Murdoch

Rupert Murdoch, Chairman and Chief Executive O...
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I spend torturous hours roaming around the national and international news sites, blog sites, Facebook and other forms of social media to get the latest on Murdoch so I thought to myself: “Why can’t we have all the news in the one place?”  Hence, this Murdoch page.

Dear friends, if any of you happen to find any interesting articles or developments perhaps you would be kind enough to share the link with us on this exclusive thread.

As Mobius pointed out, this story will keep growing legs.  As such, I’ll keep adding new pages to this thread like I do with the popular Media Watch section.

And just to remind you how much of a prick he is – I’ve included a photo for your inspiration.

352 comments on “Murdoch”

  2. And her first set of instructions will be:

    1. Give Tony Abbott your full support.
    2. Do whatever it takes to destroy the NBN.

  3. Watching Murdoch in one news report, looking old and frail and harmless, with son James leading/holding his arm as they made their way through the throng of journalists, and in another, Murdoch, walking quite confidently without any assistance, I can’t help but wonder whether his changed appearance is a strategic move in advance of their summons to appear before the Commons Culture Select Committee.

  5. Attacks against the Murdoch media in the US grow apace as calls grow louder to do something about his media there. US View: How a UK phone-hacking scandal could affect the US

    One can only hope a similar thing starts to happen here and Bob Brown has gotten us off to a good start. If Andrew Bolt’s spray is anything to go by then Brown must be on the right track.

    WARNING
    Bolt vitriolic nonsense follows. Bolt really has lost it this time.

    I am shocked to hear the leader of a major political party propose something so dangerous, so threatening to free speech. And to do this within an hour of some in the Canberra press gallery virtually demanding of Gillard advice on how to help her…

    Do not doubt just what Brown has in mind as he cynically exploits the scandal that’s engulfed the Murdoch-owned News of the World in Britain to muffle conservative media outlets and journalists, and rig the debate more in the favor of the Left…

    In a healthier age, these suggestions would be seen as the far-fetched demands of a closet totalitarian. But Brown is powerful, Gillard is desperate and despises the Murdoch papers who’ve questioned her policies, and the “elite’ media has rarely been so supine.

    Worse, News has stained its reputation and is weaker than it’s been in years to defend itself.

    And, of course, those famous defenders of free speech have gone only too silent since the rise of this Labor Government. No one knows that better than me.

    Wonder if TomM will demand this be challenged and this spray of nonsense be corrected?

  6. From Sue’s link to the OO on the Media thread and Shanahan…

    While there have been public fights and disputes between the government and the Greens and various Australian media outlets of late — as well as evidence of questionable practices — no one is seriously suggesting there is anything like the destructive and despicable culture that has existed in the love-hate relationship of British politics and press.

    http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/media/not-a-time-for-the-pm-to-bow-to-brown/story-e6frg996-1226094946944

    Shanahan is obviously behind the times because we now also have the FBI investigating Murdoch (on the Murdoch Deposit Box thread) and alleged phone taping of the 9/11 victims. This one is particularly interesting given that Murdoch is a US citizen.

  8. Min, the fact that he is a US citizen could be his biggest downfall. He can be charged in the US for crimes committed elsewhere.

  9. Migs, I was wondering about that. I know that US citizenship makes the citizen immune from charges elsewhere because the US refuses to acknowledges other jurisdictions, but certainly not if Murdoch is sproinged for a crime in the US.

    If there is one single hint about Murdoch doing the wrong thing by the 9/11 families, he is dead meat.

  10. Min, if a US citizen is engaged in corruption overseas while he is living in the US then he is subject to the US laws as well.

  12. Thank you for that Migs.

    Bob Brown is not going to let this one rest…

    THE Greens are pressing their case for a Senate inquiry into media ownership and regulation in Australia as a consequence of the News of the World corruption and phone-hacking scandal in Britain.

    Despite having no evidence of police corruption or phone hacking in Australia, the Greens’ leader, Senator Bob Brown, said yesterday it was ”timely” for an examination of media regulation in Australia given the behaviour exposed in Britain.

    http://www.smh.com.au/business/senators-weigh-up-press-ownership-review-20110714-1hfo7.html#ixzz1S8RN281u

  13. “News is something someone wants to suppress. Everything else is advertising.” –Lord Northcliffe
    ———–

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/phone-hacking/8638418/Phone-hacking-Rupert-and-James-Murdoch-agree-to-give-evidence-to-Commons-committee.html

    Rupert and James Murdoch, who are both American citizens, are free to leave the UK. However as long as they are in Britain, they are considered “within the jurisdiction of Parliament”, according to the Commons’ rule book Erskine May.

    If it’s too risky for the Murdochs to go to the USA, and they feel the need to leave England, where will they go, Australia, or the Caymans ?

  15. Miglo @ 12.14pm, that’s a strong possibility !

    Reminds me of the dog’s hind leg. Crooked .

    http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/07/14/murdoch-s-sham-news-corp-investigation.html

    Murdoch’s Sham Investigation

    After weeks of unfolding scandal, Rupert gives his first substantive interview–to his own paper. Tunku Varadarajan on the mogul’s usual hollow promises.
    Jul 14, 2011 6:49 PM EDT Print Email Just when we were beginning to wonder when The Wall Street Journal would actually start to cover the meltdown at its proprietor’s company with all the zest that the world’s best business newspaper ought to muster for the world’s biggest business story, Rupert Murdoch picked up the phone to his own paper and gave it an exclusive interview.

  18. Has anybody else ever thought that “Rupert” really is a stupid name? Sounds like the name one would give to a cartoon bear.

  21. Migs, Abbott can reject until the cows come home. Has he yet to work it out..he is now irrelevant. Tony Abbott is the leader of the opposition in a minority government where the incumbent Julia Gillard has been able to successfully negotiate with the independents. And now is able to negotiate with the Greens to get all important legislation passed in the Upper House.

    Bye, Bye Tony….

  22. Tim Dunlop at The Drum

    15 July 2011

    Breaking the nexus between politicians and the media

    http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/2795410.html

    I don’t know about you, but the main feeling I have about the continuing scandal in Britain involving Rupert Murdoch’s media organisation is one of powerlessness.

    Yes, there is revulsion at what they did, especially in regard to the victims of crime and their families, but the overall feeling is of being
    witness to a loss of control of our political process.

  23. Thank you Pip. Funny the things you remember, apart from Tim’s ability to get to the nitty gritty of issues the things that I remember are:

    Do you have a link for that? And no lengthy copy and pastes. How many of us used to get told off for those two things 🙂

  24. In the Tim Dunlop article above:-

    The issue with the News of the World scandal is not simply that a news organisation engaged in reprehensible and criminal behaviour, but that they were aided and abetted by a supine political class and a corrupted police force. And it is not just that crimes were allowed to go uninvestigated, but that the relationship between the media and politicians and police was so tainted that the whole process had become normalised.

  25. Yes Miglo, there really is a Rupert the Bear.

    I read him hundreds of times about 25 years ago :]]]

  28. And a Murdoch clan pipes up on cue and now I wonder how many millions Brooks is getting to be the fall girl.

  29. Adrian..just appreciate the moment. Incredibly damaging to the share price of the company I believe.

  31. An additional thought to my post of 10.09. It is a shame that Leigh Sales did not do a bit of investigation herself. The similarities of Hinton and Hartigan could have been addressed by 7.30.

  37. Emma Alberichi News24, had the story that Murdoch is blaming the lawyers Harbottle …….. In her report she noted that Harbottle represented the Queen when Goodman and Mulcaire were gaoled. So by inference Harbottle should have known the depth of the hacking. I wonder when did News take them on as their legal team and why blame them now?

  38. News Corpse

    Margaret Drabble: Now we have the chance to purge ourselves of insidious shame
    I was surprised, however, by the speed of the assassination of the News of the World. Although 80, the old despot Murdoch is still smart, and we should not rejoice too soon. He is canny and ruthless. He just got rid of the lot of them, all those journalists and technicians, the infamous, the liars, and the workaday, and as none of them were union members, they won’t have much of a comeback.
    http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/margaret-drabble-now-we-have-the-chance-to-purge-ourselves-of-insidious-shame-2314592.html

    The Australian was and is a champion of Work Choices.

  40. I cannot but help notice that Sky News is mumble mumble mumble something about Rupert Murdoch..but hey Here’s Tony!

  43. A point that may affect Hartigan and his assurances and the self investigation of the Australian
    “The source said News International had given assurances that they were co-operating fully in the initial investigation and that, as a result, it was impossible for police to obtain court orders allowing them to seize further material that would have proved a wider conspiracy. ”
    From my previous post. Apparently NI “assurances” that all was OK could not be trusted. If the issues spread to the USA (and by the article Jude Law reckons he was hacked when in the US) then why not Australia.

  45. Migs, I’m stunned..as in taken into custody, as in arrested…who is next I wonder. One thing is for certain, these corporate types will take everyone with them…

  46. It could be the son. Mr. Murdoch does look haggard.

    Wonder if he had an ear bashing from his mother?

  47. The charges are of interest… Brooks was arrested on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications and on suspicion of corruption allegations. The corruption charge especially.

  48. The rumour is that James Murdoch will also be arrested – soon. Will old man Rupert let his son rot or will he hold his hand up to shift some of the blame to himself?

    Who am I kidding? Of course he won’t.

  49. It’s possible, because Ms Brooks attended the Police station by pre-arrangement, that this is a ploy to avoid giving evidence at the Select Committee hearing on Tuesday.

    http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/17/us-brooks-instantview-idUSTRE76G11G20110717

    MARK LEWIS, LAWYER FOR FAMILY OF MURDERED SCHOOLGIRL MILLY

    DOWLER

    “Whilst I welcome the widening of the investigation into all those who were employed at the newspaper at the relevant time, this move might have obvious ramifications as regards her willingness to answer question at Tuesday’s select committee hearing.“

  50. With a bit of luck, James could be next. Who at NoW would have authorised a 1million pound pay out to a PR man ?

  53. Now from America a News company:
    “illegally accessed plaintiff’s computer system and obtained proprietary information” and “disseminated false, misleading and malicious information about the plaintiff.”…..and

    News Corporation must have known it had another rogue on its hands, one who needed to be dealt with. After all, Mr. Carlucci, who became chairman and chief executive of News America in 1997, had overseen a division that had drawn the scrutiny of government investigators and set off lawsuits that chipped away at the bottom line.

    And while Mr. Murdoch might reasonably maintain that he did not have knowledge of the culture of permission created by Mr. Hinton and Ms. Brooks, by now he has 655 million reasons to know that Mr. Carlucci colored outside the lines.

    So what became of him? Mr. Carlucci, as it happens, became the publisher of The New York Post in 2005 and continues to serve as head of News America, which doesn’t exactly square with Mr. Murdoch’s recently stated desire to “absolutely establish our integrity in the eyes of the public.”

    http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/18/business/media/for-news-corporation-troubles-that-money-cant-dispel.html?hp

    Yes Hartigan may try to assure Leigh Sales that all is above board in Australia. But just maybe some investigation and reporting by Sales was warranted and an expose of News Ltd practices on either side of the Atlantic would have been a better story.

  58. They have much better manners than our own senators have.

    Maybe some of them, especially on the Opposition side should be watching this to see how it is done.

    They might even learn that you do not have to be abusive and rude, especially to PS who cannot answer back.

  60. Miglo, his memory is better than Downer and Co when they were questioned over the Iraq wheat fiasco.

    Is this the time to have a good memory if you can get away with it.

    His son is taking the opposite stand. Keep talking and hope no ones notices you are talking rot.

    James is beginning to use the ongoing police actions as an excuse not to answer.

  62. Sky News are appalled – It seems that Murdoch got some sort of cream on his jacket. That is just so very important compared with the victims of phone hacking.

  63. Shaving cream according to this morning’s news and it looked like shaving cream.

    But never put it pass the MSM. Channel 7 News with Chris Reason in London for the hearings. Paraphrase:

    “A frail Rupert was viciously attacked but his heroic wife came to his rescue slapping the attacker.”

    It’s sickening to listen to the media make out Murdoch’s wife is a hero.

    I also note that the media character attacks on the perpetrator didn’t take long to air.

  65. Note Rupert interrupting his son so as to deliver his preprepared and scripted humble pie piece. Seems James forgot the script and spoke out of turn or was about to say something Rupert didn’t like.

    They should separate the two at each of the table row so Rupert can’t hint or interrupt James using touch and hand gestures.

    Anyway it was a huge non-event except for the shave cream pie incident, with the MSM stating what a strong performance James gave. If you call talking a lot without actually saying anything a strong performance then I guess it was.

  67. My thought is that the non-Murdoch MSM are attempting to spin this into a positive light and spruik up the whole unsavoury thing into a less damning light because a very negative outcome might backlash onto them as well.

    The media have always loved to apply scrutiny and morals onto others but have never been able to take any scrutiny or morals being applied to themselves.

  68. ‘If you call talking a lot without actually saying anything….’

    You have the knack almost down to an art form.

  69. Cheap shot el gordo, and your post says a lot more about you than it does about me, especially from one who posts a lot of grand over arching emphatic statements without a shred of evidence or even bothering to source or supply data. In a classic piece of projection, and an immature schoolyard one at that, you neatly demonstrate your form.

  71. Migs

    If this was a government department hacking even one phone the result would be the downfall of the Minister and most likely the Government as they would be deemed fully responsible whether they knew the actions of their staff or not.

    The media demands a minister and the PM are responsible for the actions of their departmental staff irrespective of whether they actually knew.

    To now refuse to apply the same rules to the thug media empire that is NewsCorp by the same despicable one sided opinion and journalist writers is nothing short of hypocrisy.

  72. Can’t disagree with you on that one, Shane. But mind you, strict proberty applies in the public service as does the likelihood of criminal conviction if the proberty is abused. Subsequently, we are sqeaky clean and admirably honest (apart from Mr Grech).

  73. An amusing Tweet about the old foreigner and his brat :-

    Antibolt MrRabbitt by Dan_Gulberry
    I personally thought that during the pie fight the Murdochs looked like billionaire trailer park trash on a weird episode of Jerry Springer.

  74. Pip, same from where I was sitting. Apparently the old b*stard had to nick off and change his coat in order to recover from the custard/cream episode.

    Bush got a shoe – Rupert got a cream pie – there must be something meaningful in the aforementioned.

