Sun bemoans young girls having sex, conveniently forgets Page 3

“Why are girls having sex so young?” Jane Moore demands in today’s print edition of the Sun. Her article is inspired by the number of 14-year-old girls having abortions – which has increased from 135 to 166 over two years. (On a side note, that’s an increase of 31 girls and may have something to do with rising population.)

However the statistics are interpreted, no one would argue that 14-year-olds having abortions isn’t worrying. But the way Moore discusses the issue shows a disregard for the context in which she writes:

“A spokesman for the Department of Health said extra funds had been invested in contraceptive services… It’s not the bloody point.

The issue here is self esteem… the early sexualisation of young girls.”

This of course is the paper where 18-year-old Rosie (right) from Middlesex can happily strip off on Page 3. I’m not familiar with Rosie’s work, but one might guess this high-profile shoot isn’t her first. But she’s 18 now. So that’s OK.

Inconsistencies in the Sun are nothing new. But they do raise the question of context and its importance to individual journalists. During the Jan Moir scandal, the Fleet Street Blues blog argued:

“The Daily Mail's line isn't one its journalists always personally believe in, but they're pros, and how many of us can honestly say we've never written a story with an angle we didn't personally support? Journalists are mercenaries, after all.”

While we can’t expect every single columnist to support every view of their given paper, you’d expect them to avoid such jarring contradictions. Namely, bemoaning the sexualisation of women and girls – in a paper so famous for doing just that.

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