Mehdi Hasan

Mehdi Hasan’s polemical take on politics, economics and foreign affairs

When did the News of the World morph into Princess Diana?

Stop the mawkishness and sentimentality.

By Mehdi Hasan Published 11 July 2011 12:28

I was rung up by BBC, Sky and al-Jazeera producers over the weekend and invited on air to discuss the demise of the News of the World. I declined.

I just don't care. About the NoW, that is. The brand. The paper. Before some of you start baying for my blood, I do, of course, care about the 200 or so people who've lost their jobs -- but Murdoch and Brooks are to blame for those job losses and not, as the Times's Roger Alton ludicrously argued on Channel 4 News last week, "the comfortable middle-class mothers of MumsNet", or the BBC, or the Guardian, blah blah blah. (On a side note, I can't help but notice that the NoW was one of the papers constantly calling for sackings and redundancies in the public sector.)

What's really annoyed me over the past 72 hours or so is the way in which people have been bleating on about the paper's demise as if someone's died. The outpouring of "emotion" for something that, let's be honest, most of us had little to do with, or little interest in, is reminiscent of those nauseating days and weeks after the death of Princess Diana in August 1997.

The most irritating claim, however, is that we should mourn the passing of the world's "greatest investigative paper". Really? Was the NoW behind the exposure of torture at Abu Ghraib? The failure to find WMDs in Iraq? The MPs' expenses scandal? Cash for questions? Thalidomide?

As for the Pakistani cricketing scandal, I mean, come on, Pakistani cricketers are corrupt, says News of the World. Shock! Horror!

Hats off, then, to Roy Greenslade (in the Guardian!) for calling on people to "put the handkerchiefs aside" and giving us some perspective (and facts!).

He writes:

The final edition of the News of the World yesterday unashamedly appealed to the emotions of its audience while casting itself as a victim of circumstances beyond its own control.

In the course of 48 pages celebrating its supposedly finest moments, it sought to play the hero while attempting to disguise its villainy. Indeed, some of the villainy was given a heroic gloss.

Greenslade continues:

Without wishing to dance on a dead newspaper's grave, especially while the body is still warm, it should not be allowed to get away with perpetuating yet more myths amid the cheap sentimentality of its farewell.

Put the handkerchiefs aside to consider the editorial that took up all of page 3: "We praised high standards, we demanded high standards but, as we are now only too painfully aware, for a period of a few years up to 2006, some who worked for us, or in our name, fell shamefully short of those standards."

. . . Yet this is the newspaper that was forced in 2008 to pay damages of £60,000 for a gross intrusion into the privacy of Max Mosley. Also in 2008, the paper paid damages to film star Rosanna Arquette for falsely claiming she had been a drug addict.

In 2009, it paid damages to the Unite leader Derek Simpson for falsely claiming he had breached union election rules. In 2010, it paid five-figure damages to Sheryl Gascoigne for libelling her over her relationship with her former husband. It was also in 2010 that the paper entrapped the world snooker champion John Higgins in a highly suspect sting operation.

This is a mere random selection from scores of the paper's post-2006 iniquities that resulted in it paying out thousands in damages. Were these the high standards to which the editorial refers?

Hear, hear! Oh, and remember the (non) plot to kidnap Victoria Beckham?

Tags: Phone hacking scandal News of the World media

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52 comments

Thu, 2011-07-28 17:37 — Peter Hulme (not verified)

@Julia Harris

trying to link Mehdi to terrorism are you?

we don't feed trolls and griefers here.

Mon, 2011-07-11 22:42 — Lou (not verified)

Flashbuck

Ah well therein lies the dichotomy, how can I be a leftie and a fascist when fascist is generally perceived to be an adherent to an extreme right agenda?

Mon, 2011-07-11 22:59 — gerry (not verified)

Lou - I think we havent even got the most evil and sickest revelations yet!

I hope and pray that - with a little more pressure - we might see The Sun, Times and FT also closed down, and those wretched criminals (sorry, journalists!) also handed their P45s.

Thu, 2011-07-14 15:34 — paula serra (not verified)

great article!
as a former journalist, i 100% agree with you!
guys like murdoch and brooks have concurr to destroy journalism! but not only! we, journalists, also sold our souls!!!

Tue, 2011-07-12 01:20 — Daniele1

Lou:
That always makes me laugh "leftist Nazis". That just show who we are talking to, a politically illiterate moron.Flashbuck, do us a favour and go and read a bit about history. Hitler, your chief Nazi, used to burn communists or anyone with leftist views. Might as well call the Pope a bloody atheist Catholic!

