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March 28 2024 10.03pm

Ben Stokes attacks 'despicable' Sun story

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View Qwijibo's Profile Qwijibo Flag Bournemouth 17 Sep 19 7.46pm Send a Private Message to Qwijibo Add Qwijibo as a friend

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Ben Stokes attacks 'despicable' Sun story about family tragedy

The England cricketer Ben Stokes has described a front-page article in the Sun newspaper about a family tragedy 31 years ago as “disgusting” and “immoral”.

In a statement on Twitter on Tuesday, Stokes said the paper’s decision to publish the story would have “grave and lifelong consequences” for his mother, in particular. He claimed the story, which was also picked up by Mail Online, contained a number of serious inaccuracies.

“Today the Sun has seen fit to publish extremely painful, sensitive and personal details concerning events in the private lives of my family, going back more than 31 years,” he wrote. “It is hard to find words that adequately describe such low and despicable behaviour, disguised as journalism. I cannot conceive of anything more immoral, heartless or contemptuous to the feelings and circumstances of my family.”

Stokes criticised the article as “the lowest form of journalism, focused only on chasing sales” and asked people to respect his family’s privacy and right to home life. “To use my name as an excuse to shatter the privacy and private lives of – in particular – my parents is utterly disgusting,” he wrote.

The article described in detail events in New Zealand 31 years ago, before he was born, when his mother’s ex-husband killed their two children before taking his own life.

Stokes said a reporter had turned up at his parents’ home in New Zealand “out of the blue” to ask them about the tragedy. The Sun reported that the couple and the cricketer had declined to comment.

In his statement, Stokes said his own public profile was not an excuse to “invade” the rights and privacy of his family members. He added: “This is the lowest form of journalism, focused only on chasing sales with absolutely no regard for the devastation caused to lives as a consequence. It is totally out of order.”

Tom Harrison, the England and Wales Cricket Board chief executive, also condemned the decision to publish the article.

“We, like the wider sporting world, are disgusted and appalled at the actions taken in revealing the tragic events from Ben’s past. We are saddened that an intrusion of this magnitude was deemed necessary in order to sell newspapers or secure clicks,” he said.

“Ben’s exploits this summer have cemented his place in cricket’s history. We are sure the whole sport, and the country, stands behind him in support.”

There was also support for Stokes from other cricketers and fans on Twitter. The England test captain, Joe Root, retweeted his teammate’s statement and urged people to “please take the time to read this and respect it”.

Hacked Off, the campaign for media accountability, said: “This is an appalling invasion of privacy with no public interest justification. We have been told repeatedly by newspaper editors that ‘everything has changed’ since the Leveson report seven years ago. It is abundantly clear that nothing has changed. Some newspapers are just as incapable of abiding by principles of human decency and basic journalistic ethics as they were during the phone-hacking scandal.”

A spokeswoman for the Sun said: “The Sun has the utmost sympathy for Ben Stokes and his mother but it is only right to point out the story was told with the cooperation of a family member who supplied details, provided photographs and posed for pictures. The tragedy is also a matter of public record and was the subject of extensive front-page publicity in New Zealand at the time.

“The Sun has huge admiration for Ben Stokes and we were delighted to celebrate his sporting heroics this summer. He was contacted prior to publication and at no stage did he or his representatives ask us not to publish the story.”

Stokes is the runaway favourite to be named BBC Sports Personality of the Year in December, having helped England win the World Cup in July before playing a starring role in the drawn Ashes series.

His unbeaten 135 to turn what looked like certain defeat into a memorable one-wicket third Ashes test win over Australia at Headingley was hailed as one of the greatest batting displays of all time.

Twelve months ago, Stokes was cleared of affray at a court in Bristol after a high-profile trial that followed a late-night brawl.

Go on, admit it, who looked up the Sun story after reading this...

(I didn't I would add)

 

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View chris123's Profile chris123 Flag hove actually 17 Sep 19 7.56pm Send a Private Message to chris123 Add chris123 as a friend

Not speaking to Stokes is poor, speaking to a family member is no justification in my view.

