大象传媒

'Tonight we focus again on the News of the World hacking allegations'

Dunno. Just seemed worth repeating. To some.

'Susan Watts has travelled to California's Mojave desert to meet the entrepreneurs preparing to take up the challenge of human space flight'

That'll be a heck on a carbon offset.

For the entrepreneurs, one means.

Good luck to 'em if it's boldly going and helping all on Earth.

If it's sticking rich folk atop a column of greenhouse gasses for a Kodak moment... not so much.

we should do what the good people of Liverpool did back in 1989 and bin the Sun and all Murdoch trash after the lies about dead Liverpool fans, Kelvin still receives hate mail over it....

wow that was quick...Murdoch must have heard me...just announced on 5Live the News of the World last edition this Sunday...people power or what>>>? Yiipppieeeee

If the NOTW scandal can be (it should be) linked back into the political class whom are now so indignant and scandalised by it then it may turn into a story that does make a difference.

There has been an incumbent unelected murdoch guttersnipe in the heart of government for decades.. co-incidence maybe?

Year on year 'poor judgement' exercised by sitting prime ministers are we to believe?

Or is an incumbent media guttersnipe in No.10 a pre-requisite for getting the support you need to be in No.10?

Now that is aphone hack I would like to hear...

Andy Coulson, Damian Mcbride and others more careful.

Its all part of 'the deal' which keeps the professinal political class in thier chosen job and keeps normal people out of politics. Irresponsible banks get bailed and big business get the tax regimes they want, the political class endlessly talk about 'hard working families and small business' while under cover of their sponsored media managed political class the banks and corporations suck them dry.

The above makes alot more sense and is in keeping with the facts then the position that 'politicians work for the people and we are where we are because of the democratic choices the people have made'.

The people make choices based on the information presented to them and historical (now meaningless) preference for certain parties and party values. The parties have nothing tangible to distinguish them anymore and are entirely reliant on big business and media donations and patronage, the media has long controlled what information we are presented with.

The result is we do not live in a democracy, nor have we for some time, we merely live under the carefully stage managed illusion of a democracy.

If this NOTW scandal can turn a spotlight on the above it can only be a good thing.

#5 addendum

Just heard the NOTW is to close, a rather predictable and ruthless 'business' survival response akin to quickly cutting off an infected limb to prevent spread to the wider body and heart of the organisation.

Hopefully people will see through the rhetoric and see the action for what it is.

It is nothing to do with moral outrage from Rupert Murdoch ( a contradiction in terms surely) and everything to do with the survival of his core empire and its influence in British politics in particular. It is in fact a ruthless and calculating act to preserve a power base i.e. exactly the same motivations as was used to hack the phones of murder victims families to 'get a story'.

If people see that then maybe, just maybe, hopefully change could be on the way.

Bring it on.

If you think I am right spread the word and make the above concept go viral.

AUSTRALIAN MARTIAL ARTS? (Closure of the NOTW)

Is it true that one ploy in martial arts is to suddenly remove your resistance, whereupon your enemy is defeated by the energy of his own attack?

Also, how many ways might this (quite unintentionally) hurt Dave/government/the exchequer, in the final analysis?

Woo-hoo.... get the pitchfork and torch Igor, looks like the mob's on a roll!

Not sure how that this works out for blameless peons vs. culpable senior staff still on the roster, but there you go; there'll be glasses clinking in Islington tonight.

Me, I am off to make a twitter rosette, as that seems to be how things get voted on these days and, if nothing else, correct sides of bread for buttering must be known in advance.

Just, like a Peston-Robinson blog line, is it possible all those at work today who didn't get a say might eventually start to wonder?

'The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.'

Careful what you wish for; you may just get it.

The NOW is dead - Long live (NOT!) the Sun on Sunday!

I am old enough to remember the beginning of the Digger's UK empire. It had a corrosive effect on the media at all levels - proof that Gresham's Law applies to journalism as well as money.

s_law

No doubt US citizen Mr Murdoch's representatives will continue to tell us how to vote in our elections.

It is time that he and his minions were persona-non-grata on these shores

IT WAS THE SUN WHAT WON IT!

NOTW was effectively the "Sunday Sun" in all but name, coming out of the same News International stable. I understand it is produced out of the same facility in Wapping, but no doubt the carpet between the two newsrooms is pretty worn from journos going back & forth.... no doubt someone will correct me if this is not the case.

