08:08 Monday 18th July 2011
Peterborough Breakfast Show
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire
PAUL STAINTON: Let’s get some more now on the phone-hacking scandal. As we’ve been hearing all morning, the Met Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson has become the latest casualty, after resigning over Scotland Yard’s handling of the crisis. That dramatic development came just hours after the former head of News International Rebekah Brooks was arrested. That only 48 hours after she’d quit her post. Now in a carefully worded resignation speech, that appeared aimed directly at Downing Street, Sir Paul Stephenson the Commissioner said he felt he had to step down, because his role in the scandal had become a distraction. (TAPE)
SIR PAUL STEPHENSON: I have seen at first hand the distractions for this organisation when the story becomes about the leaders, as opposed to what we do as a service. I was always clear I would never allow that to happen. We the Met cannot afford this, not this year. If I stay, I know that the inquiry outcomes would reaffirm my personal integrity. But time is short, before we face the enormous challenges of policing the Olympics. (LIVE)
PAUL STAINTON: John Elworthy is the Editor of the Cambridgeshire Times and Wisbech Standard. Morning.
JOHN ELWORTHY: Hello there. Good morning to you again.
PAUL STAINTON: Yes. There’s always plenty to talk about isn’t there, with this story? Every day there’s another big bomb. Continue reading “Who Else Sells Stories to the Media?”