The downside of the drama in the middle east is that it distracts from previous front page news that hasn't diminished in importance. In the UK at least, before Tunisia and Egypt intruded, it was all Murdoch, all the time. People were starting to ask some inconvenient questions, such as:
1. Why exactly does Cameron hold a private dinner with James Murdoch on 25th January? What do they discuss on the eve of the government's decision whether or not to give Daddy his heart's desire: a chunk of the British media that is even larger than the chunk he has already?
2. Meanwhile, on 21st January, Andy Coulson is finally required to accept the inevitable, even if the government can't quite take the hint, when previously-proffered tales of deniability no longer ring remotely plausible. Now, it's not just The News of the World looking decidedly dodgy: it's the police, too. Cameron's judgement increasingly appears seriously impaired. Questions start to emerge about what is really going on here. Even The Economist seems to get it that this is serious:
The hacking scandal matters because it makes it seem that, in Britain, some people are above the law, and others are content for them to be so. The truth must out.
3. Lest we forget, Murdoch and this government were a match made in hell from the beginning. And even before that, the BBC had been openly targeted as road-kill to be ground up under the wheels of Murdoch's triumphal chariot.
So many dots to connect, so few people paying attention.
Presumably, the government couldn't be happier with developments in the middle east - possibly for reasons having little to do with the inherent benefits of liberty and democracy.
Late update: on the off chance that you, dear reader, are in America, where irony is missing and presumed dead, forgive me for bludgeoning you with the obvious: as I pointed out in this earlier post, that the Murdochs would presume to lecture us on how the BBC, of all things, is what Orwell warned us about provides one of the all-time great examples of boundless chutzpah (even by Fox News standards!) mixed with raging sanctimoniousness, ladled over with delusional self-pity and topped with delicious dollops of supreme irony. Yum!
Later update: definitely not looking good for the coppers.
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