The key question is did the discredited private investigators/journos NOTW used also work for The Sun?

I would be gobsmacked to find out that NewsCorp operated a strict code of conduct in one newsroom and not the other - seems very unlikely in tabloidland - over to you NN!

If there is no effective difference between the morals & culture in both NewsCorp newsrooms, then James Murdoch may have set a dangerous precedent in closing NOTW down: what if the investigation spreads to The Sun too? NB - PURE speculation on my part - I'm not accusing anyone of anything. Yet.

To the general public the decision to close it down today could appear to be a tacit acceptance of wrongdoing @ the paper - but if as the rumour mill has it there are "other papers" likely to be sucked in as well, could this be the end of NewsCorp's UK tabloid operation for good if the same thing went on @ The Sun?

Clearly an open goal for the Mirror, Star, Sport, etc if it does go down, b ut I suspect the pulbic's willingness to go on swallowing the same muck may now be in question...

But there's going to be another major casualty out of this - the Press Complaints Commission has been made to look a total laughingstock,hoodwinked for years and has been IMHO shown to be unfit for purpose bigtime.

Effectively the Press Complaints Commission was a BIG fig leaf for those responsible for managing journalists for years who are now allegedly involved in criminal activities such as perverting the course of justice, obstructing investigations of murdered children, intruding into the grief of the relatives of soldiers killed defending their country and corrupting police officers prejury for personal gain. These are only wild speculations on my part of possible offences which MAY have been committed, based on the allegations alreayd in the pulbic domain, I hasten to add - we must await a proper police investigation which will be a nice change after the last snow job.

The members of the PCC need to consider their positions because their self-regulatory organisation has provided top cover for this scandal to happen and if James Murdoch can put his corporate hand up to this, IMHO%2

Now there gone and you won't get sued any chance of reinstating my 5 july 22.36
comment?

The lesson to be learnt from the NI debacle is much more straightforward than many make out.

Some global businesses become too big to be manageable and accountable - even to their majority shareholder(s) - I would suggest that NI is one of them.

Mixing newspaper ownership with TV does not work - it produces a convoluted series of cultures management styles, conflicts of interest, communication problems and mini empires that have a limit to their efficiency and manageability.

Rather than take sides on the inevitable Murdoch partisan hating merrygo-round why can't it just be accepted that Murdoch had assembled something too big that just didn't work out - and as brazenly unfit to take over BSkyB

It's a 'no brainer' - but Murdoch realises that and why he is restructuring the business and has closed NOTW as a is a 'strategic decision' - a correct one in my view - but the next move is then interesting - if he gets BSkyB -I think he will dispose of much of the Newspaper bsuiness in the UK /Europe - as is a valuable carrot to dangle in the mix.

Laughing lefties beware - Murdoch can get even stronger here - if he now gets things right going forward

if an editor was unaware that many of the stories were from systematic hacking what else might the editor be unaware of? could other illegality be going on?

what about the 'paying the police' confession? isn't that illegal?

MEDIA MAMMON AND 'MINSTER

All feel they have carte blanche to manipulate us as low value units of plasticity; this is not far short of true, hence we only have ourselves to blame.

While the Labour intent was to take control of the MEANS OF PRODUCTION, our manipulators knew that CONTROL OF THE MEANS OF CONTROL was a far larger prize.

ONLY the optimising of every individual in WISDOM as a PRIMARY GOAL, will ever turn our society the right way up. As things stand we are born to serve Mammon, while further functioning as consumers, NHS-fodder and crime adjuncts; all presided over by the likes of Dave, James (he that was known as Gordon) Tony, John and Margaret.

Put like that, the awfulness of it all comes home.

I'll get me Wellbeing Certificate.

RESPECT FOR THE DEAD BEGINS WITH RESPECT FOR THE LIVING

Having endured the abject self-flagellation of NewsCorp, I assert the Shock and Awe in government, regarding hacking of phones of dead soldier's families, demands the question: "Who sent them to their death and why?" Were LIES told? How high in Westminster were lies sanctioned? And before we know where we are, we arrive at "45 MINUTES" - the lie printed by THE PRESS and LEFT UNCORRECTED by Blair and Campbell. HOW THEY MUST HAVE SNIGGERED. Media and Westminster are ONE. Cold, callous (psychopathic?) manipulators of the living and - worse - embracers of the dead, in sickening displays of hero-acclaim.

One paper gone is as nothing.

DISMANTLE WESTMINSTER.

