The scandal that brought the most vicious media thugs to their knees. The notion that nature will eventually run its course, even when it comes to the humbling of the most brutal bullies, came to a belated realisation with the News of the World scandal.
What a picture, to see that particular brand of vicious, foamin-at-the-mouth, self-righteous faux-moralistic fury turning on its own creators.
The succession of the nastiest bullies in the British media tumbling like sacks of rubbish in a garbage truck was just amazing: the arrest of Andy Coulson, the fall of Rebekah Brooks, News Corp withdrawing its BSkyB bid, and finally the News of the World going to the wall, while the two Murdoch thugs pathetically feigned amnesia in the background.
The phone-hacking scandal was just waiting to happen. When somebody's power to bully and intimidate with such impunity is allowed to fester to such poisonous proportions, it's just a matter of time til the putrefying boil bursts.
No doubt soon things will settle and hordes of dimwits are already stuffing their gob with the notion that tabloid thuggery (ie the indiscriminate phone hacking of murdered children, dead soldiers and grieving relatives) is none other than "free press".
But for a moment, just a moment, it was nice to see journalism in the UK back to a version of itself that doesn't resemble a cross between Shaun of the Dead and The Wicker Man.
2 comments:
A free press is surely worth defending though in spite of the largesse displayed in the examples you mention Claude. I would advise strong caution as to whether we actually legislate to attempt to stop the abuses we have seen. Oh and Happy Christmas!
Cheers Paul,
Good to see you. A very happy 2012 to you :-)!!!
And yes, free press, yes. Scumbag hacks spying on people, no.
Otherwise it's like saying that fighting match-fixing in football is tantamount to threatening every bloke's right to a kick about.
Don't stick up for the bullies.
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