By Rori Raquib
The last edition of the News of the World was printed on Sunday, and in the wake of the demise of the controversial newspaper and the gleeful dissection of its fall from non-News International news outlets, I feel as unsatisfied with its conclusion as I did when the news first broke.
In my mind, the whole debacle played out like a terrible, though mysteriously compelling, slasher flick with Rupert Murdoch taking on the role of crazed axe-murderer, hacking away the jobs of swathes of journalists and innocent admin workers and offering up some not-so-innocent executives as sacrifices in order to protect his monstrous damsel-in-distress. The driving force of this carnage was the revelation that News of the World reporters had hacked into a mobile phone- not exactly unheard of, this is the News of the World we’re talking about- but this time, rather than a politician or celebrity, the victim of this abhorrent practice was the murdered teenager, Milly Dowler. This revelation caused such fury that the closure of the paper had become inevitable.
The swiftness of the paper’s demise was bittersweet. The deplorable practices of those involved necessitated action, and yet shutting the News of the World down has not brought about justice. In essence, hundreds of jobs have been axed in order to cover the backs of more important and more culpable people. Despite heavy criticism, Rebekah Brooks, Rupert Murdoch and the alleged, anonymous corrupt cops lurking in the background of this twisted drama are safe – employed and smug in the knowledge that a large proportion of the public feel vindicated by this farce.
And yet, I am glad that the paper doesn’t exist anymore, and only the thought of countless others losing their jobs prevents me from really hoping that similar publications shut down, too. We have recently learned that reporters from The Sun (including Rebekah Brooks, who seems more and more like a Disney villain as further revelations are made) obtained access to Gordon Brown’s baby son’s medical records in order to publish news of the little boy’s illness against his parents’ wishes, for no discernible reason other than the fact that they could. The News of the World is evidently not the only paper willing to plunge the depths of moral depravity in order to gain or create a story. Clearly, the right to free speech is being abused by countless news outlets desperate to churn out anything at all about anyone in the public eye, whether it’s in the public’s interest or not.
Publications such as The Sun and The News of the World have been instrumental in creating a culture of lazy, sensational reporting as well as breeding an audience of people hungry for useless and uninteresting information that benefits no one in any conceivable way. I have long thought that many of the most widely-read publications nowadays are contributing to the dumbing-down of the population, rather than illuminating them to events and news, as they are supposed to. What colour is Cheryl Cole’s hair today? What on earth is Katie Price’s waist measurement? Which WAG has the most cellulite? Depressingly, the answers to these inane questions are at one’s fingertips via these purveyors of ‘news’. I have just about enough faith in the human race to believe that the general public who say they care about these things, only believe they care about them because it’s shoved down their throats on a daily basis. The Milly Dowler revelations, however, have hopefully alerted the public to the fact that reporters often end up in places they have no business being, and are, in fact capable of inflicting significantly more damage than simply bruising a celebrity’s ego.
The News of the World had been noted for fabricating stories and employing questionable investigation methods for years. For example, they ran a highly-publicised story following the success of Slumdog Millionaire, claiming that the father of one of the child stars, Rubina Ali, had attempted to sell his famous daughter to a Saudi sheikh, who was actually an undercover reporter. However, it has been argued that the reporters had approached Rubina’s father with the sole aim of coaxing him into agreeing to sell his daughter all along, thereby generating a salacious story guaranteed to sell to millions; this makes excellent business sense, but is morally repugnant as well as painfully unprofessional. Who cares what becomes of this man’s life when sales are going to go through the roof?
Ethical implications aside (not that they’re not important), creating a story to write about is completely different to reporting on current events, which, unless I have been horribly misinformed, is what newspapers were invented for. That the News of the World managed to stay in publication for 168 years despite these tactics is astounding. The paper boasted of being Britain’s biggest-selling newspaper, with 7.5 million readers, a statistic that does the general British public and its reading habits no favours.
The fact that there are those willing to exploit a tragedy to make money still remains. Closing one newspaper will not prevent this behaviour, and this is one of a myriad of reasons why Murdoch must not add Bskyb to his empire of propaganda and careless, profit-focused reporting. In fact boycotting his empire of evil is not enough. We need to fight against the culture that demands we know every last detail about people who are in the public eye- whether it’s because they’re a politician, actor, athlete or a teenager who was possibly murdered – unless it actually affects us. I can’t even believe I need to spell that out.
Until Rebekah Brooks and Rupert Murdoch are held accountable for their decisions, and until the public demand actual news from their newspapers rather than made-up stories and juicy tidbits of who-cares about who-knows, I will remain unsatisfied with this situation. Unless there is a change, the closing of the News of the World signifies yet another hollow, meaningless victory in the history of media injustices.
Rori Raquib is the Sub-editor of Politics & Society at The Platform.

Photo credits: http://la-boca-de-la-cueva.blogspot.com/2011/07/women-in-front-of-news-of-world-sign.html