So Michael Wolff, biographer of Rupert Murdoch, was wrong – Rebekah Brooks is still in post at News International and it is now Thursday. After getting the whole of the News of the World journalistic staff to fall on her sword for her, she struggles on for no discernible purpose other than to act as a firewall between the public anger and James Murdoch, Rupert’s heir apparent (although whether that now comes to fruition is a moot point). It all reminds me of Jeremy’s Thorpe’s quip after Harold Macmillan’s ‘Night of the Long Knives’ moment as he reshuffled his cabinet in the wake of the Profumo scandal: “No greater love hath a man than his lay down his friends for his life.” With the US Senate asking the FBI to investigate any Stateside nefariousness, how far will the purging at News Corp go?
If Murdoch was to survive this and divested himself of News International’s stable of newspapers, then were he to revive the bid for total control of BSkyB, even if it were referred to the Competition Commission again, it would probably pass the test of media plurality. George’s Mombiot’s public triumphalism is a little distasteful given the circumstances leading up to News Corp’s withdrawal of their bid. Everyone knows to a greater or lesser degree how the vileness and hypocrisy practised by most tabloids, not least to ‘ordinary people’, chewing them up and spitting them out once their commercial value in selling papers ceases. But the depravity of what has come out has been so far beyond the pale it has charted news depths of wilderness. So he can dance round his desk in Guardian Tower if he wants but could he keep his exultation to himself next time.