Four months after the government set up the Leveson inquiry following the Milly Dowler hacking revelation, it may be time to stop and wonder whether it is, after all, necessary.
I know this will be regarded as heresy by the many critics of hacking, but the key investigation is that by the police, not the judge.
And the Commons media select committee is also doing a fine job, as yesterday's release of documents proved.
I accept that Lord Justice Leveson's remit is wider than hacking. I also accept that we still need to sort out the Richard Desmond problem, namely his unilateral withdrawal from the system of press self-regulation.
But there are many good ideas about how we could introduce incentives to keep publishers in the self-regulatory tent.
A couple of wheezes were floated at a City University seminar yesterday by David Elstein and Ray Snoddy. The former favoured the loss of the current VAT waiver on newsprint for incalcitrant owners while the latter thought they should lose their right to ABC certification.
I've no idea whether they are possible, but clearly people are thinking about it. Why wait for Leveson when editors and publishers can sort it out, along with a sensible set of Press Complaints Commission reforms, much sooner?
That's the topic of my London Evening Standard column today.