 

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View Stirlingsays's Profile Stirlingsays Flag 17 Sep 19 8.11pm Send a Private Message to Stirlingsays Holmesdale Online Elite Member Add Stirlingsays as a friend

What can we say, the gutter press make money out of people's pain all the time.

It's when they pretend to have morality that you have to laugh.

 


'Who are you and how did you get in here? I'm a locksmith. And, I'm a locksmith.' (Leslie Nielsen)

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View steeleye20's Profile steeleye20 Flag Croydon 17 Sep 19 8.33pm Send a Private Message to steeleye20 Add steeleye20 as a friend

The Guardian has apologised for saying David Cameron had only felt "privileged pain" over the death of his son.

How sick-making the press are.

 

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View Fatherken's Profile Fatherken Flag 17 Sep 19 9.48pm Send a Private Message to Fatherken Add Fatherken as a friend

teach the sun a lesson and stop buying that rag it's a s**t paper anyway

 

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deleted user Flag 17 Sep 19 10.44pm

A scummy paper exploiting someones personal life and challenges to shift a few copies of their worthless rag.

 

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View Jimenez's Profile Jimenez Flag SELHURSTPARKCHESTER,DA BRONX 18 Sep 19 12.40am Send a Private Message to Jimenez Add Jimenez as a friend

Originally posted by Fatherken

teach the sun a lesson and stop buying that rag it's a s**t paper anyway

I'm actually flabbergasted to think that in 2019 with all the news sources that are available.That anyone actually walks into a newsagents & spends 20p (or whatever it costs now)on a newspaper. It's like admitting you have a landline phone. (Not a slur at you by the way Father Ken)

 


Pro USA & Israel

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View Fatherken's Profile Fatherken Flag 18 Sep 19 9.19am Send a Private Message to Fatherken Add Fatherken as a friend

I have one of those

 

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deleted user Flag 18 Sep 19 9.44am

Originally posted by Jimenez

I'm actually flabbergasted to think that in 2019 with all the news sources that are available.That anyone actually walks into a newsagents & spends 20p (or whatever it costs now)on a newspaper. It's like admitting you have a landline phone. (Not a slur at you by the way Father Ken)

Yes it is becoming rather antiquated isn't it. It's about as 'Blockbuster Video' as you can get in this day and age

 

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View CrazyBadger's Profile CrazyBadger Flag Ware 18 Sep 19 10.20am Send a Private Message to CrazyBadger Add CrazyBadger as a friend

I find it hard to believe just how easy it is for these institutions to continue to hide behind the 'Freedom of speech' angle. They feel they can publish anything, however accurate, and are justified in doing so because they are journalists. They prefer to publish then apologise, rather than not publish at all.
the underlying problem is that people still buy the s*** they're selling, and believe the s*** they're writing.

something has to change. They cannot be allowed to control or affect peoples lives in the way they are now. Stokes' family (I don't know what has been alleged, and I'm not going to the Sun to find out) has been tarred by something, and it's likely their lives affected forever just so these people can sell a few papers, or garner a few more clicks. Disgusting.

I'm all for proper objective and well researched journalism, but I'm not sure it exists anymore - especially not in the tabloids.

Well that got more Rant-y than I was expecting!

 


"It was a Team effort, I guess it took all players working together to lose this one"

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Tom-the-eagle Flag Croydon 18 Sep 19 10.36am

The Sun are uncaring scum bags.

Nobody from the paper bothered to ask how the hamster family was feeling after Freddy Starr ate their brother.

 


"It feels much better than it ever did, much more sensitive." John Wayne Bobbit

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View topcat's Profile topcat Flag Holmesdale / Surbiton 18 Sep 19 11.16am Send a Private Message to topcat Add topcat as a friend

Originally posted by Jimenez

I'm actually flabbergasted to think that in 2019 with all the news sources that are available.That anyone actually walks into a newsagents & spends 20p (or whatever it costs now)on a newspaper. It's like admitting you have a landline phone. (Not a slur at you by the way Father Ken)

I think one a million people still read the paper edition. You are right though, people need to stop clicking on links to their website as well as stopping buying the print version. If people carry on buying the paper or clicking on the links, it endorses what they print.

 


It's 106 miles to Chicago, we got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark... and we're wearing sunglasses.

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