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Blog: Bring on the lynch mob
Monday 25th July 2011, 4:08PM BST.
"Right, everyone, we burn the News of the World journalist first, then we take on Castle Frankenstein..."
Blog: Long ago in this fair land of ours, suspected criminals were chased down and set upon by lynch mobs, jostled through the streets to mocking cries.
They were subjected to kangaroo courts where members of the public were free to jeer and throw rotten fruit, and where the order of the day was accusation and degradation, rather than justice.
You would think we might have moved on since those dark and faraway days, but the feeding frenzy that is the phone hacking scandal proves we haven’t changed all that much after all.
I’m not even interested in the rights and wrongs of it all any more, we all know they did it, and we all know it was beyond wrong, the last resort of greedy, lazy Fleet Street journalists.
But at the same time I think we all knew, somewhere at the back of our minds, that the tabloids must surely use some extremely questionable techniques to obtain the sort of salacious, outrageous scoops that we all love to read, whether we admit it or not.
So as soon as the hacking story began to unfold, shining a light into the darkest corners of the media world, leaving nowhere for even the most powerful to hide – the frenzied finger-pointing began.
Imagine a group of kids, huddled around the ring-leader, watching him pull the wings, slowly and painfully off a fly.
They’re giggling and urging him on, daring him to eat it, pointing out which of the unfortunate invertebrate’s limbs that he should pull off next.
A teacher happens past, catching them red-handed and immediately all solidarity caves as they desperately blame each other.
I think we all feel a little bit like that group of kids in our hearts, and to cover our own guilt we shout louder and point harder.
No-one – clearly – is safe as the media runs around like headless chickens to escape the finger of blame falling upon them.
And watching the Murdoch posse, marched in front of members of Parliament, like snails pulled from the luxury of their high-spec shells, suddenly small and naked and helpless, apparently there to answer MPs’ questions but in reality there to be put in the stocks and paraded before the public, allowing us our pound of flesh, I wondered what century it was after all…?
And if we’re not very careful, all we will achieve by letting this firestorm carry on devouring everyone in its path, is serious, crippling censorship of our glorious tradition of freedom of the Press.
So for the sake of all that’s just and civilised – surely it’s time to move on…?
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Emma has totally missed the point here. We all want a free press, but not one that is free to illegally pry into people’s private lives and their grief and then to print lies about them.
Murdoch’s vile tabloids pump out propaganda on a daily basis on a wide variety of subjects – and the worrying thing is that he has control of so much of our media – and until recently had the prospect of owning even more. It’s simply unhealthy for our democracy to allow one man such contol over our media.
This isn’t a witch hunt – there are no lynch mobs – it’s a thorough investigation into illegal activity, the bribing of police officers and the malign influence of at least some of our tabloid press. Emma might think that taping peoples phones is OK – but the law thinks otherwise, and we must have these investigations, to ensure that we put a stop to such breaches of both the law, and the moral obligations of our media.
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Let’s not forget your beloved left wing media are also guilty too, Peter.
Nothing like taking an opportunity to have a poke at the right wing, eh?
And for the record in my eyes the villains in this are the mindless drones who go mad for this pointless drivel…
Amy winehouse, cheryl cole, fergie and that waste of flesh and silicone Jordan. Who cares? If the masses of this country spent as much time and effort bettering themselves instead of revelling in the misery of others then this country wouldnt be in the mess it is in.
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Hear, hear.
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Agreed though I get the feeling that ‘Emma’ isn’t a real person and this is a wind up as it’s such blatant nonsense.
I’d be interested to know about this ‘left wing media’ spotted by Peter. Might be interesting to have a look at their version of events. We don’t get this stuff in my local newsagents. Just the usual mainstream, capitalist, Tory & Lib Dem supporting papers like the Telegraph & Guardian and the newscomics like the Mail, Express & Mirror.
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And the back pages of these papers..I won’t credit them the prefix ‘news’ is all about sport.
Cricket, Rugby and that waste of a decent lawn Football. Who cares ? If the masses of this country spent as much time and effort bettering themselves instead of revelling in someone else’s playtime then this country wouldn’t be in the mess it is in.
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“…our glorious tradition of freedom of the Press” to ignore both the law and common decency in order to trample on human rights, and devastate the lives of innocent people.
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What are you talking about?
And what with the animal cruelty analogies?
I hope you didn’t waste too much of your time writing this drivel.
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Breaking the Murdoch stranglehold on the British media and making other newspapers more circumspect in their news acquisition techniques does not have to involve muzzling the press.
Some might consider the national TV news stations to be muzzled because they are subject to strict impartiality rules, whereas newspapers aren’t. But can anyone seriously argue that the News of the World or the Sun has a better quality news output than Newsnight, or Channel 4 News, or even Sky News?
Before the last election there were rumblings among Conservatives about ending the TV impartiality rules, opening the door for Sky to become a British Fox News if it so wished. The barriers to entry and consequent lack of plurality in broadcast media makes this an appalling prospect. If this Murdoch scandal achieves the retention of broadcast impartiality rules, it will represent a significant positive outcome.
