When
Sky News crime correspondent Martin Brunt had a tip-off that Sun editor
Rebekah Wade was being held at a London police station, he said the
channel had little hesitation in going public with the news.
He
said adages such as dog doesn’t eat dog counted for little when it came
to such a sensational story, and the fact that Wade is a major figure
in another part of the Rupert Murdoch media empire was also quickly
discounted.
Murdoch’s News Corporation not only owns The Sun, but is also the major shareholder in BSkyB.
Brunt
said: “I got the story from a contact who told me he felt that it
probably wasn’t a story for me because of the closeness within the
group. But clearly it was a sensational story and journalists love no
story more than stories about each other.” Brunt said: “I called the
newsdesk and understandably it was referred one up the chain. Very
quickly the message came back, ‘go with it’. I’d have been surprised if
it hadn’t been referred, given that we were talking about somebody who
was an important figure in our group. But I was encouraged that that
didn’t present a problem.”
The story was broken by Sky at 11.15am on Thursday and led the news agenda.
Brunt
said: “The irresistible ingredient was that she’s married to perhaps
our biggest soap star – that really made it a story. If it had just
been her, would we have run it? I think yes. If we hadn’t run it there
might have been a charge of hypocrisy.”
Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog
