News of the World

[Happy Face 29]

Andy Dunn

 

Which other twats worked there?

Edited July 7, 2011 by Happy Face

[Kevin S. Assilleekunt 1]

The guardian have done really well with this story, but there's still plenty of daft buggers on their writing staff:

 

but if this dramatic, arguably heroic, gesture by Rupert is to have any value at all it must mean that she [brooks] should go.

 

What? 'Murdoch' and 'heroic' in the same sentence?

 

 

 

Look at these people and tell me they aren't evil. Evil-faced bastards.

Edited July 7, 2011 by Kevin S. Assilleekunt

[Happy Face 29]

Here’s some News of the World news to spin the heads of American lawyers. According to British media law star Mark Stephens of Finers Stephens Innocent (whom The Times of London has dubbed “Mr Media”), Rupert Murdoch’s soon-to-be shuttered tabloid may not be obliged to retain documents that could be relevant to civil and criminal claims against the newspaper—even in cases that are already underway. That could mean that dozens of sports, media, and political celebrities who claim News of the World hacked into their telephone accounts won’t be able to find out exactly what the tabloid knew and how it got the information.

 

If News of the World is to be liquidated, Stephens told Reuters, it “is a stroke of genius—perhaps evil genius.”

 

Under British law, Stephens explained, all of the assets of the shuttered newspaper, including its records, will be transferred to a professional liquidator (such as a global accounting firm). The liquidator’s obligation is to maximize the estate’s assets and minimize its liabilities. So the liquidator could be well within its discretion to decide News of the World would be best served by defaulting on pending claims rather than defending them. That way, the paper could simply destroy its documents to avoid the cost of warehousing them—and to preclude any other time bombs contained in News of the World’s records from exploding.

 

“Why would the liquidator want to keep [the records]?” Stephens said. “Minimizing liability is the liquidator’s job.”

 

That’s a very different scenario, Stephens said, from what would happen if a newspaper in the U.S. went into bankruptcy. In the U.S., a plaintiff (or, for that matter, a criminal investigator) could obtain a court order barring that kind of document destruction. In the U.K., there’s no requirement that the estate retain its records, nor any law granting plaintiffs a right to stop the liquidator from getting rid of them.

[Happy Face 29]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/video/2011...t-murdoch-video

 

Guardian fella interview. Good stuff.

[Barney 0]

I know a lot of good lads in the Irish News of the World that aren't journo's or editors. Hope they don't get fucked over.

[ChezGiven 0]

Rusbridger on Newsnight saying they knew about this from before the election and he and other editors warned Cameron about hiring Coulson.

[ChezGiven 0]

Milliband is fucking awful. At PMQs the other day he was speaking to Cameron like he was apologetically imploring a mate to do the right thing.

[Mac-Toon 1]

Milliband is fucking awful. At PMQs the other day he was speaking to Cameron like he was apologetically imploring a mate to do the right thing.

I'm a Labour supporter but find Ed Milliband monotone and non engaging. He's terrible in interviews and the smug grin on his face isn't warranted. His brother would've been a better choice for me.

 

Ed just puts me in mind of the offspring of David Cameron and Ruby Wax.

[LoveTheBobby 1]

Here’s some News of the World news to spin the heads of American lawyers. According to British media law star Mark Stephens of Finers Stephens Innocent (whom The Times of London has dubbed “Mr Media”), Rupert Murdoch’s soon-to-be shuttered tabloid may not be obliged to retain documents that could be relevant to civil and criminal claims against the newspaper—even in cases that are already underway. That could mean that dozens of sports, media, and political celebrities who claim News of the World hacked into their telephone accounts won’t be able to find out exactly what the tabloid knew and how it got the information.

 

If News of the World is to be liquidated, Stephens told Reuters, it “is a stroke of genius—perhaps evil genius.”

 

Under British law, Stephens explained, all of the assets of the shuttered newspaper, including its records, will be transferred to a professional liquidator (such as a global accounting firm). The liquidator’s obligation is to maximize the estate’s assets and minimize its liabilities. So the liquidator could be well within its discretion to decide News of the World would be best served by defaulting on pending claims rather than defending them. That way, the paper could simply destroy its documents to avoid the cost of warehousing them—and to preclude any other time bombs contained in News of the World’s records from exploding.

 

“Why would the liquidator want to keep [the records]?” Stephens said. “Minimizing liability is the liquidator’s job.”

 

That’s a very different scenario, Stephens said, from what would happen if a newspaper in the U.S. went into bankruptcy. In the U.S., a plaintiff (or, for that matter, a criminal investigator) could obtain a court order barring that kind of document destruction. In the U.K., there’s no requirement that the estate retain its records, nor any law granting plaintiffs a right to stop the liquidator from getting rid of them.

 

. . jeezaaz

[Kevin S. Assilleekunt 1]

Milliband is fucking awful. At PMQs the other day he was speaking to Cameron like he was apologetically imploring a mate to do the right thing.

