Most normal people in the UK, or the world, if we're going to be grand and sweeping, (I do love a good sweeping statement) take their privacy for granted and get rather miffed if someone stands a bit too close when they're confessing their toilet issues (said in the same voice your Mum says sex in) to the receptionist at the doctor's. Privacy, stiff-upper-lipness and not airing one's dirty laundry are traditionally thought of as very British attributes, so quite how we've got to a stage where we're not just happy, but expect to hear the minutiae of public figures' finances, conquests, medical history and eating habits is rather beyond me. We were quite happy when it was Hugh's mugshot or Sienna's voicemail; it was "justified" with the old chestnut, if you're in the public eye you just have to deal with the intrusion - I mean what's the harm? It's just gossip, right? However, it was an intrusion too far - way too far - when news surfaced that the News of the World commissioned a private investigator to hack into the voicemail of the (at that stage) missing teenager Milly Dowler, with the hope that an exclusive would be forthcoming. What was forthcoming instead, from this despicable action, was hope. But it was the worst kind of hope for the family of a missing schoolgirl - it was false hope. Unfortunately we all know now that Milly was not still alive at this time; and not only did the Dowlers have to deal with this crushing, devastating blow - but with this came the knowledge that some "journalist" listened and then disregarded their most personal and painful messages as white noise in the quest for a scoop.
All of a sudden the "gossip" doesn't sound so appealing, does it? It got steadily less appealing when it emerged that the Dowlers weren't the only "regular" people whose lives had been hacked open by a thoughtless, spineless specimen who gives 95% of journalists a bad name. Families of 7/7 victims, families of soldiers killed in action, families of other murdered children - in other words people who were already suffering plenty.
Murdoch was quick to shut down the 168 year old publication; seemingly with as little regard for the lives and livelihoods of its staff as Goodman and Mulcaire had for the privacy of their prey. It's been a week for journalist-bashing; most journalists with any connection to the News International group are trailing tar all over Twitter; accused as they are of anything from being "as bad as the rest of them" to killing kittens in front of a nursery class. Hopefully, when the dust settles and the tar gets scrubbed off (or dries in) the public will realise that most of the journalists in the UK publications are fair, honest people who are as appalled at the scandal as we are. Spare a thought also for the dozens of editors, sub-editors and designers who were just as unemployed as the NOTW writers were on Monday morning.
That was definitely more than lobbing my two cents in - more like making a cruise missile out of a fifty pound note, but then (with a nod to my Northern Ireland roots on this, the auspicious 12th day of July) I never have been accused of missing and hitting the wall.
Thanks for listening - I'll be back.
