Isn’t it interesting how the high and mighty and especially, the recently deposed, are rubbing their hands over the News of the World phone hacking scandal?

Dear old John Prescott, the office adulterer, & former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, getting it wrong again, together with a posse of MPs pointing accusatory fingers – at the press, at the police and fellow MPs.

What a wonderful distraction at a time when the country remains close to financial catastrophe, the Euro struggles to survive intact, youth unemployment continues to undermine the hopes of millions of talented young people, the public sector is starting to feel the same pressures the private sector has been subjected to since the recession began – and doesn’t like it…oh and yes, the country remains on high alert to terror threats.

But haven’t we seen it all before?

Back in 1950, Republican Senator Joe McCarthy became for a period of time one of the most visible public faces of the Cold War period fuelling fears of widespread Communist subversion with his claims that there were a large number of Communists and Soviet spies and sympathisers inside the United States federal government and elsewhere.

As he spread his accusations, so others jumped on the bandwagon and spread fears of ‘Reds under the Bed’ – and it became a convenient accusation with which to undermine your adversaries & your competitors.

The trials in the Province of Massachusetts Bay during 1692 and 1693 trod a similar path as the children of Salem, under the influence of Abigail Williams, ran amok amongst the townsfolk making accusations of witchcraft – leading a purge against anyone they decided to pick-on.

And now we have phone hacking (no, not the sort that they do at GCHQ or at the NSA) – and the politicians and do-gooders bustle to get their ‘dig’ in, as deeply and as quickly as possible.

The select committee will ask questions under the pretext of doing what is best in the interest of the public, whereas they are as likely to be focused on making a positive impression, to build personal awareness and ratings.

The difference today is the pace with which media can ignite the story.

The Salem witch hunts were limited by face-to-face reporting and yet still engendered enough fear to lead to deaths by execution.

McCarthy had the newly popular TV alongside radio to amplify his particular brand of vitriol, leading to ruined lives, suicides and an environment of fear and suspicion.

Today we have 24/7 newsreels, the internet and social media.

Thus far ‘hackgate’ has claimed jobs and some reputations. I hope that a benefit of the internet and social media will be to generate balance into the argument, before a campaign of hate and suspicion infects us all, but I’m not convinced.