United States
Britain's image as the land of Harry Potter and royal weddings has taken a hammering as the US media have lapped up every detail of the phone-hacking scandal. The home of chivalry emerged as a country of amoral hacks, craven politicians, corrupt cops and evil private eyes. A country where journalists are prepared to hack into the phone of a murdered child in the hope of selling a few more copies and the people in charge of those hackers are bosom buddies with the prime minister. So bad has the scandal become in the US that it has earned America's most dreaded suffix, becoming "hackgate."
On the satirical Daily Show, Jon Stewart pretended to be sick when told of the Milly Dowler story and attacked the "epic bribery and influence-peddling scandal consuming Britain's political, law enforcement and journalistic establishment". Actor Alec Baldwin said David Cameron should resign.
The Brits took a bashing at the serious end of the news spectrum, too. According to the New Yorker magazine: "The list of the complicit starts with the first policeman who was offered money, but it extends to David Cameron."
Keith McNally, London-born boss of some of New York's most prestigious restaurants including Balthazar and the Minetta Tavern, said the role of the Murdochs had been overshadowed: "Most Americans I've spoken to are more surprised by the corruption in the British police force. However, what's odd is how everyone here appears to share an unambiguous loathing for Rebekah Brooks."
But has the sceptered isle been permanently tarnished?
At the New York outpost of the UK's tourist board, a spokeswoman said hackgate had failed to eclipse the afterglow of the royal wedding. "There's certainly no evidence to suggest visitors are staying away from the UK because of the hacking scandal," said Kathleen O'Connell at VisitBritain.
Then again, one New York recruitment consultant who specialises in finding domestic staff for the super-rich said Brits did not have a good reputation even before the scandal. "People have this idea that Americans want Mary Poppins to be their nanny, but it's a myth," he said. "If I ask my clients if they want a British nanny, they'll say no. They think she'll be down the pub getting drunk."
Australia
The Murdochs' grilling before the Commons select committee ran until 3am in Australia, yet news channels stuck with it.
The airing of grubby revelations seemed far removed from the local media landscape, where there is far less of an appetite for sex and sleaze. Yet at the centre of it all, of course, is a man who began his empire in Adelaide.
Rupert Murdoch, his foes and his allies are always a talking point in Australia, but broadcaster Richard Glover pointed out: "Nothing I've seen in the British press comes close to admitting the obvious: at least part of the blame lies with the British public. They're the ones who've been buying this paper [the News of the World] and others like it for years. With every purchase, they have endorsed and encouraged this kind of journalism."
There was some bemusement about the behaviour of the politicians on the select committee and the foam pie security lapse. Michael Gawenda, director of the Centre for Advanced Journalism at Melbourne University, described the MPs as a "gaggle of politicians full of confected moral outrage and anticipatory excitement at the thought of bringing down an emperor".
He added: "How many of them challenged Blair and later Brown and then Cameron when they were fawning all over Rupert and his editor minions? Can the inquisitors, hand on heart, every one of them, say they never ever sucked up to a Murdoch editor? I assume they would have preferred to fawn over Rupert but weren't important enough to get to him.".
Britain's image as the land of Harry Potter and royal weddings has taken a hammering as the US media have lapped up every detail of the phone-hacking scandal. The home of chivalry emerged as a country of amoral hacks, craven politicians, corrupt cops and evil private eyes. A country where journalists are prepared to hack into the phone of a murdered child in the hope of selling a few more copies and the people in charge of those hackers are bosom buddies with the prime minister. So bad has the scandal become in the US that it has earned America's most dreaded suffix, becoming "hackgate."
On the satirical Daily Show, Jon Stewart pretended to be sick when told of the Milly Dowler story and attacked the "epic bribery and influence-peddling scandal consuming Britain's political, law enforcement and journalistic establishment". Actor Alec Baldwin said David Cameron should resign.
The Brits took a bashing at the serious end of the news spectrum, too. According to the New Yorker magazine: "The list of the complicit starts with the first policeman who was offered money, but it extends to David Cameron."
Keith McNally, London-born boss of some of New York's most prestigious restaurants including Balthazar and the Minetta Tavern, said the role of the Murdochs had been overshadowed: "Most Americans I've spoken to are more surprised by the corruption in the British police force. However, what's odd is how everyone here appears to share an unambiguous loathing for Rebekah Brooks."
But has the sceptered isle been permanently tarnished?
At the New York outpost of the UK's tourist board, a spokeswoman said hackgate had failed to eclipse the afterglow of the royal wedding. "There's certainly no evidence to suggest visitors are staying away from the UK because of the hacking scandal," said Kathleen O'Connell at VisitBritain.
Then again, one New York recruitment consultant who specialises in finding domestic staff for the super-rich said Brits did not have a good reputation even before the scandal. "People have this idea that Americans want Mary Poppins to be their nanny, but it's a myth," he said. "If I ask my clients if they want a British nanny, they'll say no. They think she'll be down the pub getting drunk."
Australia
The Murdochs' grilling before the Commons select committee ran until 3am in Australia, yet news channels stuck with it.
The airing of grubby revelations seemed far removed from the local media landscape, where there is far less of an appetite for sex and sleaze. Yet at the centre of it all, of course, is a man who began his empire in Adelaide.
Rupert Murdoch, his foes and his allies are always a talking point in Australia, but broadcaster Richard Glover pointed out: "Nothing I've seen in the British press comes close to admitting the obvious: at least part of the blame lies with the British public. They're the ones who've been buying this paper [the News of the World] and others like it for years. With every purchase, they have endorsed and encouraged this kind of journalism."
There was some bemusement about the behaviour of the politicians on the select committee and the foam pie security lapse. Michael Gawenda, director of the Centre for Advanced Journalism at Melbourne University, described the MPs as a "gaggle of politicians full of confected moral outrage and anticipatory excitement at the thought of bringing down an emperor".
He added: "How many of them challenged Blair and later Brown and then Cameron when they were fawning all over Rupert and his editor minions? Can the inquisitors, hand on heart, every one of them, say they never ever sucked up to a Murdoch editor? I assume they would have preferred to fawn over Rupert but weren't important enough to get to him.".
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