Fri, 2011-07-29 17:31 — sumarumi (not verified)

@Alexis - you say:

"I would not even wipe my derriere with that piece of filth."

I would.

Tue, 2011-07-19 12:39 — Drakula

Gays have nothing to do with this post has it.

Tue, 2011-07-12 09:14 — Jessamy Barker (not verified)

Not at all sad about the demise of the NOTW myself, but sad that it must have such an undignified end after a pretty long history - was reading quotes from it on the Road Hill murder case of 1860, the era of the birth of the press' obsession with the grim, bloody and scandalous.

Fri, 2011-07-22 11:11 — Drakula

How did NoW portray princess Dianna? OK when she was befriending Dodi she was portrayed as a whore and after that tradgic accident when the people put thousands of flowers at her grave, she was promoted to sainthood in a matter of days ! Insane !!

Tue, 2011-07-12 10:49 — capt-price (not verified)

The demise of The Screws. Damn, I suppose I'll have to buy Andrex from now on. No loss I suppose, it wasn't terribly absorbent anyway- just kind of smeared it around. Quite ironic when you think about it!

Sun, 2011-07-24 15:16 — Hannah (not verified)

No sympathy what so ever for NoW staff, did'nt they always went on in their crappy papers,that unemployed get paid £50.000 a.y by tax payers? now they experience & enjoy the life on the dole!!!....

Thu, 2011-07-21 12:27 — Trotwood (not verified)

Most people that I know who read the News of The World didn't admit to it.

Sat, 2011-07-23 13:50 — Tom (not verified)

Flashbuck is a sock puppet.

Mon, 2011-07-25 21:23 — Fraziel1

Pretty much agree with everything you said Mehdi except as a public sector worker i have no sympathy for the sacked staff. As you pointed out they constantly asked for public sector workers to be sacked and they used every opportunity to lie about sick leave and pensions. They are as bad as the owners and now they have a taste of what it will be like for all the public sector workers who are still to lose their jobs.

Tue, 2011-07-12 13:43 — Arthur O'Connor

I am enormously enjoying the demise of Rupert Murdoch - that meerkat faced prune in a baseball cap. Amanda Platell - another illiterate Aussie who should be deported - said on AM show yesterday that Meyler spent his Sundays in the Catholic Church "saying Mass" (sic). There was a time when the NOTW - better known as News of The Screws - was banned by the Catholic Church in Ireland. Perhaps modern Irish Catholicism is a good apprenticeship for a NOTW editor. Am not unhappy at all that those so called journalists dishing up daily prurient crap are out of work. Just unhappy that there are 6 million illiterate underclass untouchables who support it. A challenge for Gove.

Wed, 2011-07-20 12:29 — Neville (not verified)

Having felt guilty in the past as I couldn't share in the over-done out pouring of emotion following Diana Spencer's death, I feel vindicated by the comments here: sad to see a newspaper title disappear, but did it really do anything for us? It troubles me that so often the tabloid press in general seems to publish stories that have no basis in facts, but simply pander to trogylite views of the country, let alone views of the world. Invasion of privacy? For what purpose? yes, if it exposes corruption such as with MPs' expenses, but why do we really need to know about the love lives of sports people? We need to value honesty more, and assume people do act in good faith. As with some of your other commentators, I have always been very suspicious of all Murdoch papers, and news outlets. the two Murdochs performance yesterday afternoon, confirmed me in my view that if I want real information, the BBC and any other newspaper are likely to be honest - News Corp? Well only when it says the same!

Mon, 2011-07-11 12:50 — London Calling (not verified)

Even my sympathy for the sacked workers is tempered by the fact they do not seem to have joined a trade union and seem proud of their anti union and anti working class past. They want us to support them getting jobs on the Sun (on Sunday) so they can continue shoveling shit at us? Even the non journalist workers are strangely quiet. Sorry, more deserving cases like the Derby train workers and the Public Sector workers faced with losing their jobs.

Sat, 2011-07-23 16:31 — andyg (not verified)

@ Alice.
"Exactly. While I am sympathetic for the redundant journalists, who do not deserve the treatment they have received, I refuse to mourn the passing of the paper itself".
Uhhh These people worked for Murdoch. They wrote and approved shite written about fellow workers. They bought properties on the strength of slagging off single mothers and workers who'd lost their jobs. They attempted to bring down the whole workers movement. They put innocent people in prison by writing lies.
The demise of this shite and those who wrote for it is a great day for decocracy in this country. The only thing left is for the judicial system to live up to what it should do to those who led this army of scumbags.

