Friday 25 February 2011

Derek Jameson: 'Why I believe Andy Coulson'


Ex-Fleet Street editor Derek Jameson writes on the Gentleman Ranters website that he believes Andy Coulson did not know about phone hacking by journalists at the News of the World.

He says of Coulson: "God forbid that any words of mine should comfort the Tory party, but methinks it is time I spoke up and got our fall guy off the hook by revealing why he almost certainly did NOT know what mischief his reporters were up to on the News of the World."

Jameson, who edited the Daily Express, Daily Star and News of the World, says tabloid editors did not want to know how their journalists got stories.

He writes: "It all comes under the heading of a Yiddish expression I picked up as a kid on the streets of the East End: Better you shouldn’t ask!"

"In my days as editor of the NoW back in the eighties, the genius who masterminded those sensational front pages was the late, much lamented Bob Warren, news editor for half of his 44 years on the paper. He knew where all the bodies were buried, but was never going to tell the editor..."

"Having invested a great deal of time, thought and staff in his potential frontpage exclusive, the last thing any news editor wants is to hear the editor on the internal intercom bellowing ‘What the fuck are you playing at?’ So it’s heads down everyone and not a word to the mighty.

"Perhaps more importantly, what the editor doesn’t know can’t hurt him or the paper."

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