As a journalist and a cynic, to hear that the News of the World hacked Milly Dowler's voicemail did not leave me as surprised as it should perhaps have done.
The phone-hacking story has been rumbling away for some years, and Private Eye and the Guardian in particular have been following it. It's a dispiriting saga, encapsulating much of what is wrong with our society. Pour yourself a stiff drink and wade through as much of it as you can stomach on the Guardian's round-up page here.
So much about this story is depressing. The press have always been pretty hard-nosed when chasing a story, but this really does stink. What also stinks is the fact that investigations by the Press Complaints Commission, the House of Commons media select committee and the Metropolitan Police have all rather conveniently not gripped this and dealt with it adequately.
It is starting to look very much as if the News of the World have some helpful contacts within the Met. How was Millie's phone number acquired? How come the police investigation turned up so little of what evidently went on?
Isn't it also convenient that successive Governments have acceded to News International's wishes? It's been going on for years. Maggie Thatcher cleared the way for Rupert Murdoch to get into broadcasting as well as the print media just before she left office, and in the last few days Jeremy Hunt trembles on giving the OK for Murdoch to take full charge of BSkyB. David Cameron seems to be on very good terms with Rebekah Brooks, the editor now in the spotlight at the News of the World. That said, he's announced another enquiry today, for all the good that will do. About the only thing that might just seem reassuring would be to task a police force other than the Met to come in afresh and start digging, but don't hold your breath.
On a wider point, it's also depressing that the overall quality of the British press has fallen so low. Let's not pretend that there was ever a 'golden age' when press standards were above reproach; it wasn't really until after World War II that the old habits of rather servile and uncritical respect for the establishment wore off, but sadly it was only a decade or three later that the focus of the tabloids switched away from even a pretence at serious reporting towards celebrity gossip, tits and the lowest common denominator. Unfortunately, the newspaper-buying public have encouraged them in this. Murdoch wants to make money, and he knows that sleaze and sport will sell.
If anything good were to come out of this whole mess, it would be if there were a serious mass boycott, much as Liverpool has shunned The Sun since its coverage under Kelvin Mackenzie's editorship of the Hillsborough disaster. There are plenty of campaigns underway online to try and rouse enthusiasm for this, or to put pressure on News International's advertisers. I don't know what effect it will have, but it's worth a try. Since Murdoch doesn't take notice of any moral or qualitative factor, only money, that's likely to be the only way of attracting his attention.
That was the QO's serious post for the month. We return you now to our usual programme of inanity and inattention.
An update: I see that O2 and Mitsubishi have announced they're pulling their advertising from NotW. Well, that's a start.
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