Canoe man's sons gladly accept payment for story..

[max_tranmere]

A bit of irony here? The mum and dad, who are now in jail, did all the things they did because of their lust for cash. The two sons, who have condemned them for what they did, happily accepted a 'six figure sum' from a newspaper in order to officially state how disgusted they were at what their parents did. The accompanying photo's that went with the 'exclusive' in yesterday's Mail On Sunday, had the two sons photographed on a beach with the sea behind them in the specially posed photographs! Trying their best to have the photo's look as similar as possible to what their dad did (pretending to have been lost at sea!).

This is quite astonishing: to officically condemn people for selling out their morals in their desire for money, by taking a load of money for the story, and being snapped with the sea behind you! You couldn't make this up! The 'six figure sum' they received could be anything from ?100k to several hundreds of thousands. What a couple of hypocrital mercenary twats these two sons are! What are other people's views?

[Pervert]

Chances are they are a pair of mercenary hypocrites, but don't discount the persuasive skills of the journalists involved: "World deserves to know . . . . sensitive, symapthetic coverage . . . . don't you deserve something for the pain your parents have put you through."

Blaming the subjects of such stories is pitifully easy, and can be well deserved, but don't let's forget the devils whispering in their ears.

Chequebook journalism is loathsome, and shows a distinct lack of morals. If, as the newspapers often claim, they are arbiters of right, defenders of truth and simple recorders of the facts, why should they need to offer obscene amounts to get people to speak? The simple truth is they are trying to buy readers.

[NEO2008]

That seems to be the way of the world now, one rule for them and one rule for everyone else.

[crofter]

Don't agree with that at all Caractacus, whilst journalism of this sort might not be up your street they are ONLY doing their job (that let's not forget is SELLING Newspapers). The two sons on the other hand are not just doing their job are they, they rather blatantly have grasped the chance to cash in on their "sad story".
The thing I find most astonishing is that people actually could believe that these two had nothing to do with this whole affair and imho it is a jail cell they should be waking up to NOT a six figure cash windfall ...

[JonnyHungwell]

Kerry Katona got a six figure sum for not being a prostitute - it just proves you can earn more by letting someone libel you:

[Jonone]

It's called ambivalence.

[Sam Slater]

[quote]they are ONLY doing their job (that let's not forget is SELLING Newspapers).[/quote]

EXACTLY! Their job is to SELL newspapers.

At one time, a journalist's job was to report accurately, and inform the public of facts. They didn't care about profit, readership numbers compared to rivals, or how much they could sell advertising space.

News shouldn't be about money, it should be about information sharing.

[Jonone]

Wonder if people like John Pilger thought that there job was to shift copies ?

What about films like 'All The President's Men' or 'Silkwood' ? What would the pitch be ? ' A compelling tale about people who risked all .... to sell newspapers'

[max_tranmere]

Apparently when the couple get out of jail they are going to have to pay back all the money they got in the insurance fraud. Maybe they could ask their sons to pay the money using the money THEY got through telling everyone how wrong it was of their parents to do what they did.