From the New York Times Magazine‘s long piece about News of the World phone hacking:
A draft of the paper’s unpublished article about [chief executive of the Professional Footballers’ Association Gordon] Taylor’s alleged affair indicated it was based on a voice mail message he had received from his assistant. Lewis [ = Taylor’s lawyer] said the message went: “Thank you for yesterday. You were great.” The paper assumed “she was talking about shagging,” Lewis explained. In reality, she was referring to a speech Taylor gave at her father’s funeral.
My favourite part of the article is Coulson sending a reporter to the North Sea to “find the whale’s family”.
The whale saga was the only time, I think, apart from the recent election, that I’ve ever found continuous rolling-news coverage worthwhile. It was all riveting, and, in the end, terribly sad.
I can only assume that you were away in August when A Woman Put a Cat in a Bin. Surely the defining – and most riveting – rolling news event of the post 9/11 generation.
I think I was around — just not watching any rolling news.
(For the record, I am AGAINST putting cats in bins.)