The dark side of The Sun?

I’ve just seen blogs all over carrying the story from The Sun about Tom Cruise allegedly having been named by Mr. David Miscavige as the Christ of Scientology. I’m a Scientologist and I’ve never heard that. Surely I would have heard before The Sun.

The Sun reports that they got this from a close friend. Sure – as if The Sun had contacts to close friends of Tom Cruise or Mr. Miscavige? Sure – if I was your close friend I wouldn’t even tell The Sun something about you.

I won’t even comment on the statement itself – it’s bad taste. But hey, it’s The Sun isn’t it?

Now I did a thorough research on The Sun (about 10 minutes) and whoa here’s a team of guys that seem to manufacture news and destroy lives for a living.

Check this out from the Times Online:

“The Sun newspaper has destroyed the life of a blameless woman in the reckless pursuit of a totally groundless story.

“Since these allegations were first published in August 2004, Patricia Tierney has been through 12 months of hell. Every time the story is mentioned she is reduced to tears and is prevented from trying to reclaim her life and move on.”

And it goes on with all the details how they claim that Patricia Tierney (52 year, mother of 3) was a prositute which Wayne Rooney didn’t like. Utter fiction! Had they invented the name they could have avoided to ruin her life…

Read the article here.

And then try another one here from blackbritain about someone with a little more luck who managed to sue them and win. Here The Sun goes into allegations – and again gives names and addresses of someone to again ruin her life. But they turn out false and they get sued.

“The case itself sheds light on the way tabloid papers, headed by white male editors often with no understanding of, or even interest in, black communities, sanction stories which feed wider society’s misperceptions of who black people are.”

“The Sun newspaper’s devil may care attitude found an unlikely adversary in Esther Thomas, a black clerk who recently sued the paper for harassment – and won.”

Conclusion – per some surveys I once saw about 80% of people don’t believe what they read in the papers. I have always looked at the blogging community to represent those 80% and be the ones that stand out and communicate their views. The amount of bloggers that carried the story gives me the creeps.

Let’s leave the sensational news to the Yellow Papers – while we blog and shine some true sunlight to The Sun.