Better than fiction

Daytime TV has never been so entertaining as the spectacle of watching ex-News of the World dissemblers Kuttner & Coulson squirming before the something-or-other select committee claiming to have absolutely no recollection whatever of signing off payments to ‘inquiry agencies’, i.e. phone hackers - that is when they weren't challenging the right of two committee members to even ask questions. This tetchy reaction was hardly surprising as the proliferation of invoices, expense sheets and other evidence being waved about clearly indicated that MPs relished the role reversal.

One of the best parts was when former managing editor Kuttner was asked if Clive Goodman & Glen Mulcaire, who were was jailed for hacking into the phone messages of royal staff had continued to receive payments after they had gone to prison. Kuttner was unable to say one way or another but promised he would ‘look into it’.

Nick Robinson seems to have been at a slightly different hearing. But, as someone whose own career move has mirrored Coulson’s then perhaps this it to be expected.

Update (22 July): The Guardian spins its own account.