More Hacks Resigning

The New York Times reports that Sir Paul Stephenson, London's Police Commissioner, has resigned in the wake of revelations that, at best, police inaction helped the News of the World phone hacking scandal fester for years. At worst, we are looking at gross corruption, but let's reserve judgment on that. So, a casualty list so far:

• The News of the World - shut down after 168 years
  
• News Corporation bid to take control of British satellite provider BSkyB - withdrawn
  
• News International CEO and former News of the World editor Rebekah Brooks - resigned, then arrested
  
• Wall Street Journal publisher Les Hinton - resigned
  
• Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson - resigned
  
• Metropolitan Police PR advisor and former News of the World executive Neil Wallis - arrested
  
• Former News of the World editor and Prime Minister's press officer Andy Coulson - arrested
  
• News of the World senior writer James Weatherup - arrested
  
• Former News of the World assistant editor Ian Edmondson - dismissed, then arrested
  
• News of the World chief reporter Neville Thurlbeck - arrested
  
• News of the World royal editor Clive Goodman - arrested
  
• Private investigator and phone hacker Glenn Mulcaire - arrested, convicted, and served prison time
  
• Two unnamed men - arrested

That leaves, of course, Prime Minister David Cameron, James Murdoch, and Rupert Murdoch, to name but a few, with considerable egg on their faces and awaiting news of the further spread of this ugly mess. A little phone hacking goes a very long way.

But I mustn't gloat. That would be mean.

Fun, though, isn't it?

Lost Footage

The Wall Street Journal reports that a tape of the television coverage of Super Bowl I has finally surfaced, after 44 years. It's missing half time and a chunk of the third quarter, and there are other, minor cuts, but this is a true piece of media history. Let's face it, the Super Bowl changed television forever. This tape, recorded at a local affiliate in Scranton, PA, has preserved, in wonderful color, something that national broadcasters CBS and NBC shamefully failed to.

Which is my main point, I guess - ABC dumped Dumont's tapes into New York Harbor, the BBC wiped out early Doctor Who episodes, if not for Bing Crosby's nerves we'd not have tape of one of the greatest World Series games ever played, even footage of the Moon landing was lost until it turned up by fluke in Australia. So much equipment designed to capture the moment, and so little thought given to keeping the results. It's a tragedy.