy Burnham today, as the news reached them that he had indicated that he would not only not be giving papers like the Sun any kind of special favours, he was also not going to be giving them interviews.
There is a very good reason why Burnham, alone among the leadership hopefuls, has reason to keep the Sun at arm’s length: he comes from Aintree, near Liverpool, he’s a lifelong Everton supporter, and both Red and Blue parts of the city have joined together in their revulsion at the behaviour of the Murdoch press in the aftermath of the Hillsborough stadium disaster in 1989 - and more recently.

The Sun has recently issued a grovelling apology, but has now re-employed its then editor Kelvin MacKenzie as a regular columnist. It was Kelvin McFilth who personally ordered the fateful “The Truth” front page, and stood by it even as other papers that had used the same source apologised and withdrew theirs. While the new Hillsborough inquests are going on, to have Kel back at the Sun shows they just don’t care.

So it was no surprise to see the BBC reportingLabour leadership candidate Andy Burnham has indicated he would not do an interview with the Sun newspaper if he becomes party leader … Mr Burnham told the BBC he had not forgiven the paper for its coverage of the 1989 Hillsborough disaster”. The Liverpool Echo, which does not publish the Sun’s name in full in order to demonstrate its displeasure, concurred.

Their website reportedwhen he was questioned specifically about the S*n, Mr Burnham told the Sunday Politics North West programme: ‘I give interviews generally and people can report my words. But I don’t do special favours for newspapers that attack me and attack my party’”. Most sales outlets on Merseyside do not stock or sell the Sun.

The result of this revelation has been to set the Sun off on an outburst that was as petulant as it was hypocritical. “BRIDGES? ANDY’S BURNT’EM … Labour hypocrite won't speak to The Sun” howled the headline. There was more: “Andy Burnham said today he would not do an interview with The Sun if he becomes party leader … He said he did not do ‘special favours’ for papers which ‘attack’ him or the Labour Party”.

And they weren’t finished. “Really, Andy! What about the last Labour leadership race when you DID think it was worth talking to millions of ordinary Brits who read The Sun … ANDY WAS INTERVIEWED IN OUR SUN CAB”. That would be the black cabs that the Sun has done next to nothing to promote in their fight against driver-and-rider matching services like Uber - other than to take a poll on the subject.

The Sun doesn’t give a crap about those that Andy Burnham counts as his friends. Why should he abandon those friends just to crawl to a shower of journalistic filth devoid of principles, and the ability to tell the truth? What God-given right does Rupert Murdoch have to interfere in the internal workings of the Labour Party?

Good for Andy Burnham. Creepy Uncle Rupe doesn’t even have the vote in the UK.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

As much as I hope that he sticks to his principles, I am not holding my breath.
If he is elected as leader I would guess, especially when the next election looms, he will suddenly give an interview.

Rly

Anonymous said...

If he sticks to this promise - great.

It'd be even better if he openly denounced New Labour for the gang of traitors they were and are. Then promised to restore all the founding values of the Labour Party.

Of course this would bring down the wrath of far right mainstream media (that is, all of it) in its usual hypocritical ranting. But it's about time somebody got straight in their faces and told them clearly what they are.

It would mean too he would in the short term probably lose a gerrymandered general election. But so what? At least he would perform a service for history, similar to Clarence Darrow in the Scopes trial. He would set a marker for turning the tide, something none of the others - with the possible exception of Jeremy Corbyn - are capable of doing.

And he would at least be able to look at himself in the mirror each morning. Not something any of the compromised Righties can do.

As for the Sun and the Murdoch thugs - nobody decent gives a shit what they say. Anybody who buys and believes anything they say is beyond persuasion anyway. So Burnham's stance is admirable in that respect. At least he's pointing out just what a bunch of ranting righty no-marks they are, something the rest of New Labour cowrads have run away from for years.