Obligatory News of the World Post

Hmmm.

Well now.  This is interesting.  Yes.  Very interesting:

Sean Hoare, the former News of the World showbusiness reporter who was the first named journalist to allege that Andy Coulson was aware of phone hacking by his staff, has been found dead .

Hertfordshire police would not confirm his identity, but said in a statement: "At 10.40am today [Monday 18 July] police were called to Langley Road, Watford, following the concerns for the welfare of a man who lives at an address on the street. Upon police and ambulance arrival at a property, the body of a man was found. The man was pronounced dead at the scene shortly after.

 Now, I'm not one to engage in baseless accusations.  But this is certainly very convenient.  Very, very convenient.  "Some say" that this could be evidence of News Corp lashing out or attempting damage control.  Some observers might even suggest that this could sink News Corp, News of the World, et. al. even further.  If I had a blackboard, I could draw you a diagram explaining why it's so suspicious, but since I don't I will merely leave you with vague innuendo.

Or maybe it's just a coincidence.  I'm just asking the tough questions no one else will ask.

In all seriousness though, and dropping the Fox News-style "some say" stuff for a moment, this whole scandal is eerily like some mid-90s political thriller or something.  News Corp is doing such a bad job of hiding evidence that it makes a bad B-movie villain look competent.  It's got everything: vaguely detailed hacking, a high-profile villain like Murdoch (who makes Lex Luthor look like a saint), and now, violence and mysterious deaths.

It's almost too bad that News of the World was responsible, because I'm sure they would have had a field day reporting on a story like this.  That said, I'm more than happy to engage in a massive dose of schadenfreude and watch the News Corp Hindenburg begin to go down in flames like they so deserve to for their long-standing insistence on hackery.

Here's hoping the FBI and Congress both get down to the investigations real quick-like.