Rejoice, rejoice rejoice!

nomix

True Viking
Joined
May 26, 2005
Messages
7,293
Location
Norway
Car(s)
Tend do walk the 40 meters from my bed to lecture.
Once there was a former Prime Minister who said Rejoice, rejoice, rejoice when hearing that Maggie Thatcher had resigned.

Now there is another occation for such an outburst of joy.

The News of the World is no more. Now we need to fuck Murdoch in the arse.
 
Last edited:
I can't put it better than this:

@johnmcdonnellMP Murdoch is disgusting, sacking 250 workers to save his own skin & protect Brooks. Inquiry should focus on his role in corrupting our media.
 
It's not the worse title ever used in this section.

Anyhow, there are obvious issues with this. For instance those people who just lost their jobs. But getting rid of News of the World is a Maggie Thatcher leaving office kind of moment.
 
Rejoice indeed! Let's hope the rest of his Empire is caught with their hands in some cookie jar. Also I suspect everyone in the UK, and many other places for that matter, will need to enter a PIN code every time they want to listen to their messages in the future (the phone hacking News Corp used was simple spoofing of caller ID, fooling the voicemail into believing it was the owner who called).

Also what do we know of James Murdoch? Is he as evil as his father? It was he who took the decision according to reports.
 
Last edited:
Perhaps they might be able to get some sort of legal order to stop such destruction? Or a warrant to do a search right away?
 
Perhaps they might be able to get some sort of legal order to stop such destruction? Or a warrant to do a search right away?

Yes, the police can get a warrant for search and seizure.

The big problem will be whether the shredders have been running non stop since James Murdoch's announcement.
 
In that case, it might be possible to put pressure on someone, thereby proving destruction of evidence, which is, if I'm not mistaken, a criminal offence?
 
Ah, excellent! About time this had its own thread.

But first, my own private message of "sympathy" to Murdoch.
HA-HA-HA! x n for about two hours.

Following the withdrawl of Ford Motor Corp from the NotW major advertisers yesterday, Mitsubishi, O2, Boots, the UK Govt, the British Legion and many others today also withdrew from their advertising contracts with NotW / News Corp.

So Murdoch and his boy today killed off the title.

BBC News - News of the World to close amid hacking scandal

It was also reported today that former NotW editor Andy Coulson had signed off ?10,000's payments to police officers for information on cases. (I suspect mobile phone numbers and other stuff.) He has previously denied this on oath and all knowledge of any wrongdoing, inculding phone hacking.

The Guardian - Andy Coulson to be arrested over phone hacking tomorrow

He resigned from the NotW and became David Cameron's Press Chief and has also quit from that.

I am not bothered so much about Coulson being nicked, its Murdoch I want to see getting jailed. (Not gonna happen though, more's the pity.)


On the wider front, BBC quoted today the UK Information Commisioner's report "What Price Privacy?" * (PDF File) which stated that it was not one or two journalists for the NotW but at least 305 journalists from a range of newspapers, buying illegally obtained information. (See Executive Summary 1.8 page 4)

I have a sneeky suspicion that mobile phone hacking and other illegal personal inormation theft, was happening on other, if not most or all of the UK Murdoch newspapers, plus many other UK newspapers as well.

A full public enquiry led by a high court Judge has now been propsed for all this newspaper corruption. The last thing Murdoch wanted.

About bloody time! :rolleyes:

* Have only reads the Exec Summary to check the BBC's ref.
 
Last edited:
Just watched Question Time on BBC 1. There is unanimous public ire at these antics by Murdoch. And so there should be. Murdoch papers are not the only ones who are guilty I bet.

EDIT/ oh my post just got beaten on to FG. I think this will be a Brits only (Save for Nomix) thread. ...
 
Last edited:
Perhaps it might be an idea for everyone to stop watching/reading anything related to News Corp?

Wouldn't that be marvelous..
 
In that case, it might be possible to put pressure on someone, thereby proving destruction of evidence, which is, if I'm not mistaken, a criminal offence?

Its probably a grey area unless the police say they want the documents.
 
All I can say is that over here, it would certainly constitute destruction of evidence. If the police raid you, and you blow up your hard drive before they can seize it, wouldn't that be a crime?
 
All I can say is that over here, it would certainly constitute destruction of evidence. If the police raid you, and you blow up your hard drive before they can seize it, wouldn't that be a crime?

Usually I would say its the same, but with the company folding it introduces the odd part of British law that was explained in the Reuters link.
 
Slightly OT, but there is a link to Jezza here.

Rebecca Brooks former editor of the NoW and News Intl' boss, met her current husband at a party in Jezza's house, and is now a Chipping Norton resident. Who'd ever have thought of Jezza playing cupid!!!

Really funny now to see a greasy slime ball like David Mellor who was the minister in charge who allowed Murdoch to register his tv companies in Luxembourg to avoid UK regulation, is now saying Murdoch shouldn't be allowed takeover BSkyB.
 
Last edited:
If they liquidated news of the world for the purpose of destroying documents, then one wonders what kind of nasty stuff they've got hidden away in there.

Among the dark stories that litter the NoW newsroom. is the aftermath of the trial, of Andy Coulson hired private investigators who were acquitted of planting an axe in the head of their former partner:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/mar/11/news-of-the-world-police-corruption?INTCMP=SRCH

NoW went after police heading the murder case:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jul/06/news-of-the-world-rebekah-brooks?INTCMP=SRCH
 
I think this is just the tip of an iceberg.

However, it's a good sign, when people in high positions are doing things like changing their mind about something they promoted before. I simply like the feeling, that the "save one's neck" game has already begun. It usually leads to a chain reaction of new revelations.

