The Staggers

The New Statesman’s rolling politics blog

Chattering class obsession or the shame of Britain?

Sharply divergent views on the hacking scandal from the Mail and the Telegraph.

By Helen Lewis Published 16 July 2011 13:13

The country's two main right-wing newspapers, the Telegraph and Daily Mail, have taken very different editorial lines on the phone-hacking scandal and the crisis in Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation.

As several commentators have noted on Twitter, the Daily Telegraph's leader today is in thundering form, calling hacking "a scandal that has diminished Britain". It excoriates Rebekah Brooks, David Cameron, Rupert Murdoch and the Metropolitan police.

After the revelations of the past week, the whole world has learned the shameful truth about modern Britain: that its leading politicians and policemen have been lining up to have their palms greased and images burnished by executives of a media empire guilty of deeply criminal - and morally repugnant - invasions of personal privacy. . .

David Cameron should have dismantled this quasi-masonic circle, with its conspiratorial deal-cutting and back-scratching. Instead, encouraged by George Osborne, he invited the circle into Downing Street, giving Mr Coulson an undeserved second chance. Mr Cameron is paying the price for this and other cynical moves. At a time when he is supposed to be navigating Britain through both the domestic and global debt crises, the Prime Minister is desperately trying to align himself with public opinion and distance himself from the News International scandal. Government has given way to the shallowest form of crisis management.

The Mail, however, considers phone-hacking to be a diversion from "the real problems facing Britain" - the financial problems in the Eurozone, the worries over the US's credit rating, soaring fuel prices at home. In Friday's leader, it declaimed:

In a sane world, politicians would be working round the clock to help rectify these dire problems. But sadly, they are far too busy enjoying a frenzy of vengeful score-settling against the Murdoch press.
Even though the News of the World has been closed, the BSkyB takeover bid withdrawn, and Rupert Murdoch has promised to co-operate with the judicial inquiries, the bloodlust - orchestrated by a vastly subsidised BBC - continues.

. . . The stink of schadenfreude from Britain's chattering classes is overpowering.

It remains to be seen who is most in touch with the public mood on this.

Tags: Phone hacking scandal

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23 comments

Sat, 2011-07-16 17:58 — Robert Taggart

Hacking the rich, powerful and 'celebrities' - fine - go for them !

Sat, 2011-07-16 19:03 — Bill Kristol-Balls (not verified)

Some a*** twitching going on over at Dacre Towers methinks.

Sat, 2011-07-16 19:43 — Lou (not verified)

I wonder what the Mail's headlines will be tomorrow or Monday now that two senior Mail on Sunday journalists have been told by police they may be hacking victims of Mulcaire.

Cue eating of words and rank hypocrisy in relation to Friday's leader no doubt?

Sat, 2011-07-16 19:45 — Mike Barnes (not verified)

Sky News is saying that some Mail on Sunday journos were hacked by Mulcaire. Be interesting to see if they change their tune now, and go from 'it's a non-story' into 'voice of the nation moral outrage' mode.

Sat, 2011-07-16 19:48 — Lou (not verified)

Great minds Mike - or fools seldom differ?

Sat, 2011-07-16 20:16 — REPAY

A huge distraction from major issues but perhaps we will get more politics and less PR. There are two stories of much bigger importance that don't get a look in. 1. The parlous state of the dollar and the Euro. 2. The appalling prospects for UK public finances in the OBR report...The linking theme being how politicians have spent your children's future.

Sat, 2011-07-16 20:58 — harry hart (not verified)

Strangely perhaps I have the ability to read about 4 or 5 separate issues without getting confused. Is this the highly regarded skill of multi-tasking?

Mon, 2011-07-18 03:27 — Tom (not verified)

The point of this post? Which celebrity is shagging who is way more important than boring stories about politicians, the economy and rioting Greeks.

Sat, 2011-07-16 22:01 — mediumal57

The two papers are differing in tome for one very good reason - Class. The Torygraph is aimed at mostly middle/upper middle class Tories living in the Home Counties and leafy bastions of solid English respectability like the Brockenhurst, New Forest in Hampshire. Bankers, Stockbrokers, and other highly paid professionals.

The Mail is the paper of your aspiring upwardly mobile working/ aspiring middle classes from Worcester and Chigwell beloved of Margaret Thatcher. Underhand tactics like hacking into people's phones would therefore normally be seen by these types as a perfectly acceptable business opportunity.

Whereas such grubby practices in Telegraph reader's minds typify the worst excesses of your money grubbing proles and the "unacceptable face of Capitalism".

As with all base enterprises a line has been over-sstepped and so is beyond the pale in such respectable avenues in the Stockbroker Belt.

In Chigwell they're not predisposed to want to know about such things because in this instance the scandal is too close to home.

Sat, 2011-07-16 22:16 — Lou (not verified)

mediumal57

Hailing from Worcester and never beloved of Thatcher I must protest!