 

The level of discourse in our parliament is embarrassing.

 

If he had anything, an ounce of nouse about him, he'd whip out some Yiddish and bring the pain to Dave:

 

Oyskrenkn zol er dus mame’s milakh - He should get so sick as to cough up his mother’s milk.

 

Fransn zol esn zayn layb - Venereal disease should consume his body.

 

http://yiddishradioproject.org/exhibits/st...off/curses.php3

[Kevin S. Assilleekunt 1]

Milliband is fucking awful. At PMQs the other day he was speaking to Cameron like he was apologetically imploring a mate to do the right thing.

I'm a Labour supporter but find Ed Milliband monotone and non engaging. He's terrible in interviews and the smug grin on his face isn't warranted. His brother would've been a better choice for me.

 

Ed just puts me in mind of the offspring of David Cameron and Ruby Wax.

 

David Milliband had some strong things to say about Israel as well, I think he may have been able to stick the boot in real good here.

[Craig 6682]

Did he bum Coulson in a public toilet? What is he saying?

 

That Rebecca Brooke got stories from the police and told him so herself.

 

 

Coulson to be arrested...

 

http://m.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jul/07/...mp;type=article

 

Wonder who the second arrest is? 'Former senior journalist' - does Brookes fit into that capacity? She fucking should!

 

Perhaps there's scope for a new Ross Kemp investigative documentary? Ross Kemp: NOTW

[Craig 6682]

Jon Gaunt is a fucking dickhead. And that was a massively cheap shot at Hugh Grant and not at all relevant!

[Craig 6682]

Rebekah Brooks seen leaving News International earlier.....

 

[Happy Face 29]

http://www.newstatesman.com/newspapers/201...cameron-murdoch

 

Grant revealed the story months ago. Why all the credit to the guardian?

[trophyshy 7083]

harsh on spaniels tbh

[Kevin S. Assilleekunt 1]

When legendary editor Kelvin MacKenzie ran Rupert Murdoch's London Sun in the 1980s and early 1990s, he would incite his reporters into tabloid action by ordering them to "put a ferret" up the trousers of the powers that be. As Neil Chenoweth writes in Rupert Murdoch: The Untold Story of the World's Greatest Media Wizard:

 

[MacKenzie] would do this until the moment it became clear that in the course of making up stories, inventing quotes, invading people's privacy, and stepping on toes, the Sun had committed some truly hideous solecism—like running the wrong lottery numbers—when he would rush back to the newsroom shouting, "Reverse ferret!" This is the survival moment, when a tabloid changes course in a blink without any reduction in speed, volume, or moral outrage. In the midst of a disaster of its own making, it pulls a ferret out of a hat and sails on.

 

Chenoweth continues:

 

Murdoch's entire business style may be characterized as a reverse ferret. Time and again when his plans have gone awry and he has found himself facing calamity, his superb survival skills have saved him. Just before he hits the wall, he does a little dummy, he feints this way and that, and then he sets off with undiminished speed in a new direction. This is Murdoch's genius: not that he gets into a jam, but that he is able to walk away afterward, an implausible winner.

 

Today, as Murdoch's son James announced that News Corp. is shuttering its besieged News of the World, the voice you really heard was Rupert Murdoch, running away from the paper as fast as his 80-year-old legs would carry him, howling "reverse ferret" at full power.

Advertisement

 

The dramatic closure of the 168-year-old newspaper is Murdoch's way of deflecting attention from not just the paper's scandalous phone-hacking ways but its destruction of evidence in the Milly Dowler murder case, its payoffs to police, its role in the cover-up of the scandal, and lord knows what other crimes it committed. By killing the newspaper, said by the Guardian to be the company's most profitable venture, Murdoch hopes to create the illusion that justice has been done. By abruptly closing the paper, Murdoch also scatters a potentially incriminating paper- and computer-trail.

 

Although the 2.66 million circulation News of the World will die after its last edition Sunday, the newspaper's ferret is still very much alive and may soon have a new home. The Guardian, whose investigations under reporter Nick Davies uncovered the phone-hacking outrages, has already spotted the furry creature migrating to another Murdoch-owned London tabloid. The Guardian reports, "There are already industry rumours that the News of the World's stablemate the Sun could be turned into a seven-day operation." When asked by the BBC if a Sunday edition of the Sun was in the works, a company spokeswoman answered cryptically, "What happens to the Sun is a matter for the future."

 

Copies of Britain's News of the World newspaper. Click image to expand.News of the WorldWhen the subject is financial crimes, this sort of artful shifting of assets is called "money laundering."

 

The cover story Murdoch has advanced from the beginning and continues to push is that rogue operators were responsible for the scandal. That's the line James Murdoch observed today, when he told the News of the World staff the paper must die so the company could live.

 

"Wrongdoers turned a good newsroom bad and this was not fully understood or adequately pursued," James Murdoch said.

