Rebekah Brooks is innocent! Well, not really. No mainstream newspaper editor can be innocent in the world in which they operate. Rebekah Brooks did not know what was going on when she was editing the News of the World in 2000 to 2003. Well, really? Just as Government ministers, senior business executives, civil servants and military officials, can find different ways of knowing and not knowing what is convenient or inconvenient to know, it is my experience that the editors of Murdochs newspapers possess the same instinct. Get me a story that will make people buy the damn paper, I dont know how you get it, or where you get it, but get it! was the prevalent atmosphere in the Sun and the News of the World under Murdoch. With such an atmosphere and a staff of journalists no longer driven by the innocent search for truth (either because they never had it or because it had been knocked out of them in the cynical atmosphere of modern news rooms) combined with the opportunities provided by modern technology, the result was predictable. Rebekah Brooks was not in control of her staff. Well! On the only occasion I was ever in her office I asked about the punch-bag beside the desk and the boxing gloves on the desk and was told by her that it was a gift from her journalists who hoped that she would take out her anger on the punch-bag rather than them! Anyway, she is now, as everyone I knew in the industry predicted, been found not guilty and also, as many had predicted, Andy Coulson has been found guilty. But it says something when the not guilty verdict on the hacking charge makes me less angry than the not guilty verdict on the conspiracy to pervert the course of justice charge. This is an interesting piece which touches on (and believe me it only touches on) the corrosive relationship between politicians and the press. Its not the way in which mainstream politicians and editors exist in an almost symbiotic relationship when it comes to PR that constitutes the real problem - its what goes on behind the scenes between media owners and the establishment that is the real problem. Remember the media is one of the means by which the establishment continues to retain its position in society. In a democracy it is expected to pick off individuals from time to time in order to preserve its mythological status as the fearless Fourth Estate but it will never provide the basis on which any real challenge to the establishment can be mounted. theguardian/commentisfree/2014/jun/25/rebekah-brooks-journalists-politicians-phone-hacking-trial
Posted on: Thu, 26 Jun 2014 08:03:11 +0000