The Sun has criticised Newcastle Football Club owner Mike Ashley after the paper’s reporters, along with those from many other publications and broadcasters, were barred from interviewing new manager Steve McClaren.
The Sun has published a special edition for the north-east of England with a banner message to Ashley on its back page saying: “We won’t dance to your Toon!”
Inside the sport section, a double-page spread criticises Newcastle for blacklisting newspapers not deemed “friendly”, which meant that only “preferred media partners” the Daily Mirror and Premier League TV rights holders Sky were allowed to interview McClaren on Wednesday.
“The message screaming out of St James’ Park is this is a fresh start, a clean slate from the troubles of last season,” said David Coverdale, the Sun’s football correspondent for the north-east. “But this message is being controlled by Newcastle via their preferred media partners.”
McClaren reportedly told sports journalists barred from the press conference afterwards that he was not allowed to speak to them.
Coverdale goes on to argue that only “independent newspapers – like the Sun – can really be trusted to hold the Toon to account”.
Last year, however, the Sun was accused of a very similar “media partnership” by rival journalists when it was the only newspaper to be invited to a press conference.
The Sun denied the accusations, saying it was not involved in any discussions that gave it “exclusive access to a football club, or prevent other media outlets from having access”.
