MR MURDOCH'S DUNG HEAP

There is a famous scene in Casablanca when the local police chief is asked to find an excuse to close Rick’s Place, run by Humphrey Bogart, “I’m shocked,” he declares, “shocked to find gambling taking place,” at which point he is handed his winnings. The scene came to mind yesterday when Rebecka Brooks former editor of the News of The World [NoW] declared that she was "sickened" by the "devastating" claims about Dowler, adding that it was "inconceivable" that she knew the investigator, Glenn Mulcaire, had been asked by journalists at the title to hack into Milly's messages – still less that she had sanctioned their actions.’* Inconceivable is an interesting word, what does it mean in this context? Either I stole a wallet or did not steal a wallet, how would the jury feel if I stated that I felt it was ‘inconcievable’ that I stole the wallet, that Mrs Brooks has difficulty in conceiving her engaging in such wrongdoing is neither here nor there.


There is however far more here than the stinking dung heap that is NoW, the first police investigation of News Corporation was either grotesquely flawed or corrupt, the role of the Metropolitan police in this affair and the propensity of it officers to take bungs in exchange for information should be ringing alarm bells far louder than Big Ben. As for the role of the wholly venal and useless Press Complaints Commission in not only exonerating News Corporation but in attacking journalists who sought to expose the crimes of the Murdoch press it is beneath contempt. Any attempt to salvage its reputation should be laughed out of court.

However our politicians hardly emerge out of this affair with honour, either paying tribute at the court of Prince Rupert or cowed into silence by the threats of his tabloid gangsters they have betrayed their role as protectors of the public welfare. They had now better redeem themselves PDQ and a start would be this afternoons emergency debate.

*http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jul/05/rebekah-brooks-phone-hacking-bsk

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