Murdoch Is Served (37)

Today has brought another “just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water” moment for Rupe and his troops as “Shagger” Prescott (“traditional misbehaviour in a modern setting”), has succeeded in getting a judicial review over the Met’s handling of Phonehackgate. This comes hot on the heels of Friday’s revelation that a senior executive at the Screws had ordered the hacking of Jude Law’s voicemail.

Even the right leaning part of the blogosphere is starting to realise that something significant is happening: Paul Staines, who blogs from time to time under the alias of Guido Fawkes, has even featured the story today, though his angle is to whinge about how much it’s all going to cost, and the answer is, probably no more than Staines is going to have to shell out if Shillings come looking for him over, er, you know who.

But Staines – or maybe his tame gofer Henry Cole wrote the item – doesn’t even mention Friday’s news, probably because the Fawkes blog is banging on about Chris Huhne in the mistaken belief that this will somehow make a difference. The attack on William ‘Ague had no effect, and without the despised MSM, the crusade against Huhne will go the same way.

And that isn’t the only Phonehackgate related story that Staines and Cole have missed: veteral hack Dennis Rice has also started proceedings over the hacking of voicemails, this referring to the time when Rice was at the Mail On Sunday. The suggestion is that Glenn Mulcaire was helping Screws hacks spy on the MoS, and pinch stories from them.

So this may be more significant that the Prescott action, because thus far, many of those scrabbling about on the dunghill that is Grubstreet have been staying loyal to the iron rule that “dog doesn’t eat dog”: the Fourth Estate does not attack its own, certainly not in public. If the Screws has been spying on the competition in order to gain an advantage, all bets concerning that rule are off.

Staines and Cole have figured out – at long last – that Phonehackgate has the potential to rumble on for some time, and involve a lot of slebs, money and column inches. But they’ve only figured out one of the three recent revelations, and for a blog that claims to be in front of the field, that’s not good enough.

So no change there, then.