Murdoch hacking scandal latest

[johnb]

The Sunday Times is far and away the best Sunday newspaper, and Sky TV makes the BBC look distinctly second-rate.

Well, the Sunday Times is definitely is the heaviest (in weight) and the biggest (in acres of newsprint) but it is very far from the excellent paper that it used to be. I've taken the Sunday Times for many decades but have recently switched the Independent on Sunday or the Observer (depending on my mood). The main news section of the Sunday Times has been heavily 'tabloidised' and Murdoch's pre-occupations (e.g. the denigration of the BBC at any and every opportunity, etc) are everywhere to be seen. The distinction between fact and comment is now largely absent. In many respects it has become an upmarket red-top.

The Culture section is the best part of the ST these days.

[scottycelt]

Sometimes there is a bigger point that absolutely everyone misses. So it was with me until five minutes ago.

Imagine if any of us had run a small company and the kinds of things mentioned had occurred on the premises. We said we didn't know about them and genuinely didn't know. Would we still be arrested because we were the owners? I think the answer is yes. Should we therefore not be asking why it is that Murdoch hasn't been?

That's a very fair point ... but whilst you may well be the first to say it it here in so many words, some others may have already posted (in their own way) similar concerns on this very thread!

I think it may now be wise to see what transpires from the latest internal police 'investigations', before commenting any further ... ?

[french frank]

The left in general, and some MPs in particular, have been waiting to knock Murdoch off his perch for many years, and now they smell blood they're like a dog with a bone.

Yes. And I expect Mr Brown might feel even more strongly about him now.

It's almost as unpleasant to behold as the whole sorry saga itself.

Do you think so? - in light of what has been revealed already (with more to come according to Mrs Brooks)? I don't really find a close comparison.

Mr M may not get asked to as many meetings of the kind he wants in the future. Let's hope, eh?

[I see in Cyprus the Defence Minister and the National Guard Chief have already resigned their posts over the explosion at the naval base]

[amateur51]

I think it may now be wise to see what transpires from the latest internal police 'investigations', before commenting any further ... ?

Au contraire, scotty my little McMuffin, I want to keep the pressure up. Arrest somebody, Sir Paul ... doesn't really matter who ... the old boy, the lad, Medusa, just bang someone up - surely they're all flight risks?!

Once they're inside we'll smuggle Mr Pee in to drive them wild with his inanities and total devotion to all things Murdoch

Waterboarding anyone?

[scottycelt]

... scotty my little McMuffin ...

Sometimes, you frighten me to death, amateur, ma wee boyo...

[Mr Pee]

Heck! Even the Grauniad was singing his praises barely a year ago....they must have temporarily forgotten their default reaction....

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/mar/07/rupert-murdoch-support-times

And what short memories we all seem to have- if Murdoch hadn't faced down the unions at Wapping back in 1986, I very much doubt that we'd have any newspapers left in the first place.

[Frances_iom]

Heck! Even the Grauniad was singing his praises barely a year ago..:

did you read the article - yes it praised some points but criticised others - the catch is that Murdoch senior is a complex individual - a Papal Knight whose UK papers have gone down market often at sleazy end thereof in attempt to gain circulation, runs the WSJ but also the Faux news channel - his son is I think much more of a right wing thug who wants to see an end to any Public Service broadcasting .

[amateur51]

Sometimes, you frighten me to death, amateur, ma wee boyo...

Good-o ma wee clutie sporran!

[amateur51]

Heck! Even the Grauniad was singing his praises barely a year ago....they must have temporarily forgotten their default reaction....

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/mar/07/rupert-murdoch-support-times

And what short memories we all seem to have- if Murdoch hadn't faced down the unions at Wapping back in 1986, I very much doubt that we'd have any newspapers left in the first place.

That's precisely what some of us don't forget, Mr Pee. The signs were there all along but you and your kind went along merrily swallowing it all, with your wee purse ever open to heed his piper's call

As ff was too polite to say earlier Gotcha!

[french frank]

I wonder if we could get back to serious debate?

