The Phone Hacking Scandal

I couldn't possibly be affected by that buyout, but I'm still happy to hear it's fallen through.

Go go, gadget investigators.

Hah, me too, but they can probably take it away from him. The arbitration system is extremely pro-business.

Malor wrote:

I couldn't possibly be affected by that buyout, but I'm still happy to hear it's fallen through.

It's even better than that - there's a chance the Murdochs could be stripped of the 30-odd% of SKY that they already own if they are deemed not "fit and proper" by offcom (who are already no fans of Murdoch). Will that actually happpen? Who knows? But I'm going with glass half full on this one until I hear otherwise.

Plus there were rumblings about him selling off the rest of News International as well, though I don't think that's even remotely confirmed.

AND there's a good chance this will spiral over to the US as well - especially since they very much seem to be in breach of your Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

All Empires are doomed to crumble I guess

Vince Cable must be over the chuffing moon right about now.

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stevenmack wrote:

AND there's a good chance this will spiral over to the US as well - especially since they very much seem to be in breach of your Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

Seems your analysis is correct, stevenmack. The FBI is now involved. What will this mean, American goodjers? Anyone care to offer an opinion?

If it can be proven that Fox News paid folks to hack into the voicemail accounts of 9/11 victims, this will be an incredibly big deal.

Otherwise, I expect Fox supporters will dismiss the proceedings as a witch hunt.

Axon wrote:
stevenmack wrote:

AND there's a good chance this will spiral over to the US as well - especially since they very much seem to be in breach of your Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

Seems your analysis is correct, stevenmack. The FBI is now involved. What will this mean, American goodjers? Anyone care to offer an opinion?

I get the "outfoxed" banner of course but....why is he wearing cheese on his head.....?

stevenmack wrote:

I get the "outfoxed" banner of course but....why is he wearing cheese on his head.....?

He's either a Wisconsinite, or someone sympathetic to our current political situation.

Fox News rather entertainingly showed footage of palm trees this past winter while discussing the Wisconsin protests (the actual footage was from a rally in Los Angeles, I believe). Since then, every sizable protest I've been to has at least one palm tree. For example:

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Rebekah Brooks has just resigned. Film at 11.

ed: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/blog...

Dimmerswitch wrote:

If it can be proven that Fox News paid folks to hack into the voicemail accounts of 9/11 victims, this will be an incredibly big deal.

Otherwise, I expect Fox supporters will dismiss the proceedings as a witch hunt.

You're talking about the same side of the fence that typically uses "If you haven't done anything wrong, you have nothing to hide" as their security and privacy philosophy. I honestly doubt they will care that much about voice-mail hacking, even of 9/11 victims. Witch hunt either way.

So the evil ginger quit. It doesn't change anything really. They did this to stem the bleeding, but the organization still exists intact (more importantly) the market still demands their brand of filth unaltered and undiluted.

To be honest, if you want filth - I am sorry to report that the Daily Mail (aka the Volkischer Beobachter) is still being published.

The Mail/Express print rubbish, but they don't (AFAIK) do what NotW did to get their stories. I don't think they need to for alternating scare stories and conspiracy theories, and being one step away from a celebrity gossip mag. I'm still interested to see what's left after they've finished the ritual sacrifices to make the situation go away (or until the next scandal/natural disaster/war happens), as you say, there's a market that exists to sell stuff to.

Scratched wrote:

The Mail/Express print rubbish, but they don't (AFAIK) do what NotW did to get their stories. I don't think they need to for alternating scare stories and conspiracy theories, and being one step away from a celebrity gossip mag. I'm still interested to see what's left after they've finished the ritual sacrifices to make the situation go away (or until the next scandal/natural disaster/war happens), as you say, there's a market that exists to sell stuff to.

This turns out not to be the case
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This is a pair of graphs showing which newspapers were caught paying PI's for information, and which ones decided to report on the fact. It doesn't say which ones were doing phone hacking specifically, however.

This kind of thing was endemic. Hopefully if whatever replaces the PCC has a pair, it might improve things, but Cameron is flat against mandatory external regulation.

Well, well, well.

Yeah - it's obvious that the Guardian can't afford it, and it'd be a waste of time doing it in the Indescribablyboring, given that no one reads it.

How about a game, to while away the time until the next episode.

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Rebekah Brooks = Gone
Les Hinton = Gone

Murdoch has apparently apologized personally to the family of Milly Dowler, and has taken out apology ads in his papers. It seems that, when this broke, he assumed it'd blow over, rather than turning into the enormous mushroom cloud it currently is.

Now Murdoch is going to have to pay some money and eat some crow to make it go away, but it'll still go away soon enough and I have serious doubts it will deal any lasting damage to his media empire.

bnpederson wrote:

Now Murdoch is going to have to pay some money and eat some crow to make it go away, but it'll still go away soon enough and I have serious doubts it will deal any lasting damage to his media empire.

Unless the FBI digs up some juicy dirt in the US.

BadKen wrote:
bnpederson wrote:

Now Murdoch is going to have to pay some money and eat some crow to make it go away, but it'll still go away soon enough and I have serious doubts it will deal any lasting damage to his media empire.

Unless the FBI digs up some juicy dirt in the US.

Oh, how I hope.

I doubt it. I haven't seen or heard anything that makes me think that there's a great deal of overlap between the NotW or The Sun and FOX News et al.

Rebekah Brooks has been arrested.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14178051

Wall Street Journal publishes a very self-serving Op/Ed on the hacking scandal:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...

"Years ago, at a British corner of News Corp.."

The whistle-blower and former showbiz reporter for NotW found dead in his appartment. All bets are off people.

Listening to the radio over the weekend, a lawyer made a very compelling case that this could bankrupt the Murdoch's if the shareholder choose too sue them for damages. This theory was made very compelling because Brooks resigned only after Prince Al-Waleed made critical comments about News Corps behaviour. Any law speaking guys prepared to validate or shoot down that theory?

I don't want to sound all conspiracy theorist, but it does remind me of Dr. David Kelly.

There was no conspiracy about Dr. Kelly. He was hounded to death and may Campbell never be allowed to forget that. Not that is was his intention to kill him but we are really beginning to see the level at which the tabloids are willing to stoop. I hope that Hoare wasn't on the receiving end of the same treatment.

That's why I said conspiracy theorist and remind, and not "this is exactly like", the aspects of an inconvenient person being removed from the picture at a convenient time. Not exactly a nice way to talk about someone's passing, but I guess it comes with the territory and events that such possibilities enter my mind.

Don't worry, the police say it's not suspicious. Unexplained, but not suspicious.

The Guardian article Axon linked notes he did have a history of using drugs and alcohol and that he recently felt unwell enough to see a doctor about it.

LulzSec[/url]]We have owned Sun/News of the World - that story is simply phase 1 - expect the lulz to flow in coming days.

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