The Wayne Rooney 'scandal' is simply a sex story, but because of the existence of a super-injunction the moral, legal and public interest debates coincide. How confused have things become.
The story's coverage demonstrates that prurience flourishes and that sport is burdened with responsibilities not foisted on other sections of society more relevant to public morality and setting standards.
Super-injunctions are not new, though they previously featured in family law, and newspapers hate them. When one is obtained it scuppers a planned publication date which will be timed to do maximum damage or achieve maximum exposure, depending on which side you are on.
Witness the release of the match-fixing allegations against snooker's John Higgins, now cleared of any impropriety, coincidentally appearing just before the final of this year's World Championship.
The increased use of this remedy, one whose existence is not supposed to be revealed, is to counter the recent tactic used when normal injunctions are in place.
There have been a number of whodunnit whispering campaigns via Twitter, the internet and implications in print, inviting people to speculate and investigate a particular story.
This not only creates another story, by the time the public has used its collective investigative skills, much of what was supposed to be secret is no longer so. Therefore the injunction becomes worthless.
The story's coverage demonstrates that prurience flourishes and that sport is burdened with responsibilities not foisted on other sections of society more relevant to public morality and setting standards.
Super-injunctions are not new, though they previously featured in family law, and newspapers hate them. When one is obtained it scuppers a planned publication date which will be timed to do maximum damage or achieve maximum exposure, depending on which side you are on.
Witness the release of the match-fixing allegations against snooker's John Higgins, now cleared of any impropriety, coincidentally appearing just before the final of this year's World Championship.
The increased use of this remedy, one whose existence is not supposed to be revealed, is to counter the recent tactic used when normal injunctions are in place.
There have been a number of whodunnit whispering campaigns via Twitter, the internet and implications in print, inviting people to speculate and investigate a particular story.
This not only creates another story, by the time the public has used its collective investigative skills, much of what was supposed to be secret is no longer so. Therefore the injunction becomes worthless.