  75. Link courtesy of Michael B…

    http://www.johnpilger.com/articles/welcome-to-the-world-s-first-murdochracy

    Across Australia, he owns almost 70 per cent of the capital city press and the only national newspaper, and Sky Television, and much else. Welcome to the world’s first murdochracy.

    What is a murdochracy? It is where the fealty and augmentation of Murdoch’s editors and managers are undisguised, an inspiration to his choir on seven continents, where even his competitors sing along and wise politicians heed the Murdochism: “What’ll it be? A headline a day or a bucket of shit a day?”

  76. Min

    Thanks for the link. I found this paragraph the most disturbing.

    “In 1983, there were 50 major corporations dominating the world’s media. By 2002, this had been reduced to nine. Rupert Murdoch says that eventually there will be three, including his own. If we accept this, media and information control will be the same, and we shall all be citizens of a murdochracy. “

  78. Sue, it’s now evident that it wasn’t just the Murdoch stable, but will they all stick to their line that no-one knew nuffink ??

    The payouts looked like lunch money at the start, but not any more.

  81. I have wondered why James has not been called in by the police. He does have a Australian citizenship I imagine.

    I wonder if Mr.Abbott is a little lonely, being the only party ;leader, they say in the world to support Murdoch.

  84. As an addendum(?) to the above.

    It really starts getting interesting at 3.50, and ramps up with Joe Romm around 9.00 in

  85. Tom R

    Thanks for the link very interesting indeed. Hopefully the truth will come out.

    It is time for laws to rewind to the days where no single enterprise can own more than 10% of the overall media exposure in a country, simply in the name of honesty in reporting and the ability to be educated by many diverse opinions that are not beholden to thug CEOs.

  87. Tom, from your link..this is going to be bigger than Ben Hur.

    Only 170 of the victims have yet been notified. If any of the others among the “Hacked 12,000” turn out to be scientists at the Climatic Research Unit of the University of East Anglia, Rupert Murdoch may be in a lot bigger trouble than he is, even tonight.

  88. Tom R, the irony of the story is that if Murdoch is linked to the climate scientist emails and hence the rampage of the denialists at the same time he was promoting in his papers that all his businesses were “Green”, ”Energy neutral”.
    Let the Nasty news handle the PR on that.

  90. lol min, that was great.

    House as murdoch. Somehow it just works 😉

    I always thought that Kevin Klein was supposed to be a quiet dig at murdoch in this film. He was supposed to be Kiwi, but with a very Aussie accent

  92. I just went through it again Min to get this bit

    ‘angels don’t frig rupert, we don’t have the training’

    Love It 🙂

  93. It’s a good line isn’t it Tom. 😀 The joy you’ve spread..where the a*se are all the satellite dishes….

  95. Regulator deals blow to Foxtel’s bid for Austar

    http://www.smh.com.au/business/regulator-deals-blow-to-foxtels-bid-for-austar-20110722-1hrsr.html

    No, Rupert you’ve got enough already 😀

    The competition regulator has raised concerns that the planned $2 billion takeover of pay TV operator Austar by rival Foxtel, part owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, could hurt competition on three fronts.

    The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission today delayed its decision on Foxtel’s bid until September, indicating it sees problems in it proceeding at all.

    The ACCC said it has a preliminary view it would substantially lessen competition in pay TV, the market for buying programs and that for the supply of telecommunications products because it is half owned by Telstra.

    Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/regulator-deals-blow-to-foxtels-bid-for-austar-20110722-1hrsr.html#ixzz1SnkqTcLV

  97. TONY Abbott has accused the Prime Minister of ”smearing” News Limited and warned against using privacy laws to ”intimidate” media organisations out of robust coverage.

    But the Opposition Leader has given qualified endorsement to the idea of improving Australia’s privacy rights and his communications spokesman Malcolm Turnbull says the privacy reform discussion is ”a debate worth having”.

    and
    Crossbench MP Tony Windsor, who is currently in London with a front row seat on the News of the World scandal, told The Age yesterday he supported an inquiry into the media.

    Mr Windsor said freedom of expression was important and he was not interested in a ”witch-hunt”, but he would support an examination of media bias and the ”blatant disrespect for institutions shown by some shock jocks”.

    ”Some in the media feel they are the government of the day,” Mr Windsor said. ”It wouldn’t hurt to look at diversity.”

    Readers, you whistle and I’ll point 😀

    Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/national/abbott-demands-gillard-clarify-news-comments-20110721-1hqwx.html#ixzz1SoDHzUOQ

    Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/national/abbott-demands- gillard-clarify-news-comments-20110721-1hqwx.html#ixzz1SoBygq8S

  98. James Murdoch’s hacking testimony under scrutiny

    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-07-22/murdoch-hacking-claims-disputed/2806550

    Heir apparent to the News Corporation empire, James Murdoch, faced the UK’s parliamentary committee into the phone-hacking scandal on Tuesday.

    Now a former editor and a former legal adviser of the shuttered News of the World have challenged his claim that he was unaware of the extent of phone-hacking at the newspaper when he approved a big payout to a victim in 2009.

    Former editor Colin Myler and former legal adviser Tom Crone released a statement insisting they had warned James Murdoch that there was evidence of widespread phone hacking at the News of the World before he authorised a key payout to a victim, the English soccer executive Gordon Taylor.

    “We would like to point out that James Murdoch’s recollection of what he was told when agreeing to settle the Gordon Taylor litigation was mistaken,” the statement said.

    “In fact, we did inform him of the for Neville email which had been produced to us by Gordon Taylor’s lawyers.”

    The storm centres around the so-called “transcript for Neville” email, allegedly sent by a junior reporter to the private investigator Glenn Mulcaire containing transcripts of messages Mulcaire had hacked.

    It is thought the “Neville” involved was the defunct paper’s former chief reporter Neville Thurlbeck.

    If it turns out he knew about the transcripts, that would contradict News International’s claims that the hacking was limited to a lone rogue reporter.

  99. Pip, yes I’ve read that one too. I will be interesting to see what the outcome might be, but I think that we might have to wait to see how the House of Commons wants to proceed.

  100. Just when we think Murdoch’s ‘News” can’t get any worse this comes along.

    http://thinkprogress.org/media/2011/07/21/275416/news-corp-s-times-of-london-cartoon-shows-starving-children-bemoaning-phone-hacking-scandal-coverage/

    NEWS FLASH
    News Corp’s Times Of London Cartoon Shows Starving Children Bemoaning Phone-Hacking Scandal Coverage | A news organization’s coverage of its own egregious scandal is undoubtedly tricky. Today, News Corp. provided an example of exactly what not to do. Mediaite’s Alex Alvarez caught an editorial cartoon in the News Corp-owned Times Of London titled “Priorities” that depicts “three starving, ethnically ambiguous children sitting nude in the sand” with one “cradling his distended stomach and announcing that he has had ‘a bellyful of phone-hacking.’” While the cartoon is likely a reference to the famine in Somalia that certainly deserves attention, “publishing a tacky, potentially offensive cartoon making light of serious allegations AND life-threatening poverty” ever-so-slightly misses the mark

  101. This from 2UE is downright disgusting !!

    http://annarose.net.au/2011/07/22/fear-and-loathing-in-australian-politics/

    Fear and Loathing in Australian Politics
    Posted on July 22, 2011 by annastarrrose

    You may have missed it if you are outside of Sydney, but local station 2UE took radio to new lows with a sketch last week. It pertained to be a recording of the Australian Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young having an orgasm in response to the carbon price. While some obviously found it funny, imagine being a young woman thinking about entering politics listening to 2UE that morning. Imagine being a woman, like Senator Hanson-Young, already in politics.

    The skit purported to be a ‘secret recording’ but the not-so-secret-reason for creating it was to demean her and take away her power. Resorting to sexual innuendo or downright harassment is an increasingly common way that male political commentators, in the mainstream media like 2UE and online, are using when confronted with the rise of women in Australian politics and causes.

  103. Elle silent on sacking after the hacking

    http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/private-sydney/elle-silent-on-sacking-after-the-hacking-20110722-1hskd.html

    WHY won’t Elle Macpherson just say sorry?

    In 2005 ”the body” was so pleased with the work her marketing/business adviser Mary-Ellen Field was doing for her, she thanked her with gushing hand-written notes and showered her with expensive gifts, including jewels from Cartier.

    But as Field told PS from London this week: ”I went from hero to zero in two weeks.”

    Advertisement: Story continues below If Elle was the body, then Field was most definitely the brains behind the multi-million dollar empire
    bearing the model’s name and image.

    Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/private-sydney/elle-silent-on-sacking-after-the-hacking-20110722-1hskd.html#ixzz1StmoUy3P

  105. Pip regarding that “cartoon” maybe it could be forwarded to “Mr humble day Murdoch” for comment.
    Or better still Hartigan at Oz.

  108. Sue, tentacles everywhere.

    Labour leader shares concerns over impartiality of Lord Justice Leveson after revelations that he attended parties at the home of Elisabeth Murdoch.

    Ed Miliband is considering demands by MPs for the judge in charge of the phone-hacking inquiry to be removed from his post after reports that he had socialised with members of Rupert Murdoch’s family.

    Sources close to the Labour leader said he shared the concerns raised over the impartiality of Lord Justice Leveson after it emerged that the judge attended two parties at the London home of Elisabeth Murdoch, the News Corporation chairman’s daughter who is regarded as the heir to the business, and her husband, Matthew Freud.

    David Cameron knew about the parties before appointing Lord Leveson to chair the inquiry into the scandal, Downing Street admitted.

  109. Needless to say, this isn’t a News Ltd publication.

    http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/d-j-taylor-no-weird-food-please-ndash-were-british-2319413.html

    The politician for whom I felt the greatest sympathy this week was the Australian Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, whose ratings have fallen to a bare 26 per cent. Ms Gillard’s crime has been to introduce a carbon tax, to be levied on 500 of the country’s leading polluters. It will be followed by a market-based emissions trading scheme, which rewards the carbon-virtuous. Australia, it should be said, is the developed world’s worst producer of greenhouse gases.

    Naturally, the voters of a democratic nation are perfectly free to turn against a politician they don’t like, even if the effect resembles a polar bear happily gnawing off corners of the ice floe on which it sits. Perhaps, half a century hence, as she surveys the parched Antipodean wilderness, Ms Gillard will be able to congratulate herself on her prescience.

  110. News International ‘bullied Liberal Democrats over BSkyB bid’
    Party claims it was told it would be ‘done over’ by Murdoch papers if deal did not go through as company wanted

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jul/23/news-international-liberal-democrats-bskyb?CMP=twt_gu

    Rupert Murdoch’s News International launched a campaign of bullying against senior Liberal Democrats in an attempt to force through the company’s bid for BSkyB, high-level sources have told the Observer.

    Lib Dem insiders say NI officials took their lobbying campaign well beyond acceptable limits and even threatened, last autumn, to persecute the party if Vince Cable, the business secretary, did not advance its case.

    According to one account from a senior party figure, a cabinet minister was told that, if the government did not do as NI wanted, the Lib Dems would be “done over” by the Murdoch papers, which included the now defunct News of the World as well as the Sun, the Times and the Sunday Times.

    The accounts are only now coming to light, say sources, because the minister involved feared the potential for damage to the party, which was already suffering a dramatic slide in popularity after going into coalition with the Tories. They chime with reports from senior figures in the Labour party who say that Murdoch executives issued threats to Ed Miliband’s office after the Labour leader turned on NI when the news broke that murdered 13-year-old Milly Dowler’s phone had been hacked into by the News of the World.

    Labour insiders say NI executives made clear to Miliband’s office that because he had chosen to “make it personal” they would do the same, implying they would attack him through their media outlets.

  111. Phone hacking: 7/7 victims fear police passed numbers to News of the WorldSurvivors of London bombings call in lawyers to investigate allegations that officers may have passed on addresses

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jul/23/phone-hacking-police-news-world

    Survivors of the 2005 London bombings have asked lawyers to investigate allegations that Scotland Yard “sold” or passed on the confidential contact list of the 7 July victims to reporters working for News International.

    Beverli Rhodes, chair of the Survivors’ Coalition Foundation, said that a number of 7/7 victims suspected that personal contact details, including mobile phone and ex-directory landline numbers as well as home addresses, were passed by officers to News of the World journalists.

    The former security consultant, who specialised in counter-terrorism, said she had been contacted by a number of survivors of the bombings who said they had been approached by News of the World reporters with bogus stories of how they obtained their details, which they believe may have originated with the police.

  112. I have been wondering about Mr. Murdoch’s statement that it was his humble or word to that affect.

    Can someone tell me what he meant. Was it that he was humble.

    He challenge one of the questioners when they used the word shameful, which I think is nearer the mark.

    The words I would have chosen, include, humiliated, shameful, shocking, terrible or disastrous. I do not know where humble fits in.

    Why has not the media explained what he meant.

    I think he meant you can all go and ????. I am not taking the blame. How dare you criticise me.

    Why is it such a shocking thing for a PM to say that the media may have questions to ask. Are the media in this country above the law and criticism.

    The question I believe that means asking is:- Why should we accept blindly News Ltd statement . That what’s happen in the UK cannot happen here.

    Why not?

    Murdoch’s chiefs move around the world. It is the same mob in every country.

  113. CU, this apparently is the explanation of Murdoch’s ‘humbleness’…

    RUPERT Murdoch invoked the ethical standards of his parents, Dame Elisabeth and Sir Keith Murdoch, when he met the family of murdered British schoolgirl Milly Dowler to apologise for one of his newspapers hacking into her mobile phone voicemail….

    “He apologised many times and held his head in his hands. He was very humble. He was very shaken and sincere.”

    However, if you would like my interpretation Murdoch only apologised so as to minimise any payout that the family might sue him for, as an apology would be taken into consideration by the court.

    http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/rupert-murdoch-humble-in-private-apology/story-e6frg6so-1226096363699

    **I thought that I should transfer my answer over to this thread.

  114. Rupert.

    Can you please explain to me why it is terrible for a government to own over 50% of anything because it could lead to politcial manipulation of the population, however 70% control by News Corp is valid, fair, unbiased, in the nations interest, etc etc ?

  115. That’s a more appropriate question to ask Hartigan Shane. Hartigan was more or less waffling on about the same false premise in the ABC Sales interview.

  116. ME

    I think it is still appropriate for Rupert as well because he sees no problem at all with total dominance of the media by his company, be it ethical or moral.

