Nine questions that The Sun should answer about its dodgy 'BBC presenter' story

This is no longer a BBC story, it's a News Corp story.

Previously: So rude! The columnist is surprised...
If you write for a national newspaper, you should expect a response.

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Last night, the solicitors representing the younger individual at the heart of the ‘BBC presenter’ story issued a statement saying that The Sun’s story — which used the 20-year-old’s estranged mother and step-father as its source — was “total rubbish” and that the paper had been told as much on Friday evening. But The Sun and News UK — its parent company — have continued to double down.

On Saturday, The Sun published an article featuring what it claimed were “nine questions that the BBC refused to answer”. Good format; I’m nicking it. Here are nine questions that The Sun should (but won’t) answer:

1. Why did you print a story based on a single source — the mother of a young person who is estranged from that young person?

2. How much was your decision to publish the story about the chance to attack the BBC which your proprietor, Keith Rupert Murdoch, has a particular hostility towards and which you traduce daily?

3. Did your legal department warn you that you should not publish with such a thin amount of evidence?

4. How fucked does your legal department think you are now?

5. What proof do you have that the young person at the heart of this story has substance abuse issues?

6. If you have that proof, why did you call that person “crack-addicted”?

7. What evidence do you have that images were purchased and that those images were taken while the person pictured was under-17?

8. Did you know that the person in this case is/was a sex worker?

9. How large is the apology to the young person and the presenter going to be? And how much time and money will it take to get?

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