Now that the case is over, it is worth noting some of the details which hitherto could not be reported. Milly Dowler was a child who was abducted and then killed by a predatory paedophile. News of the World (NoW) journalists chanced on a voicemail which suggested she might still be alive and working in Telford. They did not however tell the police who were searching for her. When the police search failed to locate her, those same journalists, needing confirmation of the story, demanded that the Surrey police (Milly was a Surrey schoolgirl) corroborate the story for them. They quoted the voicemail both in phone calls and in email, and both those calls and messages have been retained in the Surrey police records. Continue reading
Tagged with News of the World
Tabloids don’t have to be dumb
It’s week six of the Leveson inquiry, and I for one have stopped following the details. The precise circumstances in which Piers Morgan got to hear recordings of conversations between Heather Mills and Paul McCartney is a topic that will fascinate few of us.
Yet my guess would be that the proceedings will so far have added little lustre to the image of the trade I call my own.
The very expression ‘tabloid journalism’ conjures up mental images of shamelessly unscrupulous quote-fabricating, foot in the door merchant reporters who will stop at nothing to get the skinny on celebrity nookie or murder most foul. Continue reading
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Abusing George Orwell
No journalist worth his or her salt should rejoice in the downfall of another. There are plenty of commentators in particular that I could name who infuriate me, who have in fact infuriated for me for years, or who I have had real spats with. I would be disappointed if some of them didn’t feel the same about me. One of the reasons I was so overjoyed to be moving to the United States five years ago was to escape the so called ‘Westminster belt way’ of journalists I christened the ‘commentariat’. I hope that I will not be accused of plagiarising when I make that claim, but to the best of my knowledge it was me. Continue reading
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We need a Murdoch-free press
It’s been a bad week for Rupert Murdoch‘s News Corporation. The ‘apology’ for its phone-hacking antics are set to open the floodgates on other such claims but few readers will worry about that. Indeed, News Corps plight isn’t worth even a note from the world’s smallest violin. The problems that underpin the story, however, are worthy of concern and deliberation. If we want to understand the origins of this problem then we need look no further than the overweening power and political influence of News Corp. Impregnability quickly generates a culture of impunity and neither Labour, Conservative nor even the Liberal Democrats are really prepared to challenge the power of Murdoch. This is a shame because if any were too all the indications are that, contrary to their paranoid fears, they would enjoy the overwhelming backing of the public. Continue reading
