Phone Hacking - Hello Piers And Rebekah

Selective news reporting. It sounds inoffensive, unlikely to catch the eye and certainly not touch a nerve. But it is one of the Fourth Estate’s most effective and cynically deployed weapons in its war of falsehood and misinformation, and especially so when used to shield the bad behaviour of its own members. So it was when the Mirror titles’ publisher agreed to pay out a further £500,000 to 29 victims of phone hacking.

You will find the story in the Guardian. And you will find it in Press Gazette. But you will be hard pressed to find so much as a mention of it anywhere else. The story does not even feature at the BBC website. Thus most of the public are not told, remain in the dark. That is inexcusable. But it is the way in which the press operates - the BBC acquiesces out of fear and conformity - in order to protect its own from exposure.

Who it might be protecting can be seen from the Guardian report: “The publisher of the Daily Mirror has paid out more than £500,000 to settle phone-hacking claims by 29 people including the entertainer Les Dennis, presenter Natasha Kaplinsky and EastEnders actor Steve McFadden”. Not the Sunday Mirror, but the Daily Mirror.

Why is that significant? Simples. Previously, it was believed the late and not at all lamented Murdoch Screws hacked on an industrial scale, with the Sunday Mirror joining in the exercise, most likely as a means of keeping up with the competition. The Daily Mirror - and the Murdoch Sun - were supposed to have been well out of it.

What might he be doing here?

Apparently not: the two conclusions that are inevitable from looking at the reports from this week’s proceedings - and you have to read both Guardian and Press Gazette to get the full picture - are that one former Daily Mirror editor may have cause to worry, and the Murdoch mafiosi are looking at another round of hacking payouts down the line.

This is what Press Gazette had to say on timescales: “The judge heard that McFadden was caused significant distress by a series of articles which appeared between 1998 and 2009 and were the result of his voicemail messages being hacked … Articles were published about Kaplinsky between 2003 and 2009 ‘with at times serious and devastating effect’, said counsel David Sherborne”. And then there was the Guardian’s sign-off.

And his old pal too

That simply reads “A number of those who settled their claims with MGN, a subsidiary of Trinity Mirror, including Dennis and [Simon] Clegg, are involved in a separate civil case against the Sun publisher News Group Newspapers”. The Sun is next up. And then there is the question of that former Daily Mirror editor.

Who might that be? Step forward appalling name-dropper and pretentiousness maximiser Piers Morgan, a man whose favourite subject is the promotion of Himself Personally Now, and editor of the Daily Mirror from 1995 to 2004 - when much of that hacking took place. He has, of course, claimed ignorance of such behaviour, although Lord Justice Leveson was not convinced of his evidence to the Inquiry into press conduct.

Piers Morgan and his pal Rebekah in the line of fire again? Don’t bet against it.