The News of the World hacking scandal hasn’t exactly lacked for drama, but now it’s got a full-blown dark twist: The journalist who blew the whistle on the scandal has been found dead.
From the Guardian:
Sean Hoare, the former News of the World showbiz reporter who was the first named journalist to allege Andy Coulson was aware of phone hacking by his staff, has been found dead, the Guardian has learned.
Hoare, who worked on the Sun and the News of the World with Coulson before being dismissed for drink and drugs problems, is said to have been found dead at his Watford home.
…”The death is currently being treated as unexplained, but not thought to be suspicious. Police investigations into this incident are ongoing.”
This is the sort of thing that blows up the Internet, so it falls to us to play the voice of reason here. Yes, it is suspicious that a whistleblower is dead. And yes, this very scandal has revealed that sometimes police in the United Kingdom take bribes. However, let’s put the brakes on this. In movies, yes, people with drug problems are killed and their deaths blamed on their addictions. In real life, though, people with drug problems die all the time. Is it too naive to suggest that these, not a shadowy cabal of global assassins, are what killed Sean Hoare?