    I think it should be asked of many reporters, and politicians.

    Just like the demand our electricity be privatised to bring in competition and have prices forced down, where in actual fact we are now being told by the same people and businesses and political gurus and economists that wanted it sold to private enterprise that our market is too small to have substantial private competition and as such consolidation and price rises are now the norm. Once again a monopoly has simply changed hands, from ownership by the people to ownership by greed and profit driven conglomerates. I could have told them that, before anything happened but it just seems to be better for a conglomerate to make billions fleecing the people than a government to do the same.

  118. Tom, from your link…

    The Murdoch empire is fighting for its life, but let’s not forget both Sean Hoare and Big George Webley, two men that it would seem either directly or indirectly are collateral damage in the whole affair. Someone needs to speak for them.

  121. DPP was warned hacking was rife at Murdoch paper
    The former Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) Lord Macdonald was warned by his own employees as far back as 2006 that there were a “vast array” of News of the World phone-hacking victims. Lord Macdonald, who has since been hired by the newspaper’s owner, Rupert Murdoch,
    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/dpp-was-warned-hacking-was-rife-at-murdoch-paper-2325909.html
    Looks as though the payoff (police, DPP) for burying the issue was a big fat paycheck via a job with Murdoch.
    Just like flies to the dung heap.

  122. This bears repeating, from 25th.

    shaneinqld
    Rupert.

    Can you please explain to me why it is terrible for a government to own over 50% of anything because it could lead to politcial manipulation of the population, however 70% control by News Corp is valid, fair, unbiased, in the nations interest, etc etc ?

  123. For years we have heard the Coalition complaining about the ABC’s left-wing bias.

    Research not so long ago found the opposite was true, possibly due to the installing of Howard’s people years ago.

    Lord Muckton is telling all and sundry that the ABC should be ‘defunded’.

    James Murdoch made a speech about the BBC in the 2009 MacTaggart Lecture, and described the “chilling” expansion of the BBC and “state sponsored journalism”.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/phone-hacking/8657058/Tories-did-deal-with-Murdoch-over-BBC-licence-fee.html

    Tories did deal with Murdoch over BBC licence fee
    The Conservative party abandoned plans to share money from the BBC’s licence fee with other broadcasters after being asked to do so by James Murdoch.

  124. Pip

    The Tory Government seems to be lurching from bad to worse in their close ties with NewsCorp. Once again my beliefs that all politicians should have absolutely no dealings with big business during or after their political careers are proven.

  125. • Michael Gove, the former Times journalist who is now education secretary, met Rupert Murdoch six times after the election, more often than any other member of the cabinet. They first met for dinner, along with Brooks, on 19 May last year. Gove and Murdoch had dinner twice in the space of 10 days last month – on 16 and 26 June.
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/jul/26/osborne-news-international-election
    And it just so happens Murdoch’s recent mogulness has been in his push in education. The whole issue just gets murkier
    Rupert Murdoch took a break from running his sprawling media empire last week to speak at the e-G8 conference of internet entrepreneurs and European policymakers in Paris, and the media mogul didn’t disappoint, with a heart-felt appeal to transform schools across the globe and a glimpse of how News Corporation can make that happen. News Corp last year made its foray into the $US500 billion US education technology sector, spending $360 million to take a 90 per cent stake in Wireless Generation, a tech firm that uses mobile devices and the software to help teachers keep an eye on the progress of students and provide targeted guidance. Murdoch last week used the e-G8 forum to signal that the investment in Wireless Generation may just be the beginning for News Corp in a sector that is yet to fully embrace the digital revolution. Murdoch’s impassioned speech to bring the wonders of the digital age to classrooms is also a clear signal that with the BSkyB acquisition heading for a resolution News Corp is going to start looking for more acquisitions in the education technology space. According to the Financial Times, that could put News Corp on a collision course with the more established education publishers like McGraw-Hill and Pearson.

    http://www.businessspectator.com.au/bs.nsf/Article/Rupert-Murdoch-News-Corp-James-Packer-Scoopon-Micr-pd20110530-HC44W?opendocument&src=rss.

  126. Mr Monkton (I refuse to call him a Lord as he is no such thing and do not wish to be seen to be admitting he is) has a right to his opinion.

    What he does not have is a right to destroy the reputation of others including scientists with his personal attacks.

    When are all sides of political hysteria going to realise that yelling, screaming and down right personal verbal attacks, releases aggression in those less able to separate aggressive debate from actual action to be taken.

    Whipping up hysteria and hatred from rusted on political point scoring on both sides is dangerous.

    I was absolutely disgusted in the way Alan Jones spoke about our PM via a link. I couldn’t care less who the PM was, his disrespect and aggression once again shows his total disregard for anyone who disagrees with him. This country elects its government by an election, not by an over the top aggressive, angry, bitter man who cannot keep a civil tongue in his head when on air to the nation.

  127. Shane, Monckton is actually Viscount, Lord Monckton..but since when did the blood-royal automatically provide one with a brain.

    I see that this disrespect has only happened with our current PM. I believe that feminists might see this as due to the fact that Jones feels free to bully a woman where he would not dare do so to a man. Gillard would be quickly labelled ‘a shrew’ or worse should she respond as a man might.

  128. I should have added that Monckton being a Lord considerably enhances the reason as to why Australia should be a republic.

  129. In defence of Rupert….or…..Look, over there !!

    From the Institute of Parrot Affairs.

    With tea party revolt, Boehner delays debt vote
    http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/2811332.html

    News of World: sideshows and political opportunism

    The News of the World phone hacking scandal has spiralled out in a dozen different directions.

    No wonder. It’s fun to talk about Rupert Murdoch. And for the British Labour Party, it’s exciting to tie David Cameron to the News of the World.

    But from a political economy perspective, it’s the role of the London Metropolitan Police in the hacking which should be the most
    concerning.

    “political economy perspective” ??

  134. Lunalava, it seems to me that due to the proven corruption happening in the UK that Australian victims of news.com are now far more prepared to speak out about their own experiences – the UK events give people a credibility rating which previously would have been howled down as all just part of the person’s imagination.

  135. I suggest as new corporate motto for News Ltd:

    “If it takes twenty years for revenge, we may be acting in haste”

    or how about the Liberal Party slogan:

    “In victory revenge, in defeat malice”

    Murdoch and his spawn should look at Shakespeare’s “A Merchant of Venice” as a guide for those who become obsessed with vengeance.

  136. Meanwhile, I struggle with my own demon – “schadenfreude” that wonderful German word (which of course will be stolen by the English language).

    schadenfreude – pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others, in this case Murdoch and family.

  137. I love this analogy
    But the most offensive hacking News Corporation has done is to hack into people’s minds, filling their everyday lives with gossip, spectacles, the relentless sexualization of women and incessant cheerleading for a market-driven society where all that matters is winning and making money.

    and this
    Unfortunately, what is often left out of existing narratives about the rise of big media and its commitment to shock and political conservatism is the role it plays as a form of public pedagogy, an educational force that demeans any viable notion of democratic values, relations and critical agency
    http://www.truth-out.org/benetton-murdoch-culture-money-shock-and-schlock/1311626660

  139. Now you see the reason Murdoch is pouring so much money into conducting education around the world and is buying up digital platforms that provide a method for imparting eduction to a wide participation of students.

    In Murdoch’s case “education” would be the wrong word though.

  140. ‘It will be interesting to see how the News Ltd hacks try to massage this one’

    I’m guessing ‘our need to know’

    Of course, we don’t need to know what goes on behind their doors, but everyone else, open slather.

  141. It looks as though Murdoch may be guilty of asking a question that will lead to the answer it requires. Oh really what a surprise.

    In hindsight, what is striking about the letter is that it suggests that Harbottle & Lewis was instructed by News International to conduct a very narrow review of the e-mails; the lawyers looked only for evidence that Mr. Goodman’s superiors knew about his use of the illegal technique or that others at the paper were using it. They were not asked to look for evidence of other kinds of illegal activity, like payments to the police, or to review e-mails sent by other reporters at the paper, like the one that contained a transcript of 35 hacked voice mail messages that Mr. Myler and Mr. Crone said they told James Murdoch about in 2008.

    http://www.truth-out.org/british-panel-wants-hear-three-men-who-dispute-murdochs-testimony/1311773743

  142. Also, watching the oo run it’s campaign against the privacy tort is hilarious to watch.

    Apparently, all of the atates are up in arms (well, two of them, at least one says it is open to the proposal)

    http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/state-uproar-over-gillard-plan-to-expose-all-public-agencies-to-civil-suits/story-fn59niix-1226103045105

    ‘State uproar over Gillard plan to expose all public agencies to civil suits ‘

    Apparently they are worried the poor public servants (you know, the ones they have attacked relentlesly (BER anyone) and impinged on their privacy consistently (Overland is a good case in point)) might be sued for breaching someone elses privacy.

    I really don’t see the problem there? Are they seriosuly arguing against us having a defense from our privacies being impinged on?

  145. el gordo keep reading you may then open your eyes and be enlightened .
    the full story is just beginning

  146. el gordo, I object to being told I hate when I object.

    I find what hate does not advantage anything. It is a destructive force that never leads to any good.

    Having a opposite opinion does not have anything to do with hate.

    It only means that I have come to a different conclusion.

    The only obsession we have is created by the time we take to reply to your trash.

    I think it is a waste of time, as nothing is going to get you to see that there are other sides to what you choose to see.

    I fail to see what you are so obsessive with the cause.

  148. CU, I know what you mean…likewise a pet hate of mine, being told what is happening in one’s mind and negative interpretations of same.

  149. ‘A pet hate of mine…’

    Ha ha, that’s good.

    Apologies CU, over at Trash Headquarters I’m as quiet as a mouse….for some unknown reason the cafe brings out the beast in me.

    Thinking ahead, what is the best outcome we can expect from an inquiry?

  151. A reliable, open and honest media that does not run its own agendas and especially not for ideological reasons.

  152. An even better summation ME

    Although, you can already hear the grievances ‘Our shareholders won’t like that’

    Which is why we should have a clear deliniation between journalists and hacks. Hacks can keep their shareholders happy, Journalists can further society as a whole.

  153. Editorials via merit and not who is the sponsor who is ‘the flavor of the month’.

    Example the pubs and clubs plough mega into advertising with the expectation that editorials should include ‘outrage’ against Wilkie’s proposed poker machine legislation.

  154. Good point Min. Editorials should be made to reveal if they have been asked by a vested interest to run an editorial along a certain line and any links they have to vested interests. Transcripts or minutes that have nothing to do with the direct commercial aspects of any meetings between vested interests and editors should be publicly available.

  155. Mobius, the 2nd part of your argument..most definitely as of course transcripts/minutes are always taken (assumed).

    Both parts relate back to the integrity of the editor/author of the editorial.

  157. Sue,
    That is disgusting. I believe that News of the World even provided the mobile phone to Sarah Payne.

  158. Murdered girl’s mother targeted by News of the World

    You think they have reached rock bottom and this is revealed, and it’s still only a fraction of the tens of thousands of records on the Murdoch hacking.

    Sara Payne wrote a piece in the last NOTW stating what a force for good that paper had been, so you can now understand why she’s so devastated. Brooks was also a friend and said this is “abhorrent”.

    But doesn’t Brooks bear responsibility for what she is saying is abhorrent? After all her paper and media organisation constantly held those higher up in organisations to account for things done elsewhere within the organisation, most especially if the organisation is a government and even more so if the government is not conservative.

  159. Mobius Ecko, the basis of this I believe is that people such as Murdoch and Brooks are power trippers who thikn that people are no more than tools or fools to be used at a whim for no other purpose than the next day’s headline.

  160. Banjo Jenny with this story, murder, conviction, legal campaign the Murdoch papers have profited for years. Will Mr ‘humble” Murdoch come and prostrate himself before this poor mother?
    and still
    “Tom Watson, one of the MPs who grilled James and Rupert Murdoch and Rebekah Brooks, has said there will be more phone hacking revelations “that shock the nation”.

  161. Tom R wrote yesterday of ltd news:-
    Although, you can already hear the grievances ‘Our shareholders won’t like that’

    Which is why we should have a clear deliniation between journalists and hacks. Hacks can keep their shareholders happy, Journalists can further society as a whole.

    and Min wrote:-

    Editorials via merit and not who is the sponsor who is ‘the flavor of the month’.

    Example the pubs and clubs plough mega into advertising with the expectation that editorials should include ‘outrage’ against Wilkie’s proposed poker machine legislation.

    Scanning the papers today, there’s no sign of any effort to improve.

  162. Mobious thanks for the link to:-

    Murdered girl’s mother targeted by News of The World

    It just doesn’t get any lower than that.

  165. Climate & Energy
    Could Murdoch’s News Corp be behind Climategate too?

    http://www.grist.org/climate-energy/2011-07-19-could-murdochs-news-corp-be-behind-climategate-too


    Rupert Murdoch.
    Photo: World Economic ForumThere have been countless independent investigations into the scientists whose emails were hacked in November 2009. And the scientists have been (quietly) vindicated every time.

    But we still don’t know who hacked the emails! And now we know that one of the key investigative bodies tasked with tracking down the hackers — Scotland Yard — was compromised at the time.

    How were they compromised? Neil Wallis — the former News of the World executive editor — became a “£1,000 ($1,613) a day” consultant to Scotland Yard in October 2009. Last week, he became the ninth person arrested in the metastasizing News Corporation scandal “on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications, contrary to section 1(1) Criminal Law Act 1977.”

    Certainly Wallis had plenty of motive to join Scotland Yard just to keep an eye on the investigation into the phone-hacking scandal. Indeed, The New York Times reports Wallis “was reporting back to News International while he was working for the police on the hacking case.” But this also suggests how corrupt Wallis was — and how corrupted Scotland Yard was.

    In the light of the News Corp phone-hacking scandal, it is clear that Murdoch’s outfit had means, motive, and opportunity for the Climategate email hacking. News Corp certainly has a history of defaming climate scientists and a penchant for hacking.

  168. Pip @3.54 I think it was an article i saw last week and possibly posted that Wallis’ PR firm was hired by the University Scientists, who had their emails hacked.
    So Wallis had both ears listening 1 for scotland Yard and the other for the University. And remember the hacking and destroying of the climate scientists was just before copenhagen.