Mon, 2011-07-11 12:52 — Lou (not verified)

It's been nauseating hasn't it. Even more nauseating was the fact that sales went up by 30%. I found it difficult when walking past someone reading a NotW yesterday not to rip the paper out of their hands or set light to it. So much for the moral outrage of the public.

The so called greatest investigative paper operated total partisanship where Murdoch interests were concerned, stories detrimental to his interests no doubt never got covered, stories that aided and abetted his ruthless control made plenty of coverage and now the old adage that people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones is haunting their every move.

Good riddance to the Jeremy Kyle Show of the journalistic world, let's hope The Scum follows suit soon.

Tue, 2011-07-12 13:54 — Arthur O'Connor

The Murdoch stable of papers has done a great disservice to its readership over the years as has the whole of the English Press with the exception of the Guardian and The Observer. They have railed against the EU and thwarted its efforts with xenophobic ignorance. Anyone who can add 2 plus 2 would know that we would be hugely better off as part of the United States of Europe and as members of the Eurozone. The unemployed News Corp workers will have to survive on exactly half of the unemployment benefits available to Irish and Greek workers.

Mon, 2011-07-11 12:53 — Andrew (not verified)

Good article, and I agree, but I think this sentence is a little weak:

"As for the Pakistani cricketing scandal, I mean, come on, Pakistani cricketers are corrupt, says News of the World. Shock! Horror!"

That was a big story, and I think you know it. It would be better, I think, just to accept that the NotW did some (or perhaps one) good story – this obviously doesn't make it the world's greatest (investigative) newspaper.

Mon, 2011-07-11 12:55 — Andrew (not verified)

@Lou,

Supposedly all profits from yesterday's were given to charity. I bought one, and I'm outraged – I don't think the two are exclusive.

Mon, 2011-07-11 12:56 — Acamar (not verified)

I agree ... an appalling rag, truly horrible. Glad to see it gone.

Mon, 2011-07-11 12:56 — David Wearing1

About time someone said this. You have to admire the chutzpah of these morons actually taking a lap of honour after the revelations of last week.

Worse still is the risible idea that the scandal will deal a blow to investigative journalism. Its the greatest triumph for investigative journalism in living memory.

Mon, 2011-07-11 13:01 — Lou (not verified)

Andrew,

Couldn't people have just given their money to charity without buying the paper that so outraged them?

The sales figures are widely lauded by News Inc and will justify their move to a Sun on Sunday in the belief that the British public can't do without their dose of sunday salaciousness

Tue, 2011-07-12 15:00 — Seaman T

NoW was always more of a sleezy scandal sheet than a serious newspaper, so there is some justice in the nature of its passing.
What is the old saying, "Those who live by the sordid will die by it"? that's a good enough epitaph for that trouble making rag anyway.

Sun, 2011-07-31 00:19 — henry3

NOTW has been reponsible for many suicides during its vile history - it was and remained a variant of a totalitarian state's Morality Police. So, goodbye and f+ck off.

Now The Sun (and The Paul Staines) are doing a Bring Back Hanging campaign... so The Sun must be in deep sh+t.

Nice article, thanks.

Mon, 2011-07-11 13:46 — Louise (not verified)

100% spot on Mehdi. It's a horrible, vindictive, nasty paper, and I am glad it has gone.

As for the workers there, yet it is an injustice that they've lost their jobs, but this paper has spent its entire existence whining about workers' rights, union powers, strikes, redundancy payouts... as has the whole of NI. At what point did these journos think that News International was an employer who gave a damn about worker's rights? Of course people like that will sack you for their own screw ups. That is the entire basis of what they believe in.

I've already had a good rant about this on my blog and I'm glad I'm not alone :-) http://lefteyerighteye.wordpress.com/2011/07/10/dont-romanticise-the-tab...

Mon, 2011-07-11 13:47 — nomad (not verified)

Why all the sympathy for the redundant 'journalists'?
Aren't they the people that have 'informed' their readers how 'benefit scroungers' make £50,000 per year, are given free 5 bedroom houses, have plasma TV's, go on foriegn holidays and generally live the life of Riley on state houndouts?
They should be over the moon as they can now enjoy a 'luxury lifestyle' paid for by the tax payers.
What are they moaning about? After all it must be true....I read it in the NOTW.

Welcome to the realworld....scumbags !

