The hacking affair has caused apoplexy in the top-most echelons of the Daily Mail & General Trust.
Its chairman, Lord Rothermere (aka Jonathan Harmsworth), was so appalled at the story that he asked the Mail's editor-in-chief, Paul Dacre, whether any of his editorial staff were involved in such heinous activities.
Evidently, Rothermere was delighted to receive an unequivocal assurance from Dacre that the Mail has never done anything so disgusting.
The Mail titles might have employed the services of private investigators in the past but there was not the slightest shred of evidence that any of them got up to News of the World-style activities.
Rothermere, a diffident and mild-mannered chap, thought the hacking into Milly Dowler's phone to be beyond the pale. It was, he is reported to have said, "shoddy and unethical journalism."
In a message to senior executives, he registered his concern about its possible ill-effects on the press as a whole, worrying over the possibility of people accusing the Mail of doing the same.
"Please make sure that if anyone accuses the Daily Mail of this that you correct them," he concluded.
Source: Confidential
