SHOCKED, SHOCKED

~ Posted by Robert Butler, December 8th 2011

Two years ago the Independent said the public's reaction to phone-hacking resembled the scene in "Casablanca" when Captain Renault shuts down Rick's Café saying he is "shocked, shocked" to discover that gambling is going on. Five months ago, a New Statesman article about phone-hacking pointed to the same moment in the movie. Last Wednesday the New York Times did too. And so did the Guardian. On Sunday the playwright David Hare made a similar point on BBC Radio 4 about the feigned level of shock.  "I think everyone's faking...Have you never read these newspapers?"

Hare co-wrote “Pravda”, a huge hit for the National Theatre in 1985, about the ruthless rise to power of a media tycoon. There was no missing the similarities between Lambert Le Roux—played by Anthony Hopkins—and Rupert Murdoch. If ever a play cried out for a sequel it is this one—with Hopkins returning to the character a quarter-century on.