And with good reason - the Guardian has spent the better part of ten years trying to bring down the Murdoch papers and expose their corruption and dirty-dealings - he should be giving himself a big pat on the back, as should Chris Blackhurst. These guys have been the main vanguard pushing the phone-hacking scandal and it's finally having crashing consequences.
The News of the World is gone. Well, is this a bad or a good thing? On the one hand, it shows Murdoch and Brooks are scared and that it's all starting to hit home for them. And it won't hurt not to have the NOTW's right-wing, sensationalist drivel polluting our media waters. Yes, it's a 168 year old institution, but, according to a restrospective in the Guardian, it has always basically been what it is. So I don't think we should be sad to see it go. And although I have some sympathy for the journalists who lost their jobs, I would say that everyone of them did know what the NOTW and although they perhaps didn't deserve to take the blame for this, ignorance is also not an excuse for them anymore than it is for Rebekah Brooks. I mean, they did choose to work a the NOTW afterall. Have a bit of integrity - if you're all so honest and decent and work for a proper newspaper. Still, the fact that they're gone and Brooks is still in place is a sham and it's still hard to see why Murdoch is so keen to keep her - she'll almost certainly be gone with a week, I'd say.
David Cameron must be pretty peeved at Alan Rusbridger himself - now that Andy Coulson's gone down himself. In a press conference earlier today he once again spouted that stomach-churning adage, "We're all in this together" and tried to spread the infection a bit thinner by implicating the news media as a whole - a not-so-subtle attempt to divert attention away from his negligence (or worse) in hiring Andy Coulson as communications director. But this is not a case of mass-corruption - even if these practices are not solely confined to the Murdoch press, you can't start getting accusatory when there's no evidence, unless you're just deeply paranoid. This is News International's problem and you're implicated, Davey boy. Suck it up, man.
And then we come to the dark lord himself, Rupert.
I wouldn't be surprised if, at some point in the near future, Rupert kicks his son, James, off his position as chairman of NI, particularly if the hacking scandal reaches more extreme heights. It's just the kind of almost comically ruthless thing he could and would beautifully cement his image as real-life Mr. Burns. In an earlier episode of the Simpsons (sadly one of Murdoch's own cash-cows), Bart and Homer watch a film in which an evil supervillain cackles hysterically while poisoning McBain. Bart says, "that is one evil dude" and Homer replies, "Don't worry, boy, there's no-one that evil in real life." The scene then switches to Mr. Burns also cackling in an evil manner. Well, you could just as easily cut again to Rupert Murdoch as he cackles while watching striking workers getting their heads beaten by riot police.
The problem with Rupert is that he is such a self-confirmed "evil bastard". He has spent decades revelling in his untouchability and playing into his dark overlord image (just see his guest-spot in the Simpsons) that it looks like it's all going to backfire.
Because, now, basically everyone hates him. Anyone with a moral consciences has always hated him, the left hate him for his politics, the right hate him (begrudgingly) for his monopolising the media, the politicians hates (again, begrudgingly) for his domination of them and now even the mindless masses who read the Sun (seriously, I don't know anyone who does) are starting to hate him for the same reason they get morally outraged at every piece of drivel he puts on the front of his papers. Even people who have no idea why they should hate him, know that he is generally thought of as a figure of justified hate.
And because it's not an undefinable group of, say, "bankers" or "politicians", but one singular amoral king of the hill, there is an easy focus for everyone's bile, anger and retribution. It's all leads back to this one man. Perhaps the best way to emphasise the kind of contempt he can generate...legendary dramatist Dennis Potter summed it up best, "the enemy in question is that drivel-merchant, global huckster and so-to-speak media psychopath, Rupert Murdoch... Hannibal the Cannibal...." - after being diagnosed with terminal cancer, the ever sardonic Potter named his cancer "Rupert". He's a figure of almost total vilification and he's never cared one iota, because he's been "untouchable".
The best thing, though, that comes immediately from all this is that the Murdoch brand may become a genuine cancer. With the NOTW gone and the Sun staff threateningly industrial action over the NOTW sacking, the power of Murdoch to influence politicians is just going to decline as it is realised that being associated with the Murdoch mafia is not actually going to do them any favours. And so the decades of politicians living or dying under Murdoch's greasy thumb might soon be over...here's hoping.
And the best thing that could ever come out of this is that it might show people like Murdoch that they are not untouchable and that they cannot lead these amoral, corrupt, egotistical lives without facing the consequences. You do not deserve the power you have.
We cannot let this story be buried, the campaign to crush the Murdoch empire, to crush corruption and the media monopoply must continue.
Let's cut out the cancer.
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