  170. Sue, Murdoch-Gate does appear to have metastasized.
    If i looks like a duck…and quacks..

    http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/07/20/996814/-When-MurdochGate-Met-ClimateGate

    I’m cross-posting this from our Current website because, well, because.

    And because the Murdoch Phone-Hacking Scandal may have just metastasized.

    The so-called “Climate-Gate” controversy – in which e-mails about Global Warming were stolen from researchers at Britain’s University of East Anglia in November, 2009 – now turns out to bear the stamp of Neil Wallis, one of the key figures in Murdoch’s hacking of the phones, voicemails, and other electronic communications of thousands of people.

    Wallis is unique in this scandal. He had been the Executive Editor of Murdoch’s “News Of The World” when hacking was at its peak. Yet in 2009 he wound up being hired by the police as a public relations consultant, while the police investigated the hacking scandal – and he wound up spying for Murdoch’s people on what Scotland Yard was investigating.

    Wallis was, as the New York Times put it:

    “…reporting back to News International while he was working for the police on the hacking case.”
    More over, while Wallis was keeping Murdoch’s organization apprized of what and whom the police were investigating, the police were trying to convince other news organizations not to cover the story – a suppression of evidence that benefited both the police and Rupert
    Murdoch.

    Tentacles everywhere including No. 10 Downing Street.

    None of this happened independently of any other of the dirty deeds and connections; it’s just too widespread to be a ‘mistake’ .

  171. More from the article “When Murdoch-Gate met Climate-Gate”

    Wallis was, as the New York Times put it:

    “…reporting back to News International while he was working for the police on the hacking case.”
    More over, while Wallis was keeping Murdoch’s organization apprized of what and whom the police were investigating, the police were trying to convince other news organizations not to cover the story – a suppression of evidence that benefited both the police and Rupert Murdoch.

    As the British newspaper The Guardian reported last Friday:

    “Scotland Yard’s most senior officers tried to convince the Guardian during two private meetings that its coverage of phone hacking was exaggerated and incorrect without revealing they had hired Neil

    Wallis…”

    It was neither exaggerated nor incorrect. Last Thursday, Neil Wallis was arrested.

    Last night, it was revealed that while acting as a double-agent for Scotland Yard and Murdoch, Wallis was also consulting Conservative Party Leader David Cameron during the 2010 election that saw Cameron rise to become the nation’s Prime Minister.

    Now, as chronicled by the good work of Joe Romm at Climate Progress, bobbing up to the surface through this vast ocean of ethical filth, comes Neil Wallis’s role in “Climate-Gate.”

    On November 20th, 2009, somebody broke into a computer server at the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, and stole thousands of emails and computer files. The documents were, of course, leaked to Climate Change Deniers, and although exhaustive analysis later proved that the emails merely revealed scientists’ anxiety that Climate Data and Research were being properly handled and studied, The Deniers have treated those emails as if they were a kind of Holy Grail of fraud.

    They claim the emails not only disproved all of Climate Change, but also that they proved that scientists had doctored data in order to exaggerate the urgency of an international conference on climate change coming up the next month in Copenhagen in Denmark.

    As the corporations and lobbyists who sought to feed the myth that there is no man-made Climate Change, disseminated, exploited and deliberately misinterpreted the stolen e-mails – and used Fox News and other Murdoch enterprises as their principle venues – the victims, the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, decided they’d better hire a Public Relations Pro to help them fight back.

    They hired Neil Wallis.

    They nearly got away with it, but how much attention will the story get in the mainstream media ??

    No, that’s wrong, they’re still getting away with it.

  172. And now for the next expansion Operation Tuleta , is about to be fully operational. First Weeting, phone hacking, then Elveden , police bribes now Elveden, computer hacking.

    Under the terms of the Computer Misuse Act 1990, computer hacking is a more serious crime than phone hacking. “Unauthorised access with intent to commit or facilitate commission of further offences” can carry heavy fines and a jail sentence of up to five years.

    A spokesman for News International declined to comment.
    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/new-police-investigation-will-probe-computer-hacking-2328625.html

    Wait and see how long it takes for our MSM to wring their hands explain to us why it could never happen here in Australia, as it appears that the breaking of the law hasn’t stopped the UK branch of News Ltd.

  173. Just a correction
    Operation Weeting into phone hacking
    Operation Elveden into police bribery
    Operation Tuleta into computer hacking

  174. Phone hacking investigator denies acting alone

    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-07-30/mulcaire-speaks-on-hacking-scandal/2817114

    Glenn Mulcaire has previously admitted to hacking phones and was jailed for hacking in 2007. He is also at the centre of an expanding police inquiry over the alleged hacking of thousands of phones.

    Editors and executives at the Rupert Murdoch-owned News of the World have claimed they did not know the extent of the illegal activity, but Mulcaire’s lawyers have released a statement saying he
    was only ever following instructions.

    and

    A day after it was alleged the phone of a grieving mother was hacked, the police officer investigating her daughter’s murder – Detective Martin Underhill – says he fears his phone may also have been targeted.

    “I believe my phone was hacked by the News of the World, and I contacted Operation Weeting just over two weeks ago to report that suspicion,” he said.

    Detective Underhill was in charge of liaising with Sara Payne, the mother who is the latest to discover she was a phone hacker’s victim.

  175. Murdoch: The Mogul Who Screwed the News, Channel 4

    http://www.theartsdesk.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=4209:murdoch-the-mogul-who-screwed-the-news-c-4&Itemid=27

    Apologists for Murdoch claim that he doesn’t influence the way governments behave but merely “backs winners”. These didn’t include Gordon Brown, who was unceremoniously dumped by The Sun, or John Major, who was found lacking by Rupert and then mysteriously found his government suffering death by tabloid.

  176. Pip @ 12.57 i wonder if we will get to see that program here, it may be good viewing especially before a review into media is started/finished.

  177. ‘Apologists for Murdoch claim that he doesn’t influence the way governments behave but merely “backs winners”.’

    He backed the wrong horse here last year then, didn’t he 🙂

  178. Sue. I hope so, but I doubt it as it wouldn’t fit with their agenda.

    also from Murdoch: the Mogul who Screwed the News
    mine @ 12.57pm.

    The consequences of challenging Rupert Murdoch were experienced by the TV presenter Anne Diamond, who’d dared to ask the tycoon to his face how he could ruin people’s lives in his newspapers and still sleep at night. Rupert made it known to his editors that Diamond was not on his Christmas card list, and she
    duly suffered tabloid humiliation and exposure of her private life. Chris Bryant, the gay MP who has been one of Murdoch’s chief tormenters in Parliament, has inevitably found himself the subject of homophobically inclined ridicule in The Sun.

    Compare that to this, today:-

    Furore over autobiography ‘makes Christine Nixon a job risk’

    http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/furore-over-autobiography-makes-christine-nixon-a-job-risk/story-fn59niix-1226104597358

    CHRISTINE Nixon’s “kangaroo court” criticism of the Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission and the furore surrounding her newly published book may have further damaged her prospects of pursuing a career as a director or in senior management.

    Employment and industry analysts have warned that Ms Nixon may be considered too great a risk to serve on the boards of publicly listed companies, despite her qualities as Victorian police chief commissioner.

    One industry ‘analyst’ Mr. Ian Smith, husband of Natasha
    Stott Despoja, is a business partner with Alexander Downer.
    Mr. Smith had this to say:-

    Lobbyist Ian Smith, of Bespoke Approach, said Ms Nixon had strengths but her book Fair Cop — in which she blames enemies within the force, the media, government lawyers and the royal commission process for damage done to her reputation since Black Saturday — was a mistake.

    “Christine Nixon is undoubtedly a very competent person to have achieved so much, but her explosive views will leave questions in the minds of those thinking of utilising her skill,” he said

    Bespoke power goes a long way
    http://www.theage.com.au/national/bespoke-power-goes-a-long-way-20100305-powj.html

    It’s a lobbying outfit called Bespoke Approach. To say its directors are well connected is to understate the case. It’s the breadth and diversity of those connections that catches the imagination.

    Bespoke was established by Ian Smith, one of the more plugged-in political and business consultants in the nation, the chief executive officer of the high-powered public relations firm Gavin Anderson
    and Company (Australia) and former chief adviser to Jeff Kennett when Kennett was Victorian premier.

    This conservative insider also happens to be married to former Australian Democrats leader Natasha Stott Despoja.

  179. From blogger Wixxy…

    http://wixxy.wordpress.com/2011/07/29/fox-on-the-run/

    What interests me, is the similarities in Australia to what happened in the UK, and some of the events that have happened here.

    In the UK, it was widely known that News International publications were favouring the Conservative Party is their recent election. Current British PM David Cameron even had Andy Coulson , the ex News Of The World editor, as his media advisor, until his resignation due to this scandal, which he was later arrested for.

    In Australia, News Ltd publications also shamelessly favoured the Liberal Party. After all, the Libs were the party that was going to demolish the National Broadband Network, high-speed internet is of course the thing that was demolishing newspaper advertising, and as Internet TV becomes more available, will demolish Cable and Satellite television. Demolishing News Ltd’s profits basically.

    In the UK, News International tapped the phones of Labor Party politicians, and used the information to help sway public opinion against them. This is not theory anymore, this is evidence.

    During our Federal campaign, there were an awful lot of leaks coming from the Labor Party. The leaker was never found, although the News Ltd press pointed the finger at Rudd, looking back now that seems highly unlikely. So where was the leak?? Funny thing about leaks, they are often from taps, if you catch my drift….

  180. Precisely, WHY would it have been Kevin Rudd who was the leaker when he had been promised the Foreign Affairs portfolio if Labor won.

  181. It is about time that the Labor government started to expect standards from the media and to call them out when they fail.

    http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/8279013/paper-blantantly-misled-readers-swan

    “Treasurer Wayne Swan says Sydney’s Daily Telegraph has “blatantly misled” its readers over assertions that the government is considering a congestion tax.”

    “He also pointed out that the front page story states that drivers are still reeling from the announcement of a carbon tax, when again the government has clearly stated that fuel for motorists has been excluded from the carbon pricing policy.”

  182. Why would have Mr. Rudd wanted t to destroy Labor.

    Where is the evidence that he was out for revenge.

    He appears to have supported the PM on all issues.

  183. CU, therefore it is likely that the whole thing was a media beatup.

    Could it be that some journalists just ‘make up stories’ such as an imaginary fight between the PM and Kevin Rudd and then call it ‘an unnamed source’.

    Rudd has been doing an excellent job as Australia’s Foreign Minister, there is no malice there. I don’t think that Rudd has malice in him. The evidence being that whenever he has been needed he has always been there fully supportive.

  185. Min@ 8.25 I like the conclusion:

    the possibility exists for a wide-ranging examination of the media industry.

    An obvious starting point would be New Idea’s world scoop on Camillagate, which would give News Ltd the opportunity to provide a public reassurance of its constant claims that it has a clean sheet when it comes to upholding ethics in the media.

    Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/camillagate-scoop-raises-questions-for-murdoch-20110730-1i5cf.html#ixzz1TdGOksMv

    Over to you Hartigan

  186. One does have to wonder how a ladies mag in backwater Australia can manage a ‘world scoop’ on Prince Charles and Camilla Parker Bowles….

  187. Min @9.11 I did like the bit how the colony was used so that the UK papers could run with it.
    And now apparently the lawyers are keen to talk with the police and parliamentarians

    There was, according to The NYT, citing sources familiar with the incidents, “huge anxiety” about the precise wording. NI urged the law firm to write a letter giving it a clean bill of health in the strongest possible terms. Jon Chapman, NI’s head of legal affairs, reportedly rejected two earlier drafts as being insufficiently broad. One person familiar with the correspondence is reported to have said that the lawyers involved seemed to struggle to find language that said the review had found no evidence of wrongdoing.
    Another Harbottle source added: “If we made any mistakes, we will hold our hands up, but we are extremely keen to protect our reputation and we will vigorously challenge any suggestion that we were in any sort of cahoots with News International.”
    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/lawyers-furious-over-criticism-in-hacking-scandal-2329295.html

  188. Sue, of course they will ‘strenuously deny’ and also ‘vigorously challenge’. There are a lot of Murdoch’s victims out there..this is just the start of it.

  189. http://webdiary.com.au/cms/?q=node%2F3192

    Margo on Murdoch
    Hiya, Webdiary tragics. I wondered if any of you are feeling as strange and disbelieving as me while watching what happens when the emperor is seen to have no clothes. Is there a media debate going on about what inquiries our nation needs to have in the wake of the British revelations? Are journos asking Gillard and Abbott whether they, like their British counterparts, have been unduly influenced by Murdoch? Are our police commissioners reviewing whether any of our police officers have been corrupted by News Corporation?

    We must determine if Australia’s political leaders are guilty of the same conduct as both major parties in the UK in allowing themselves to be directed by an organisation out of fear. We need a judicial inquiry into whether corrupt connections exist between News Corporation’s Australian media assets and elements of the police force. We must uncover the truth behind Government watchdogs’ bad calls in allowing takeovers such as that of the Herald and Weekly Times group many years ago.

    While we are at it, we need an urgent review of regulation of the TV and radio media. The Labor Government’s decision under Hawke and Keating to end official accountability of the owners of public licences has led to disaster in terms of the quality of political news and debate.

    So, where is the debate in Australia? Could someone point me to a few sites?

  190. From The Drum

    A view from “the Right”, by Judith Sloan
    Professor Judith Sloan is an economist and company director. She was Deputy Chairman of the ABC from 1999 to 2005. This piece is extracted from a paper delivered at the Consilium held by Centre for Independent Studies. The other speaker was Mark Scott, Managing Director of the ABC.

    http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/2818220.html

    Rupert has endured the humblest day of his life, the News of the World has published its last edition and the government in Australia is toying with the idea of an inquiry into the media.

    The tender process for the contract to operate the Australia Network, currently held by the ABC, has been pulled and the final decision has been transferred from the Foreign Minister to the Minister for Communications. The rumour is that the decision had been three to one in favour of Sky News Australia being awarded the 10 year contract.

    But due to “changed international circumstances” – what, because international circumstances never change? – there has been a change of heart. It’s now a shoo-in that the contract will be awarded to the ABC.

    The Friends of the ABC will no doubt be delighted, although they were absolutely aghast at the prospect of the Australia Network being taken over by those purveyors of hate-media, the Murdoch empire. The fact that News Corporation is only a minority shareholder in Sky News Australia is neither here nor there.

