My time in The Sun
Throughout my career the words “the Sun have been in touch” was always a call to arms. A client had a problem and it was my job to manage it, ideally, stop it.
I can remember some very happy successes (none of which I can mention!) when I managed to talk the Sun out of a story about a client; often on the basis that the allegations were untrue, sometimes that it was private (and the client was prepared to get an injunction to stop publication), but equally I can remember some very stressful times when the information and legal arguments were irresistible and I had to move with the client into damage limitation mode, preparing the client, both reputationally and mentally, for the impact and fallout.
In 2019 then, when I received a call from Jonathan Boon, a sports journalist at the Sun, wanting to interview me, I was apprehensive.
I recall once having a long(ish) and nuanced conversation with a journalist at the Sun’s rivals the Mirror about my client James Haskell. It was about a “fake news” issue on Facebook (scam advertisers claiming that James had died) and I provided lots of detail, thoughtful stuff about online disinformation, and then I got to the end of the call and the journalist said: “So, would it be fair to say that James might sue Facebook?” to which I gave the honest reply: “It is one option open to him”. Cue headline and article (with none of the detail and nuance):
“James Haskell could sue Facebook after bogus ‘fake news’ slur claimed he had died from ‘steroid overdose’”
Shrug emoji. I don’t know why we bothered with the long conversation.
So, when I spoke with Jonathan, at length and enjoyably, I was expecting more of the same. It turns out that was completely unfair. Jonathan’s piece is perhaps the best piece I’ve done with a journalist (I’m probably saying that because it was very nice about me and had a flattering headline).
I still have my disquiet about appearing in the pages of The Sun, a long-time legal opponent of mine who I fiercely disagree with politically and object to many of the past tactics and ethics of, but, if you want to speak to a football mass market, then there’s probably no bigger mouthpiece than the UK’s biggest tabloid. So there it is, my time in The Sun … and it was ok. No, it was actually quite good.
Thanks Jonathan.
