How editors lost self-control – and all respect for the law | Simon Jenkins

For papers, phone hacking is a moment of truth: commercial pressures have warped ethics – and the public will want action

Editing a newspaper at the start of the 21st century is a tough job. The concept of mediating world events to a select group of readers has been blown apart inside a decade. Reporters, writers, editors and printers are wandering round like victims of a bomb blast, enveloped in a cloud of digital dust. The profession of journalism staggers about, choking for air. Nobody...