Mon, 2011-07-11 13:52 — Alice (not verified)

Exactly. While I am sympathetic for the redundant journalists, who do not deserve the treatment they have received, I refuse to mourn the passing of the paper itself.

My quick blog entry gathering together interesting articles on the matter, among which this is numbered:
http://bit.ly/o1DE1C

Tue, 2011-07-12 15:22 — Barbara Richardson (not verified)

Growing up in a working class family in the 50's I read the Daily Mirror - a great campaigning newspaper - on weekdays. and learned a lot about sex from the salacious NoW on Sundays. For most of my adult life I have refused to have anything to do with Murdoch's publications and TV stations as I believed him to be responsible for the dumbing down of most of the British media. My friends, I know, thought me eccentric but thanks to some great journalism from The Guardian - my paper of choice for the last 45 years- I feel fully vindicated.

Mon, 2011-07-11 14:13 — Eric Carter

Reading the Sunday Times yesterday, you can see how the Murdoch smear machine works - blame everybody; lefties, the BBC, Guardian, other papers but not surprisingly the standards of the News of the World nor the unsuccessful but successive attempts to lie and obfuscate responsibility. It's enough to make a cat vomit.

Tue, 2011-07-19 16:07 — Bella (not verified)

I for one am not sorry to see the demise of the likes of the NOTW,strange title for a paper that preferred footballers scandals and suchlike not giving people news of the world, I hope this is just the beginning and sees a shift in at least some peoples attitudes to reporting,some of the public are to blame for wanting all this tittle tattle and scandal about 'celebs' but hacking into phones of murder victims and missing children is something noone should want any part in.
I for one don't buy any newspapers or magazines, I prefer to read webpages such as this one.
As for those that lost their jobs;it happens in every sector of society, I was in the textile industry for 15 years, 10,000s of people have lost their jobs in the last 15-20 years, it never even made it into the papers yet alone headline news.

Mon, 2011-07-11 14:42 — Alexis (not verified)

I agree with Mehdi. I found it quite sickening when all of those NOTW journalists finished their jobs, to an almost hero's welcome. Do I feel sorry for these scum? Not even slightly.
For years these such gutter press fed on the misery of others, it appealed to low life chavs whose average reading age is 9 years old.

I would not even wipe my derriere with that piece of filth.

Tue, 2011-07-19 16:23 — Julia Harris (not verified)

2011.07.18 (Farah, Afghanistan) - The Taliban send the beheaded bodies of two hostages to their families.
2011.07.18 (Xingjian, China) - Muslim separatists attack a police station, killing two officers and two hostages.
2011.07.17 (Mosul, Iraq) - Mujahideen murder a man, his wife, and their child with grenade shrapnel.
2011.07.17 (Mann Talab, Pakistan) - A peace committee volunteer is tied to the back of a car and dragged to death by Lashkar-e-Islam.
2011.07.17 (Baghlani Jadid, Afghanistan) - Islamic militants open fire on a wedding party, killing two guests.
2011.07.17 (Mosul, Iraq) - A woman is among three people machine-gunned to death at a police checkpoint.

Fri, 2011-07-15 12:00 — Drakula

The smut buying public are very much to blame, it's a bit like a drug or porn when the masses are crying out for more.

The more salacious and depraved the scandal the better. So someone has to satisfy that market.

Mon, 2011-07-11 17:03 — gerry (not verified)

Good article Mehdi

We should rejoice about the demise of the NotW, and the redundancy of its corrupt and criminal journalists!

Dont let its current political editor get away with saying how the present staff are "clean" - they are not!

Like all national journalists, they are 100% amoral, corrupt and criminal...the dirty little secrets of Murdoch and all national journalists have finally been exposed for all to see:
-bribery
-illegality
-criminality
-direct links to the criminal underworld
-daily telling of lies and half truths
-bullying
-blackmail
-intimidation
-invasions of privacy
- and lastly, phone hacking!

In the next few weeks, I want the Sun, Times and Sunday Times to be closed down, and News Corp to be stripped of any media in the UK - but this was just be a good start.

Next would be the full exposure of how institutionally corrupt the Met Police are, with up to 90% of its officers taking bribes for information. Birng it on!

Mon, 2011-07-11 17:08 — Lou (not verified)

@gerry

It's just breaking now over the Times and Sun's hacking into Brown's details and of particular note in that is Rebekah Brooks ( I knew nothing your honour honest) phoned GB personally to tell him of this information they had. It concerned Abbey National and a property but more seriously, Jennifer his daughter who subsequently died and his son who has cerebal palsy.

