NoW, phone hacking, and the rest!

Like many others in the UK I’ve been hooked watching the TV news about the News of the World and the phone hacking scandal; which has also widened into an email scandal. Just when you think it can’t get any worse, it does. Journalists worth their salt probably wouldn’t be caught working for such a rag in any case. I’ve long thought it was no more than a scandal sheet, and now that proves to be true, in both senses of the word.

I even left a post on Twitter yesterday, about my disgust that the big supermarket, Tesco, hadn’t withdrawn their advertising from the paper, along with many other big companies. Not only that, but I also emailed my local MP, via the 38 degrees campaigning website, asking her to raise her voice against the BskyB takeover bid. Both of those are things I’d hardly ever do, and is an indication of my very strong feelings about the stories.

A little while later we learned that Murdoch had closed the NoW, with this Sunday seeing the last edition. The paper was 168 years old, and had the largest circulation in the UK.

As for David Cameron’s press conference this morning …… how many different ways are there to say “I’m not guilty of making such a huge mistake when I employed Andy Coulson.” And he certainly totally avoided questions about his socialising with Murdoch, Brooks, et al. Now that Coulson has been arrested Cameron should make another statement, and apologize.

I’m sure this whole thing goes much wider than just the NoW, I think other newspapers will also be found guilty of underhand, and more importantly, illegal methods of operation. I haven’t read any newspaper, of any description, since the death of Princess Diana, and the press involvement in it.

And to think I wanted to be a journalist! I could have been another Kate Aidie – which shows you all how old I am :)

Watch out for other, very important, stories being buried while this fiasco carries on.