The Sun has run an extract from associate editor Trevor Kavanagh's speech to the Leveson inquiry in which he claimed it was hard to escape the impression that it was out to "get" the tabloids, which were "implicitly seen as uncultured, malpractised and unethical."
He asked: "Why, for instance, is nobody with tabloid experience, representing the overwhelming majority of readers and sales, on this panel?"
Kavanagh added: "Having been with the Sun for 30 years, I wish to record my admiration for the sheer professionalism of gifted colleagues both at Wapping and among our tabloid rivals.
"They are the finest creative professionals in the business, men and women who could adapt to working successfully on any other paper.
"The tabloids drive the daily news agenda. The Sun has broken world exclusives which are not just interesting but in the public interest.
"In today's prohibitive climate, many of those stories would never see the light of day. The public would be all the poorer.
"The great sin of the popular Press is to be... popular. Our lighter, brighter, brasher papers are commercially successful. We have 20million readers — ten times as many as the "heavies".
"The unpopular papers are irritated that they have to imitate our lively style in order to keep in the game."
He argued that the Sun's greatest contribution to the public interest had been on Europe and the successful campaign against giving up the pound and joining the euro without a referendum.
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1 comment:
Trevor's comments about George Jones and Elinor Goodman were also very interesting, given that they are all long-standing friends.
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