THE tabloid press is under attack; not for the first time or the last.
We're used to it. It's healthy, and I don't mind in the least. Privacy is different to secrecy and the more that gets talked about the better for everyone.
Hugh Grant, Jeremy Clarkson, Jemima Khan, Kenneth Clarke and various other self-centred whingebuckets think tabloids are "out of control" and need to be brought to heel, quick smart, with some privacy laws which carefully delineate things the Press must stop doing.
So here's a few things we wouldn't know if it weren't for the punchy, fighty, mischievious, celebrity-poking, no-privacy-law-thankyou tabloids:
* The identities of the five men widely-known to be involved in the murder of Stephen Lawrence.
* That John Leslie is a sex-pig.
* That Chris Huhne left his wife following an affair mere weeks after parading his happy family in election leaflets, that she has since accused him of bullying her into taking speeding points, and as a result of this coverage Essex Police will question him over perverting the course of justice.
That the former leader of the Lib Dems is an alcoholic, that the head of the IMF has a long history of aggressive sexual behaviour, that Prince Charles' marriage was blighted by his long affairs, that Andrew Marr had a super-injunction, that Katie Price is anything but what she lets her TV show broadcast... the list goes on. And yes, the tittle-tattle which is what millions of people really buy the papers to read.
We're not perfect, we make mistakes, we cross the line sometimes. But we usually get pushed back pretty quick, and I'd far rather have an aggressive tabloid press than a supine spin machine for PRs' press releases.
Otherwise we'd all think Max Mosley was just a public-spirited, charming old grandad.