 

In a BBC interview today, James Murdoch was all regrets and apologies, but he continued to stand up for Rebekah Brooks, who was News of the World editor when Milly Dowler's phone was hacked and now serves Murdoch as chief executive of News International. Brooks, it should be noted, is one of Rupert Murdoch's favorite people on the planet. To believe the young Murdoch, he, his father, their company, and Brooks are the victims of the phone-hacking crimes, not the sponsors. "She has a good standard of ethics and her leadership is the right thing for the company," he said of Brooks.

 

What rot. As this Guardian timeline of statements made by Murdoch executives over the past four-and-a-half years reveals, the company had ample notice that "wrongdoers" were running amuck inside its newsroom as well as the executive suite. "All of these irresponsible and unsubstantiated allegations against News of the World and other News International titles and its journalists are false," the company claimed in July 2009 in response to Nick Davies' first phone-hacking report in the Guardian. "The Guardian coverage, we believe, has substantially and likely deliberately misled the British public," wrote Brooks that same month.

 

The torching of News of the World by Rupert and James Murdoch is a confession, but of what? Surely it is not a confession of personal guilt or even corporate guilt. As James Murdoch told News of the World staffers, the current staff isn't responsible for the "mistakes" and "egregious behaviour" as he calls them, committed by the company and the paper. "I can understand how unfair these decisions may feel," he told the staff without ever explaining why he was punishing them for something they didn't do.

 

Like all reverse-ferret maneuvers, the closing of News of the World is designed to scatter and confuse the audience. It looks like the sacrifice of something very special to him, seeing as it was his first U.K. newspaper acquisition in 1968. But it's not. It looks like atonement, but it's not. It's supposed to change the subject, but it's too late for that. The most shocking thing to me about the paper's closure is what an empty gesture it is. I expected much better from the genocidal tyrant.

 

The tricky thing about the reverse ferret is that unless you nab the beast the moment it bursts out of a pant leg, it can be impossible to apprehend. From the way News Corp. is acting, it looks to me as if the Murdochs have lost control of their precious ferret. If I were Rupert Murdoch, I'd start wearing my socks over my cuffs. Ferrets will eat anything that looks and smells like meat.

 

http://www.slate.com/id/2298691

[Tom 14011]

Spaniels are quite nice dogs with warm hearts and jocular characters.

 

I'm sure Rebekah Brooks bleeds like one of Ridley Scott's Aliens...

[ChezGiven 0]

http://www.hasrebekahbrooksbeensackedyet.com/

[Happy Face 29]

http://www.hasrebekahbrooksbeensackedyet.com/

 

To sack her would be to admit wrongdoing at the highest levels.

 

Coulson can be thrown to the pack, but she's being well taken care of.

[dbsweeney 0]

As has been said, this is nothing more than a re-branding exercise and totally a commercial decision by Murdoch, Brookes, etc. There's absolutely no moral fibre behind the decision to pull it, they've simply seen brand after brand deciding to pull their advertising revenue - the paper was a dying brand and they've jumped ship.

 

Hasn't dealt with the problem either. In fact it's made it worse. If it isn't a re-branding exercise then 200 journalists have suddenly be dumped on the dole in order to save one woman's skin... It's an absolute joke.

 

[dbsweeney 0]

There was immediate speculation last night that the paper will be replaced by a Sunday edition of the Sun which could be produced by staff at the daily. The domain names TheSunOnSunday.co.uk, TheSunOnSunday.com and SunOnSunday.co.uk were registered two days ago.

[dbsweeney 0]

Now all other arms of News Corp. (Fox News, The Australian, New York Post, Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail etc.) can pull a united front and try to cleanse Murdoch and News Corp of its sins.

[snakehips 0]

Milliband is fucking awful. At PMQs the other day he was speaking to Cameron like he was apologetically imploring a mate to do the right thing.

I'm a Labour supporter but find Ed Milliband monotone and non engaging. He's terrible in interviews and the smug grin on his face isn't warranted. His brother would've been a better choice for me.

 

Ed just puts me in mind of the offspring of David Cameron and Ruby Wax.

 

David Milliband had some strong things to say about Israel as well, I think he may have been able to stick the boot in real good here.

 

Just been listening to Ed Milliband giving his speech on it all. What an opportunity wasted. The door was wide open for a size 10 astronaut doc martin to repeatedly put the boot in to 'Dave'/the tories/News Int et al, but what we get instead is a sixth-form speech by a guy who could hardly read it, wearing slippers (maybe with one seg in). A golden opportunity to use a massive fishing net to catch a load of votes (which, in essense, is what the speech was for) was done by a knob with one of those kids nets on a bamboo cane.

[Holden McGroin 6582]

Its Labours own fault in appointing Ed rather than David. Big chance wasted there and all so predictable when opportunities like this are missed.

 

Edit: On a side note. I quite like the way Chris Bryant (on this topic) puts himself across. He might go far.

Edited July 8, 2011 by Holden McGroin