It is no surprise that after 34 years of loyal service to News International, Trevor Kavanagh is trying to persuade people to think the police, goaded by “witchunters”, are behaving heavy handedly.
In listening to his pleading, let us not forget that at the High Court last week, his employers, News Group Newspapers, were forced to admit that executives and staff had lied to the police, misled the public and destroyed evidence.
Then last week the Metropolitan police admitted to the court that it had not done enough to get to the bottom of the hacking scandal at Wapping.
So the notion that the police might politely ring up to make an appointment to see a Sun journalist for a civilised chat is far-fetched.
It takes some nerve for News International, in the form of Kavanagh, to be accusing the police of wasting time and resources. It is News International’s behaviour that is to blame for police having to devote immense time and resources to establish the facts.
By deliberately lying to the police and trashing evidence they have made the job far more complex and expensive than it should have been.
If further justification is needed, in the Dowler case, Surrey police revealed they had been bullied and deceived by News International.
The police are no doubt conscious of the remarks from the former Chair of the Press Complaints Commission Baroness Buscombe who said:
“There’s only so much we can do when people are lying to us. We know now that I was not being given the truth by the News of the World.”
I am sure the public will be able to judge for themselves Kavanagh’s motives in making this attack.
12 comments ↓
Beaverbrook was a Presbyterian raised in the austere ethic of the Church of Scotland. He liked to recite a verse that suggested he believed in the Calvinist doctrine of predestination. .
I know that God is wroth with me
For I was born in sin,
My heart is so exceeding vile,
Damnation swells therein.
Awake I sin, asleep I sin,
I sin with every breath,
When Adam fell he went to hell,
And damned us all to death.
I have to say, tom, that I’m surprised to be the first to comment on this. kavanagh was on R4 earlier, squealing (without a hint of irony) about – amongst other rubbish – how ‘unfair’ this ‘witch-hunt’ is and how much the police actions are costing the public purse.
here’s an idea, trev: if it’s discovered that NI are guilty of wrongdoing the final bill should be sent to NI.
job done, surely?
Bit gobsmacked to read Kavanagh’s article – and yess I had to buy the bloody Sun for the first time ever to do so. What does he think he is doing? Talk about having your head stuck in the sand.
Good piece Tom, seems to be some sympathy emerging for Mr Kavanagh. Radio 4 seemed to be edging that way this evening, sadly.
Hear hear!
A truly courageous & measured rebutall.I don’t tweet & rarely comment but truly admire your stance. “If you don’t stand up for something you’ll fall for anything” – Marx, (Groucho)
Well done, Tom. As usual, Trevor Kavanagh made sure he was interviewed on-air alone with no counterbalance. I’m afraid some of the Sun’s readers won’t have seen the joins, but take heart: The Sun is setting. Charlotte Harris did a good job of of blowing away the dust last night – and she didn’t look like a witch!
Just an observation, but the Mail seem to always have a drip feed of information from IDSs department that they can then publish in their daily crucifixion of benefits claimants, particularly those, like myself, who are in receipt of DLA.
[Edited]
Regards
Chris Arnfield BA, BSc
I have heard Trevor Cavanagh speak on many occasions and your answer Tom sums everything up what the Sun stands for a paper I would never buy or. Hundreds of thousands of ordinary people Sun readers will never get a true reflection of the misdeeds at the NI from the likes of arch establishment figures like Trevor Cavanagh. He is one of the top men at the Sun and no doubt was party to Murdock’s plea to Tony Blair that he would support the attack on Iraq through his newspapers with the result of hundreds of thousands of casualties, Civilian, British and American forces. Iraq is in a a worse state than it was under the dictatorship of Hussein. With the Sun on Sunday appearing shortly it will no doubt lead on the pending possible invasion of Syria or Iran or both and give its full support in either case.
I was also particularly repulsed by Kavanagh’s report of police officers “rifling through children’s underwear drawers” – mis-characterising a legitimate search as having some kind of near paedophilic intent. But nothing other than you’d expect from a NI hack.
In view of todays revelations by Sue Akers of a network of public officials, would it be fair to say that these `corrupt officials` were actively briefing against the Labour party whilst in government as was suspected for a long time. This may also go back as far as Neil Kinnocks era, when the Sun had, day after day, malicious information about Labour candidates.
If it is found that the Sun, aka Murdoch, has been using this system to undermine the Labour party, how much did Cameron and his cronies know about all of this?
Is there not a charge of treason to be levelled at Murdoch if this is the case?
The Sun should be closed down and there should be serious thought about how Sky operates as well.
My latest idea for a poster campaing appears to be gaining popularity:-
TORIES = UNEMPLOYMENT, SIMPLES.
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