Continued fron truncated previous poasting:

Effectively the Press Complaints Commission was a BIG fig leaf for those responsible for managing journalists for years who are now allegedly involved in criminal activities such as perverting the course of justice, obstructing investigations of murdered children, intruding into the grief of the relatives of soldiers killed defending their country and corrupting police officers prejury for personal gain. These are only wild speculations on my part of possible offences which MAY have been committed, based on the allegations alreayd in the pulbic domain, I hasten to add - we must await a proper police investigation which will be a nice change after the last snow job.

The members of the PCC need to consider their positions because their self-regulatory organisation has provided top cover for this scandal to happen and if James Murdoch can put his corporate hand up to this, IMHO the very least the PCC members can do is do the decent thing and resign.

Commercial Break:

"It's New! It's Great! Its your soaraway SUN Day SUN! The Sun on Sunday! A little beam of fun to spice up that Sunday morning - have our great new Page 3 Rumpie Pumpie girls come to breakfast under your duvee - but don't tell the wife!

The SUN DAY SUN!

Please note that no murdered children's phones, bereaved relatives of young men who gave their lives for this country or bent coppers were involved the making of your Soaraway new Sun DAY Sun.."

A CUNNING PLAN

What if the 大象传媒 launched a news programme for Sundays, run by people of integrity and honour, with a GRAVITAS ethos? NO MP INTERVIEWS but plenty of cogent political pundit interviews. No connivance, no allegiances, no brown envelopes; no son et lumiere, no gimmicks, no musack, NO PRIMA DONNAS (of either sex).

After all - newspapers play no tunes, they blur not neither do they spin. And the Pope is not splashed red and green.

Might someone suggest it to Le P芒t茅?

12.

A lame excuse for incompetence IMHO. There are LOADS of bigger operations than NewsCorp which don't fail like this - try Reuters, Agence France Presse or the big US operations like CNN, Bloomberg or outfits with vast numbers of small publications like regional newspapers, radio etc. Even the dear old 大象传媒 keeps it house in relative order - compared to NOTW, they are plaster saints.

NewsCorp has "LOOAADS AAA MONEEEY" - there is simply no excuse in terms of resources - IMHO the problem is a complete lack of moral fibre - as with virtually every media mogul family, the Murdochs are hedonists who march to their own tune. This is borne from the background of priviledge and affluence that spawns prejudices and bigotry - think Beaverbrook or the US newspaper magnets of the 1930s - is there any fundamental difference?

We could start on the shortcomings of Berlusconi, Maxwell or Bertelsmann - the list is short, but select. At what point are we going to call time on these "meglomaniacs"?

Don't excuse these people - don't seek to justify tIMHO the obscene way they dominate our so-called "popular" culture - they are the modern day Roman Circus promoters - the suffering is usually mental not blood in the dust, but its just as immoral.

Don't let the Murdochs heave themselves out of the slime of tabloid journalism to reinvent their brand as respectable film & TV publishers - they got their money in large part from sleazy journalism and operations like NOTW - "by their actions ye shall know them."

Thr dustbin of history should beckon...

HEALTH AND SAFETY DATA SHEET (#16)

Hi Richard, I always read you with satisfaction - mind to mind. But: "young men who gave their lives for this country"; do you care to expand on that? Whenever I take in their motivations, that one seems to be absent. Even if it were present, I personally can only see aggravation of Johnnie Foreigner (by chaps 'doing the job they love') far outweighing enhanced safety in and around Tescos. Indeed, I believe such safety is compromised. Do you care to give chapter-and-verse justification of your phrase, quoted above? You will gather it gets my back up - perhaps wrongly so?

According to Victoria Macdonald - that paragon of public-service journalistic integrity - it is appalling that marriages have broken up and people have been incarcerated, as a result of NoW's journalism.

So, in order to attack the Murdoch 'empire' (far smaller than the 大象传媒's), does the Left now support spousal cheating and law-breaking?

As an act in its war against the police, will Channel 4 now encourage law-breaking - maybe encourage the eco fascists to try again to close a power station?

Where will Channel 4's campaigning go next?

I wrote to the Press Compliants commission earlier today:

Dear PCC,

I wish to complain about your role in the current News International debacle.

It is my assertion that you have provided 鈥渢op cover鈥� to the systematic and organised criminal activities of a number of individuals either working for or under contract to the News of the World that has allowed systematic abuse and criminality to go on for over a decade.

