A few lowlights:

- The terrifying physical and emotional harassment of the mother of Hugh Grant's child, who has never sought publicity for herself and only wanted some privacy for herself and her baby.

- The impact that the deletion of voicemails from Milly Dowler's phone had on her parents. Her mother was convinced that her murdered girl was alive, thanks to the "stories" so desperately wanted by Murdoch's brave boys and girls.

- The vileness heaped upon the McCanns, which is still being chucked their way by the stinking shovel-load by howling inadequates who took the press's baseless accusations, innuendo and outright fabrications at face value. The #leveson timeline on Twitter is currently about a quarter full of semi-literate bile from amoral idiots who think the kidnap of a little girl is like X Factor or something. (Incidentally, don't look. Seriously, don't look. I found it so upsetting, I wish I hadn't seen it.)

And all the while, the tabloids are all assiduously not covering the inquiry. And today, The Sun is foaming about a "letter of apology" - which wasn't sent - from a burglar to his victims. It's a nasty little insult, this letter, but here's what The Sun has to say about it:

A SNEERING letter from an illiterate teenage burglar says much about Britain.

The 16-year-old yob was a serial offender. But instead of being locked up, he was put on a rehabilitation programme and told to write a letter of apology to his victims.

He scribbled a callous note insulting the family he robbed.

It was so badly written it was hard to think this moron bothered to learn a thing in the classroom.

And there, neatly illustrated, are two of our biggest challenges.

First, why wasn't this waste of space locked up instead of being told to write a letter?

Does anyone, apart from Ken Clarke, believe that was fit punishment?

Second, what does this say about education? Truancy is up. Illiteracy is up. Anarchy rules many classrooms. And useless teachers are never sacked.

Perhaps brave headteacher Rachel de Souza has found the answer by calling in the Army to teach pupils at her Norwich school when union staff walk out next week.

The Norwich kids will get lessons in teamwork and leadership. They will be inspired. And there will be discipline.

Wouldn't there be fewer illiterate yobs on the streets if certain loutish classrooms were always run by the Army?

Yes, The Sun. THIS is the worst indictment of modern Britain any of us can think of. Not, say, our tabloid press? And to single out TEACHERS as the most blameworthy aspect of this story! Sorry, but... what?

God knows I know that teachers aren't saints, and there's lots wrong with our education system, but the idea that members of the tabloid press are going after teachers when Leveson is dredging up some of the most disgusting moral excesses any of us can remember in modern Britain: well, it's just unbelievable.

I just read some of the submissions. Hugh Grant is good, innee. However, possibly due to the optimism of youth I don't share your shock. It is exactly what I'd expect from these people. They are absolutely morally bankrupt and couldn't care less how much harm they cause, not only to their targets but also their considerable contribution to the general coarsening of society. As you say, look at Twitter. Did we used to be this nasty?

I was horrified by some of the reactions to the McCanns. Like them or not, they've been through - and probably continuing to go through - hell. I was astonished at the level of bile and vitriol and hatred. It was enough to make me think twice about Twitter. It could be a very dangerous place indeed, probably more damaging than the tabloids could ever be.

As someone who has occasional interactions with paps, none of this surprises me. What does surprise me, however, is publicists who claim to hate these people with a vengeance on behalf of their clients, and then give those same paparazzi (and agencies who specialise in paparazzi photography) legitimate access to events...

It also shows how criminally useless the PCC was. The Diane Watson story, which I was unaware of as I don't read tabloids, is jaw droppingly terrible. FFS her son killed himself and they still wouldn't stop, nor would the PCC help.

I'm going to be urging 38 Degrees to start a new campaign whereby we all gather with pitchforks and lanterns and march on Wapping. Once we're finished there, and the embers are starting to cool, we'll turn our attentions to Northcliffe House. Once that's aflame, perhaps we might make the stroll down through Hyde Park and on towards the river to put the fear of God up those spineless tossers in Westminster as well.

being dumb founded at the tabloid press' actions but they are ultimately feeding an appetite for this amongst a large percentage of British people.
And I bet these people that buy the papers and keep buying the papers are being outraged after giving their 20p to read about more 'Nazi orgies' and the like.
There is a level of hypocrisy surrounding this enquiry that has not been seen before.

I heard an appalling story on Radio 4's PM programme yesterday about Gordon Taylor and his PA in connection with phone hacking.

The PA's father had died and Taylor was very supportive in the period between the father's death and funeral. At the PA's request he spoke at the funeral. The day after she sent Taylor a (hacked) text saying "Thanks for yesterday. You were wonderful." The scum-bag, gutter-minded journalist who intercepted the text immediately jumped to the conclusion that the text proved that Taylor and the PA were having an affair and ran a story on that basis. Absolutely bloody shameful.

