Letter from the editor: The beast that won’t die

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Andrew Feinberg

White House Correspondent

Blimey, you know how to make your feelings clear. Yesterday I asked for your views on the big media issues of the moment - phone hacking and Murdoch’s bid for BSkyB - and whether you thought these were stories that newspaper people obsessed about, but left those in the world outside rather uninterested.

And the unanimous opinion - I use the word unanimous advisedly - was that these stories raised issues you care deeply about. Mike Cornick of Caldicot accurately captured the mood of i readers. He writes: “Abuses of press freedom, press monopoly, biased news reporting, illegal phone tapping by parts of the press must be exposed by the few remaining papers that are ‘free’ of proprietorial influence. You have a heavy responsibility.”

Peter Hughes of Farnham concurred, albeit in slightly more apocalyptic tones. “World domination by any megalomaniac should worry us all,” he writes, “and media control by Rupert Murdoch certainly causes concern to me.” Simon Berriman added to the general disgruntlement - “I fear for the nation’s sanity if News Corp take over BSkyB” - while Robert Griffiths of Congleton says that, as far as the Murdochs and Cameron are concerned, “it seems to get cosier/grubbier by the day. Where are you VinceCable?” Practising the Pasa Doble, came the reply.

As you can see from today’s front page, the phone hacking story is, for the News of the World, the beast that won’t die. We are pleased that you agree this is an important story with big implications. We’ll continue to cover it with fairness, accuracy and, of course, independence.