When the phone hacking scandal exploded in Rupert Murdoch’s face in July 2011, it is blackly ironic to recall the reaction of the papers owned by Trinity Mirror.
They delighted in the opportunity to savage the proprietor of the News of the World for his staff’s interception of mobile phone voicemail messages.
Initially, the Daily Mirror dealt with the scandal - which began with the Guardian’s revelation that Milly Dowler’s phone had been hacked - with a series of relatively straightforward stories over four days from 5 July.
But things changed after Murdoch decided to close the News of the World. It was the beginning of a prolonged campaign of vilification as dog ate dog with evident relish.
On 9 July, the Mirror’s front page was dominated by pictures of Murdoch and the then chief executive of News International, Rebekah Brooks. It was headlined “Toxic” under the strapline “Murdoch empire in crisis”.
The following day, the Sunday Mirror carried a news story based on the implications for the attempt by Murdoch’s News Corporation to acquire total ownership of BSkyB.
But its leading article was of far greater interest: “A scandal but not an excuse to chain Britain’s free press”. Consider these paragraphs for example:
“These have been tough days for the image of newspapers but never forget that, despite a few rotten apples, much good is done. A free, strong forthright press is vital for democracy.
Yet it must always be honest, truthful and trustworthy if it is to support democracy rather than undermine it...
Journalists are not perfect and sometimes make mistakes. There are even times when some indulge in totally unacceptable behaviour. But they are not the norm.
On the contrary. Readers rightly accept only the highest standards and ethics. And we know that trust has to be earned, not by glib words but by hard work”.
On 11 July, the Daily Mirror went for the jugular. It ran a front page picture of Murdoch, wearing a Panama hat, headlined “The Wapping Cowboy”. There were three pages inside with the strapline “Murdoch empire in crisis”.
The following day, the Mirror carried four pages on the story, plus a leading article that referred to “the poison coursing through the veins of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire”. It added:
“The goofy grins of Mr Murdoch and his lieutenants at the weekend could not have been more inappropriate – especially as they knew there were so many more shocking allegations to come”.
On 13 July, a spread headline said: “Put all 3 in the dock” (demanding the prosecution of Murdoch, his son, James, and Brooks).
A sidebar photograph showed a Mirror reporter confronting Murdoch during his early morning work-out in Hyde Park. It was headlined: “You can walk but you can’t hide, Rupert”.
Another editorial, pointing out that the hacking scandal had forced Murdoch to shut the News of the World, spoke of “the crisis-hit media mogul” facing “a wake-up call”.
It concluded: “It is time that Mr Murdoch faced the music and answered to the people, or at least their elected representatives”.
A spread headline on 14 July, “Murdoch meltdown”, followed his decision to end News Corporation’s bid for BSkyB.
A splash and spread followed on 15 July with a third leading article on the affair. In the light of what has happened since at Trinity Mirror, the opening sentence bears repetition:
“News International has mishandled the crisis engulfing it with all the finesse of an elephant trying to tapdance on an oil-smeared floor”.
The following day, the Sunday Mirror took over with a full-page article about the coming appearance of the Murdochs and Brooks before select committee MPs headlined “Grilling of their lives”.
Its lengthy leading article was, once again, interesting. It appealed to deserted News of the World readers to come aboard while warning that politicians might take advantage of the Murdoch crisis to “gag Britain’s free press”.
The message was clear: enough’s enough. Let’s confine hacking to Murdoch’s group. The rest of us are clean. Don’t make us all suffer.
Given what we now know about hacking by Trinity Mirror’s journalists, it would be remiss not to record the extraordinary hypocrisy of those newspapers dumping on their rival.
