New Head Of UK's Newspaper Regulators Thinks Bloggers Are A Bigger Problem Than Phone Hacking Tabloids?

from the this-won't-end-well dept

The Guardian has an interview with Lord Hunt, who has just taken over the UKs newspaper regulatory organization, the Press Complaints Commission (quite a name). Most of it is fairly tame to boring. But then... at one point, Hunt talks about all the wonderful journalists he knows and how they're lovely upstanding citizens determined to get to the bottom of every story etc. etc. etc. And the Guardian reporter challenges him a bit:

But, I counter, surely the major problems occur because of the tabloids? "No," he replies, "I think the greater challenge is with the bloggers, whether it's Guido Fawkes or whoever."

The question, clearly, refers to some of the recent phone hacking scandals in the UK, in which the News of the World hacked into tons of phone voicemails to get stories and did all sorts of other hugely ethically questionable things. I'm unaware of any bloggers, let alone all "the bloggers" combined, who have done anything quite that egregious. And, of course, a blog is just a software platform. Lumping together everyone who uses that single platform doesn't make much sense. But, then again, someone who thinks that "the bloggers" are somehow a bigger problem for government scrutiny than those hacking into phone systems... well... I guess it's asking a lot to expect him to "make sense."

Filed Under: bloggers, journalism, lord hunt, uk