While I’m sure there are many media types high up discussing the future of the industry in various conference facilities rooms all over the UK right now, surely the people who hold it in their hands are us – the people.
Frankly, we’ve all had enough of this News of the World style phone hacking. It was one thing going after celebrities. I’m not condoning it, but it was slightly different to going after normal people. People in grief. The families of fallen war heroes. That is disgusting and those responsible should be taken to task for it.
It’s the higher-ups who are responsible, as per bloody usual, and, as per bloody usual, the little guys at the bottom of the ladder are going to suffer because of their nasty misdeeds. The News of the World has now closed. Dead. With the News of the World could go the careers of 200 innocent journalists. Dead. Will these people recover? Will their reputations as workers and employees be forever tarnished by their association with a newspaper that has dropped dead so quickly. Nobody really expected it to go, you know, but do these people have a chance now?
These higher-ups won’t be punished, of course, because they never do get punished do they. Hell, they’ll probably even receive a greater public profile and ultiamtely more money because of it. It’s horrible really, how it all works out. But, as the News of the World taught us when it was in print – people pay for scandal, people are attracted to it, and it will continue to sell in one way of another – tabloid rag or not.
So that’s it, the end of an era. No more News of the World. I didn’t read it, of course, but I can appreciate that this is a pretty pivotal moment in our recent history. Oh well, just one less bad outlet in which it can be documented!
