When celebrities, politicians and the BBC unite against something, riding a wave of popular fury, woe betide anything which gets in their way.
Now it becomes clearer; the fact that there are ample laws to deal with phone-hacking and paying off coppers, we're going to see murder victim Milly become the poster-child for a campaign to muzzle the gutter press.
Looks like the cure will be worse than the disease.
Looks like the cure will be worse than the disease.
4 comments:
Look here, TT. I'm not going to keep sending you youtube links if you're going to use them against me.
There are laws in place to stop the deplorable actions of scum like Andy Coulson, Glenn Mulcaire and the attention-loving Paul McMullen but they're not being enforced by the very officials tasked to do so. For this reason I think it's completely understandable that from the point of view of the celebrities who are the victims of these crimes that they feel the only other way to regain some privacy is to tackle it from a different angle.
Yes, the law is already in place but it's not being enforced and pointing to the law and saying "they're breaking that" isn't giving anyone satisfaction if nothing comes of it. It's easy to sit back and accuse them of wanting to muzzle the free press but we're not the ones being failed by the legal system (in this case). For these reasons I think the reactions of people like Coogan and Grant are understandable.
It should also be remembered that it's the free press and the internet (mainly Twitters - I think Mumsnet should stop trying to claim this as a victory and get back in the kitchen) that uncovered this and no-one's forgetting this.
The heart of the matter is not about the tabloids printing prurient shit but the crimes, and it's the police who failed to investigate because they've been on the take.
Good point about twitter, but I'm just saying this will be used to muzzle the press and the internet, that seems to be the plan.
Coogan is angry and with good reason, I don't doubt, but the issue of privacy and new legislation is separate, because new legislation is not needed to deal with the hacking and the bungs.
I don't like paparazzi stuff, I don't buy the papers, but as soon as you ban that kind of thing, the next thing you know, the police are using those laws to arrest people reporting on them.
If the British people wish to finally grow up and stop taking a purile interest in the private lives of famous people, I will surely welcome it.
Might half of this be because the NOTW got to the phone before the police and made them look like lazy dunderheads?
SAOT,
Sounds like you're thinking of that photographer Weejee. I don't think that comes into it. The police were supposed to investigate the hacking of numerous people, but it would open up a load of dirt on police tipping off the press for cash. Plus pressure from people in the government (starting with Blair) to back off the whole thing.
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