Sun reply to Community Care: 'We're proud of our justice for Baby P campaign'

The Sun has responded to a letter sent to editor Rebekah Wade by social workers' weekly Community Care accusing it of "undermining" the profession in its coverage of the Baby P case.
Community Care has also started an e-petition on the Downing Street website calling on the Prime Minister to urge the Sun to stop attacking social workers.
The reply from Sun managing editor Graham Dudman states:
"Thank you for your letter to Rebekah Wade which has been passed to my office.
"I am sorry you believe The Sun’s campaign for justice for Baby P is irresponsible and biased.
"You are, of course, entitled to that view. Although The Sun plus the 1,500,000 people who signed our petition disagree with you.
"We are proud to have campaigned successfully to have those responsible held accountable, especially as they continue to refuse to apologise.
"I agree social work is a difficult job at the best of times but make no apologies for the way we highlighted the appalling catalogue of mistakes that led to Baby P’s death. "

Kelvin MacKenzie: 'Chelsea bosses used lawyers to try and shut me up over Scolari'

Lawyers acting for Chelsea Football Club demanded an apology and substantial damages from the Sun after columnist Kelvin MacKenzie ran a piece last year claiming that some players thought manager Luiz Felipe Scolari was hopeless and his training methods old hat, the paper reveals today.
Now Scolari has been sacked among claims that he had "lost the support of his players," MacKenzie tells readers: "With this week's sudden jettisoning of Mr. Scolari, we now know the Chelsea letter was designed by senior executives at the club to shut me up - presumably so Roman Abramovich wouldn't discover what was happening at his own club."

Community Care petition urges PM to tell Sun: 'Stop attacking social workers'

Community Care has started an e-petition on the Downing Street website calling on the Prime Minister to urge the Sun newspaper to back the social work profession.
The weekly magazine for social workers accuses the Sun of "undermining" the profession with its coverage of the Baby 'P' case.
The petition follows a letter sent by Community Care to Sun editor Rebekah Wade calling on her to rethink the newspaper's "negative attitude" to social workers.
The petition begins: "We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to call on The Sun newspaper to back the social work profession."
It claims the Sun decided to place all blame in relation to the Baby P case on the heads of social workers and calls on the paper to highlight the positive work social workers do.
Community Care urges social workers to: "Show the government and The Sun how strongly you feel about this issue by signing the petition now and getting your friends and colleagues to sign it."

Bolton manager Megson's pathetic attempt to keep views on fans private in The Sun

Bolton FC manager Gary Megson, talking about the club's "boo-boys" who have been giving him a hard time , says in a Sun interview today: "Their feelings for me are well documented and are regularly made apparent . My feelings about them need to stay private."
Well, maybe Megson shouldn't in the same interview say of the abuse "it's pathetic" or say "you have to wonder at the intelligence of these people."
That way his "private feelings" wouldn't appear splashed all over the Sun sports pages under the banner headline: 'Megson blasts own fans..YOU ARE THICK 'N PATHETIC.'

Kelvin MacKenzie's 'seagull' management style

Kelvin MacKenzie was always a fearsome boss and known when editor of The Sun for giving his staff terrifying bollockings. One executive pretended to pass out in MacKenzie's office in a bid to avoid the hair dryer treatment.
In his Sun column today, MacKenzie gives an insight into his management style when he owned a radio station in Swansea. He reveals: "I used to have a business in Swansea and decided to make a "seagull visit" - fly in, s*** on the staff and fly back to my London office."

Sun headline apes Private Eye

The Sun has taken a leaf out of the Private Eye style-book today and headlined its story on the four "peers-for-hire" allegations with a play on the Eye's favourite editor "Piers Moron". The Sun's headline is: PEERS MORONS.

When Kelvin MacKenzie looked crisp

From today's Sun, the paper's ex-editor Kelvin MacKenzie, writing about the death of 1960s pop star Dave Dee, remembers his own sixties sartorial elegance. "...orange chiffon shirt, white hipster trousers, two-tone green and brown shoes and a tapestry jacket. With a bit of luck I could have been the Quentin Crisp of journalism."

Why 'Gotcha!' ain't got it as a web headline

Interesting piece in the British Journalism Review by Shane Richmond, the communities editor of Telegraph.co.uk, about how search engine optimisation (SEO) requires headlines on the web to be straighter and more factual than in newspapers. He says of the famous/infamous Sun headline 'Gotcha', over the sinking of the Belgrano in the Falklands War, "no web producer with any experience would consider a headline like that today."
Historical note: The Sun's journalists were on strike over pay when the paper published its most famous headline. It was being put together by editor Kelvin MacKenzie and a handful of executives. Roy Greenslade, one of the executives, remembers: "A news agency reported that the General Belgrano had been hit. Wendy Henry shouted "Gotcha!", not as a suggested headline but as a spontaneous reaction, the kind of black joke common to every newspaper office. MacKenzie seized on it and designed a front page which said: "GOTCHA. Our lads sink gunboat and hole cruiser."
The article left me wondering if SEO means my favourite headline 'Man Battered in Fish Shop' is a thing of the past.

Gaunty 'humbled' by Shami

Sacked shock-jock Jon Gaunt admits in his Sun column today to being humbled by the support he has received from Liberty director Shami Chakrabarti over his firing from talkSPORT radio for calling a councillor a 'Nazi'. Chakrabarti has written to Gaunt's bosses defending his right to freedom of speech and calling for his reinstatement, even though the right-wing pundit has dubbed her the "most dangerous woman in Britain". Gaunt reveals today that he was put in touch with the Liberty director by another of his supporters, ex-SAS author Andy McNab. Gaunt admits he thought it was a "wind-up" by McNab. He is also taking some stick. One friend (Kelvin MacKenzie?) told him:"Gaunty, all these Lefties backing you . . . it’s political correctness gone mad.”