    REALLY ! NEITHER HERE NOR THERE.
    The very ‘umble Rupert Murdoch owns 70% of the media in
    Australia, here and now, but Ms Sloan omitted that fact in her efforts to assist in his bid for the Australia Network.

    This was her final comment

    In this new media age and in these straitened fiscal times, the case for the continuation of the ABC in its current form is very weak. The fact that many members of the public enjoy the output of the ABC and trust the veracity of its news and current affairs reportage are really neither here nor there. Many people would enjoy free wine; this does not constitute a case for taxpayer funding of wine.

    The future involves a redrafted Charter, a narrower focus on areas which will always be under-provided by the private sector and significantly reduced taxpayer funding.

    Of course News Corpse want us to believe they are above reproach in Australia, and the fact that they’ve already made a very successful attack on the BBC is irrelevent !

  191. Further to the above article, which is an example of the way think tank activists work…..in this case, a Right-wing think tank.

    About CIS

    The Centre for Independent Studies is the leading independent public policy ‘think tank’ within Australasia. The CIS is actively engaged in supporting a free enterprise economy and a free society under limited government where individuals can prosper and fully develop their talents. With critical recommendations to public policy and by encouraging debate amongst leading academics, politicians, journalists and the general public, the CIS aims to make sure good ideas are heard and seriously considered.

    In April 1976, Greg Lindsay the founder of The Centre for Independent Studies, wrote to Professor Lauchlan Chipman of Wollongong University regarding his plans to form a centre to ‘promote the study of liberty’. Months later Chipman delivered the Centre’s inaugural seminar Liberty, Justice and the Market, and the CIS was up and running.

    Since then, the Centre has continued to produce valuable research work which has shaped and influenced public policy. We are proud to be associated with some of the greatest leaders in business and academia as visiting lecturers or as CIS members, staff and Board of Directors. This section contains information on CIS membership, staff and other information.

  192. And Pip @12.14 to think that Howard put that Sloan on the ABC. No wonder with thinking like this the ABC has declined
    “The fact that many members of the public enjoy the output of the ABC and trust the veracity of its news and current affairs reportage are really neither here nor there. ”

    How dare we the public would want to trust the veracity of the news, why would we want to do that? And why is it suggested that trust and veracity is”neither here nor there” ?
    Good grief how stupid is the said Professor. Has she not read of what has happened in the UK or maybe she just relies on News Ltd.

  193. Hi Pip I loved Judith Sloan’s line:
    “Many people would enjoy free wine; this does not constitute a case for taxpayer funding of wine.”
    To which I paraphrase Plinius the Elder: “in vino veritas” or “in wine there is truth”
    Although in Sloan’s case it might would more likely be “in whine there is truth”.

  194. The self examination by Hartigan of News Ltd processes may be seen in a different light after what has been revealed overnight.
    “News International has ordered the mass deletion of hundreds of thousands of emails from its computer system in the past 18 months, MPs learnt last night.
    The news has prompted concerns that vital evidence may have been lost to police and other authorities investigating the phone-hacking scandal.

    Tom Watson, the Labour MP for West Bromwich East, said: “Sadly this is not a surprise but it’s a shocking revelation and casts further doubt on the leadership of the previous investigation by the Metropolitan Police. I sincerely hope this means the police will now consider News International an unco-operative partner in trying to crack the cover-up of hacking.”
    Chris Bryant, Labour MP for Rhondda, said: “Some of us called from the very beginning for the Met to go in and seize the whole of the IT system. From what we have heard it seems we may never get to the bottom of how News International …, in the words of the police, ‘deliberately thwarted the investigation’.”
    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/wapping-staff-tried-to-delete-thousands-of-emails-2330254.html

  195. Hi Sue and Luna lava, did you know that that the Ancient Romans used to water their wine when they were discussing business…..makes sense, don’t you think?

    I wonder what other affiliations Professor Sloan might have.

  196. UK Police arrest man over hacking

    http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/breaking-news/uk-police-arrest-man-over-hacking/story-e6frea73-1226107018928

    POLICE investigating phone hacking and bribery at defunct British tabloid News of the World have arrested a man, believed to be a former executive at the newspaper.

    The Metropolitan Police said a 71-year-old man had been arrested by appointment this morning at a London police station. They did not name him, in keeping with British police practice of not identifying suspects who have not been charged.

    Sky News, which is 39 per cent owned by the newspaper’s parent company, News Corp, identified him as former News of the World managing editor Stuart Kuttner.

  197. Six weeks’ jail for Murdoch foam pie man

    On his way into court, May-Bowles sent a Twitter message saying: “Sentencing today. I’m sure my punishment will be every bit as fair and proportionate as the one Murdoch received. Oh, hang on…”

    Murdoch has faced no criminal action over the phone hacking scandal, although former News of the World executives have been arrested and questioned.

    http://www.theage.com.au/world/six-weeks-jail-for-murdoch-foam-pie-man-20110803-1ia5q.html#ixzz1Tu1DiAqi

  200. Tom R thanks for the link
    The media do like to say that they are about ” holding the powerful to account”

    The irony for that Brendan Oneill is that the “powerful” Murdochs just may be held to account.

  201. So the truth emerges. Turnbull today at the National Press Club address basically said that when elected they would sell off the NBN to Murdoch who could then combine it with their fox pay TV infrastructure.
    Murdoch would be saved the trouble of “hacking” phones as he would own the whole lot.
    Be afraid, be very afraid

  202. I hope our Prime Minister remembered at last nights “chat” with the “Australian” journalists that she took an oath to serve the Australian People, not Murdoch or News Ltd interests.

  204. So the Murdoch “to do” list for this decade:
    1. Over the top support for Liberal Party to bring about change of government;
    2. Remind Libs of our deal that we get the NBN;
    3. Continue to white ant the ABC from the inside by dumbing it down and baiting those trendy lefties.
    4. Intimidate, castigate and humiliate where necessary;
    5. Remember, if we have a problem, and we have money (we do), then we don’t have a problem.
    6. Keep working on the strategy that most working stiffs are not the sharpest knife in the draw, they respond better to fear than reason and logic (especially true of journos).

  205. Lunalava re selling off the NBN – and get Australia to the fabulous situation that we are now enjoying with Telstra. One thing that history has shown us is the absolute necessity for Australia to own her own communication systems eg postal service cf USA.

  206. Here is an article I read last night in it is an example of when the Murdoch press decides to “do you”.
    We currently have debates in Australia about whether this happens but here is an eg from the UK, Tom Watson

    “Whenever I moved, there was a dig. It’s painful and it’s not easy, but that’s the job, and the culture we operated in. It’s when it’s scaled up that those attack pieces take on a greater significance.”

    How was it scaled up?

    “Well, there was the Red Rag week, where they ran stories for six or seven days, accusing me of lying and worse, on the basis of a story that wasn’t true. And then things like . . . people coming back to me, reporting conversations. Bob Ainsworth [then Labour defence secretary] met Brooks for a lunch and said she spent 15 minutes slagging me off before they could talk about defence policy. Those things end up coming back to you.”

    Of late, there have been reports that she told Labour insiders she would pursue Watson “for the rest of his life” – a story he dates to the Labour party conference of 2006.”
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/aug/02/tom-watson-phone-hacking

  207. Episode number 123…., in the Days of the lies of the Murdoch empires
    FBI widens News Corp inquiry after alleged computer hacking by subsidiary
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/aug/04/fbi-news-corp-investigation
    and
    “Alex Salmond has been accused of trying to “seduce” Rupert Murdoch and News International after it emerged that he offered the media baron a series of gifts and has met him or his executives 25 times since becoming Scotland’s first minister.”
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/aug/04/alex-salmond-accused-pandering-murdoch
    Makes you wonder what the”series of gifts” could possibly be, maybe rename country from Scot to Murdoch land.

  211. I wonder what was the size of the payout she received. I am sure it will allow her to continue the lifestyle she has become accustom to.

  213. The following line comes from near the end of the article I have posted, however I felt it is a good reflection of what is happening to readers of Murdoch papers

    “According to recent polls, Fox News viewers are the most misinformed of all news consumers”.

    Roger Ailes and the rise of Fox News

    Even Rupert Murdoch is afraid of Roger Ailes, the paranoid boss of Fox News. But ‘the Chairman’ is using his power to make Americans more rightwing, more ignorant and ever more terrified

    To watch even a day of Fox News – the anger, the bombast, the virulent paranoid streak, the unending appeals to white resentment, the reporting that is held to the same standard of evidence as a political campaign attack ad

    Ailes repackaged Richard Nixon for television in 1968, papered over Ronald Reagan’s budding Alzheimer’s in 1984, shamelessly stoked racial fears to elect George Bush in 1988, and waged a secret campaign on behalf of Big Tobacco to derail healthcare reform in 1993.

    enables the Republican party to bypass sceptical reporters and wage an around-the-clock, partisan assault on public opinion. The network, at its core, is a giant soundstage created to mimic the look and feel of a news operation, cleverly camouflaging political propaganda as independent journalism.

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/aug/10/roger-ailes-fox-news-murdoch

  216. Sometimes the truth is arrived at by adding all the little lies together and deducting them from the totality of what is known.
    Peel away the lies, and the truth will emerge, naked, ashamed and with nowhere else to hide.
    The time has come for Murdoch and his spawn to be stripped of their power to thwart the democratic process.

  217. “Julia Gillard has defended media proprietor Rupert Murdoch’s Australian newspapers from attack from within her own caucus…”

    http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/julia-gillard-backs-news-ltd-action-on-phone-hacking-scandal/story-fn59niix-1226115585071?t=dXNlcmlkPTc4ODUsZW1haWxpZD0

    This must be the longest political suicide note in history. I wonder what News Ltd has on her that she is so afraid to take them on.
    She does nothing to correct media bias in the ABC, and now does nothing to address the evil Murdoch empire.
    The real losers will be the Australian people when Abbott does his 70 billion dollar hatchet job.

  218. Luna lava, have you seen this?
    Newsstand has organised a petition to be sent to the Prime Minister
    As you can see below I’ve already signed 🙂

    Seen the papers? The Prime Minister has said she’s not convinced we need an inquiry into the media and has come out in support of News Ltd over the phone hacking scandal.

    Come on Julia, if there’s really nothing wrong with Australian media, then surely there’s no harm in finding out!

    Cabinet’s sitting on the fence at the moment as to whether we get an inquiry – so we’re taking your petition down to Canberra this week to tip the scales. Every signature will help.

    So speak up! (Well, we know YOU already have – you’ve signed our petition. But now’s the time to get your friends to speak up too: we know they’ll listen more to you than they will us!)

    Will you take a moment to share the petition on your social networks?:

    http://www.newsstand.org.au/share-inquiry

    http://www.newsstand.org.au/campaigns/free-and-fair/demand-an-inquiry/demand-an-inquiry

    Demand an Inquiry
    Dear Ms Gillard, Mr Abbott and Senator Brown,

    We believe Australia needs a full Parliamentary inquiry to publicly scrutinise the media landscape as a whole: what’s working, what’s not and what we can do to change things for the better.

    Specifically, the inquiry must examine how to promote higher standards, protect people’s privacy while guaranteeing the freedom of the press, stimulate a more diverse media marketplace, and ensure that problems and complaints can be handled simply, fairly and
    effectively.

  219. Murdoch who claimed it was his most “humble day” displays in his actions why that statement was just one big PR stunt.

    “Brooks has been allowed to keep her chauffeur-driven car for two years,” says one toiler at The Sunday Times.

    it was understood that she had been told by Murdoch to “travel the world” on him for a year and then she would be found a job by the media magnate when the phone hacking scandal had died down. The two-year time frame suggests that Murdoch has a new post lined up. ”
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/phone-hacking/8705001/Phone-hacking-Rebekah-Brooks-enjoys-a-chauffeur-driven-ride-to-her-new-post.html

    I hope the lawyers for the Dowler family calculate the value of this gift and multiply it by a factor of ten and use this figure as the starting point for compensation.

  220. ” . . . by the media magnate when the phone hacking scandal had died down.”

    Died down, or paid off? Maybe he thinks he can buy his opponents. Sorry Rupert, this isn’t a business deal or a buy-up of all available politicians. This is real life.

    More humbling days lay ahead.

  222. Courtesy of Race Mathews:

    Quote: ‘James has been asked back to the media committee to clarify his evidence. That will be a humiliation so dreadful that he will be looking for any way he can to avoid it. Meanwhile a number of people accustomed to executive limos and seven-figure salaries are beginning to wonder what it might be like in jail’.

    http://www.alternet.org/story/152047/is_james_murdoch_finished_new_documents_point_to_giant_cover-up?akid=7410.289081.zSNZrW&rd=1&t=31

  223. Another day another lie exposed. This lie is to the first supposed investigation by lawyers of the phone hacking back in 2006.

    Phone hacking: first inquiry was nothing of the sort, MPs are told
    The first legal firm hired by News International to examine phone hacking did not conduct a thorough independent investigation as News of the World executives later told a Commons commitee,
    Andy Coulson, the paper’s former editor, previously told MPs that Burton Copeland had been brought in to “carry out an investigation” and that the “files were opened up to them
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/phone-hacking/8707981/Phone-hacking-first-inquiry-was-nothing-of-the-sort-MPs-are-told.html

  224. Media committee and media regulator raise the “fit and proper test”

    media select committee led Chris Bryant, a Labour MP, to call for the resignation of James Murdoch, the chairman of News International.

    “The allegations go to the heart of whether he and the organisation he runs are fit and proper to publish newspapers or run TV companies,” he said.

    Ofcom, the media regulator, also confirmed that it had met Scotland Yard detectives as part of its analysis of whether BSkyB was a “fit and proper” company to hold a broadcasting licence with James Murdoch as chairman

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/phone-hacking/8707982/Phone-hacking-In-hindsight-I-would-not-have-hired-Andy-Coulson-says-David-Cameron.html

  225. Another arrest this time of the celebrity journalist. This award winner as so good he got a promotion to LA, where it was described that he was so good

    “seem[ing] to have information that not even close family members … know.”
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/aug/18/phone-hacking-news-of-the-world
    So the big question is did he take his phone hacking skill to the USA. The question after that is how many UK News journos have come to Australia with that talent.

