What happens when journalists become the story?

When spin doctors become the story or spokesmen need a spokesman, we know the game is up. So say Alastair Campbell and Andy Coulson, and they should know. So what happens when journalists become the story?  

The re-opening of the investigation into News of the World phone-hacking case has sent a chill across Fleet Street. Collectively, journalists really had hoped this would go away. A prurient interest in the private lives of stars and public figures is nothing new. The pressures of a tabloid newsroom are immense, and it should come as no surprise that journalists looking for an edge were prepared to take such technological liberties. But no one could have predicted that this would snowball to quite this extent.

What is now happening with the News of the World has the potential to shake up journalism just as the expenses scandal shook up politics. And in a sense one is the natural extension of the other. For too long an endemic cynicism poisoned the political culture to such an extent that no one thought anything was a story any more. But the MPs’ expenses scandal means that it is no longer possible to shrug at low-level corruption in British politics. The investigation into the activities of journalists at the News of the World could do the same for journalism. A quick glance at the Information Commisioner’s report from December 2006 into the use of private detectives by journalists will demonstrate just how prevalent this practice was.

Four years ago, the Information Commissioner tallied up over 300 employees of newspapers and magazines who used private detectives to access personal information. I would suggest that it was difficult to work in a newsroom at the time and not know this was going on. There are a lot of people out there in journo-land who will continue to shift uncomfortably in their seats and hope that this whole sorry affair blows over.