I have a feeling, this could change the British newspaper landscape and I can only add: Finally.
 
This is making headlines here, too, you know...

The World from Berlin

'British Journalists Bend the Truth, Plagiarize Competitors and Break Laws'

News International has decided to close the 168-year-old tabloid News of the World in response to a phone-hacking scandal at the newspaper. German commentators say the affair reveals just how murky the world of British journalism is.

It was a sentence that sent shock waves through the international world of media: "This Sunday will be the last issue of the News of the World."

The announcement was part of a statement by James Murdoch , the son of Rupert Murdoch and CEO of News Corporation Europe, that was read out to News of the World staff on Thursday afternoon. There will be no commercial advertisements in the paper's final issue, and any advertising space will be donated to charity, Murdoch said in his statement.

The shock decision to close the 168-year-old newspaper came after a week of revelations about a phone-hacking scandal that have put the paper's owner News International -- a subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation -- under increasing pressure.

On Friday, Prime Minister David Cameron promised to hold two investigations into goings-on at the News of the World and into future media regulation. Also on Friday, Andy Coulson, the former editor in chief of the newspaper who later became Cameron's communications chief, was arrested on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications and corruption.

The tabloid, which is said to have the most readers of any English-language newspaper, is accused of hacking into phone messages belonging to crime victims, families of dead soldiers, celebrities and politicians. As many as 4,000 possible targets have been identified by police. It is also accused of paying police for information.

Increasing Pressure


The affair began in 2006, when the first revelations of phone hacking emerged. In 2007, a News of the World editor and a private investigator received prison sentences for hacking phones belonging to aides of the royal family.

The scandal heated up this week when the Guardian reported that the News of the World had hacked into a phone belonging to a missing schoolgirl and deleted some voicemail messages. Later in the week, it emerged that journalists from the newspaper had allegedly also targeted phones belonging to families of abducted children, relatives of victims of the July 7, 2005 London terror attacks and relatives of British soldiers who had died in Afghanistan.

The revelations prompted a wave of outrage against the newspaper, including angry readers' letters and Internet calls to boycott the tabloid. Pressure increased over the course of the week, with the government promising an inquiry into the allegations and major companies, including Ford, Virgin and Sainsbury's, announcing they would no longer advertise in the newspaper.

Many observers felt that Thursday's decision to close the newspaper was a smart move on the part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. There were fears that the scandal could potentially derail a much bigger deal involving the group's bid to purchase the portion of satellite broadcaster BSkyB that it doesn't already own. By taking decisive action on the News of the World affair, the media giant may be trying to overcome potential resistance to the deal from the British government, which needs to approve the takeover.

On Friday, German commentators take a look at the scandal.

SPIEGEL ONLINE's London correspondent, Carsten Volkery, writes:

"The closure of the newspaper is a huge loss of face for the country's most powerful media group, which also publishes the Sun, the Times and the Sunday Times. For years, the group had believed it would somehow be able to suppress the wiretapping scandal that had been simmering since 2006. Prominent victims were paid hush money totaling millions. But the publisher had to admit more and more and keep backpedaling, including making a public apology."

"But it does not seem that the group's nightmare will end any time soon. Scotland Yard's investigations are continuing, and new revelations are certain to come."

The Financial Times Deutschland writes:

"Murdoch's decision is surprising and unprecedented, but unavoidable. After all, the scandal could have pulled his entire corporation into the abyss."

"But the drastic step goes well beyond Murdoch's empire. It is an admission that criminal research methods can no longer be fobbed off as isolated incidents. British journalists -- far more than German journalists -- bend the truth, plagiarize competitors and break laws to get a story that sells. Instead of condemning such bad behavior, reporters' bosses have publicly defended them. This gives them strength, while they use the argument that everyone else is doing it too."

"It would be na?ve to believe that the demise of the News of the World will be a lesson to the British press. Other tabloid papers will only court Murdoch's old customers with similar stories and methods. As long as papers believe they can increase circulation with immoral tactics, they will continue to do so. It's up to the readers to show publishers what kind of journalism they want."

Conservative Die Welt writes:

"The scandal has reached parliament, and the government has given the green light for an investigation. It was long overdue. This isn't just about individual crimes. This is about the reputation of a political system in which the borders between business, the state and government threaten to become blurred. Now it's time to consider the common good, in particular the protection of citizens from the excesses of commercial profit grubbing."

"Just a few years after the failure of parliamentary and state oversight of the financial markets (during the financial crisis), the British parliamentarians must now ask themselves how seriously they take the abuse of economic power. If it comes out that Murdoch's arm reaches deep into the British government, 'Murdochgate' could very quickly turn into 'Parliamentgate.'"

The center-left S?ddeutsche Zeitung writes:

"All British governments function according to the same reflex: They all want to curry favor with Murdoch and his newspapers. When the tycoon lends his support to the opposition camp, then many people in Britain interpret this as a demand for a change in government."

"There is a trivial motive behind Murdoch's behavior, his market power and his coarse desire for political influence. Murdoch, a despised and unwanted interloper in the British media landscape, yearns for respect and puts the fear of God (into others). Murdoch wants a bigger role in the apparatus of government than is appropriate for a newspaper publisher. Under a feeling of invulnerability, a culture of lawlessness thrived in his company, where his staff did not even shrink from gambling with the fate of abducted children. The British political establishment tolerated this state of affairs -- and will now have to pay the price."

-- David Gordon Smith and Kristen Allen
Source: http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/0,1518,773214,00.html
 
Top