We now know that your organisation has consistently sought to defend and justify the actions and behaviour of this publication and other similar newspapers, but recent revelations have uncovered that the PCC was systematically hoodwinked, misled and expressed views to government and the British people that were wholly inaccurate, misleading and may have aided individuals in criminal acts, abuse of innocent people like the bereaved families of soldiers who gave their lives for this country or obstructed the investigations into murdered children, to mention but a small sample of the apparent crimes committed to sell newspapers. The corruption of police officers is another particularly serious allegation.

Now that James Murdoch has announced the closure of NOTW, I would therefore suggest that the PCC owes the public at least the same level of contrition over its shortcomings, so I would invite the Members of the Commission to 鈥淐onsider their Positions鈥�, i.e. to resign in recognition of the massive damage they are responsible for in misleading Parliament and the public.

Self-regulation of the press is now a joke. It may well have been suspect in theory, but the PPC鈥檚 systematic failure to address it and your relentless attempt to defend what many people will see as conspiracy to commit major crimes places your track record beyond anything that is defendable.

In god鈥檚 name, go.

ENDS

I will update you when they respond.

You might like to know how to make a complaint:

The "Marathon" is dead - long live the "Snicker". "The News of the World" is dead - long live the "Sunday Sun".
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NewsCorp's Dauphan handled himself quite well considering the rollocking he must have gotten off the King and the King's courtiers. There will be blood and people in jail before this is over. NewsCorp will now oust all the sinners.

Isn't Murdoch an agent of satan?...allegedly

If any members of the Police are found implicated in the NOTW scandle will my post from wed 6th be uncensored?

or I'm I just gonna get a late night knock at the door from the authorities sometime soon?

Down fall of the News of the world..is it Karma or a smokescreen?

BEN BRADSHAW THINKS THE COMMONS IS 'DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED'

OK Ben - here's the deal. You take your rosette off, stand as 'Ben Bradshaw', and if you are voted in, that's democracy. Otherwise put your ROSETTE on the benches, and push off.

Nuff sed.

KARMA OR SMOKESCREEN?

A good day to dismantle a paper. Now let's

DISMANTLE WESTMINSTER.

#25

It always amuses me how karma (original meaning is 'willed action' resulting in change) is now used to represent some kind of mystical holistic self governing natural justice.

In fact newscorp and its ilk (e.g. BAE systems or Goldman Sachs) know full well what 'karma' actually is and are quite happy that most people think it is something else which allows them to just go on creating thier own karma with impunity while the rest of us sit on our a reading about celebrities waiting for the natural wheel of justice to turn.

If anybody out there wants newscorp to experience a bit of 'karma' in the modern sense you are just going to have to exercise a bit of real karma yourself and get off your ass while the opportunity exists. You can be sure that newscorp will be very active in the karma dept in the next few weeks to minimise that opportunity.

Having said all of that I am still inclined to lean towards the camp where 'free will does not actually exist' and we are all victims or victors of our perculiar and unique circumstances, upbringing and founding biological chemistry which are completely outside any illusory sentient entity 'self' control.

But as a pragmatist engineer I figure whether it exists or not its got to be worth a go just to see if we can knock em down a peg or two so i am willing to suspend my disbelief for abit for the chance to see it.

Its complicated being me... or not.... whatever...

18.At 20:56 7th Jul 2011, richard bunning wrote:
12.

A lame excuse for incompetence IMHO. There are LOADS of bigger operations than NewsCorp which don't fail like this - try Reuters, Agence France Presse or the big US operations like CNN, Bloomberg

>

In addition to its UK papers, News Corporation, of which NI is a subsidiary, has papers in Australia and the US, including The Australian, the Wall Street Journal (owned through Dow Jones) and the New York Post.

Obviously, costly changes required - I'm just commenting on the business angle when newspaper readership is due for major changes in coming years.

Personally, I'm not in favour of global businesses flexing their muscle against and exploiting UK Joe Public - but a sense of realism is needed on the issue - successive govts have courted favour with NI and the Murdochs - not seeing the risk they posed to ordinary people and turning blind eyes to their underhand and illegal business practices.

IMO - This is a also a matter of how best UK can regulate monopolised global business because at the moment our constitution, law, EU, politicians and myriad vested and other business practices - encourage them to ride rough-shod over ordinary people.

NI/Newscorp are the tip of the iceberg with wider economic and other problems in our UK economy and are a not so unwelcome distraction from the state of our UK economy in our politicians' protectionism of these vested interests.

