News of the World bites the dust

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Boy, how life imitates art sometimes, eh? 

First Queen mock their own celebrityhood with a reference to the famous UK tabloid, News of the World. Did Queen’s antics back in the day merit any real tabloid fodder? Compared to today’s gossip-saturated culture, how they were once perceived in the media seems relatively tame to how celebrities behave in public nowadays just to keep their names in the media. The line between personal and public personas is now virtually non-existent.

So now, after 168 years of publication, the tabloid rag whose livelihood is in exposing sex scandals and trashing celebrities has now become a victim of their own methods. While they’re supposedly calling bad behaviour to task, they got caught phone-hacking innocent participants in what they, the paper, felt were sensationalistic but legitimate news stories. 

NOTW owner, Rupert Murdoch announced today that he’s pulling the plug on the paper with this Sunday’s edition being the last.

As we all know, Queen’s relationship to NOTW goes far deeper than just borrowing their moniker for an album title . . . Roger has taken a swipe or two at Murdoch over the years. This is most evident on his 1994 album, Happiness?, where Murdoch is called out publicly for his iron grip on the media outlets he controls.

Now that the NOTW newspaper is history, I wonder if the NOTW album will still be in the news 168 years from now?