News of the World - valid or witchunt ?

by Craig Chapman - 06:50 on 08 July 2011

Just a thought on the News of the World issue.

Valid or witchhunt ?

Hacking phone calls is not right, but how clean are the accusers ? Those "paragons of virtue" in the Labour party are unequalled in their clamour to appear "caring & decent", whilst the BBC are using tax payer's money to kick a business competitor off the rails.

I believe most journalists will use whatever source they can lay their hands on for information and that most papers will have used phone hacking information at some point, whether knowingly or not. Of course, such practices produce rumours and then the more trustworthy journos look for other ways to substantiate the information.

What possible newsworthy story could come from poor Milly Dowler's phone, or the Sowham girls - did kids even have mobiles back then ? Afghanistan vets families ?? These are some pretty destroying allegations for both the hacker and hacked - although as its an ongoing investigation, nothing is confirmed, yet the BBC has already publically sat as its own nominated jury. The mud has been thrown before the evidence is proven valid and this is not the way of British justice.

Are we talking about hacking whole calls, or security scanning for key words or caller IDs, which is a standard practice and would have been used by the likes of MI5 after the London bombings and threats against vets families ?

Taking a step back from the pulpit for a moment - aren't journalists called "hacks," therefore isn't "hacking" part of the job description ? I'm not being cynical either, just questioning what people expect goes on to fill our news stalls each morning.

The actual hackers, I understand, are police and PIs, not the newspaper - why isn't their Chief Constable getting the same slating as Murdoch ? Did the newspaper staff ask them to hack, or was the info offered after the event ? If so, was it the results of a whole batch of many calls, or individual cases (4000+ ?).

I believe the BBC and Milliband are trying to influence an ongoing court case to boost their own reputations, which is as bad (or worse) as phone hacking and shows utter contempt for our legal system. There is a lot of additional, hypocritical, self-riteous claptrap being played out which will result in not being able to see the wood for the trees.

I think a lot of this has to do with the BSkyB situation, NotW constantly making fun of the useless Labour party / Unions and the usual BBC clamour to sensationalise - especially as they are in competition with News International and not doing so well themselves at the moment.

NotW represents 1% of News International turnover. I'll miss Carole Malone's excellent columns and the 25 pages of football news but I think the right decision has been made.

If everything is proven in court, then shame on them and may the hammer fall, but I think there is more than just NotW on trial here and this fact is not being represented by the other media right now.

As for Andy Coulson working for the Tories, it may not have been a great move in hindsight, but I'd choose him as an allay any day over Mandleson !!

Sunday 10th July - the last NotW issue carries plenty of charity adverts and all proceeds will go to charities. A well-written piece featured in The Sun last week, it pulled no punches, made no excuses, News International appears to have run its own investigation, faced facts as far as they can establish them and made the decision to close the News of the World. 

Update 13th July - Gordon Brown has tried to accuse The Sun of using confidential papers to learn about his son being autistic. The Sun has an affidavit from a fellow father of an autistic child who brought this matter to The Sun's attention. The paper then contacted Gordon Brown, receiving permission from Mr Brown's wife to print a responsible article and run a charity collection link.

I think we shall see further attempts from Labour and the BBC to falsely and deliberately link more stories to the phone hacking issue. The Sun says - yes it happened, it has been dealt with and now all those with a grudge are rising up to stir the flames. The court case is ongoing.

14th July - News International pulls out of BSkyB bid as "its impossible to progress in the current climate." OK, so BBC and Labour have won round 1, it will interesting to see if the BBC now win the share option too !!

Round 2 of the revelations - Ulrika Johnsson advises that security feedback and the order of revelations of her private life pointed to the DAILY MIRROR hacking her private calls - the plot thickens.

Meanwhile The Guardian libdem mouthpiece had to print an apology to The Sun for suggesting their information regarding Gordon brown's son came from an illegal source. Perhaps these papers are all at it and this is one big stupid exercise in one-upmanship and who can remain not-found-out !!

How about a real issue then - our government caving in to the Germany company Siemens to build us new trains, whilst over 1000 British tax paying train builders in Derby are to lose their jobs ! Now this does disgust me and Cameron has some major explaining to do. This isn't what he said at the election - see next blog >>>

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