This
excellent book reveals the true horror of a media empire run wild, spreading
corruption into almost every area of public life.
The
consequences for democracy are huge, with Nick Davies really unveiling nothing
less than the equivalent of the Watergate scandal in the UK.
A
central figure in this deceit is former News Of the World (NOW) editor Andy
Coulson, who went on to be placed at the centre of government, serving as the
Prime Ministers chief of communications. Coulson is now serving a prison
sentence.
Davies
charts the often lonely furrow that he and the Guardian had to plough in trying
to reveal a web of corruption that
embraced not just the News of the World newspaper and its journalists but other
parts of the media, the police and politicians.
Davies
became involved as a result of an interview he did on Radio 4’s Today
programme, with NOW managing editor Stuart Kuttner, when the latter underlined
the rogue reporter thesis.
It
was from here that Davies pursued the line that phone hacking had not just been
done by a lone reporter in Royal correspondent Clive Goodman and investigator
Glen Mulcaire, who had been jailed in 2006.
The
truth was that the hacking was being commissioned on a huge scale by news
editors and others on the NOW payroll. The police had the evidence from the Mulcaire
case but at best had been negligent in not following through, at worst wilfully
failing to investigate crime.
The
book charts the Guardian’s battle to get the truth out, with most papers siding
with the bully in the playground – News International.
One
of the strengths of the book is how it exposes the whole corrupt morass of the
hacking but also gives background incite into how power works and the
particularly corrosive network of relationships that existed between the police,
politicians and News International.
The
bullying of Gordon Brown to get him doing what NI and ultimately the Murdochs
wanted him to do in policy terms. The revelations about direct influence on
matters like the Iraq war, privatising the health service and opposition to
Europe, leave the reader asking who are these people and what right to they
have to be influencing the democratic process in this way?
The
use of the dark arts to destroy people or the softer approach, of keeping a
secret then expecting to call in the favour later.
Davies
outlines how a whole coalition of interests came together in a campaign of
opposition. There were those being hacked, the politicians (often one in the
same) and the Guardian. At one stage the paper does not seem to be progressing
far so it decides to share some of the information with other media outlets
such as the New York Times and the BBC. This increases the pressure.
Davies
then starts linking up possible hack victims with lawyers, while NOW victim Max
Moseley funds some of the legal actions and provides general financial support.
The
pressure builds and builds with the police eventually waking to the fact that
they really ought to do something.
There
is then the race between getting the full enormity of the hacking scandal out
and NI’s desire to purchase a larger controlling interest in broadcaster BSKYB.
It
is a close run thing, with the decisive revelation being the hacking of
murdered teenager Millie Dowler. Once this hacking and that of others like the families
of the murdered Soham children Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells and the parents
of Madeleine McCann, the whole saga goes onto another level.
There
is universal condemnation, NI become toxic, with the political class as one-
even including friends like David Cameron- turning away.
One
though who stays loyal is Tony Blair, who notably at the time of maximum
pressure on chief executive and former editor of then NOW and the Sun Rebekah
Brooks suggests she set up a Hutton style inquiry as he did in 2003, following
the Iraq war. This would “clear you” and “accept shortcomings and new
solutions,” Brooks relays to James Murdoch.
The
book is a excellent expose of a corrupt abuse of power. The final three pages
of epilogue are particularly powerful, putting the whole scandal into the
context of the neo-liberal onslaught that has hit people the world over for the
past 30 years. Soberingly, Davies concludes: “For a while we snatched a handful
of power away from one man. We did nothing to change the power of the elite.”
Davies
does undoubtedly over –egg the role of the Guardian, riding into opposition on
its trusty stead to oppose the evil Murdoch empire. The Guardian did play a
vital role, standing virtually alone among national newspapers- many of whom no
doubt were concerned about their own dirty linen getting aired in public.
However, there were others like Private Eye magazine who played a vital role in
unveiling the scandal.
Davies
also adds a bit of colour, referring to his riding his horse around the hills
of Sussex at times of frustration – a mobile phone never far away. However, all
in all this is an excellent read, a must for anyone who wants to really
understand the corrupt forces at work in Britain today.
Whatever
else maybe said, Nick Davies and the Guardian have done a great service to
journalism and democracy with their work in this area.
*Hack
Attack by Nick Davies
Published
by Chatto and Windus price £20
*Hack Attack: Absolute power corrupts absolutely - see:Morning Star - 22/9/2014
.
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