Furthermore, newspaper will always have a public interest defence that in some circumstances can justify technically illegal actions. If phone hacking had exposed a major political scandal, then the public interest defence would still apply. But when news organisations use such foul techniques for trivial stories or, worse, to gain blackmail material on public figures, then use their influence to get the law altered for their own commercial interests, well, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to turn up with a few torches to Frankenstein’s castle and do what needs to be done.
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“salacious, outrageous scoops that we all love to read, whether we admit it or not.”
Speak for yourself, please.
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And what is this drivel about the Murdochs – snails pulled from their shells, naked, helpless, blah blah – come on Emma! People are called to answer for their crimes all the time. They were questioned pretty politely by people entitled to do so. Save your pity.
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I would suggest that the questioning was generally way too polite and respectful. I am not suggesting a need for rudeness but a little more direct and probing questioning might have been helpful.
And, at this point no crimes have been proven and no-one has been found guilty of anything. They were being questioned about their knowledge of alledged activities at NOTW.
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More drivel from the ill informed Emma.
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That about sums it up perfectly.
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Agreed.
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Certainly does.
Another from the Star’s galaxy of self important “writers” a la A Richardson!
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Is our Parliament the right forum for this investigation? If so why do we have a police force?
One MP who was happy that at last Parliamentarians could do something to try to address their appalling standing in the public view, said “it was parliaments job to hold (people) to account”! Perhaps that was a Freudian slip? I thought parliament’s job was to hold the executive to account to represent their voters and to be part of the law making process. This is the job they are paid to do and one that they have singularly failed to fulfil for the past several years as they have outsourced to the EU most of their responsibilities. Perhaps our MPs are now looking for new responsibilities in order to fill the time they must have, now they do not have to be bothered with overseeing our law making process and holding our law makers to account.
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Why do we have a police force? For a start, it would have been interesting to see police officers questioning the, ermmm, police officers who were up in front of the committee.
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Interesting piece Emma – it’s not like a Star journalist to be so defensive – is the inquiry getting a bit too close to home?
I’ve always thought the Star to be above the sort of sleaze that surrounds Murdoch’s papers, but now it’s all starting to make sense.
How else does Dame Shirley come up with her scintillating insights into the minutiae of royal life that are the only reason most people buy the paper, if not by phone hacking and rooting through the bins outside Buckingham Palace?
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You might not be worried about the rights and wrongs Emma. Imagine a group of parents who have lost their sons – shot, blown up or worse.Perhaps think of the deceased’s childen gathered all around. Then think of the NOTW reporters listening in on their conversations. Snails??? They are vultures circling above us.
Dont know what they taught you in all your media type classes. Not ethics, not compassion. Its not scoops for gods sake! Milly’s messages deleted, giving false hope its disgusting and Emma if that was you and your family – would you put yourself on Murdochs side, would you?
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Well said.
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The police have their own procedures to question suspects including police officers when they have evidence of law breaking, they do not go on a pubic fishing expedition.
In this country we are supposed to be innocent until proven guilty in a court of law, not in a star chamber of MPs who have just been pilloried by the press for their own cheating.
If MPs are so interested in this matter they should be questioning the Prime Minister about what he discussed in his several meetings with N O W staff. If they are so interested they should be making inquires as to why Cabinet members met N O W staff on over 100 occasions. That would be going some way of doing their job of holding the government to account, perhaps they might even get a taste for it and do it more often.
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“they do not go on a pubic fishing expedition.”
Not THAT would make a good newsy story for the gutter press!
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Emma, spoke like .. like a job application to the evil empire.
How dare you assume ‘we all feel a little bit like that group of kids’ a bit of shadenfreude yes, but it’s been a long time coming.
They live by the sword and die by the sword. Except they wont ‘die’ – unless their share-price drops, but I doubt that.
You’re out of step, Emma – you or your co-workers may not have deleted murder victims texts but have some humility and respect until everything comes out about this. We just want a clearing out of those abusing their positions and the rule of law to be back in place and this to be over, but not till its all out and sorted. (too short for you, well tough).
When something’s too easy – one day you pay (or NOTWs case, employees of today pay).
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Any of you know exactly how to hack a phone? I want to hack Emma’s phone. To save time and money Emma, could you please send me your number so I don’t have to buy it from the police? Thanks.
Oh. I too did not think of snails when I saw the family Murdoch in the home of democracy. In fact I didn’t see anything animal-like at all. I just saw Goebbels and his propaganda machine. Mayhap you’re a bit young to recall him Emma.
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The only lynch mob we need nowadays is the one which takes the local drug dealers and strings them up from the nearest lamp post.
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Bring me a flaming torch and a pitchfork!
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The tabloid press in this country prey on the misery of others. They lack scruples and from what we have recently heard they lack morality and decency. They assume a right to pry and presume that those pried upon have no right to privacy or respect because for whatever reason they may be in the public eye. And they do not differentiate between those who have sought fame and success and those whose fame has been brought about by misfortune. They are of the gutter and in my view bring shame upon journalism and all the good that profession can do. There is absolutely nothing anyone can say that will cause me to support the cause of tabloid journalism. The red tops and the Mail and Express may claim that they give the public what they want. I doubt this to be true. I believe they have actively sought to create a market and style of journalism that their readership now comes to expect. Now that we are seeing the truth about these rags I trust and hope that their readership deserts in droves and realises the purpose of the press is to inform and entertain, not to cause harm and pander to onanists
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