  227. A life unravelled … whistleblower who incurred wrath of the Murdoch empire
    Relentless legal pursuit of ex-News Corp employee likened to ‘Rambo tactics’

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/aug/17/whistleblower-murdoch-empire

    Five years ago Robert Emmel was enjoying the American dream. He lived in a detached house in a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia, drove a BMW, and earned $140,000 a year as an accounts director in a highly successful advertising company called News America Marketing.

    Today, Emmel is described by his lawyers as destitute. Jobless and in debt, he was discharged from bankruptcy last year. He does occasional consultancy work that last month brought in $500, and this month, court documents show, will probably produce nothing. His wife’s earnings raise monthly household income to about $3,000 – half their outgoings.

    This is a cautionary tale about what can happen to someone who dares to become a corporate whistleblower. Or, more specifically, someone who incurs the wrath of News Corporation, the media empire owned by Rupert Murdoch, of which News America forms a part.

    Emmel’s lawyer, Philip Hilder, has had a ringside seat at the gradual unravelling of his client’s life. A former federal prosecutor based in Houston, Texas, Hilder is well versed in whistleblower cases having represented Sherron Watkins, who helped uncover the Enron scandal. Hilder said: “News America has engaged in Rambo litigation tactics. They have a scorched earth policy, and it’s taken a huge toll on him.”

    News Corp has devoted the efforts of up to 29 lawyers to pursuing Emmel personally, at a cost estimated at more than $2m. Emmel, by contrast, has relied on two lawyers, Hilder and Marc Garber in Atlanta, working for no pay since January 2009.

    **If Murdoch is prepared to use 29 lawyers to crush one man, what hope have the various leaders who were summoned to lunch with him over the years, if the old foreigner disagrees with their policies ?

  228. Maybe there is justice, after all, Pip. Watching Lateline tonight one sensed that it was all starting to unravel for the Murdochs. How delicious if Rupert himself gets his come-uppance.

  229. Hi Patricia, I missed Lateline tonight, I’ll have to have a look at the transcript.
    How delicious indeed.

  230. Lateline transcript
    Phone hacking investigation sees another arrest

    http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2011/s3297036.htm

    Award-winning reporter James Desborough has been arrested for alleged phone hacking as the scandal grows to involve two separate law firms.

    News Int’s cover-up is unravelling: Watson

    http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2011/s3297039.htm

    British Labour MP Tom Watson says the investigating committee will be examining the evidence of two law firms which have accused News International of lying about their actions.

    TONY JONES: Cracks are opening up all over the place in the dam wall which has protected the Murdochs. Do you expect it to hold up or burst over them?

    TOM WATSON: Well I think it already bursting over. What we’re seeing is the unravelling of a cover-up.

    It took two years to expose phone hacking and now the focus of parliament is on where the cover-up is. You know, my committee, we’ve got a very narrow remit; we’re just seeking to find out where parliament was misled and it’s already – we’re already in a Byzantine game trying to find that out.

    The reason we invited James and Rupert Murdoch the first time to our committee was because James admitted the company had misled Parliament in our previous inquiry, and there are now allegations that Mr Murdoch himself misled it when he came to give us evidence, so we’re going to get to the bottom of it.

  231. John Major wanted two-party alliance to take on Rupert Murdoch

    Chris Mullin’s diaries reveal that former prime minister wanted Labour and Tories to unite to bring down tycoon’s empire

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/blog/2011/aug/18/john-major-alliance-take-on-rupert-murdoch?CMP=twt_fd

    { Included at the end is a quote from Chris Mullins diaries “A Walk-On
    Part” which has it’s critics of course.
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/data/book/politics/9781846685231/a-walk-on-part-diaries }

    In the book, there’s also a fascinating nugget of ancient history relating to the Thatcher government and its relationship with
    Murdoch.

    This is from the entry for February 14 1996:

    Bernard [Donoughue, a Labour peer who became a minister in the Blair government] alleged, citing a Tory source, that Thatcher had sent a draft of the 1990 Broadcasting Bill to Murdoch’s lawyers and allowed them to make deletions as they saw fit.

    Curious that John Howard set about changing Australia’s cross-media ownership laws, and stacking the ABC Board with his people, with indecent haste, but of course it must have been his own idea.
    [Or not!]

  232. I’m finding more about the Murdoch scandal from you ladies and Eddie than I am from the mainstream media. News.com has zilch on the issue, though I don’t blame them, as they need to concentrate on major world news stories such as actors peeing on planes.

  233. Roswell conspiracy theories aside it must be difficult for News Ltd to write the truth about themselves. It would be like sh tting in your own nest.

  234. Murdoch’s Lawyers Turn on Him

    http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/08/17/murdoch-s-lawyers-turn-on-him-are-burton-copeland-next.html?om_rid=NGdsh7&om_mid=_BOTWg8B8cz7zOy

    Rupert Murdoch’s characterization of the job—that Harbottle was brought in “to find out what the hell was going on”—was “misleading,” the firm added. Twisting the knife further, Harbottle claimed the 2007 letter was never intended for publication, a detail that makes News International look ever more duplicitous.

  235. BSkyB told to weaken stranglehold on Hollywood movies
    BSkyB has been ordered to weaken its stranglehold on Hollywood films on pay-TV after an investigation by the Competition Commission.

    In a provisional decision published on Friday morning, the commission said that BSkyB’s contracts with the six major Hollywood studios present a significant barrier to entry to potential competitors, including BT and Virgin Media.

    The industry watchdog ruled that the prices charged by Sky to Virgin are too high, meaning Virgin cannot make a business selling films to its customers.

    One third of the UK’s 15m pay-TV households subscribe to Sky Movies, as the network enjoys exclusivity on many Hollywood blockbusters for 15 months.

    Competition Commission says satellite broadcaster enjoys too much exclusive control over pay-TV movie rights.

    This would be a great start but not enough.

  237. Sue, that might mean a possible return to jail for Mulcaire if he refuses to name names, and News is no longer paying his legal fees.
    He hasn’t he got much to lose now by talking….he’s too famous to disappear and his cash supply has dried up…for the time being anyway!!

  240. Harbottle Defends Its Role in News Corp. Scandal

    http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202511659736&Harbottle_Defends_Its_Role_in_News_Corp_Scandal&slreturn=1&hbxlogin=1

    Britain’s Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee of Parliament released evidence Tuesday that appears to vindicate U.K. firm Harbottle & Lewis and its handling of an internal investigation of News International in 2007, Legal Week reported.

    In correspondence and records submitted to the parliamentary committee, the firm stressed that its 2007 retainer by the News Corp. subsidiary was limited to reviewing a cache of emails related to the company’s employment dispute with former News of the World (NoW) royal editor Clive Goodman.

    The firm and former managing partner Lawrence Abramson were not hired to investigate broad practices at NoW, according to Harbottle. “There was absolutely no question of the firm being asked to provide News International with a clean bill of health which it could deploy years later in wholly different contexts for wholly different purposes,” the firm stated in a letter to the committee.

    This is reminiscent of the budget costs assumptions ‘audit’ which Shadow Treasurer Hockey tried to pass off as being properly checked, after refusing to get Treasury to check properly !

  242. Andy Coulson reportedly paid by News International when hired by Tories

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/aug/23/andy-coulson-news-international-tories?CMP=twt_fd

    David Cameron was facing fresh questions about his decision to hire Andy Coulson in 2007 after it was reported that his former communications director received several hundred thousand pounds from his former employer News International after he was hired by the Conservative party.

    The BBC’s Robert Peston said that Coulson received cash payments from the company until the end of 2007 following his resignation as editor of the News of the World in January of that year.

    How many other News personnel were placed in government positions and why ?

  243. Todays instalment

    Andy Coulson reportedly paid by News International when hired by Tories

    received several hundred thousand pounds from his former employer News International after he was hired by the Conservative party.

    Coulson was asked by the Commons Culture, media and sport committee in 2009 whether he had received a payment from the company. He told MPs it was a private matter but added he would be prepared to discuss it privately with John Whittingdale, the Conservative MP who chairs it.
    Labour MP Tom Watson said the money could be classed as a donation to the Tory party which should have been declared to the Electoral Commission.
    Under electoral law both the donor and recipient are obligated to report donations, meaning that if the payments are interpreted as donations in kind to the party, both News International and the party could face sanctions.
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/aug/23/andy-coulson-news-international-tories

  248. Meanwhile
    ” NEW YORK — Relatives of 9/11 victims were headed to Washington today to meet with Attorney General Eric Holder about allegations surrounding Britain’s phone hacking scandal.” (24/8/11)
    “We are going to the meeting with the attorney general to listen to what he can tell us about the investigation and to ascertain the scope, the goals and timetable of the inquiry,”
    http://www.onlinesentinel.com/news/911-families-headed-to-meeting-on-phone-hacking.html

  256. Eddie, thanks for the link.
    Would ‘under oath’ mean as much to the Murdochs as ‘wilful blindness’ did a few weeks ago ?

  257. Report: NY comptroller spikes education software deal with News Corp co.; hacking scandal eyed

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/report-ny-comptroller-spikes-education-software-deal-with-news-corp-co-hacking-scandal-eyed/2011/08/28/gIQAyrqtkJ_story.html

    ALBANY, N.Y. — New York’s comptroller has spiked a $27 million contract with one of media giant Rupert Murdoch’s companies because of the phone hacking scandal in Great Britain.

    The Daily News reports (http://nydn.us/rl95Rp ) that Thomas DiNapoli (dee-NAP’-oh-lee) rejected last week a state Education Department contract with Wireless Generation, a News Corp. affiliate.

    Wireless Generation was to get $27 million of the state’s $700 million in federal Race to the Top money to develop software that would track test scores.

  258. The United States of Chris Mitchell:
    The Power of Rupert Murdoch and the Australian’s Editor-in-Chief

    http://www.themonthly.com.au/power-rupert-murdoch-and-australian-s-editor-chief-united-states-chris-mitchell-sally-neighbour-3589

    Talk to any journalist, commentator, politician or public figure in Australia, and it seems they all have a view of Chris Mitchell, editor-in-chief of the Australian newspaper, now widely regarded as the most influential news outlet in the country – one that polarises readers and infuriates targets with its relentless crusading journalism.

    Visionary. Zealot. Grenade thrower. The last of the great newspaper men. Arch Machiavellian brute – this from Mitchell himself, delivered tongue-in-cheek, and for the purpose of denying it.

    If there is one thing his detractors and admirers largely agree on, though, it is that Mitchell has styled himself as the most powerful media executive in the land and transformed Rupert Murdoch’s flagship into a journal whose political impact far outweighs its modest circulation of 130,000 on a weekday.

    If there is one thing his detractors and admirers largely agree on, though, it is that Mitchell has styled himself as the most powerful media executive in the land and transformed Rupert Murdoch’s flagship into a journal whose political impact far outweighs its modest circulation of 130,000 on a weekday.

    “The biggest story in politics at the moment is the relationship between News Limited and the government,” a veteran Canberra-watcher says. According to a News Limited insider, “Mitchell has inculcated a view [at the newspaper] that they are there not only to critique and oversee the government, [but also that] it is their role to dictate policy shifts, that they are the true Opposition.” An angry cabinet minister fumed recently, “The Oz doesn’t report the policy issues. It just reports that big business is shitting on the government, and Abbott is shitting on the government, it reports politics in any way that shits on the government, day after day.” Whether it’s climate change, asylum seekers, industrial relations, the schools building program or the National Broadband Network: “It’s just ‘let’s shit on the government’, every single fucking day.”

    Chris Mitchell once told a colleague, “You have to understand – this is a dictatorship and I am the dictator.”

  259. Pip re the NY education software deal, that is significant development. Months ago I was reading about the company Murdoch bought in the education software dev. He was also in Europe selling his education model and of course our PM big interest is education. Also in the UK his Bskyb was the alternate for their “fast broadband “. So with links to telstra and fox this was where the push was to come in australia, the education market.
    Much better for murdoch if the nbn was scuttled,.

    so interesting development and thank you for the link.

  260. Sue, you’re welcome 🙂 I’ve been following the education thing for a while too.

    Seriously, the old bugger wants to own the whole world !

  261. Pip
    Some of the Murdoch execs to front parliament for questions next tuesday. Who would want to be one of the murdoch execs for the new news business in china?As we have seen in China if there are problems with execs it is arrest first, gaol second questions third.

  262. And Pip now some of the murk clears

    From your NY link above
    “Jonathan Burman, an education department spokesman, tells the Daily News that DiNapoli bowed to pressure from teachers’ unions”.

    So the unions stopped Mr Money from getting 27 million from the public purse.

  263. Sue, what a great idea 👿

    As we have seen in China if there are problems with execs it is arrest first, gaol second questions third.

  264. The Guardian, UK, how has the story on the Murdoch attack on the PM
    “Rupert Murdoch’s daily paper angers Australian government”
    the article which included the apology and then the comments by hartigan, included this
    “several cabinet ministers believe the column was part of “an orchestrated campaign” across Murdoch titles.

    They have reportedly been emboldened by events in the UK where politicians have re-examined their relationship with Murdoch’s newspapers in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal and revelations about frequent behind-the-scenes meetings between News International executives and government ministers.”
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/sep/01/rupert-murdoch-the-australian-government

  265. There are a few stories in the Guardian today, including another arrest but the article in the Independent is most interesting
    “Gordon Brown has stepped up his campaign against Rupert Murdoch’s News International media group, sending tape recordings to the Metropolitan Police earlier today which he says challenge the Sunday Times’s assurances that it broke no laws when investigating his personal financial affairs”
    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/gordon-brown-issues-challenge-over-sunday-times-recordings-2348175.html.

    And today in the Australian there is a story about poor Harigan and Mitchell and the nasty Gillard who abused these poor chaps. Thus rehashing the Milne article, and defending there own bully tactics.

  266. Phone hacking: victims’ lawyers were targeted

    Investigators made dossiers on private lives for News International

    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/phone-hacking-victims-lawyers-were-targeted-2348387.html

    News international sanctioned the use of private detectives as recently as six months ago to conduct surveillance and compile dossiers on the private lives of three lawyers who are leading damages claims against the News of the World for illegal phone hacking.

    One of the lawyers, Mark Lewis, whose clients include the family of the murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler, told The Independent that the use of private detectives against him “crossed a new line” and threatened his ability to do his job. The reports gathered on the lawyers include claims about their personal lives, political beliefs and health.

