The ever so controversial Sunday paper News of the World, which defies even the vilest of descriptions, is finally folding this weekend after 168 years after it got caught up in even more phone hacking scandals. The paper has raised eyebrows over the years including "gotcha" conversations with at least two members of "The Firm" -- Sophie Rhys-Jones, wife of Prince Edward; and Sarah Ferguson, ex-wife of Prince Andrew; not to mention hacking the voice mail boxes of other members of the family, young and old.
But when this new round involved two notorious cases -- one involving the hacking and deletion of a missing girl from 2002 who could have been found alive but for such deletion (sadly she was in fact murdered and the killer convicted only this year), the other reaching the office of the Prime Minister's inner circle -- it was the final straw; and owner Rupert Murdoch, self-proclaimed "billionaire tyrant," said enough is enough. And so NOTW is now toast and will be replaced by a long anticipated Sunday edition of the London Sun. Even though that paper has some hacking issues it needs to answer to as well.
At least Rupert has some scruples left after all, perhaps. Now if only he'd apply a similar principle to his television news business and make sure Fox News Channel has the same standards for reporting as its sister channel Sky News and maybe some sanity could return to this side of the pond also.
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