Spoilers in Sun and Daily Mail
The News of the World, The Sun and the Daily Mail have produced extensive spoilers ahead of the Daily Mirror’s Burrell buy-up, writes Jean Morgan.
The Sun’s spoiler, in particular, appears to have been so successful that Burrell’s lawyers have attempted to gag the paper.
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The High Court granted a temporary injunction on Tuesday night forbidding it from printing any more details of the life of Diana, Princess of Wales, after Burrell’s lawyers claimed the information was coming from stolen or leaked documents. The Sun is preparing to challenge the injunction in the next few days, arguing the details are in the public interest and that Burrell has already sold his story to the Mirror for £300,000 and to ITV’s Tonight with Trevor McDonald for £100,000.
Last April, Burrell went to PR man Max Clifford, on the advice of newscaster Peter Sissons, to discuss how to handle media deals. The pair had several conversations three to four hours long before Clifford said he was ditched on the advice of Burrell’s lawyer, who claimed some witnesses would not come forward for his client if he retained Clifford. Clifford told Press Gazette he had advised Burrell then if he did a deal with one paper, everyone else would attack him.
"He would have been better off giving something different to each paper. He could have made a lot more money and everyone else would be on his side," Clifford said. "I could have got him a £1m package."
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Instead, the Mail has branded him an outcast for his decision to sell his story. The Sun claims Princess Diana wanted to sack him but he had begged her, kissing her feet, to allow him to stay. Daily Mirror editor Piers Morgan has hit out at them for turning on Burrell. "I think what they have done is frankly disgusting," he said.
"The idea that one day you offer £500,000 or £1m to a guy and the moment he does the same thing you are offering for in another paper, you dump all over him, doesn’t look good for newspapers." Of the Mirror’s coverage, he said: "The easy way to cover the story would have been to have sensationalised details from the police statement about Burrell’s early days with Diana.
"Because there were so many leaks, we ran the statement in full, but we went for the most extraordinary and contemporary line, the meeting between him and the Queen when she made such a bizarre warning to him and they exchange such
intimate thoughts."
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