Is it the crime that’s so bad – or does a certain sort of victim make it unacceptable? (Vis a vis phone-hacking of course)

It’s strange that it’s taken a particular sort of phone hacking target to cause the condemnation and outrage that has engulfed News International – of the especially vulnerable victims of high profile crimes. The actual crime – hacking – is the same whether it’s of a wayward tv soap star or a 911 victim. But it’s taken allegations of the hacking of 911 victims and their families, to get US legislators calling for investigations.

In Britain, not even the hacking of the Royal Family with all the serious implications for security that entails, led to the furore we’re seeing now.

Maybe this is the backlash MPs have been predicting privately since being outed by the media over their expenses? Is this just a massive swinging-back of the pendulum, as the media-dominated British public who’d previously lapped up tabloid phone-hacked stories, suddenly take against journalists – and obviously their crony politicians? Who will be next? We’ve already had bankers… estate agents? Once the rotten apples have been thrown away, will anything have changed?