Only vested interests are protected in the UK - this is obscene - our politicians and parliamentary and other systems make sure of this?

I just see the Murdochs and NI for what IMO they really are - common greedy gutter globalised opportunists - I don't have a partisan party political position on them, like many of the ranters

But the real problem with NI is not NI - it is what they have been allowed to do over many years by UK govt and its institutions by our own UK govt corruption, incompetence and gross negligence

old adage cut off the tail of a rattler make him more dangerous which seems to match the closure of the News of the World

Ask Alan Rusbridger for the Grauniad's position on buying information and hacked phones.

It does strike me that Wikileaks consists of info that the Grauniad has no business reading, all sited as 'in the national interest', so it would be nice to hear his position on this type of info.

No-one's life has been endangered by phone hacking.

Ask him to put his hand on his heart and pledge his newspaper hasn't ever used, first hand, info gleaned from hacking.

Can David Grossman please not put words into interviewees' mouths?

AN ELEMENT OF SPITE?

Sometimes when a child is thwarted by a parent, it has an 'accident' as a 'consequence' to pay back, and engender guilt. (Transactional Analysis terms this: "Now See What You Made Me Do".) Feels familiar?

My gut instinct is that Murdoch (kicking and screaming with rage, behind the mask) while making a calculated response, is signalling: "Look what you have caused me to do to all these innocent staff."

'Big' people are not necessarily mature. Ironically, nowhere more true than in Westminster.

Good morning.

@6.
7th Jul 2011, Jericoa
&
@32.
At 23:45 7th Jul 2011, barriesingleton

(I hope you are amused:)

'...Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay.
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

[P. B. Shelley]

TWV

APPALLED AND SHOCKED (#33)

Amusement takes a little longer.

PS I have purchased information to the effect that Ozymandias is to move (for an undisclosed sum) from Cerebral Academicals to Genitals United.

good morning


Who was that guy on NN last night who was constantly telling Kirsty to 'be careful what she says' and 'the courts will decide' and ' if you actually read the transcript carefuilly' when ever she pointed out the DC appointed HMG Head of Communications in No10 (no less) was an ex newscorp guttersnipe (allegedly :)....

I am sure I saw a caption under his image which said he was an elected member of parliament.. but that cant be right. All his actions and words were entirely in keeping with a newscorp lawyer with a vested interest in limiting the damage to the newscorp / elected government of the day power base.

It must be a mistake, that guy could not possibly be an elected member of parliament.

Can anyone enlighten me as to who he really was?

Some GOOD news at last!
No more having to wait for organ donations. Now there's been the first man-made organ transplant :o)

'31. At 23:13 7th Jul 2011, Strugglingtostaycalm
No-one's life has been endangered by phone hacking.'

As I understand it (but in this tweet first, confirm later media world who knows), was not Milly Dowler's case put at risk by the hacking (if that is the correct term... not that most in the MSM care)? If so, criminal above reprehensible, and needing to the treated as such.

But as to the rest...



If the best in 'white knighthood' that can be brought to us (by?) to 'tell us what we think' are Campbell and Prescott, then we truly are deep in it.

#36 Every Silver Lining has a Cloud

Great ! More lives will be saved!

The expression 'save lives' (not one you used i know but your post set me off on this track) always stikes me as being hopelessly optimistic.

Actually no lives are ever saved, if one wants to be accurate about these things all medical breakthroughs and charitable interventions should be premised not by 'lives saved' but

' great news ...death delayed again for millions'

Such is the magnitude of our collective state of denial.

Oh Jericoa #38 - Not only will lives be saved, but the trade in organs (many countries legalise selling organs for 拢) will also be stopped (you can't deny that is a good thing).

@32 - An interesting one Barrie. I've no doubt that Murdoch has been angry that the 11th commandment has been broken so spectacularly. However, if there is a transactional script here, I suspect it's pretend reaction to mask a commercial decision.

Newspapers are in decline. Even the 'Screws' has had its circulation almost halved in the last few years. The 'Grauniad' is slowly but surely killing the 'Osberver' (sic) by the death of a thousand cuts. I believe that the separate Sunday newspaper model is no longer seen as sustainable, so the present furore is a very good excuse to cut jobs and costs.

The foot-soldiers are being turned into ronin, but the failed generals haven't been invited to commit seppuku yet.

Remember this story with the News of the World is also about bribery & corruption amongst the police!!

