It was interesting listening and learning from a phone in show on Radio 5 Live this morning. It featured Gareth Thomas in an emotional live phone call where he revealed that a reporter had door stepped his parents to tell them he (Thomas) was HIV Positive.

It also centred around England cricket hero, Ben Stokes, and The Sun newspaper deeming that the murder of his half sister and brother 30 years ago, was somehow in the public interest.

The Sun newspaper has a track record of ruining lives. From the families of Hillsborough victims and striking miners, to the hacking of a phone belonging to a murdered girl, they have never held back when it comes to smashing families apart.

Both Stokes and Thomas have come to realise that with fame comes intrusion. However, The Sun code of conduct that encourages infiltrating family members who have done nothing wrong, is, in my opinion, sick in the head.

For those of you who follow cricket, you will be aware of Stokes’s recent road to redemption. He was lucky not to be facing a prison sentence after knocking someone out in a street fight a couple of years ago. He faced justifiable wrath in the media.

I didn’t see a way back for him to be honest. By all accounts he was a broken man who had come to realise he had created his own downfall by not controlling his own moments of red mist.

His steady, then meteoric rise to one of the best players to represent England, is proof that everyone should be allowed a path that offers them redemption. Despite World Cup and Ashes heroics that would be ridiculed as too unrealistic for comic books, Stokes has stayed humble and kept his head down.

Whilst many would seek excuses for their behaviour, Stokes took what was chucked at him, kept his head down and cracked on. The greatest summer of his life and his rise from pantomime villain to sporting hero, has been smashed apart by something that has no relevance to what he has done, good or bad.

Journalists

I know a journalist who has worked at The Telegraph and The Mail. Journalists, like anyone else, go to who pays the most. Regardless of their own political beliefs or standards, like anyone else, they have bills to pay.

Investigative/gossip journalists are like salesmen. They have an editor breathing down their neck chasing them for clickbait and headlines. The editor has, in most cases, a tax dodging media baron breathing down their neck looking for sensationalist distractions. Distractions from financial activities that hover between criminal and lawful, with all loopholes utilised.

The focus will be on the ‘journalists’ who have taken the decision to be morally bankrupt to keep the money coming in. However, the truth is, the British media (not just The Sun) has allowed itself to be bought by barons who don’t care about people or the country. All that interests them is keeping the law and the taxman away from their offices in Jersey, Panama and The Cayman Islands.  

The only way to stop it, is to follow the lead of the people on Merseyside who were persecuted by former editor, Calvin Mackenzie.

It’s simple really. Stop buying The Sun or clicking on its media links.