Gordon in the morning: Health matters

Here's something that Leveson might like to ponder. Earlier this week Sun editor Dominic Mohan and showbiz editor Gordon Smart appeared before the judge, insisting that theirs was an ethical, sound newspaper.

Today, there's rather a lot about Robin Gibb's health, matters which would appear to be private and without any real public interest justification.

Richard White, chief showbiz writer, has apparently spoken to a "close family pal" - one of those "close" "pals" who yaks to the newspapers about a sick friend; we all have those, right?

Obviously, if this was information Gibb and his family wanted being raked over by the newspaper, that close pal would be happy to speak on the record, yes?

And just in case there was any doubt:

His spokesman would not comment.

Why is The Sun printing details about a seriously ill person who clearly doesn't want to have that information in the public domain? Maybe Justice Leveson could bring back a couple of Sun people and ask them to show their thinking.

Gordon in the morning: The embrace of death

Filed as an "exclusive" by Caroline McGuire, a tale of Lady visting Amy Winehouse's house to 'pay respects':

A source said: "She went in disguise and kept things low key."

That's probably wise; otherwise it would have appeared in the papers.

To be fair to GaGa, the scant information the Sun has (the story is padded out with adverts for the rushed-out posthumous album) suggests that GaGa did want to keep the visit private, and did nearly succeed.

From the recently dead to the still alive, and Richard White's piece on Robin Gibb. If the tabloids are horrible when someone's dead, how much worse are they when they think somebody is about to die. One thing I'm sure family and friends of Robin Gibb could do without is having the Sun crying fake tears about his condition outside the hospital doors.

The only saving grace is that with Leveson sitting, even Murdoch's papers are unlikely to repeat the ghoulish crashing of the death of Russell Harty. You'd hope.