The police SOLD confidential information to the press!!

No-one had even mentioned 鈥渃ash for confidential information鈥� involving the police until a few days ago. See Operation Elveden press release from the Met on 6th July 2011.

For me this is the bigger story as it reveals police corruption and complicity! And also explains why a proper investigation into the phone hacking keeps getting ignored.

Perhaps we all need to support Jenny Jones in her request that we get a formal declaration from all officers involved in Operations Weeting & Eleveden that they have never and are not receiving any innapropriate payments or are under any undue pressure or influence from outside sources:

Can somebody please explain to me how on earth one of the guests on last night managed to say that Coulson may NOT be conducting perjury because he declared that he was not aware of payments to "corrupt" police?

As if payments to (non-corrupt??) police for information is somehow acceptable, and also not a sign of corruption!

I don't know whether our language is getting contorted for sport, or if people like this guest think he can insult my intelligence with such devious obfuscations!

And to not be challanged about it by the host!!

#39

It is a good thing as is your up-beat optimism and good humour in the face of a grump like me :).

I dunno Mistress (can I call you mistress :)... the world could and should be a much better place, we have the know how and the technology for it to be so.

The issue is no longer our understanding or mastery of technology the issue is cultural and language driven (actions follow thoughts, thoughts are in the framework of a language which is often culturally driven).


A new culture and a new language (way of thinking about things) has to develop for us to truely take advantage of how far we have come in terms of understanding and technology.

Despite my poor grasp of the rules of written English I am fascinated by common words and phrases and how their meanings have changed over time and how they govern bevaviour and I disect them whenever I can.

'saving lives' is one such phrase. It engenders a sense of hope for immortality in the context of modern medicine, technology can save us from death... is that why we clutter our lives with it so? Does it make us happy?

In the past people were more pre-occupied with 'saving souls' not physical lives and they developed the language framework we still use.

Not sure where I am going with this but anyway, thats the gist of it.

35. Jericoa - The gentlemen you refer to on Newsnight was Michael Fallon, Deputy Chairman of the Conservative Party.

I agree with your sentiments - for all the use his comments brought to the debate, he may as well have sent his fridge along to be interviewed instead.

#41 Amazing stuff to not censor that one

So there you have it, I can clearly state that "The police SOLD confidential information to the press" and also that the phone hacking story "reveals police corruption and complicity", without it being deemed defamatory.

I guess not when John Yates (Assistant Commissioner of the MET) has said "Several police officers, past and present, either ex or current, have over the past number of years been prosecuted for selling information like off the PNC and the like."

Not to mention Rebekah Wade's 2003 mea culpa.

I wonder if the amount of corruption identified so far is only small because of a lack of looking under enough rocks?

The news of the world has gone with the 'Sun sunday' paper to replace it (the name was registered 4 days ago). The death or slow death of a paper, I always thought was gonna be because of poor circulation...such as the Guardian. Shows you how wrong I can be sometimes.

Here's an interesting article, 'Life after capitalism ', by Robert Skidelsky. It's a bit wishy-washy, but perhaps a reflection of the way our zeitgeist is transforming itself?

#42 Re-framed (Part 1)

Point 1: Andy Coulson gave the following under oath: Sheridan asked Mr Coulson: "Did the News of the World pay corrupt police officers?" Mr Coulson replied: "Not to my knowledge".

Point 2: The Met acknowledges that officers have in the past accepted payments from the media, and clearly the News of the World was engaged in this practice (see link in #41 and quote in #45).

Point 3: 鈥淚t was claimed earlier this week that documents passed from News International to the Metropolitan Police in June show the former editor [Mr Coulson] authorising payments to officers for help with stories.鈥�

#42 Re-framed (Part 2)

This clearly does not look good for Mr Coulson. However, a guest on last night appeared to suggest that a defense against possible charges of perjury for Andy Coulson would rest on the semantics of whether the payments were made to 鈥渃orrupt鈥� police.

The extraordinary insinuation being that payments to somehow 鈥渘on-corrupt鈥� officers is acceptable, or indeed that the act of accepting payments is not a sufficient basis on which to declare an officer corrupt.

Is this as supercilious as arguing over the meaning of "is"?

#47

Good article

''Perhaps socialism was not an alternative to capitalism, but its heir.''

I have never thought about it in that way but there is a certain inherent logic to that progression.