First, Mr Pee: I don't think it's true to say 'The Guardian' sang Murdoch's praises. Peter Preston did in a blog (and I'm sure he's regretting it now). He's no longer the editor of the paper, he's merely a columnist. In any case, The Guardian also gave space to Kelvin MacKenzie to say 'Thank God for Rupert Murdoch' a bare fortnight ago when a fair bit of the criminal behaviour had already been uncovered. His wasn't The Guardian's view.

Another point: I was wondering about Lat's comment on Ken Macdonald working for NI which was something I'd missed. Peston clarifies this: the newly appointed solicitors for NI who were to take over from the previous team to clear up what had been going on located the missing e-mails which had apparently been declared as having no evidence of criminal activity. Lord Macdonald was engaged 'on behalf of News Corp [sic]' to look at them again and, found in Peston's words 'that the e-mails were indicative of criminal behaviour by the News of the World and should be handed to the police'. News Corp took his advice. So I think Our Ken keeps his (post-undergraduate!) squeaky clean reputation.

I wonder whether Hunt's volte-face marks a change in the collective stance of the political establishment? Clegg asks Murdoch to reconsider his bid for BSkyB; Murdoch retaliates instead by withdrawing his agreement to spin off Sky News; an almost knee-jerk reaction from Hunt, such was the speed, was to refer the bid. Is this the 'war' promised vainly by Cable months ago?

[Lateralthinking1]

frenchfrank - The credit for the Ken Macdonald reference should go to johnB. Notwithstanding the point about sleepovers that Nick Robinson made last night on the news, the following must be one of Gordon Brown's finest hours. He seems very genuine here, if obviously political too as they all are, and "I was in tears" - quite extraordinary. It shows some bigness I feel.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-14119225

Some might say that it is a pity it has taken such a sad series of events to reveal this Gordon although it has often been hinted. What we knew was the rage but perhaps the fuller context is "emotional". Ironic in many ways that he frequently came across as quite the opposite. And had he been seen as genuinely emotional rather than simply bad tempered the public might have viewed that in the world of politics as a refreshing change. - Lat.

[Stunsworth]

Murdoch retaliates instead by withdrawing his agreement to spin off Sky News; an almost knee-jerk reaction from Hunt, such was the speed, was to refer the bid

I think Hunt was obliged to refer it. From memory the spinning off of Sky News was one of the conditions of the original bid not being referred in the first place.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

... i will believe something has actually happened when Dacre is arrested .... the Mail spent more than the NoW on such activities ...

Whittam-Smith made the point last week in the Indie that the legislation covering such things includes negligence on the part of any manager, director or secretary of the company and on that basis no one is exempt from prosecution ....

i have never bought a newspaper or tv subscription from Murdoch, not because of Wapping but because he is malign in all his manifestations, socila, political, economic .... a greedy gangster with a truly megalomaniac view of the world ...

he is a US citizen, who has managed a US company that has committed criminal acts in the UK and is now i believe, under review in the USA by the relevant authorities ... the NI stock price is taking a hammering, putting a buck on the emergence of financial or taxation irregularities would be a fair bet too ....

[Stillhomewardbound]

"Gordon insisted - despite a heavy brow-beating from Rebekah - that he was not willing to let his son's medical condition be the stuff of a Sun exclusive," recalls this source. "So he put out a statement on PA to spike their scoop and make clear that despite his condition, Fraser was fit and healthy. The Sun were utterly furious, and Brown's communications team were told that if Gordon wanted to get into No10, he needed to learn that was not how things were done."


What an absolutely charming person this lady appears to be? No doubt the kind of editor who would slam down the phone if she was told no dead babies had been found in the previous night's house fire.

[Mr Pee]

have never bought a newspaper or tv subscription from Murdoch, not because of Wapping but because he is malign in all his manifestations, socila, political, economic .... a greedy gangster with a truly megalomaniac view of the world ...

Is slander permissible on these messageboards? I don't think the occupants of the anti-Murdoch bandwagon do themselves any favours by indulging in such ridiculous name-calling.