    The dossiers were submitted to senior executives at Rupert Murdoch’s newspaper group at a time when it was still seeking to limit the hacking scandal by insisting voicemail interception was restricted to a single “rogue” reporter.

  267. And things all of a sudden get much worse for Murdoch and Ltd. News.

    It is one thing to illegally hack phones for news stories and to get the goss on a celeb but something else entirely to hack the phones to get information to use against those legitimately seeking redress for wrongs done against them or their clients.

    Methinks Murdoch has just landed into really really deep poo.

  269. “Desmond Hudson, the Law Society’s chief executive, said: “To seek to gather information on your opponent’s lawyer is intended to coerce that lawyer and gain unfair advantage in the legal process.” News International last night declined to comment on the story. ”

    Gaining an unfair advantage about sums up News ltd. No wonder News is so doggedly determined with its attack on Gillard, it needs Abbott in government to save this part of the Murdoch empire.

  270. Pip and ME
    Given what is unfolding in the UK Hartigan should give a statement that News Ltd has not been investigating or seeking to influence members of the Australian judiciary.

  271. Yes, they should do what they are demanding of the PM and Mr. Thomson, prove themselves innocence.

    You are only asking what they demand of others.

    Fair enough.

  272. Looks like the old boy has many other strings to his bow:-

    EXCLUSIVE: Regulator Says Murdoch Oil Shale Company Must Fix Faulty Wells

    http://mediamatters.org/blog/201109020018

    The state of Colorado says it will require American Shale Oil, LLC, — a company backed by Rupert Murdoch and Dick Cheney — to fix several poorly cemented wells that, according to the state, appear to be endangering ground water in western Colorado.

    Halliburton — the oil and gas giant once headed by Cheney — conducted the cementing and cement evaluation of the wells and rated several as having “poor” cement bonds in certain segments, according to a memo that American Shale Oil (AMSO) submitted to
    state and federal regulators in late July.

  273. halliburton was also linked to the Gulf oil spill. always good to know the associations such as the cheney- murdoch link. interesting there are plenty of articles that cheney was the one who pushed for the invasion of iraq and we know that every murdoch publication around the world was pro invasion.
    also on the board of american shale oil, is rothschild (reading abt him is interesting)

    “Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network, which are owned by Murdoch’s News Corp, have repeatedly featured reports on Genie’s oil shale ventures without disclosing Murdoch’s conflict of interest. Other News Corp. outlets — like The Wall Street Journal and the Times of London — have touted the oil shale projects but disclosed Murdoch’s financial stake.”

  277. The above links puts Mr. Howard’s desire for the rail from Adelaide to Darwin in perspective.

    It would not have anything to do with helping his mate, Mr. Cheney. Mr. Howard would not do that, would he?

  278. Sue and Catching up, there’s a lot of reading in these links that will never find it’s way into the main stream media !

  279. James Murdoch Declines His $6M Bonus But Rupert Murdoch Gets $12.5M

    http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/09/james_murdoch_declines_his_6m_bonus_but_rupert_mur.php

    James Murdoch declined his $6 million bonus from News Corporation in light of the phone hacking scandal, calling it “the right thing to do.”

    News Corp announced bonuses on Friday, and Murdoch explained that he would not accept “in light of the current controversy surrounding News of the World.”

    “While the financial and operating performance metrics on which the bonus decision was based are not associated with this matter, I feel that declining the bonus is the right thing to do,” he said in a statement.

    Rupert Murdoch has not declined his $12.5 million bonus as of yet.

    Scotland Yard made its 15th arrest in connection with the phone hacking scandal on Friday, reportedly taking former News Of The World reporter Ross Hall into custody, and releasing him on bail later in the day. The man was arrested “on suspicion of conspiracy to intercept voicemail messages and attempting to pervert the course of justice,” according to the BBC.

  280. CU I remember at the time of the proposal by the Howard govt that the best place for a world nuclear dump was in SA/NT and he proposed that Halliburton oversee the business. With all the cost overruns and bad contracts in the Defence dept. it would be interesting to see how many involved H. What has Stephen Smith uncovered and will it see the light of day.

  281. We have just seen an dubious political appointment that has not lasted a couple of days.

    The premier says that no wrong has occurred. It is not an coincidence that the man is already resigning because of illness.

  282. Would that be NSW Cu?

    O’Farrell saying he knew nothing about it but when he was in opposition he constantly stated that knowing nothing was not an excuse for the Premier.

    And we have a poster here calling those who support the left hypocrites whilst he constantly refuses to criticise Liberal leaders who lie, distort and stuff up.

  283. Yes, NSW. I only heard in passing that a unregistered lobbyist has been appointed to some board, which deals with what he has been lobbying for.

    He has done some lobbying recently.

    Mr. O’Farrell said it was no different from a doctor being appointed to a medical board.

    Sorry I do not have more facts.

  284. There was a blatant conflict of interest in an appointment of the kind O’Farrell constantly canned the previous State Labor government over.

    When confronted with the facts O’Farrell used the “I know nuthink'” defence and stated outright he could not be blamed for things he didn’t know about. As I stated this is the exact opposite of the case when he was in opposition where he frequently said the Sergeant Schultz defence was not a valid one for a Premier running a State.

    O’Farrell would welcome corruption inquiry
    Opposition query hotel lobbyist appointment

  285. The media keep saying the PM does not have authority.

    This is not true.

    The PM has been able to carry out all roles of a PM. The government has not be thwarted in the house.

    What the PM does not have is respect from the media and the Opposition.

    That is a different matter.

    The media and the Opposition have chosen to not respect the government. How can a government be blamed for that.

    The lack of respect is based on one alleged lie.

  286. Phone-Hacking Probe to Cover All of Murdoch’s U.K. Papers

    http://www.freepress.net/news/2011/8/30/phone-hacking-probe-cover-all-murdochs-uk-papers

    National Post, August 29, 2011
    By Mark Hosenball and Georgina Prodhan

    Lawyers for Rupert Murdoch’s News International are conducting a broad inquiry into reporting practices at all of the company’s U.K. newspapers. As part of the inquiry, attorneys will be looking for anything that U.S. government investigators might be able to construe as evidence the company violated American law, particularly the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which prohibits corrupt payments to foreign officials

  287. Tony Blair Is Godfather To Rupert Murdoch’s Daughter

    Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/tony-blair-godfather-rupert-murdoch-2011-9#ixzz1X3ZKXuID

    Many had wondered why Blair had been so quiet during this summer’s phone hacking scandal. It had been reported in July that Blair was trying to put pressure on renegade MP Tom Watson for his investigation into the Murdoch empire’s phone hacking, reports The Telegraph.

    Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman are also godparents to Deng’s children, Deng confirms.

  288. How Tony Blair was taken into the Murdoch family foldWendi Deng reveals link in a magazine interview where she describes the ex-PM as one of her husband’s ‘closest friends’

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/sep/05/tony-blair-murdoch-family-fold

    It was a relationship that began in political controversy but progressed to a secret family union: Tony Blair, it was revealed , is godfather to Rupert Murdoch’s nine-year-old daughter, Grace, the second youngest of his six children.

    In a culmination of 15 years of political intimacy, the former Labour prime minister was present at the star-studded baptism of the child on the banks of the Jordan, at the spot where Jesus is said to have undergone the same ceremony, according to an article in Vogue magazine.

    With the Murdochs and their children dressed in white – and present at the invitation of Queen Rania of Jordan – the event was photographed in Hello! magazine, complete with an ethereal front cover image of a smiling Murdoch in an open-necked shirt.

    But no mention was made of Blair’s participation, which was revealed only in a rare interview by Murdoch’s wife, Wendi Deng, in a forthcoming edition of Vogue.

  289. Hi Pip, thanks for those links. I read and followed further to this one which I’m sure you’ve also read in which was discussed how the wire tapping and other techniques used by NotW journos are widespread throughout Newscorp and explain the success of its publications in ‘reading’ the the minds of the general public and then exploiting that information by providing the sort of news stories that feed their prejudices.

    I don’t think News Ltd would be immune to that particular infection either. It’s not just their extraordinary coverage in terms of ownership of our media (70% for god’s sake!) but their skill in writing copy which has so effectively persuaded Australia that it is badly governed in the face of incontrovertible evidence to the contrary.

    This is Downunderland of course, where everything is topsy turvy and inside out. So here we have almost an entire population fooled into believing that their more than handsomely attired and effective Prime Minister is naked and without a shred of credibility.

    Does this look to you like a politician under siege?

    http://www.daylife.com/photo/0gdZcEVbMacyP

  290. Hi Patricia, thank for the link.
    Our PM does not look like a politician under siege, not at all.
    The media made fools of themselves asking the S-G of the UN a question about domestic politics. That is a no no of course but didn’t stop them. The problem is that we will never read about such protocols in ltd news.
    They made a four course meal of the fact that Mr. Ban visited Kevin Rudd before he met the PM but omitted to mention it was to catch up after missing a meeting because Kevin Rudd was in hospital.
    As well as the repetition used to deceive and brain wash, omission of
    the little details is just as useful to the MSM !

    Naked, almost, and without a shred of credibility….that would be TA 😮

  293. Is James Murdoch Toast?

    http://powerwall.msnbc.msn.com/politics/is-james-murdoch-toast-1700629.story

    The Daily Beast, Tuesday, September 6, 2011, 10:00pm (PDT)

    By Brian Cathcart

    James Murdoch painted himself into a corner in the British phone hacking scandal and now, thanks to a shabby pair of ex-employees, that corner has just got considerably tighter. You would need to be a very ardent Murdoch supporter to believe that the man once considered the heir apparent to the world’s biggest media empire is not finished.

  295. Hacking-gate Wagons Start to Circle Around James Murdoch

    http://globalspin.blogs.time.com/2011/09/06/hacking-gate-wagons-start-to-circle-around-james-murdoch/

    Both Myler and Crone asserted that they briefed Murdoch on the memo. Crone to the committee:

    It was clear evidence that phone-hacking was taking place beyond Clive Goodman. It was the reason that we had to settle the case. And in order to settle the case we had to explain the case to Mr. Murdoch and get his authority to settle. So certainly it would certainly have been discussed. I cannot remember the detail of the conversation. And there isn’t a note of it. The conversation lasted for quite a short period, I would think probably less than 15 minutes or about 15 minutes. It was discussed. But exactly what was said I
    cannot recall.

  296. British police make 16th phone hacking arrest
    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-09-07/british-police-make-16th-hacking-arrest/2875634

    British police investigating phone hacking at the now-defunct News of the World tabloid said they had arrested a 35-year-old man on suspicion of conspiring to intercept voicemail messages.

    The man, who was not named, was arrested at his home shortly before 6:00am (local time) before being taken to a police station in north London, Scotland Yard said.

  302. An excellent article by Tim Dunlop

    Manne up: taking on The Australian
    http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/2875686.html

    If you haven’t figured out by now that The Australian is not, in the conventional sense, a newspaper, a vehicle for the objective dissemination of news and information, but rather an instrument for peddling influence, the vanity power project of an aging media mogul and his trusty, idiosyncratic offsider editor, then you are either in denial or inside News Ltd.

  303. Another phone hacking victim. This passage describes the lengths the phone hacker went to to get information.
    “Police also showed me a printout of my phone billing. He [Mulcaire] had set up an online billing account. He was getting my phone bills before I saw them,” said Mrs King. “He had gone to fairly extraordinary lengths with me and I am guessing he did that with Blunkett.”
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/phone-hacking/8755117/Private-investigator-hacked-messages-left-by-David-Blunkett.html

  306. Pip
    In”Hackgate ” the wonderful term of “horizontal integration” for Murdoch’s enterprises. First drag in the masses then “political conformity of his media, once the brand is established”. Only time and/or a media inquiry will out the Murdoch disease in Australia.

  307. Sue, have you seen this…..

    Ask Your MP for an Inquiry
    http://newsstand.good.do/emaiMP/email-your-mp-3/

    Tonight, Cabinet will meet to decide whether or not to hold an inquiry into the Australian media.

    An email from you, to your Labor MP or Senator, will demonstrate the public support behind the call for an inquiry.

    Email below your Labor MP, or Senator if your MP’s not from the ALP.

    We know that finding your own words is the most effective way!

  308. Pip, thank you for that one..I’ve just put a link up at Australians for an Honest Media FB group so it will get more views from there as well.

  309. On radio PM tonight the story
    Cocaine, dominatrix linked to phone hacking scandal
    By Emma Alberici
    story to be on lateline tonight

  310. Sue, the ABc has a spicy headline…

    Cocaine, dominatrix linked to phone hacking scandal
    Emma Alberici

    Updated September 12, 2011 23:46:21

    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-09-12/drugs2c-dominatrix-linked-to-phone-hacking-scandal/2882242

    The Guardian was more circumspect…

    Escort agency boss linked to George Osborne makes phone-hacking claimsNatalie Rowe tells Australia’s ABC News she was targeted by News of the World

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/sep/12/escort-agency-boss-george-osborne

  314. Exposed after eight years: a private eye’s dirty work
    for Fleet Street
    Files seen by The Independent detail 17,000 requests to investigator Steve Whittamore

    By Ian Burrell and Mark Olden
    Wednesday, 14 September 2011

    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/exposed-after-eight-years-a-private-eyes-dirty-work-for-fleet-street-2354360.html

    Former police officer has revealed how the authorities have known for more than eight years the vast scale on which media organisations employed private detectives to obtain the personal information of thousands of individuals, including the families and friends of murder victims.

    The Independent has conducted a detailed examination of the files seized as part of Operation Motorman in 2003, and has been told by the lead investigator on that inquiry that his team was forbidden from interviewing journalists who were paying for criminal records checks, vehicle registration searches, and other illegal practices.

    Among the targets of these searches were the victims of some of the most notorious crimes and tragedies of the past 15 years. Many of the investigations were perfectly legal, but many others, it is clear, were well outside the law.

  315. Sue, I wonder if last nights headline writer has done a course ‘headline writing with the murdoch stable,101′
    LOL the http address has the more catchy “dominatrix” tag

    Laugh Out Loud indeed 🙄

  317. Sue, very deep doo doo. The news gets worse with every lin.

    The Motorman files reveal that the Sunday Express used private investigators to obtain the private telephone number of the parents of Holly Wells, shortly after she was murdered in Soham by Ian Huntley. In a statement last night, Express Newspapers said it “has never instructed private investigators to obtain information illegally. We have always and will continue to uphold the highest level of journalistic standards”.

