I spoke a couple of days ago to a senior executive in the United States from within Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. As I told him the tale of Rebekah Brooks and the police horse his eyes grew wider and wider. But when he thought about it he didn’t appear that surprised. Nothing coming out of the tabloid world of Wapping surprises anybody any more. The fun and games are well and truly over.

So now James Murdoch has been stripped of the Chairmanship of News International and is being run out of town. My guess would be that he’ll be out of his chair at Sky as well by the end of the year. With the talk of rehabilitating his brother Lachlan, it appears to be a humiliating end for James. With Rupert now aged 81 his succession planning is in tatters.

Many rejoice at this. The depth of vitriol directed towards the Murdochs defies belief. It is fuelled by many on the Left who will never forgive him for what he did to Neil Kinnock. Now we have the grim, leaden spectacle of the Leveson Inquiry, the outcome of which is likely to be negative for those decent, honest, hard-working journalists – yes, we do exist – who keep you the Great British Public and our politicians honest.

What happened at the Sun and the News of the World was pretty awful. Low, shameful and never to be excused. The law will run its course and if people broke it they may well go to prison. The scale of the police inquiry into phone hacking is quite ludicrous but maybe not surprising (as nobody knows better than the Met, the extent to which its behaviour over the years – when it comes to tabloid hacks – was very dodgy indeed).

The phone hacking scandal is appalling but nobody died. Marie Colvin of the Sunday Times,  an employee of Murdoch’s, did die in Homs last week. She was an outstanding, brave reporter who gave up her life so that the truth about vile regimes and brutal armies all over the world could be exposed. Murdoch also loses one million pounds a week on the Times. I feel this country would be a far lesser place if the Times were owned by Richard Desmond or a Russian oligarch. I would also rather it was owned by Murdoch than by Rothermere because I believe the Daily Mail is one of the British institutions, like our weather and Abu Quatd, with which I would happily dispose.

I also strongly approve of the way in which Murdoch appears to be one of the last media barons left to stand up for content. His Tweets, and the fact he’s doing them, are admirable. And, while we’re on the subject of new media….

It’s also striking that, whilst a great deal of sound and fury is being generated by the Leveson enquiry, fuelled as already suggested largely by those with old scores to settle, many a blind eye has been turned to other egregious invasions of privacy. Only last week we heard how companies including Apple and Facebook are apparently rifling through the swathes of personal info on our phones and reporting back to HQ on everything from our shopping habits to what we like to email and text about.  The source? Mobile phone apps with sneaky T&C’s which no-one, of course, ever bothers to read.

The Chinese government is, if rumours are to be believed, busily compiling vast virtual dossiers on just about everyone with access to the internet. No doubt US and even our own security services – amongst others – are doing the same. Such automated snooping has the potential to affect millions of us, compared to tens or perhaps hundreds whose phones have been hacked by those misguided hacks. And yet I suspect we’ll be waiting a long time for a public enquiry into that one.

This month Richard Desmond tells us he tried to buy News International. He may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but he’s quite an operator.

Media moguls are rarely shy and retiring pussy cats. They tend to have the sharpest of elbows and claws, if not always the thickest of skins. From Beaverbrook and Bloomberg to Murdoch and Kane, a ‘larger than life’ character is also a prerequisite.

Richard Desmond is the latest baron on the block, and we have an exclusive interview with him in December’s edition of MT. He is quite an operator. When we wrote a piece about him back in 2003 –penned by a former employee, and containing the extraordinary revelation that Desmond made one of his underlings stand on the table during a meeting, drop his trousers and call himself a c**t – there were all sorts of shenanigans involving Desmond’s people (in various guises) trying to get hold of copies before publication. The same thing happened this time, with strange individuals with funny voices ringing our printers.

Desmond is held in low esteem by the majority of the media’s chatterati, who find his Express newspapers risible. If a middle-market attitude to the news and gossip is what you’re after, it’s hard to see why anyone in the UK would select the Express over the Daily Mail – either from the newsstand or online. But people do. And one thing you cannot deny is that he is riding them hard enough, after cutting costs to the bone, to make substantial profits

Our piece contains the astonishing revelation that earlier this year Desmond went marching into Rupert Murdoch’s office in New York with a cheque for £1 billion to ‘buy News International’. Desmond says Murdoch refused to sell but ‘acknowledged it was a good offer’. The Sun and the News of the World, not to mention The Times in the hands of an ex porn baron. That would be quite something

The Wapping tabloids are held in great affection by Rupert Murdoch, and in the good old days made him pots of cash. Times are now harder and it’s unlikely that his son (and business heir apparent) James holds them in such ardour. Previous generations may have shrugged and winked at the News of the World phone tapping scandal. But the coming Prius-driving, clean-living generation finds it intensely embarrassing. Don’t write Desmond off. He’s very determined, has lots of money in his pockets and many, many scores to settle.