Mon, 2011-07-11 17:40 — Rob (not verified)

Someone showed me a copy of todays Sun paper ( i refuse to call it a 'news'paper) and the letters page was full of people saying how sorry they were to see it go under and what a shame etc etc Not one letter was printed saying anything honest about what had happened and the reason for its demise, but i didnt expect anything else from ' The paper wot won it innit '

Mon, 2011-07-11 17:47 — Reza (not verified)

Good article Mehdi.

NOW throw more barbs than almost any other paper, its hard to have sympathy when their chickens come home to roost.

I don't feel happy or sad, just indifference.

Mon, 2011-07-25 08:04 — Anna (not verified)

I'm not sorry at all at the end of the NOW, but I must confess to being a regular reader of the Times - excellent journalism there, despite being Murdoch-owned. However,the recent brouhaha following the Milly Dowler scandal made me think that I really would have to cut all links with the Murdoch empire; until I read that the Times runs at a huge loss and actually costs Rupert money. The paper has also covered the phone-hacking scandal pretty throroughly and had some stinging leaders on the topic. So maybe I should continue to rob Rupert and NI by buying the Times?

Wed, 2011-07-27 12:55 — charlesfrith

I've turned my nose up at few things in life but NoW was to be spat on like most tabloid papers. Bye bye. I outlived you. Feels good.

Sat, 2011-07-16 13:27 — KB Player1

Good piece. Because the News of the Screws had been around for 100+ years everyone mourns the loss of a British institution. I imagine there was the same sobbing when they stopped hanging, drawing and quartering.

Sat, 2011-07-16 13:41 — swatantra nandanwar

I'm glad that somebody made the point. Like the rest of the above commentators, I shall not mourn the loss of the NotW. Perhaps out of work journalists will now be able to put their talents to better use.

Fri, 2011-07-15 13:44 — Jamie (not verified)

You may recall Kay Burley’s hectoring questioning of Chris Bryant over phone hacking, culminating in the Rhondda MP describing the Sky News presenter as “a bit dim”. So why is it the BBC had on Kay Burley on "This Week" twisting it into a sexist comment when infact the "dim" comment was more polite than she deserved. The BBC presenters knew it was going on, so were they defending phone hacking by supporting her? Andrew Neil is no idiot. But how could he smile and listen to Kay Burley rant when she said its people fault for not changing passwords on their phones. The BBC must be more than scared. They must be connected in this.

Sky News was used by News International for its own agenda.

Mon, 2011-07-11 19:06 — mcquade

"I can't help but notice that the NoW was one of the papers constantly calling for sackings and redundancies in the public sector so..."

I don't recall NotW shedding a single tear over the thousands of miners it helped dump on the dole.

Thu, 2011-07-14 13:23 — Drakula

Right Mehdi;'Let the dead bury the dead'

If those workers who have been made redundant and didn't belong to a union, well tough shit!!!!!

I just hope that the NOW is not going to resurect itself due to "public demand" I wouldn't put that one past Murdock.

We just have to keep our fingers crossed he doesn't buy up Sky!!!!!!

Mon, 2011-07-11 19:38 — Daniele1

Yes I have been sickened by the number of people on the telly, apparently intelligent, who came out with praise for the NOW! "a courageous paper" " a investigative journalism at its best","brave campaigns.." WHAT THE HELL??
No I do not feel sorry for the sacked workers. You've got to take responsibility for the job you do. and their job was to make sure the good people of Britain got their weekly fill of right-wing, reactionary simple-minded, hateful CRAP!
I too always have the urge to rip the disgusting tabloids in people's trolleys at the supermarket.I look at thse "honest folks" and feel like asking them if they like being fed hateful lies . I think I will soon..
The truth is that those tabloids, including and especially the "Daily Mail" are corrupting British culture and turning people into mean-spirited, selfish, prejudiced, racist people and damaging the notion of citizenship.
What should happen now is a national campaign for a boycot of ALL the NI papers, including "The Times". Those who live by the market should die by the the market.
Let's not buy Murdoch's products.Period!

Thu, 2011-07-14 13:30 — julie stewart (not verified)

This has been very therapeutic to read this blog, i was beginning to think that i was the only one thinkiong like this
But one thing that I can't believe that i am hearing no one else say
Why why oh why all this outrage about phone hacking. Where did these NoW and Sun readers THINK that all the garbage exposees came from????