The most (in)famous four letters in the English language. For now.
It's been fascinating watching this one develop; from the 'they're all shitting liars' to 'shame the good have to suffer with the bad'.
It made me think. Hmmmm.
Most people don't like being a twat, or like being thought of as a twat. I think we can take this as read. Being a journalist means you have to be intrusive to a greater or lesser degree. Now don't give me any grief about this because without intrusive journalism we'd never know about half of the really shitty things that politicians, police and other folks get up to. Journalism is a requirement for a democracy. The fourth estate has always played an important part in the control structures that prevent corruption from spreading and anyone who thinks different is either lying or is completely delusional. Case in point, and be honest.
How many people cackled when Max Moseley got caught as Mr Spanky? How many of you thought that it was totally unjustified that he was exposed in the NOTW? Not fucking many, I'll bet. Like most people we are incredibly hypocritical when it come3s to the press. We like to see them rich folk pulled down a peg or two and we rarely castigate the press for it.
The News Of The World has been responsible for exposing the hypocrisy and double dealings of hundreds of people, people we put up there or voted for. People who let us all down. People who should have known better. That some of the more ambitious and arrogant at the paper thought themselves above the rules is not really such a stretch. That their management didn't know about this is, frankly, laughable.
I firmly believe that NOTW management and a small-ish group of journalists were responsible for the atrocities we were made aware of. I also firmly believe that castigating a trade name is futile as it deflects from the real culprits. I'm also fairly certain that not everyone who worked at the paper is a dick.
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