Hugh Grant: 'How I exposed the News Of The World'

all4loveandbelieve

Hugh Grant has revealed that he once played the News Of The World at its own game by recording an incriminating conversation with its features editor.

The 50-year-old British actor told the BBC that Paul McMullan took photos of him and boasted that his phone had allegedly been hacked by the tabloid.

"I was revolted and astonished," said Hugh, who then came up with a cunning plan to meet McMullan in a pub a few months later.

"I pretended to be dropping in for a pint," he explained, and then got the editor talking about the hacking while he recorded the conversation. He then took his story to the New Statesman.

But McMullen mocked Grant's efforts. "It was hilarious - how can Hugh Grant coming into your pub with a silly little pen trying to record you be anything other than hilarious?" he said.

"I didn't mind being turned over [but] you can't believe that an actor who's very well-known would lower himself such those tactics," he joked. "I was shocked and outraged!"

But the actor told McMullan, "You didn't care who got hurt so long as you were able to sell your newspaper. [highlight=#ffff00:1x7uqxod]You're not journalists, you have no interest in journalism. It's just money, money, money." [/highlight:1x7uqxod]
"That's not true at all," the editor replied. "Our interest was writing truthful stories."

[highlight=#ffff00:1x7uqxod]"You should try real journalism because you're not an idiot, Paul," Grant said. "You could probably do it."[/highlight:1x7uqxod]

I guess Michael was not the only one that the tabloids go after, and tarnish their reputation. Cheers for Hugh he took matters into his own hands. This should be a lesson to all the artists in the world, so they can put out of business these stupid tabloids.
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voiceforthesilent

Interesting - thank you for sharing this with us. Let's see who else comes forward with stories...Michael?

Blessings

Grace

It was announced on 7 July 2011 that, after 168 years in print,[18] the newspaper would print its final edition on 10 July 2011 following revelations of the ongoing phone hacking scandal, with the loss of 200 jobs.

There is speculation that News International will launch a Sunday edition of The Sun to replace the News of the World. The internet URLs sunonsunday.co.uk, thesunonsunday.co.uk and thesunonsunday.com were registered on July 5th 2011 by News International Newspapers Limited.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/News_of_the_World

The internet domains were registered before the closing of the print version of NotW.
The Sun is a sister company to NotW.
News International Ltd is a British newspaper publisher owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation.
Burning NotW in public obviously didn't mean much loss to News Corp. They have new plans on hand.
Their move appears economically more than logical in view of these developments:

As consumers have increasingly turned to television and the Internet for news, the circulation of paid newspapers has declined—by 2 to 4 percent annually for more than a decade in most developed markets. The trend is set to continue, particularly as growing broadband penetration encourages the wider use of online media. In addition, free commuter tabloids, available in many big European and US cities, have lured away some paying customers. As a result, the revenues and profits of traditional newspapers are under intense pressure.

http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Dwindling_readership_Are_tabloids_the_answer_1576

While the paper remains Britain's biggest-selling Sunday, in 1951 its circulation was at a historic high of around 8.4m – up from 400,000 at the start of the 20th century. That equates to one issue of the News of the World for every six people in the UK's then 50.2m population.

By the time its closure was announced on Thursday, that ratio had fallen to one copy for every 23 people. The National Readership Survey shows the paper is still read by 15% of Britain's population, which, although down on the 27% of 1994, is still more than 7 million people looking at it each week.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jul/08/news-of-the-world-mail-on-sunday-most-to-gain


This decline in paying readers was the last nail in the coffin of NotW, not the scandal.

It is important to keep in mind that the shutdown was not meant for the better of the world (closing a corrupt newspaper) but for saving the cost of a 'decreasingly popular and less profitable' print medium for the benefit of News Corp.