And a British general is stunned to think that tabloid support for the troops might be self-interested

UPDATE: a short while after the posting of this blog entry, James Murdoch, the executive chairman of News International and head of international operations at News Corporation, announced that he was closing the News of the World newspaper. The final edition of the Sunday tabloid will be published this weekend and will not carry commercial advertising. In a statement, Mr Murdoch says the newspaper and News International had "failed to get to the bottom of repeated wrongdoing that occurred without conscience or legitimate purpose". The full text is here. The statement, some already are noting, does not preclude the launch of a seven day Sun operation.



LOWER a piece of bacon fat on a string above a box full of ferrets, and you will have some idea how the world of the British tabloid press looks today, as former colleagues, bosses and friends turn on each other with a snapping of sharp teeth and a glinting of narrow, yellow eyes.



Pressure is mounting on Rebekah Brooks, the former editor of the News of the World and the Sun, and current chief executive of News International, the mighty media group that owns those two tabloids as well as the Times and the Sunday Times.

It is getting hard to keep up with the torrent of new allegations, but at the moment the most lethal charge is that the NotW illegally hacked into the mobile telephone voice messages of the relatives of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.



This is a particular blow to a tabloid stable which has long wrapped itself in the flag, campaigning for “Our Boys” in the military and sponsoring annual “Milly” awards for brave servicemen and women.



Right on cue, papers from the NI stable have begun lashing out in all directions.



An especially choice article in the Sunthis morning quotes MPs using parliamentary privilege to attack the Daily Mail and Daily Mirror, accusing the latter of using phone hacking to uncover a celebrity adultery story.

The Sun then turns on Andy Coulson, the former NotW editor who between 2007 and January of this year was communications director to David Cameron.



Here is an extract from the Sun's report, congratulating its parent company for finding emails in corporate archives, fingering Mr Coulson:

Cops have also been handed fresh emails, which allegedly show that former News of the World editor and No10 press boss Andy Coulson condoned payments from his staff to bent police officers. Documents from News International which appear to indicate Scotland Yard officers received payments from the paper have been formally referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission, the force said today. The company said in a statement: "The fact that these developments came as a result of voluntary disclosure demonstrates full co-operation with the police and News International's determination as a company to deal responsibly and correctly with the issues that have arisen." During the Commons debate, Mr Cameron said he took "full responsibility" for his decision to employ Mr Coulson, who quit in January.

Oddly, the report leaves out the bits of the parliamentary debate in which MPs alleged that Mrs Brooks and other NI executives had misled earlier parliamentary probes into phone hacking.

Amidst all this grisly murk, the day has at least seen a couple of moments of unintended comedy to lighten the gloom.

The first is this detail from the Guardian, which I shall treasure for a while:

News International (NI) continued its internal investigation into phone hacking at the News of the World. Senior sources said they were examining whether former News of the World journalists may have kept money claimed on company expenses instead of passing it on to police officers in exchange for stories. Paying police officers is itself illegal.

In other words, the paper's bosses fear some staff may not have been honourable enough to pay policemen illegal bribes, but merely pretended to in order to trouser the cash.

The other moment of low comedy came on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, in a remarkable interview with a former head of the army and four star general, Lord Dannatt.

Lord Dannatt, it quickly emerged, was still having trouble coming to terms with the idea that when tabloid newspapers offer noisy support for “heroes” in the military, there might be a particle of self-interest involved.

Listen here, as the general audibly struggles with the suggestion from the presenter, Jim Naughtie, that it would amount to “hypocrisy” if the NotW really did hack into the phones of grieving military families, while all the while running sententious stories about "fallen heroes" and how much the paper cared for them. Here is a transcript:

Lord Dannatt: There is no doubt at all that the armed forces, and our deployed soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan in particular, have had great support from News International, from both the News of the World from the Sun, if you think about the annual military awards, the Millies, that was started and sponsored by the Sun, there is no doubt that they have given tremendous support. So therefore it is really very puzzling who has done what on the one hand, and who has done what on the other.



Naughtie: …there's a hypocrisy involved, isn't there?



Dannatt: Is it? There probably is an hypocrisy involved. Of course the issue which we can't prejudge, and I really don't know, is how far up if you like the News of the World or the Sun chain of command knowledge of this actually went. If it went to the very top, then I think it is desperately serious. But if it caps out at some level, then that is more handleable, and I think the whole support for the armed forces by News International is more understandable. But if it goes right to the top, then frankly one just stands back in absolute amazement.

Tune in next week, to hear Lord Dannatt reel on hearing that Al Capone's donations to the Chicago Widows' and Orphans Fund involved more than just altruism.