The scale of the phone-hacking and subsequent failure to investigate properly is potentially a much bigger scandal than anything we've seen for years.Personally, I think this one still has it beat. Or maybe the one about the D-Notice and the suicide attempt. Or the one where the Prime Minister converted to Catholicism about 45 seconds after stepping down from office.
the D notice thing is just an internet myth. I'm afraid I can't link to it so you'll have to take my word for it, there was no D notice or injunction, super or otherwise, on this very sad story, which should just remain a family affair.Then why wasn't it reported at the time?
The thing that made me most sad about the whole hacking scandal was it would have been the perfect opportunity for Milliband and Cameron to come together and both agree they'd had enough of bending over for Rupe all these years and maybe they should both stick together and cut NI down to size once and for allWhat makes you think they're bending over? "Please don't use your power and influence to make me Prime Minister Mr Murdoch, I can't take it."
I consider it bending over because they're willing to add things to their manifesto, greenlight BSkyB deals or attack the BBC just to keep Rupe happy. Doing things that you wouldn't otherwise do to keep the man in charge of a handful of papers happy is pretty much my definition of bending over and taking it (apart from, obviously, actually bending over and taking it, that's a whole different thing).I just think they're more than happy to greenlight BSkyB deals and attack the BBC. I don't subscribe to the idea that Murdoch is the bad-guy corrupting Ed Dave and Nick. More like a team of bad guys who've got so lazy they've forgotten to hide the fact they're the bad guys. It's not like Murdoch needs a gun to their heads to make them perpetuate the status quo.
Weird thing. Well, all I've got is internet rumour, so I'll defer. Guess we'll know for sure in a hundred years.I doubt we will to be honest, and we shouldn't. I'm assuming the Internet rumour gives you enough of an idea of the story to see why there was zero public interest and the risk of genuine harm from publication. It has always been the case that there are often details which are kept from publication (some of the more horrible details of the Dunblane Massacre and the Bulger case being two such examples) because as wonderful as free speech is, public interest is actually finite.
a hundred years.I doubt we will to be honest, and we shouldn't. I'm assuming the Internet rumour gives you enough of an idea of the story to see why there was zero public interest and the risk of genuine harm from publication. It has always been the case that there are often details which are kept from publication (some of the more horrible details of the Dunblane Massacre and the Bulger case being two such examples) because as wonderful as free speech is, public interest is actually finite.
The paper made little effort to conceal the hacking from its readers. On 14 April 2002 it published a story about a woman allegedly pretending to be Milly Dowler who had applied for a job with a recruitment agency: "It is thought the hoaxer even gave the agency Milly's real mobile number … the agency used the number to contact Milly when a job vacancy arose and left a message on her voicemail … it was on March 27, six days after Milly went missing, that the employment agency appears to have phoned her mobile."And re: Peston's statement. What's worse than hacking into Dowler's voicemail while she's still missing, deleting messages and therefore possibly obstructing the investigation, thereby giving her family false hope, and then exploiting that by getting them to give an exclusive interview to the paper? I mean, did they give Levi Bellfield directions to her house and help him dispose of the body afterwards or something? Christ.
A spokesman said: "Ford is a company which cares about the standards of behaviour of its own people and those it deals with externally.posted by Len at 10:03 AM on July 5, 2011
"We are awaiting an outcome from the News of the World investigation and expect a speedy and decisive response.
"Pending this response we will be using alternative media within and outside News International Group instead of placing Ford advertising in the News of the World."
Oh man, if only they'd run that "story". They've had looked like (even bigger) fucking idiots.Not even the News of the World is that stupid. I think the implication is the reason given to police for the surveillance was bollocks.
News of the World phone hacking: Police review all child abduction casesposted by Len at 3:58 PM on July 5, 2011
Police officers investigating phone hacking by the News of the World are turning their attention to examine every high-profile case involving the murder, abduction or attack on any child since 2001 in response to the revelation that journalists from the tabloid newspaper hacked into the voicemail messages of the murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler.
Zac Goldsmith, a Conservative, said the Murdoch empire had become too powerful.Sport on, boyo.
We have seen, I would say, systemic abuse of almost unprecedented power. There is nothing noble in what these newspapers have been doing. Rupert Murdoch is clearly a very, very talented businessman, he's possibly even a genius, but his organisation has grown too powerful and has abused that power. It has systematically corrupted the police and in my view has gelded this Parliament to our shame.
She had been out the night before having dinner with the Labour politician David Blunkett, commiserating with him over a story in The Independent on Sunday which had forced him to resign from the cabinet for the second and final time. When she returned home, to Battersea, something went seriously wrong – but we have only unreliable rumours about what exactly it was. Police arrived around 4am, after two 999 calls, to find a sorry-looking Kemp. They arrested Brooks and held her for eight hours. No charges resulted.I guess if you've been flicking the police tens of thousands of pounds over the years you can be confident "No charges" will result.
The Prime Minister cannot claim in defence that he was naively drawn in to this lethal circle. He was warned – many times. Shortly before the last election he was explicitly told about the company he was keeping. Alan Rusbridger – editor of The Guardian newspaper, which has performed such a wonderful service to public decency by bringing to light the shattering depravity of Mr Murdoch’s newspaper empire – went to meet one of Mr Cameron’s closest advisers shortly before the last election. He briefed this adviser very carefully about Mr Coulson, telling him many troubling pieces of information that could not then be put into the public domain.posted by rodgerd at 9:54 PM on July 6, 2011 [5 favorites]
The News Corp/Sky bid was referred by his predecessor Vince Cable on the grounds of "media plurality". Once referred on that basis, there are no other grounds that can be considered; it is not open under law – Hunt's team says – to assess whether News Corp is an appropriate owner of Sky in the light of the hacking saga.
Not only that, but section 67(5) of the Enterprise Act 2002 no less, which reads: "No more than one European intervention notice shall be given under subsection (2) in relation to the same relevant merger situation", means that Hunt can't even go back and consider whether News Corp or the Murdochs are "fit and proper" owners of BSkyB.
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