Am I the only one secretly enjoying this?

[breadandbutterfly]

Whilst it's horrifying and depressing the depths to which so many in responsible positions have sunk - journalists, media figures, politicians and policeman - I can't say I'm actually terribly surprised. Whilst I had no idea of the details, I could have guessed that Murdoch's underlings weren't probably terribly nice people, that the top ranks of the police were not terribly interested in justice and catching real criminals, and that politicians were smug, self-serving bastards only interested in smoothing things over for their super-rich cronies...but it's quite nice to watch them all get caught out publicly and made to apologise and resign.

New world order? I doubt it too. But at least this very public humbling and mea culpaing is strangely cleasing to watch.

Let's hope some good comes of it all!!

Good God of course you're not alone.I've got fresh coffee and chocolate cookies here,glued to Sky news with a massive grin on my face.It's like watching the fall of the Roman empire live in high definition.

I am not 'enjoying' this. I think it's bad for the nation on a lot of levels if we start to doubt the integrity of our big institutions, and I also think there's a nasty whiff of mass-hysteria at the moment that is clouding the issue. Justice must be done and be seen to be done but I think that to indulge too heavily in schadenfreude will come back to bite us.

I am enjoying seeing Bojo squirm on BBC news.

And John Yates gone!

Sorry, but I am enjoying it - schedenfreude seems richly deserved, esp given this was a paper which took delight in exposing others' misery (and dishonesty).

And I don't feel that it's something we might all have done - what normal person hacks into the phones of dead people or approves this?

These are not just slightly bending the rules people, these are people who believe themselves above both criminal and moral law. Policeman who shelter the criminals! How more wrong can you get?

No, I'm glad they're going down, and glad it's public enough they can't wriggle out of it.

"Moral law" but whose morals? A newspaper may have taken delight in exposing others' misery but it was read by about 6m people that presumably also took delight in reading about others' misery... those kind of morals? The phone-hacking was illegal, that's not in dispute. Any illegal activity deserves punishment without question. But morality? Anyone buying modern tabloids is condoning the whole long-lens, doorstepping, bin-filtering, kiss & tell culture that produces so many of the stories. Seemed to be a big MN round of applause when Wikileaks broke a few months ago - one man's 'freedom of information' is another man's 'treacherous espionage'. Many participated in outing Ryan Giggs' personal misery on Twitter - didn't see too many defending him. And who hasn't shared a bit of tasty gossip with a friend knowing it would kill the other person if they knew? So when citing 'moral law'.... I think we should be very, very careful indeed. Few of us are above reproach when morality is the test.

I've never bought a tabloid in my life, apart from the Morning Star and if the red tops' readership is really 6m out of 60m, maybe lots of other people haven't either.

When I was 10 or 11 someone was thoughtful enough to give me a sticker listing the logos of the Murdoch papers for boycott purposes (Sun, Times, Sunset Times, NOTW, FT - I had that sticker on my bag for ages!) Moral relativism has been big for a loooong time in this country, but I don't see what is so hard to condemn here. It's been the same story from the gates of Fortress Wapping in '86 right through to the Dowler phone-hack - you don't treat people like that, it's fucking vile. So yeah, I think this has been a long time coming and NI's contemptible behaviour for decades finally seems to be reaping its dividends.

I'd like to see some positive change come out of this, but in the meantime, of course I'm enjoying it

So what is going on? Journalists are so desperate to keep their jobs and make money that they lose all idea of what's morally acceptable, and hack into the phones of murder victims. Meanwhile they are also paying the police for information about criminals and victims alike. At the same time they are being paid for presenting the news in the way that the government wants it presented. And it's on the basis of those news reports that we all make the decisions about which political party we want to elect.

Is that it? So our 'democracy' is founded on the mass manipulation of the population by the government and rich owners of newspapers and other global organisations. Have I forgotten anything?

Allegedly, of course.

Time for a clean-up, I think!

This isn't new, though. My friends and I were discussing this in the 1980s - in fact children learned about it in school. How so-called 'news' is always selected by someone with a conscious or unconscious agenda for a particular purpose, etc.

I had a journalist friend who told me she was asked by her paper to go to student parties and then when everyone was drunk, take photos of the students. This was at a time, another time, when 'feckless' students having partiest were the topic of the day (yawn).

And yet I got the Guardian on Saturday, and once again I was reminded how brilliant some of their researchers are and how important their excellent investigative journalism is. Not when it's used to spy on hapless footballers, but to uncover corruption and crime in high places.

Looks like things will get even more interesting, LulzSec have hacked thesun.co.uk and claim to have hold of the NotW emails.

Sean Hoare is dead. I think it's all pretty horrifying, actually.

The trouble is that it takes a long time for stories like this to come to fruition. It's like the credit crunch - people were saying for years that we were living beyond our means but borrowers carried on regardless. There is seldom a sensible, orderly disengagement: it's only when we hit the buffers that it stops.

Is it co-incidence that media barons are being toppled at the same time as we have the rise of the internet with its bloggers, tweeters and other such free* sources of information?

• free as in 'costs no money' but also as in 'not beholden'.

Morbidly fascinating..

Dennis Skinner was on Newsnight and was fab.

"normal person hacks into the phones of dead people or approves this?"

I fear that almost anyone in journalism might have been tempted, if they felt it would improve their career as they might get a scoop. It is partly down to the buying public, too, about what is "accepted" as worthwhile content.

One of the weekly (womens') mags gets promoted on TV as having 99 bits of gossip for 99p (sorry, I try to blank ads but the voiceover guy always sounds like he's in a hurry!) so (parts of) the media encourage the public's hunger, and then feeds it.

Not sure quite how the politicians are involved at this point - not convinced they are paying for views to be put into the papers, and seems like they are more likely to be acting in ways not to 'offend' certain media interests, lest they get hung out to dry in the press.

I bet a lot of politicians have skeletons in cupboards they don't want aired in public, and you can expect the muck raking journalists with private detectives and paid informants have collected a bunch of nasty tales about different people, their past lovers, mistresses, debts, and so on.

As for the police - it is a bit worrying that the Met represents about 25% of the UK's police numbers and resources, and being centred on the capital, are side by side with the major papers.

London and the South-East are all too often given priority so it is time to move Parliament elsewhere, eg to Birmingham, and let's see other transport projects and other parts of the UK get developments, not just those centred around the bribery and corruption centre, London !

:)

Corruption, power, greed ....

It's about time it all got turned on its head.

It's time for the small people to be heard and I don't mean physical stature.

I am rather afraid I am turning into a raving socialist.

I don't want money or power or to compete.

I just want to be a lowly, decent, respectful and respected person without being surrounded by this vile behaviour.

I hope they all rot.

Yes, I love it.

BitofFun - I agree - when I posted this, the Sean Hoare news had not yet happened (or at least not come out yet).

Obviously there is nothing 'entertaining' about that - very tragic.

I thoroughly enjoyed the lulzsec hackings last night, I had intended too get an early night but was sucked into refreshing twitter all night!!

I missed Dennis Skinner on Newsnight?! [gutted and off to find iplayer emoticon]