This is all getting very silly. Our supreme court is still pondering the case of the celebrity caught three in a bed who doesn’t want his privacy infringed. (In England, that is, not Scotland, where they do things differently – as does that fount of all media gossip, the US, where names have been named on the net long since.)
Are we gagging for the court to let us know who’s fallen out of bed? No: if we’re interested, we found out long ago – just as (another case returning from an American tour) we remember from five years ago who the “world-famous family actor” who slept with a prostitute who slept with Wayne Rooney is. And if, by chance, the years have erased his memory, there are nudges and winks all over the Mail, Sun and Telegraph to remind us.
In fact the whole charade is becoming a bit rancid: foolish for the majesty of the law continually made a digital ass – and childish for newspapers spending precious time on digging up standard frailties from long ago and burying them beneath a mountain of heaving hints. The right to know also includes a right not to bother to find out.
