LONDON - Britain's image as the land of Harry Potter and royal weddings has taken a hammering as the US media have lapped up every detail of the phone-hacking scandal. The home of chivalry emerged as a country of amoral hacks, craven politicians, corrupt cops and evil private eyes. A country where journalists are prepared to hack into the phone of a murdered child in the hope of selling a few more copies and the people in charge of those hackers are bosom buddies with the prime minister. So bad has the scandal become in the US that it has earned America's most dreaded suffix, becoming "hackgate."
On the satirical Daily Show, Jon Stewart pretended to be sick when told of the Milly Dowler story and attacked the "epic bribery and influence-peddling scandal consuming Britain's political, law enforcement and journalistic establishment". Actor Alec Baldwin said David Cameron should resign.
