So, power to the people is well and truly alive. Or so we are led to believe; the News of the World will be churning out its last issue this Sunday after the recent phone-hacking debacle that’s ruined its already dodgy reputation. It’s not the first time the NOTW, and its owner News International, have been involved in such claims; in 2007 it was the royal family that were hacked and, after a criminal trial, a private investigator and the paper’s royal editor were both jailed. Now, when it was people as rich and powerful as the royals being hacked, the general public didn’t mind quite as much. Perhaps it’s jealousy, or the fact that we don’t empathise with the rich and famous as, for the majority of us, our lives are too dissimilar. So, listening into Charles and Camilla having some cheeky phone sex? Why the devil not. Snooping on her majesty Liz II as she orders an extra large stuffed crust from Pizza Hut? Well, if there’s nowt better to do. Obviously I’m taking the piss when I’m talking about our queen ordering from Pizza Hut (she’s obviously more of a Domino’s kinda’ gal)... But on a serious note, although there was a successful public enquiry that resulted in jail time for two people, the crisis never threatened to engulf the entire newspaper, did it? Lots of negative headlines and a promise to clean up their act... And what good did it do? Was the investigation worth all of the countless man hours and resources invested in it? Basically, did it bloody work?
After some rushed research on Yahoo! Answers, it seems unexpectedly that it was Aristotle (in ancient Greek mind), who originally uttered the phrase ‘you get out what you put in’. And looking at News Intl.’s current sitch, they must have put in the ingredients for an almighty shit sandwich, because that’s what Rupert Murdoch, the founder and company chairman, is tucking into right now. And it seems that he’s only taken his first tentative bite into said shit sandwich; the crusts are a long way off. Several arrests are imminent. There’s ample room for this to escalate even further. It could even become a crap-filled ciabatta, or worse still, a poo pancake. (Okay, enough with the faeces related bakery gags.) However, very gravely, the public enquiry has failed and, as a result, two hundred people working at the paper are now unemployed. The cynic within me thinks that Murdoch will wait for the dust to settle, before reemploying most of the NOTW journalists in a brand new Sunday newspaper with a different editorship team, fresh values, a renewed promise to strive for fit and proper journalism, etc. etc. Basically, the same effing paper but with a snazzy new title and a lot of very anxious business execs with their tails between their legs in the background, hoping Mr. Murdoch doesn’t sack them.
This has been suggested by several public figures and, when you look at the statistics, it’s hard to disagree with them. The NOTW was a successful format and the nation’s most popular Sunday paper; why would Rupert the Sneaky Bear want to sacrifice such a profit-spinning venture? As to whether he could pull it off I’m not so sure; the British public are fickle at times, yes, but they don’t forget it when you’re accused of hacking into a murdered teenager’s mobile phone solely for a story. Rebekah Brooks, the CEO of News Intl. and editor of the NOTW at the time the hacking supposedly happened, surely has to go, despite Murdoch refusing her offer of resigning. Big Davey Cameron has said publicly he’d have accepted her resignation. It seems that Murdoch has sacrificed 200 employees, as well as a hugely successful newspaper dating back to 1843, merely to save a Mick Hucknall lookalike who is clearly lying through her teeth. Why? I don’t know. Maybe he’s her bitch. Maybe he’s just quite fond of her.
All I know is that the shit sandwich Rupert is tucking into can’t be tasty; and the question is, for how long can he, as well as the rest of the News International hierarchy, tolerate the stench?
Ciao folks. x
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