This enquiry more than anything has persuaded me that there has to be some kind of regulation of the press. I just don't know what that needs to be, as we cannot move towards a Pravda-style, government regulated system.

The book which started all of this off. It should be required reading for anyone who reads a newspaper. The chapter on The Dark Arts is alone worth the cover price.

but at least they are straightforwardly publishing gossip. The Guardian has columnists like Marina Hyde who are oh-so-ironic when writing a showbiz story about Angelina Jolie or whoever. But they still manage to let you know what the supposed scandal is, and that will be something they will have just lifted from a tabloid.

Chilling stuff. It does provoke violent thoughts towards these meddling scumsuckers. Read it here.

She was five. A hack slipped a note to Rowling into her school bag. Imagine that. Imagine the terror of being that parent.

revelation literally, and I do mean literally, caused my jaw to drop open when I first read it. It still makes my flesh crawl to think of the amoral, sociopathic scum who gave this unfortunate family the (unfounded) hope and joy that their daughter was still alive. Genuinely unforgiveable.

I caught a clip of Steve Coogan on Newsnight (from around June) the other night in which he's going toe-to-toe with a tabloid journalist; berating him for, well, generally being a pillock! The victim of Coogan's scorn showed little remorse for his actions (except for the fact he'd been caught) and tried to pin the blame on Coogan et al. for 'flaunting' their fame. It's like he thought he was on a moral crusade to expose every skeleton in the celebrity closet.

Hopefully they'll get their commupance.

EDIT: Sorry, decided that was too much information.

It was a roundabout, boring way of saying, yes I'm gripped/

The Royal Family. Is there some technical reason why they cannot participate?

The tabloids feed the unhealthy appetites of gossip-mongers and celeb followers, whose demand for this stuff inspires the tabloids to create more supply of the stuff.

Who is to blame? Who started it? I don't know, but the old parable about being the first to throw the stone holds true here. We live in an increasingly grotesque society and we need to recognise that and rise above it.

Culled from Popbitch today

� � British tabloids a kicking at Leveson.
� � But before everyone gets too pious�
about how the British tabloids are
the worst offenders in the world...

In 1990, the American National
Enquirer had this headline, "Psycho
Star Has AIDS Virus". No-one was
more surprised to see this than the
Psycho star himself, Anthony Perkins,
who had never had an AIDS test.
So, how did the mag get its scoop?
Well, Perkins had given a blood sample
to a hospital treating him for facial
palsy, the Enquirer illegally obtained
the sample, had it tested for HIV and
then published, without telling the actor.

That Enquirer story about Anthony Perkins is atrocious. But I will say the National Enquirer has always been a joke here. It has zero credibility and was known as much for running stories about aliens and ghosts as much as real news stories. It's the kind of rag that little old ladies buy in grocery stores. Its circulation has been dropping for years and it filed for bankrupcty recently. If I was religious I'd say that shows there is a God.

It seems like your tabloids have a lot more credibility and a whole lot more power than any of the American version. The New York Post, for example, is a rabid conservative tabloid that runs a lot of gossip -- kind of like the Daily Mail -- but it's only read in the New York area and its Web site isn't a huge draw either -- and it would never have the power to intimidate the way The Sun, News of the World, Daily Mail, etc., seem to have the power to intimidate people and ruin their lives. I suppose that's because we don't really have national newspapers with a national reach the way you do (except USA Today, which is the kind of superficial paper that it takes about 15 minutes to read).

If anything, the problem facing the American press is at the other extreme: Reporters here are WAY too timid. Our newspapers are increasingly satisfied with a steady diet of celebrity news spoonfed directly from PR types, or the kind of snide celebrity coverage that Marina Hyde (sp?) does. And our political coverage is especially weak, with reporters so obsessed with being "balanced" and "fair" that they don't challenge politicians and leaders on obvious lies. There are exceptions -- like the New York Times. And the political reporter for Rolling Stone magazine does great work (although the actual music coverage in Rolling Stone sucks these days). But I have sadly watched as the Washington Post, a once great paper, has become a shadow of its former self. As newspapers here struggle to make money, and newspaper staffs have been cut to the bone, the coverage of real issues has gotten weaker and weaker.

I've been reading about the Leveson inquiry and it's riveting. I think it's amazing and fantastic that this public inquiry in the UK is exposing the excesses of a press with too much power, and I hope some good comes from it. Shouldn't there be some happy medium, though, between the timid American press and the kind of clearly unethical, vicious tactics of British tabloid reporters?