Capitalism is the engine which gets you where you need to be (in the context of a nation), socialism then takes over to stop you tipping over the edge into morose obesity, gadget obsession and war mongering.

The continental view from 'Der Spiegel'.



Most interesting is the opinion of the conservative 'Die Welt'; one for you barrie I think:

".....If it comes out that Murdoch's arm reaches deep into the British government, 'Murdochgate' could very quickly turn into 'Parliamentgate.'

I also agree wholeheartedly with the comment in the 'S眉ddeutsche Zeitung'.

#44

Yes indeed, his selection for the required task on NN was clearly based on his ability to supress any debate rather than contribute to it until the speechwriters, DC and their 'friends' worked out and agreed how to proceed to cause the least damage possible to the status quo.

Predictably, again to supress debate a full and frank public enquiry is announced so the whole thing can be kicked into the long grass while public opinion / memory cools and they can use it as an excuse not to talk about it in the interim.



Horses for courses.

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

@52 "Horses for courses."

Yes - as Barrie says: "We have got ourselves another one!"

#52

To be fair Mr Fallon was deft with his semantic acrobatics (see #49), and just a little too wiley for Ms Wark. Is there also the scent of air cover from "higher authorities" too (hence referrals for #42 and #53)?

I note too that he is also a long serving member of the Treasury Select Committee.

I find it hugely funny that the cosy arrangement of press self-regulation and the apparent cavalier attitude of news execs to it meant that they felt able to carry on with the snow job on NOTW for years in blissful ignorance thet they were digging their own corporate grave by doing so.

Now every weazle word they uttered to the PCC will be dug up, analysed and compared to the evidence uncovered by the various enquiries, and where porkies can be clearly identified, no doubt IMHO each and every one will be another nail in the coffin of NewsCorp's bid to control BSkyB.

The evident contempt that the PPC was shown has come home to roost - if the PCC had been taken seriously, this couldn't have happened. The Murdochs have been hoisted with their own petard: the DG of the PPC has plainly said that in her opinion, they were lied to - we await the evidence.

This moment mirrors the moment of realisation that light touch regulation of the banks had catastrophically failed when they had to be bailed out - and so has self-regulation of the media. Fortunately we have a statutory regulator for broadcasting - OFCOM - and it is obliged to assess the suitability of companies to have the right to broadcast.

Just as the FSA became discredited for sitting on its hands and has been reforged to give it teeth to prevent abuses, I hope OFCOM has the will to step up to the plate and do the right thing, even if it causes a storm of protest from NewsCorp.

DC's announcement that the PCC is not fit for purpose is another nail in the bigger coffin of NeoCon libertarian so-called "freedom" to exclude business from being held accountable by the elected representatives of the people.

It has been asserted that the same practices didn't go on @ The Sun.

Really? Are we supposed to take NewsCorp's word for this?

51. Sasha Clarkson.
I too used to revere Der Spiegel as an alternative point of view on the news - until their London correspondent published a rant about the royal wedding. He said not a single person in the UK was remotely interested in the royal wedding, that we were 100% mad as hell at the expense, that the entire country was republican and that no-one was going to watch it on tv. He had got this information from The Guardian.

Far far more important than the demise of the News of the World newspaper, is the possible demise of our planet and humanity as we know it. I've seen enough news and media to know that we are being kept in the dark regarding Chemtrail/Geo-Engineering that appears to be happening in our skies and over most of the globe. There is a "cover-up" film called "What in the World are they spraying"? available at You Tube..... the link is
I am not a crank. I am an honest, law abiding and hard working UK citizen and I am truly shocked and disturbed at the content of this film. EVERYONE should see it and make their own minds up. I hope someone at the 大象传媒 investigates this and brings their findings to the people of this country and the world. Many questions NEED to be answered!!!

'57. At 17:19 8th Jul 2011, MaggieL wrote:
He had got this information from The Guardian.

Happens a lot elsewhere. Not the 'from the Guardian' bit, of course.

/blogs/theeditors/2011/06/story_removal.html

You could comment, but now it has shut down, in as selective a manner as a Nick Robinson thread.

Don't forget, they want your views.

Though it must be nice to still control the edit of even what is 'real'.

NOT TAKEN FOR A CRANK GEOFF (#58)

Hi Geoff your point well made. I am neutral on chemtrails (having a science background) but become daily more aware of the depth of corruption in bogus democratic governance, and the correspondingly shallow awareness in the 'education X 3' Blair-Infantiles, who make up more and more of the dumb electorate.