Sun, 2011-07-17 03:18 — mediumal57

Lou

Sorry mate. I had to pick some likely places, and Worcester Woman was identified as a typical Daily Mail reader I recall.

Sun, 2011-07-17 13:36 — Chris Baldwin (not verified)

The Mail has no principles.

Sun, 2011-07-17 13:53 — thomcross (not verified)

The new verb for phone hacking is phacking thus a phacking scandal

Sun, 2011-07-17 16:07 — Mrs,M L Bonwick-Jones (not verified)

Most people are more interested in finding who is responsible for the hacking rather then a crime to be turned into some kind of vandetta against the remaining murdoch press,
prehaps some people would like The Times or The Sun to be turned into The Left Foot Forward ! or maybe sold to some middle eastern buyer or prehaps the remaining 62.0000 People who work for news international should loose their jobs, Ed Miliband should know when to stop instead of trying to model himself as the 'New Diana'Labour are just riding the tide of public opinion i hope they will not find themselves all at sea when all these dark deeds are out in the open.

Sun, 2011-07-17 16:20 — Lou (not verified)

No probs mediumal57, my protest was light hearted.

Sat, 2011-07-16 13:23 — Lox (not verified)

Interesting article. Anyone who doesn't think that the DT, Indy or Guardian won't be at least partially driven in their commentary by a clear commercial interest in putting the boot into News International-with a view to poaching Times readers-is perhaps a bit naive.
My feeling is that the whole phone hacking scandal has already been hijacked by parties within NI hoping to stage a coup. Politicians of all parties, with a few honourable exceptions, will try to strike a balance between making the right outraged noises and avoiding the alienation of people within NI who could help them in future.
I'd expect the focus of attack to continue to be individuals-Murdoch father and son, Brookes, and Coulson. NI and it's corporate culture and strategy will be subject to token scrutiny, no more than that.

Sat, 2011-07-16 13:30 — Lou (not verified)

The Mail can hardly ever be described as being in touch with the public or with their finger on the political pulse.

Shame the hypocrites bemoan all the coverage but have to get their own little BBC dig in amongst the taking the moral high ground line. I mean take a look at their front page today, where's the headlines on the UK's problems, the eurozone and the US debt crisis?

Still I'm sure it won't be long before the hacking scandal graces said paper's doorstep

The final line in the paragraph says it all. Yes Daily Mail I agree, we've all thought it for a long time - the stink of schadenfreude from the chattering classes that comprise your scummy paper is overpowering.

Sun, 2011-07-17 18:26 — james (not verified)

The thing that know one seems to have mentioned is the fact that "phone hacking" isn't as nasty as it sounds. It hasn't always been illegal. They only listend to voicemails.

From a subjective point of view it wouldn't bother me if someone "hacked" into my messages. However, if i was having an affair, i would be very upset. I'm glad to see Murdoch criminals brought to justice but i agree with Paul Mcmullan, phone hacking is not a big deal and we will be in a far worse place if press freedom is curtailed as a result of this.

The guardian is being pedantic using the indisputable line that hacking is "illegal". Obviously hacking is rather closer to other "illegal" activities like fox hunting or parking on yellow lines rather than the type of ilegal fraud that bankers and other more highly paid professions are found guilty of

Sat, 2011-07-16 13:52 — michal karski (not verified)

Still, after all is said and done, the facts should speak for themselves.

Sat, 2011-07-16 14:28 — earlydawn

I wonder if Associated Newspapers can sense a little bit of backwash coming their way and they are getting worried. After all, the PCC has ruled against them rather frequently but because the PCC is toothless they can ignore it. A statutory body would scare them to death.

(Not that the Telegraph can pretend innocence either, given the legacy of Black and the chequered history of the Barclays. But their relish is more understandable as a result.)

Sat, 2011-07-16 14:32 — Adam (not verified)

The Mail are trying to play it down because they are next in line, after the Mirror Group, to be exposed as doing exactly the same as NOTW et al. There will be a firestorm spreading through what we call Fleet Street, and Mail Towers will burn as bright and for as long as Wapping.

Sun, 2011-07-17 20:48 — tom_harries

"They only listened to voice-mails."

And deleted them in Milly Dowler's case, so that they could pick up more later; leading the family to hope that she was still alive.

There's also Det Supt Dave Cook, who was tailed by a NOTW journalist, and was allegedly 'hacked', while leading a murder enquiry in which two of the leading suspects were private investigators who regularly worked for NOTW.

When asked by police why they were investigating Cook, Brooks told them NOTW was investigating an allegation that Cook was having an affair with a Crimewatch presenter (who turned out to be his wife).

Sat, 2011-07-16 16:04 — T R (not verified)

Daily Mail themselves were involved in this - they hope to move on to other news before their past is discussed.

I am impressed by Telegraphs take on this - right or left, cleaner politics would be better for democracy and sorting out all the other mentioned issues.