His Grace was interested to learn that the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and (Sunday) People are all stabled together under the Trinity Mirror Group, and that the 2006 table of crimes and misdemeanours establishes beyond doubt that Trinity Mirror are actually more corrupt than either News International or the Mail Group. Adding up the total number of incidents of illegally-acquired data by journalists, we arrive at:Quite (though unlike Cranmer, I don't think there's anything wrong with pornography per se).Trinity Mirror: 1663 incidents by 139 journalists...
Mail Group: 1248 incidents by 95 journalists
News International: 182 incidents by 19 journalists
So, while not excusing the illicit activities of a few News International journalists and possibly their editors, it is important to reflect calmly on the facts and introduce a little sense of proportion into the furore. If Rupert Murdoch and Rebekah Brooks are not considered by David Cameron, Nick Clegg and Ed Miliband to be a ‘fit and proper’ people to own and run BSkyB, why is Viscount Rothermere fit to own the Mail Group? Why is Paul Dacre fit to edit the Daily Mail? Why is Ian Gibson fit to be Chairman of Trinity Mirror? And why is the ‘violent and dishonest’ pornographer Richard Desmond deemed sufficiently ‘fit and proper’ to own the Express Group and Channel 5?
As I write, taxpayer-funded Newsnight merrily continues its 'fit and proper' witch hunt.
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