Why, I hear you ask, did the editors of the New Statesman and Independent do nothing
about Johann Hari? Private Eye and many others had been raising killer questions about his
journalism for years before the scandal broke, and yet they stood aside and let him be.
Why, to raise the obvious follow up question after the grotesque allegations about Milly Dowler, did Rupert Murdoch and successive editors of the News of the World not stop stories that could only have come from illegal surveillance?
Because the managers of the British media have a pimp’s morality. If a broadsheet columnist produces “facts” that thrill the clients, they pat him on the head and give him a pay rise rather than wondering if his routine is not too good to be true. If tabloid reporters are bringing in sensational stories that tickle the punters’ fancy, then they concentrate all their attention on counting the takings.
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