Hacked Off

It seems advertisers in the News of the Screws aren't best pleased with the mushrooming of the phone hacking allegations to include not just 'fair game' celebs and politicians, but people who anyone with any conscience would leave alone, such as 7/7 boming victims.

Car giant Ford are one company keen not to have their image tarnished by association.


But are Ford that squeaky clean? Remember, contemptible as the NoW's alleged actions are, nobody died. By contrast, Ford, along with the rest of the motor industry, have opposed emissions legislation, succeeded in getting voluntary agreements watered down and then failed to meet even those targets. This has helped take the globe to the brink of runaway climate change. They've also benefitted from papers like the NoW publishing distortions about climate change science. More accurate coverage of the issue might stop the public buying their products. People will die because of climate change. Maybe it's the NoW that should be refusing their advertising rather than the other way round.

Ford might argue they've done nothing illegal. All they've done is sell people products they wanted to buy. Which of course is exactly what the NoW did, although (allegedly) a couple of laws got broken along the way.

Ford, VW and other motor manufacturers have a choice of what products to make and how to market them. They don't need to price their 'eco' models at a premium. They don't need to cancel out engine efficiency improvements with bigger, heavier, less aerodynamic vehicles. They don't need to lobby against emissions legislation. The fact that laws don't cover much of this does not absolve the companies of their responsibility to humanity and to future generations, and the consequences of the actions of the motor manufacturers, in the form of climate change, will persist long after phone hacking is a forgotten piece of history.