There is no denying it. Red-top tabloid newspapers have broken two very important stories in the past week. The Daily Mirror's front page claiming that Tony Blair had to talk George Bush out of bombing the Qatar headquarters of the radio station al-Jazeera was a genuine scoop.
They based their expose on the supposed contents of a confidential memo of a meeting between the two leaders.
Initially denied by the British and lampooned by the Americans, the story gained "legs" once the Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, decided to use the Official Secrets Act in order to damp down further newspaper revelations.
It had the opposite effect, just as anyone with a knowledge of these matters could have told Goldsmith. Did no one tell him about the outcome of cases such as the ABC trial, Spycatcher and the David Shayler prosecution? All left the governments of the day with egg on their faces.
Goldsmith's gagging attempt has persuaded the whole press that the prosecution of two men under the Official Secrets Act - one for leaking the memo and the other for receiving it - requires close attention. It has also resulted in the Mirror story being repeated by every news outlet.
According to the Attorney General, papers are not supposed to publish details of the memo, but that has not stopped them from repeating what is already in the public domain. The Government has shot itself in the foot on this one.
Scoop two was the revelation in the News of the World about the initiation ceremony involving naked Royal Marines who were forced to fight each other, resulting in one man being beaten unconscious.
This led to the Ministry of Defence launching a criminal investigation into what happened on that shameful day in May this year at 42 Commando's base at Bickleigh Barracks in Devon. The last couple of frames on the video clip posted on the News of the World's website are sickening.
So all praise to the Mirror and the News of the World. This is the kind of popular journalism with a public service ethic that merits recognition. As of now, they must stand a chance of sharing the scoop-of-the-year award. If there is an award ceremony, of course.
