The Spectator’s Notes | 9 July 2011

Here are two things to bear in mind when reading about the News of the World phone-message hacking. The first is that all tabloid papers are even more disgusting in their methods than people realise. They act like a privatised secret police. To them, there is nothing more thrilling than a pretty, underage, murdered girl, and they would have no scruples about any means of getting information about her. But the other thing to remember is that the persecutors of the News of the World are not themselves disinterested seekers after truth. The BBC believes that its power depends on beating off Rupert Murdoch’s bid for BSkyB, so when the Milly Dowler, Soham and July 7 ‘twists’ appeared, the corporation leapt to it without any of the normal care about how these were only allegations at this stage, or any pertinent questions about why, after years of doing nothing, the police were suddenly pushing this information into the public domain.