Confession is good for the
soul and there’s no better time to start than first thing on a Monday morning,
so here goes – I used to read the News of
the World … and enjoy it. Throughout my childhood years my father would buy
it every Sunday and as I grew up to a place where I could read and understand what
I was reading the paper delighted me in so many ways.
Now there’s no doubt that it
has gone bad and deserves the condemnation it has received over the past week
but I have to say I’ve noticed quite a bit of middle-class snobbery mingled in
with the indignation too. And in particular far too many politicians have
jumped on the bandwagon – relishing their opportunity to hit back at a
profession that exposed their expenses scandal 18 months ago.
Much of this story has to do
with power – how it is amassed and how it is exercised. As I’ve tried to
indicate previously in this blog, it isn’t just in nation-states that we see the
imperial principle at work but in multinational companies too and in my view it
is very evident in News Corp. That Murdoch should not be allowed to gain sole
ownership of BskyB is clear to me – and not just because of the latest events.
Too much power in the hands of one man is not good.
But in our rush to sort this
mess out let us be very careful that we do not disempower the press to such an
extent that is no longer possible for them to expose the wrong-doing of other
powerful people. The fourth estate has a long and honourable tradition of
tearing down power turned bad – and among the best at doing so was the News of the World.
