We have now concluded the first three modules of the Leveson Inquiry into the standards of the press. Throughout the recent days there have been many complaints that Leveson has become a partisan Witch hunt, when questioning has concentrated on the Murdoch BskyB deal that was in process at the start of the current session, it has necessarily dealt with those in power at the time, there has also been an allegation that there has been nothing coming out of Leveson, as nobody can remember anything. How does that relate to the figures?
When we look at the evidence, transcripts of Witness sessions run to in excess of 450,000 lines of text with approaching 30,000 questions asked by Lawyers at court 73 and the Judge. Covering in excess of 500 hours of time, spread over several months. Now in previous times this would have just headed off to sit on an academic shelf somewhere, but with the internet, and computing power, nowadays, anyone can download the lot, and as the saying goes, there’s always someone out there with an idea and time on their hands.
My Idea turned up in a conversation with Brit, during one witnesses evidence, about the number of times there had been mention of “I don’t remember”. Which lead to the idea of throwing all of the evidence into several spreadsheets, and seeing if there was anything interesting that came out at the far end.