I come at the "hacking Milly's phone" saga from a different stand point. Police investigation was totally useless, going nowhere, incompetent. A decent paper (NOTW wasn't but it tried) would have been quite right to try and find her, even using dodgy ways. If they had found her alive or even saved her from Belfield, everyone would be praising the paper. "You hacked her phone, tracked her to a flat in Walton and told police, who then broke in and rescued her just before Levi could kill her". And it is inconceivable that the Editor didn't know every tiny detail of such a vital investigation.

What disturbs me is that nobody ('cause it's a great story) has seen or printed this angle.

So true JK.

For decades, what weak Britain has needed is:

1. PROPER court prosecutors like the one, HOT grilling O. Pistorius.

2. PROPER Crown Prosecutors, NOT unbalanced A. Saunders, but unbiased Babs Hewson Q.C. - prosecuting A. Saunders!


3. PROPER Cops/Press/Media, Reporting-NOT- Distorting - 'The Whole Truth & Nothing But'!

The only problem with this idea is that Millie wouldn't have been rescued because she was killed very soon after she was abducted, and unfortunately, before the police (and the media) were alerted.

I have been saying this ever since the summer of 2011 when everyone first got their knickers in a knot over it. The fact of the matter is that if the News Of The World had turned up the vital clue that led to the whereabouts of Ms Dowler it would have been hailed as the journalistic coup of the century and led to them being showered with awards.

What everyone allowed themselves to do was to be suckered in by the narrative of hacking "a dead girls phone". No they didn't. They hacked in to a MISSING girls phone with the aim of finding her. The fact is that nobody knew she was dead until her copse was uncovered six months later.

Don't get me started on her family being paid millions by Murdoch as compensation for something which it turned out didn't happen.

Ah, Karma, but, as TBS eloquently and accurately says, nobody KNEW she was dead. She was only missing, so hacking her phone was not just totally justified but a damn good idea. And not, as Coulson stupidly says in court - "lazy journalism".

Lazy (and stupid) journalism is sleeping with your boss.

JK2006 wrote:
Ah, Karma, but, as TBS eloquently and accurately says, nobody KNEW she was dead. She was only missing, so hacking her phone was not just totally justified but a damn good idea. And not, as Coulson stupidly says in court - "lazy journalism".

Lazy (and stupid) journalism is sleeping with your boss.

Probably buying their silence.

As for Rupert, well a close friend has a family member who was a very senior figure in one of his companies. He describes Murdoch as one of the best people he'd ever worked for, supportive and let the experts get on with it. And he said that over a cigarette and a pint at the time!

steveimp wrote:
JK2006 wrote:
Ah, Karma, but, as TBS eloquently and accurately says, nobody KNEW she was dead. She was only missing, so hacking her phone was not just totally justified but a damn good idea. And not, as Coulson stupidly says in court - "lazy journalism".

Lazy (and stupid) journalism is sleeping with your boss.

Probably buying their silence.

As for Rupert, well a close friend has a family member who was a very senior figure in one of his companies. He describes Murdoch as one of the best people he'd ever worked for, supportive and let the experts get on with it. And he said that over a cigarette and a pint at the time!

well eh told me to fuck off once but that's because I told him I worked for a competitor...however never had a problem being paid by news Ltd..always on time and no haggles but heaps of trouble from his rivals.

The real problem is Rupert is not a newspaper man as commonly thought and he has no love for them- his closest friends will agree.
Murdoch is a deal maker, a gambler and a buccaneer and a very succcessful one.

But i totally disagree with JK's premise that somehow news Ltd (and the others ) are a force for good if somewhat misguided. and I'm rather surprised as i think JK is a victim of tabloid ghastliness as tens of thousands have been

Any ammount of US politicians will agree that teh invasion of Iraq could not have happened without the promotion of News Ltd worldwide...thus tens of thousands of Iraqis and Afghanis have been slaughtered due to tabloid media promotion of corrupt political lies.

My personal view is that Murdoch and many like him are probably sociopathic and only see the world form their persepctive and how it affects them

thus a war is seen in the context of how can it be exploited. I believe the media- and the UK media is largely an invention of Murdoch- attracts the like minded just as armies can attract many who would like to kill legally or the police attracts the powerless who like to lord it over others.

and thus I have spoke.

Learned Lefty wrote:
So true JK.

Not True JK

You have to follow and work within the law at all times. The approach you propose could be a justification for all types of dodgy police practises over the years.

The Ends DO NOT justify the means!

BTW - If in this case phone hacking could have helped find the killer then the police could have done it legally. I don't see how anything the NOTW did could have helped the police.

It was assumed that the child was dead. Missing children who are probably alive dont make the papers. Anyway, listening to private messages of people live or dead is tacky and in the unlikely event of the journalists knowing of a technique that the police were unaware of, they should have told them!

No she wasn't presumed dead - and the papers did tell the police, only after they put their far more efficient trackers onto it. Tacky? Possibly but I would have thought, if it had found her and saved her life, it would have been acceptable.

Hang on people!!!.......it wasn't merely the fact that they listened to the messages it's the fact they subsequently deleted the messages, thus giving the false impression that Milly had listened to them and may therefore still be alive. Worth considering the confusion this could've caused!
It was a despicable act, please do not kid yourselves News International aren't ever primarily motivated by anything other than sales!

JK2006 wrote:
No she wasn't presumed dead - and the papers did tell the police, only after they put their far more efficient trackers onto it. Tacky? Possibly but I would have thought, if it had found her and saved her life, it would have been acceptable.

but they didn't.

you may as well claim you robbed the bank to distribute the cash to the needy.

the judge will disagree.

In the real world the 'ends justifies the means' doesn't wash and the one place where it really doesn't- is in the media.

The real problem is that the media now creates the news rather than report it. It drives public opinion and drives political change whether good or bad.

that is corruption and nothing else.

VC - nobody is doubting the morality or motives of the media or the vile NOTW. But I reckon they have picked the wrong crime to prosecute. The ghastly destruction of human beings offended me as a teenager (a dogging scandal about a married couple who, as a result, killed themselves in the late 50s/early 60s) made me vow to close down the paper. The People, Mail and others are as bad - as can be the "broadsheets".

They only want a good story. Nothing else matters. But in chasing the Milly Dowler "good story" ("she's alive and we saved her") they behaved wrongly but understandably. By the way, I think it's been proven they didn't delete those messages. Everything they did (in trying to get a good story and big profits) could have helped, not hindered. OK, so they gave the poor parents "false hope". Is that so bad? Or harmful? A few more hours of hope before devastation?

No, the constant, evil pandering to the worst in human nature is their biggest crime (still going on, just ask Cyril or Jimmy). Encouraging crime (false allegations). Ruining lives (affairs revealed).