The Sun sent the dogs running after Huw Edwards. Now we should chase News UK.
The name is finally out but the questions remain... and they're for the tabloid.
Previously: 10 more questions for The Sun about its 'BBC presenter' story.
News UK should answer. It won't.
Huw Edwards was named via WhatsApp messages and Signal pings within minutes of The Sun story dropping on Saturday. It took until tonight (Wednesday 12 July 2023) for Edwards to be publicly named and when it came, it was in a statement issued by his wife Vicky Flind.
Flind and Edwards have five children; she has asked for privacy for him, for her, for their children, and everyone involved in the story.
It is unlikely that The Sun — a paper which kicked off this rash of stories and speculation with a now disproved claim of criminal behaviour — will respect Edwards’ privacy nor that the other vultures won’t swoop down the wires to pick at the carcass of his career.
The British media has not learned from the multiple occasions that it has put intolerable pressure on individuals suffering from mental health issues.
The BBC has reported vigorously and masochistically on the Edwards story and has now produced a further story with accusations from current and former BBC staff that Edwards sent them inappropriate messages. That will be part of the ongoing BBC investigation, along with the second allegation published by The Sun that Edwards sent threatening messages when an individual he had been messaging on a dating app suggested they would expose him. However, The Sun published messages from that conversations and they were weak.
The Sun has clearly damaged Huw Edwards’ reputation and left him in a very uncertain situation in terms of his career and personal life. It seems clear that he also behaved very unwisely at best.
The key claim in The Sun’s initial story has been shown to be untrue and we know already that the other person at the heart of this story — an unnamed 20-year-old — had told the paper that its claims were false. What happens next is unclear and media lawyers popping up as talking heads right now offer differing analyses.
I have published 19 questions that The Sun needs to answer so far. Here are six more to bring it up to 25:
1. What evidence did you have for the original story?
2. Can you reasonably claim to have done any due diligence?
3. To repeat: How fucked do your lawyers think you are now?
4. How much was the first story a fishing exercise?
5. How much will the apology cost?
6. How do you sleep at night?
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