Spennymackem1981
Winger
I think this is more complicated than people are making out.
I'm not going to defend the way the Sun goes about journalism. The tone of their reporting is always sensationalist and unacceptable - and I know a bit about how they operate. They will, as Stokes implied, have gone about hounding his mother and family for comment. That is, as he says, the absolute lowest of the low.
Where I think this is more complicated is that this is definitely news. I am afraid to say I have looked at the non-Sun reporting of it (most of which has been taken down) and it is absolutely newsworthy - and could almost certainly have been found out by anyone in New Zealand with Google alone i.e. absolutely no need to hound his family. It is actually such a huge story its remarkable it hasn't come out before.
Stokes's line is that his family have a right to privacy. They certainly have a right to not be bothered. But where is the line on stories like this? If it were a politician or a celebrity that nobody has particular affinity to on here then everybody would deem the reporting of the mere facts (i.e. not the houding) as fair game if not outright public interest. And what about non celebrities who do not, as Stokes does, have the privileged position of lawyers and fame to stop life events like this being reported? What are the limits of the public's right to know stuff? I think this genuinely gets to the messy middle point of these type of conversations, where it's not clear either way.
I honestly don't know. If he has a right to this kind of privacy then we need to rethink the way society operates and we all behave. Maybe we should, but we are all guilty of intruding on stuff like this - even the way we go on about Sunderland players.
fuck off....i thought stories were about Public Interest..why doesn anyone need to know that stoke's half brother and sister were murdered years ago