Phone hacking: blame Murdoch, not his staff

My husband always says that when I start feeling sorry for people, it's a sign that they are truly buggered. So it's a bit concerning that I don't – yet – feel the least bit sorry for News International high-heid-yin Rebekah Brooks. There is, however, a danger in placing too much focus on the flame-headed one. Overplay the assertion that the buck stops with Brooks, and the Murdoch empire can emerge from this crisis relatively unscathed. That would be a missed opportunity to clean up Britain's press, once and for all. The nation should be grateful to all the former advertisers that are finally lining up to hit the News of the World where it hurts. But the cash made from that newspaper was invested in many other, far more respectable, Murdoch businesses. Now, those businesses, and their hard-working staff, are tainted by association. There's a great, sinister, quote in Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep from the fictitious press magnate, Harland Potter: "A newspaper is an advertising vehicle predicated on its circulation. Nothing more, nothing less." I'm pretty sure this view is shared by Murdoch. But newspapers can be, should be, and often are, so much more than that. I do feel sorry for all the excellent people who believed they could do an honest day's work for him. They deserved much better than they got.