News International is still the story

[rubbernecker]

What is nauseating is to encounter tabloid journalists et al. trying to argue that just because someone is a rich or famous or successful sportsman or actor, that means there is a "public interest" in peddling their sexual indiscretions to millions of readers.

It seems to work in America, though

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

hmmm ... the big stories are sex and scandal .... but the low level everyday abuse and potential for abuse by letting every tom dick and harriet in the public service to spy on the public is imo much the more alarming; never mind the potential for criminal abuse eg blackmail, sexual favours etc .... it is the suppression of the dissenting or inconvenient voice that is a serious loss to a democracy .... and so very hard to seek remedy or redress through m'learned friends and the plod ...

this is not just the usual D Mail stuff, fines for the wrong rubbish, but actually quite serious .....

i have always felt that the argument that if i am not doing anything wrong i can have neither fear nor objection utterly specious ... if i am doing nothing wrong why are they looking? these powers are used for administrative convenience or criminal exploitation far more than any public good they might dubiously offer ...

[rubbernecker]

The subject & detail of this conversation makes me feel rather old and rather alarmed and very angry

It seems to make a lot of people angry, both the fact of the intrusion and who is/is not allowed to carry it out.

Old? You're not much older than me, Ammy, and I would venture considerably younger at heart

[amateur51]

What is nauseating is to encounter tabloid journalists et al. trying to argue that just because someone is a rich or famous or successful sportsman or actor, that means there is a "public interest" in peddling their sexual indiscretions to millions of readers.

Spot on, Caliban.

The difference between 'uninterested' and 'disinterested'

[amateur51]

It seems to make a lot of people angry, both the fact of the intrusion and who is/is not allowed to carry it out.

Old? You're not much older than me, Ammy, and I would venture considerably younger at heart

Old as in dinosaur-like in my views about privacy and intrusion, I guess, rubbers. I feel that the world is passing me by & I'm left wailing for what's being lost.

I was very impressed (surprisingly) by what the Daily Telegraph set out to do when it bought, slected and edited the MPs' expenses data but I felt that it went on way too long and actually addded to the public's disenchantment with Westminster. There was genuine public interest there. Huhne seems not to have learned the lessons in full in his current 'not broken the rules' defence of his driving stramash.