“By sheer coincidence, I broke down in the middle of Kent in my car…”

, por Alexandre Matias

Usando apenas o início de frase do vídeo abaixo, Thom Yorke linkou o video em que Hugh Grant conta de como encontrou, por acaso, o editor Paul McMullen, – um dos primeiros ex-colaboradores do centenário tablóide que Rupert Murdoch fechou abruptamente a abrir o bico para o Guardian sobre as “técnicas de jornalismo” no país da rainha – e como ficou sabendo que seu celular havia sido grampeado por “jornalistas”. Armou um novo papo com o próprio McMullen e aproveitou para dar o troco – gravando, sem que ele soubesse, a longa conversa sobre os podres da relação entre política e jornalismo no Reino Unido que rendeu um artigo e a transcrição da gravação no New Statesman. Sente o drama:

Paul McMullan: But then – should it be a crime? I mean, scanning never used to be a crime. Why should it be? You’re transmitting your thoughts and your voice over the airwaves. How can you not expect someone to just stick up an aerial and listen in?
Hugh Grant: So if someone was on a landline and you had a way of tapping in…
Paul McMullan: Much harder to do.
Hugh Grant: But if you could, would you think that was illegal? Do you think that should be illegal?
Paul McMullan: I’d have to say quite possibly, yeah. I’d say that should be illegal.
Hugh Grant: But a mobile phone – a digital phone… you’d say it’d be all right to tap that?
Paul McMullan: I’m not sure about that. So we went from a point where anyone could listen in to anything. Like you, me, journalists could listen in to corrupt politicians, and this is why we have a reasonably fair society and a not particularly corrupt or criminal prime minister, whereas other countries have Gaddafi. Do you think it’s right the only person with a decent digital scanner these days is the government? Whereas 20 years ago we all had a go? Are you comfortable that the only people who can listen in to you now are – is it MI5 or MI6?

O vídeo abaixo, feito pela BBC registra o reencontro de McMullen e Grant ao vivo na TV britânica e vale ser visto apenas para ouvir o esculacho que um dá no outro, quase no final.

Escrevi mais sobre o caso News of the World aqui.

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