    The parents of the murdered schoolgirl Sarah Payne were targeted by the same investigator, who was hired by two national newspaper groups – News International and Trinity Mirror – and separately by a celebrity magazine, Best, which is owned by the National Magazine Company. The same agency was also used by the News of the World to target the parents of Milly Dowler, and by The People and NOTW to obtain private numbers for the family of Stuart Lubbock, whose body was found in Michael Barrymore’s swimming pool. The People used similar tactics to target the families of children who were victims of the Dunblane massacre.

  318. Murdoch news and the ONE rogue reporter NOT

    “It also emerged on Tuesday that lawyers acting for phone-hacking claimants have received a 68-page document from police that lists the names of those who asked Glenn Mulcaire…to engage in hacking, based on notes seized from his home during a raid in 2006

    The fact that the document compiled by Scotland Yard runs to 68 pages suggests it contains many names.”

    And it looks as though Mulcaire has caught the disease suffered by Alan Bond, the disease you possibly get when you have to appear in court to answer questions .

    “Hughes launched legal action against the paper’s publisher in August and won a high court order forcing Mulcaire to answer questions about who asked him to target his phone
    Although Mulcaire has now complied with that order, Hugh Tomlinson QC, one of the barristers acting for the phone-hacking victims, told the court today: “Mr Mulcaire has indicated in respect of every question raised that he has no recollection.”
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/sep/13/phone-hacking-news-international-documents

  319. The Milly Dowler hacking was appalling, and this is equally evil. It is of a victim of the 7/7 London bombings

    “hacked into a mobile belonging to Christian Small, 28, on the day he was killed by a bomb blast on the London Underground.”
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/sep/13/phone-hacking-disaster-victim-sues

    the fact that it occurred “on the day he was killed” beggars belief. What a scoop.

    The PR people will be out claiming this as another “humbling experience” for that media mogul

  320. British chancellor mired in phone hacking scandal
    Posted September 14, 2011 20:14:00

    Natalie Rowe has given Lateline her first television interview about drugs and prostitution claims against British chancellor George Osborne.

    Transcript

    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-09-14/british-chancellor-mired-in-phone-hacking-scandal/2899548?section=world

    Tonight, Natalie Rowe, the woman at the heart of drugs and prostitution claims against the Chancellor, has spoken to Lateline in
    her first television interview.

    Europe correspondent Emma Alberici has been investigating the history of George Osborne’s links with the News of the World and allegations that Andy Coulson manipulated coverage to the advantage of the man who would become Britain’s Chancellor.

    EMMA ALBERICI, REPORTER: Natalie Rowe was once dubbed a ticking time bomb, destined to blow away a couple of young Tories chances of ever making it anywhere near Downing Street.

    Her story, published in the News of the World, about nights spent taking cocaine with George Osborne and supplying prostitutes for Mr Osbourne’s friends, could have ended his political career.

  321. Powerful relationships: media and leaders

    http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/2902008.html

    Here’s one thing that Stephen Conroy’s media inquiry won’t be examining: the secretive, non-transparent relationship between proprietors of powerful media companies and politicians and the consequences of this relationship for the conduct of government and politics in Australia.

    and
    Virtually every Australian prime minister for decades has asked for an audience with Rupert Murdoch in New York – for a Rupert blessing we must assume – and have then come out after the meeting and refused to answer questions about what was discussed. With a media mogul for goodness sake.

    So will prime ministers, past and present, be called before the Conroy inquiry to be grilled by the retired Federal Court Judge Ray Finkelstein, about their relationship with media moguls, past and present? That would make this a worthwhile inquiry. Of course, this is outside the terms of reference and won’t happen.

  322. Interesting story from the UK, a possible witch hunt by the police for being found out for not doing their job. however, it looks as though tom watson will keep an eye on this latest development.
    Hacking: Met use Official Secrets Act to demand Guardian reveals sources

    ‘Tom Watson, the former Labour minister who has been prominent in exposing hacking by the News of the World, said: “It is an outrageous abuse and completely unacceptable that, having failed to investigate serious wrongdoing at the News of the World for more than a decade, the police should now be trying to move against the Guardian. It was the Guardian who first exposed this scandal.”
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/sep/16/phone-hacking-met-court-order

  323. Sue @ 9.07am, 17th, I can’t see Labour Minister Tom Watson letting this go through to the keeper without a great deal of scrutiny.

  324. Harold Evans: ‘Rupert Murdoch is the stiletto, a man of method, a cold-eyed manipulator’

    In a new preface to his book, Good Times, Bad Times, the former Sunday Times editor connects the phone-hacking crisis to earlier events at News International

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/sep/18/harold-evans-rupert-murdoch-leadership

    The paper Murdoch most affects to despise, the Guardian, was the instrument of his undoing.

    It persisted with the unravelling story almost alone in the face of repeated denials, defamation and threats and the sloppy exonerations of News International by Scotland Yard and the Press Complaints Commission. Among those waiting patiently – one might say humbly – for admission to the Portcullis House committee room was Nick Davies, the backpacking Guardian reporter, who led the paper’s investigation courageously sustained by his editor Alan Rusbridger. It was cheering to think of the impetus for good contained in Davies’s little notebook as he assiduously scribbled away during the hearing.

  326. Sue,
    I was just reading that one myself. People such as the Murdoch’s will learn only one way by hitting them where it hurts the most in the hip pocket. The biggest payout ever now that’s really going to hurt.

  327. Sorry AntonyG I don’t agree, the payout is less than the bonus they offered James for 1 year. It is just part of a PR stunt by Murdoch. Usually payouts are covered by confidentiality agreements and yet this unsettled amount is in the press.
    Remember the payout to the football manager payout is still covered by confidentiality and it and the “for Neville email” is a major factor in the hacking scandal.

    And on a home front the settlement for the ‘Not Pauline Hanson’ photos printed by the Telegraph has not been disclosed.

    So just PR by Mr Humble

  328. Also the payout hurts shareholders and employees that a laid off because of the money that needs to be sourced to payout Murdoch. It won’t directly hurt the Murdoch’s hip pockets, which are enormously deep.

    The way to instil a lesson out of this is to severely curtail Murdoch’s ability to undermine and control both public opinion and politics, and that is by forcing media organisations to be transparent and as honest as possible, and indeed to abide by their own guidelines on ethics and honesty.

    Canada is a good example of where this works, and the absence of Murdoch’s influence in that country is evidence of it.

  329. Sue,
    I didn’t think of it that way but on the other hand if they don’t start suing the b*stards the likes of Murdoch will never think twice.

    Mobius Ecko,
    Then they’ll have to front the shareholders. Ideally this will change the way that Murdoch has been allowed to operate through changes to media ownership rules. Up until now it’s been an honor system, when there is no honor amongst thieves.

  330. Yet AntonyG Murdoch has been running a convolution of normal listed company procedures and structures for many decades, giving himself and his offspring extraordinary voting power above and beyond his shareholdings, yet this has never perturbed the shareholders even when open protests of Murdoch’s bastardisation of the processes have been conducted during shareholder meetings.

    Unless any monetary penalty is going to severely hurt the entire Murdoch global empire over a long term then it will be meaningless, and even then a record fine of historic proportions is not going to deter his malfeasances and attempts at controlling power one iota. It will more than likely redouble his efforts to have governments change laws to enrich himself and increase his influence, or to get rid of governments that won’t do his bidding to replace them with puppets like Abbott.

  331. Mobius Ecko,
    But that was the ’90’s and the zeros when the mantra was wealth at any cost and we were all going to be carried along on the wave of affluence. Who cared what Murdoch bastardised as long as we could buy a McMansion.

    In the UK now we have huge problems with the economy. And when times are like these people tend to get mean and lean. It’s unlikely that any monetary penalty will harm the Murdoch empire. It would be the equivalent of Afghanistan attempting an invasion of California. Nothing will happen unless it’s via regulation.

  332. To true AntonyG.

    Trouble with regulation is that it can change with change of government. There is no doubt that if Abbott gets into power, which is highly likely that any regulation bought in will be undone and even current regulation will be watered down considerably to appease his masters.

  333. Mobius, I think that we’ve now seen the power of the High Court. I know that without a doubt that there would be a High Court challenge should any government try to water down any legislation. Such is the power of the alternative media these day.

  334. Another article on the police and their attempt to find out the Guardian source.
    This quote is pertinent
    ‘Mark Lewis, the solicitor representing the family of murder victim Milly Dowler, told delegates that the “official secrets” that the Dowler family were concerned about were not the leaks to the Guardian in 2011, but the secrets kept by the Met police between 2006 and 2011, which he said prevented the family – and thousands of other victims of hacking – from knowing they were victims at all.

    Stephens said later: “Someone in the Met should lose their pips for the suggestion that journalists should be criminalised.”
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/sep/19/phone-hacking-met-police-consult

  335. “News Corp shareholders may soon be alerted to the legal reality that the damages fund of £20m is woefully short

    The scale of the settlement deal between News International and the Dowler family can be described as game-changing.

    NI has previously used its substantial financial muscle to secure confidentiality agreements and out-of-court deals, especially in the private phase of the phone-hacking scandal, when the company was effectively hiding the illegal practices in its newsroom.”

    “Paying seven-figure sums to one family, and seven figures to their designated charities, means that News International may have finally realised that its once-powerful defences are no longer as strong or as sustainable. The flood gates may just have opened.”
    http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/james-cusick-for-those-yet-to-settle-this-will-be-a-gamechanger-2357473.html

  336. It looks as though public pressure and maintaining the rage is winning

    ‘The Metropolitan police dropped its attempt to order the Guardian to reveal confidential sources for stories relating to the phone-hacking scandal.

    After an intervention by the Crown Prosecution Service, Scotland Yard was forced into an abrupt climbdown following a wave of outrage over the Met’s attempt to make Guardian reporters reveal confidential sources for articles disclosing that the murdered teenager Milly Dowler’s phone was hacked on behalf of the News of the World.’
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/sep/20/metropolitan-police-drop-action-guardian

  337. And this for Murdoch

    ‘US prosecutors have written to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation requesting information on alleged payments made to the British police for tips for stories, according to reports.
    Shares in News Corp fell 1.7% on the news. The company did not return calls for comment
    It is believed the letter relates to allegations of payments made to police by News of the World staff in the UK. If staff were found guilty, they may also fall foul of American law, because the parent group is based in New York.

    Under US law, it is a crime for a business or their employees to pay off representatives of a foreign government to gain commercial advantage.’
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/sep/20/news-corporation-rupert-murdoch

  338. And this for Murdoch in France

    ‘The News of the World and its former chief reporter “devastated” the life of former Formula One chief Max Mosley by publishing an article suggesting he organised a Nazi-themed sado-masochistic orgy, a French court heard on Tuesday.
    ,,,
    Mosley has already won a privacy battle against the News of the World in the British courts, but launched a separate court battle in France because copies of the paper and the video were circulated across the Channel.’
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/sep/20/max-mosley-news-world

  339. Sue..and aren’t we loving it. I wonder how Murdoch feels being on the receiving end of an endless series of negative news stories for a change.

  340. And endless is the key, where before he has used his wealth and influence, now “influence” is shunned and his “wealth” is shown as a tool to corrupt process.

  341. Sue, I agree with you there..a moral tale I think, money used for good and useful purposes rather than for self-aggrandisement.

  343. Eddie, from your link…

    The phone hacking scandal in the U.K. hasn’t muzzled Rupert Murdoch in his native Australia, where his newspaper empire is doing more than any other to undermine Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

    Well yes, that’s blatantly obvious isn’t it….

  344. Eddie
    and yet our other media quite freely quote from the noxious Murdoch press as if they were printing facts rather than opinion

  345. And now the police will have to explain
    “The Commons home affairs committee has decided to summon the Metropolitan police to explain its actions, after its bid – and subsequent climbdown – to make Guardian reporters disclose their sources for articles relating to the phone hacking of the murder victim Milly Dowler.

    The powerful committee of MPs has already investigated phone hacking and lambasted the Met for its failings.

    The deputy assistant commissioner, Mark Simmons, will be called before the committee to answer questions this Friday – the same day his officers had intended to take the Guardian to court”
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/sep/21/met-officer-force-guardian-sources

  346. Exclusive: Murdoch execs told of hacking evidence in 2006
    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/exclusive-murdoch-execs-told-of-hacking-evidence-in-2006-2358777.html

    “The Labour MP Tom Watson, a leading campaigner on the hacking scandal, said: “If these allegations are true, then Parliament was not given the full facts of the case when senior executives appeared before MPs.

    “We also need to know who it was in the Metropolitan Police that was informing News International of the conduct of a criminal inquiry that was taking place. How could it be that NI were aware of the conduct of a police inquiry almost in real time?”

    The revelation that the upper echelons of the Murdoch empire were told of police evidence in 2006 raises questions about the persistent denials by executives that they knew phone hacking was being widely practised. “

  347. The offer to the Dowler family of 3mil pounds may end up chicken feed:
    “Phone hacking: Dowler lawyer pursues US legal action against News Corp
    The solicitor who represented the family of Milly Dowler in their phone-hacking claims against News Corporation on Friday announced he has teamed up with US lawyers with a view to initiating proceedings targetting Rupert Murdoch and his son James.”
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/sep/23/dowler-family-news-corp

  348. More on the Met and News
    “The relationship between the police and the News of the World has come under fire again amid revelations that Neil Wallis, the former deputy editor of the News of the World, was paid by the paper’s publisher for “crime exclusives” while working for the Metropolitan police.

    Wallis was secretly paid more than £25,000 by News International after he left the paper and got a contract to work two days a month as a PR consultant with the Met. One story earned him a single payment of £10,000.

    A spokesman for Scotland Yard said the contract it had with Wallis’s PR firm, Chamy Media, “had a confidentiality clause, a data protection act clause and a conflict of interest clause within it”.

    This bit is really funny

    “Wallis’s solicitor has made a complaint alleging that the police had leaked the information regarding the payments.”
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/sep/23/news-world-paid-wallis-met

  350. So the corrupt Murdoch closes a newspaper, with hundreds of innocent people losing their jobs, and he happily pockets a 12M bonus. I find that sooo wrong.

  351. Miglo, which did not raised a ripple in this country.

    People’s jobs only count when you can blame the PM for the losses. All other jobs are of little value.

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