COMMENT

As tabloid terrorism goes, it doesn't amount to much. On the first defiantly sleazy website devoted to stalking homegrown celebrities there was, briefly, a fuzzy shot of a toddler that would be of no interest to anyone if the Hosking case hadn't kept those poor children in the news for months on end.

There were, hilariously, bits from a document claiming to be instructions to Hosking from his estranged wife on such burning matters of public interest as nappy changing.

Also on offer were pictures of Mrs Sean Fitzpatrick gardening in a sarong, allegedly taken by a plumber. What next? Sensational secret snaps of Judy Bailey bottling chutney? I knew our celebrity culture wasn't up to much, but really.

No wonder shows like Spin Doctors have trouble coming up with anything more moronic than real life.

Why are they bothering? As is so often the case, when you look behind the madder excesses of modern life there are ancient forces at work. There's the primal drive to be interviewed on Holmes. And, in this case, perhaps a desire for utu.

The site was launched by junior paparazzo Jonathan Marshall and his partner in grime, David Herkt. Both lost jobs on Queer Nation after they tailed Mike Hosking in a freelance attempt to get pictures of him doing ... anything.

Now they're getting their own back by going through his garbage. Well, whatever does it for them.

It's easy to laugh but the whole thing has been quite revealing. If ever there was a textbook case of popular culture eating itself, this is it. Observe the primitive food chain on Planet Celebrity at work: Mike Hosking made his name in current affairs, a genre famous for testing the boundaries of journalistic ethics, not to mention good taste, by door-stopping, feeding on private grief, reporting things said in the privacy of green rooms and so on.

He becomes a celebrity and is, in his turn, subject to unwanted media attention. The case against a women's mag over the publication of photos of his children has kept this "man of mystery", as Marshall likes to call him, in the news.

The smell of fresh blood attracts the attention of the bottom feeders in the food chain; even the women's mags need someone to look down on - and you get Jonathan Marshall and his website.

The outrage at seeing some fairly common media practices being taken to nasty and cynical excess makes Marshall something of a celebrity himself. Another new website, Being Jonathan Marshall, appears, publishing personal details and scuttlebutt about Marshall and his website.