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Sunday, 5 September 2010

Definitions...

According to the Independent on Sunday, the News of the World states:

"We reject absolutely any suggestion there was a widespread culture of wrongdoing at the News of the World."


This does seem a statement which has been, shall we say, lawyered.


So one may wonder what is actually meant by:

"widespread"

"culture"

and

"wrongdoing"


Also, one may perhaps wonder why the statement did not just say:

"There was no unlawful activity by News International."



There must be a very good reason.


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1 comment:

Steve said...

And don't forget the definition of "reject".

If I were being very proper, I could reject a suggestion that some suspected criminal, is a criminal, because I uphold the presumption of innocence.

This doesn't mean that person isn't guilty, and it doesn't even mean I don't believe that person to be guilty. It just means I don't want statements circulating that *say* the person is guilty.

Anyway, of course they can't say there was no illegal activity at News International - Clive Goodman was convicted for illegal activity at News International. They could (but didn't) say, "nobody at News International other than Clive Goodman ordered criminal interference with phones".