NotTV: Murdoch UK Tab Shutting Down Over Phone Hacking Scandal

[Mark J.]

The News of the World Sunday paper under its many owners has never
been known for ethical journalism, but Rupert must be running scared
as the alleged hacking of cell phones by NOTW reporters has caused
shock waves all the way to Parliament and Downing Street and may keep
Murdoch from acquiring the other half of BSkyB, the satellite company
that's the UK's predominant provider of non-terrestrial television:

http://www.deadline.com/2011/07/news-of-the-world-will-close-on-sunday/

Now could all this reverberate to the U.S. and in particular Murdoch's
Fox News?

[Joe Coughlin]

Rumor has it that the paper will become weekly and rebadge itself the Sunday Sun.

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[John Edwards]

It already was a weekly, as the UK has several papers that publish only on Sundays. 

The Sunday Sun rumour seems to be the most likely, although they may have to wait a while lest it seem too obvious that that's what they're up to.

John

John Edwards
"You can insure against the weather, but you can't insure against incompetence, can you?" - Phil Tufnell

[Adam Bowie]

I believe BBC Newsnight will be shown on C-Span at 1730 today. Well with catching to get a full grasp of how staggering and scandalous this whole thing has been.

Adam

On 7 Jul 2011 18:52, "John Edwards" <jedwa...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Mark J.]

On Jul 7, 3:22 pm, Adam Bowie <a...@adambowie.co.uk> wrote:
> I believe BBC Newsnight will be shown on C-Span at 1730 today. Well with
> catching to get a full grasp of how staggering and scandalous this whole
> thing has been.

Twitter retweet on C-SPAN's web site confirms this on C-SPAN3, which
those with analog cable can't get. That's 5:30 p.m. ET, an hour from
now.

[Kevin M.]

C-Spans 1, 2, and 3 are all freely available to those with net access:

http://c-span.org/Live-Video/C-SPAN/

--
Kevin M. (RPCV)

[Kevin M.]

I found this post which explains that by closing the paper, Murdoch &
Company can use a loophole to legally destroy any evidence that may
aid in prosecution.

http://blogs.reuters.com/mediafile/2011/07/07/is-murdoch-free-to-destroy-tabloids-records/

--
Kevin M. (RPCV)

[PGage]

On Thu, Jul 7, 2011 at 2:01 PM, Kevin M. <drunkba...@gmail.com> wrote:

I have been watching the hearing on C-Span 2 this morning. Aside from Rupert's act as a confused old man, the main thing we learned is, don't mess with Wendi Deng, who stepped up and slapped some guy who tried to put what seems (from replays I see now on SkyNews) to be a cream of foam pie in Rupert's face.

[PGage]

Sorry I was watching on C-Span 3.

[PGage]

It is really hard to believe that these guys run a 54 Billion Dollar corporation. At the hearing they look like Corrado and AJ Soprano.

SkyNews identified the pie-thrower as Johnnie Marbles, who they said was a comedian of some kind in the UK.

Interesting at the end was questioning by the Chick-Lit gal Louise Mensch, who I have read about but never seen or heard. Looks like she will be playing herself in the movie.

[Bob in Jersey]

PGage, following his own posts, in part:

> SkyNews identified the pie-thrower as Johnnie Marbles, who they said was a
> comedian of some kind in the UK.

No front-on video of the impact? Everything I found was shot facing
the questioners.



--
BOB

[PGage]

On Tue, Jul 19, 2011 at 9:28 AM, PGage <pga...@gmail.com> wrote:

It is really hard to believe that these guys run a 54 Billion Dollar corporation. At the hearing they look like Corrado and AJ Soprano.

SkyNews identified the pie-thrower as Johnnie Marbles, who they said was a comedian of some kind in the UK.

Interesting at the end was questioning by the Chick-Lit gal Louise Mensch, who I have read about but never seen or heard. Looks like she will be playing herself in the movie.

I respond to myself to post a link to this ap story on Mensch and CNN's Piers Morgan (who I have never watched, but learned during the hearing from Mensch also used to be one of Rupert's Editors at a different Tabloid): http://old.news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110719/ap_en_tv/us_phone_hacking_piers_morgan

Two items here of note:

1. Mensch mentioned repeatedly this morning that Morgan had written in his 2005 autobiography that he got scoops by hacking phones when he edited British tabloids. She said it at least three times, to set up her point that while hacking is bad, we can't blame Rupert because everyone on Fleet Street does it. Morgan tweeted at the time: "Ms. Mensch is completely and utterly wrong. She clearly hasn't read my book. Can someone please give her a copy?" The AP story says that " Mensch appeared to confuse her source... Morgan does not boast of hacking phones, but writes of being suspicious that he, himself, was hacked." Morgan and Mensch were both on "The Situation Room" later today, and he confronted her, but she refused to comment (apparently afraid he would sue her for libel if she repeated her charge without the protection of speaking in Parliament. Doesn't that suggest that she knew she was wrong, even when she made the comment in the first place?).

2. Morgan has been as quiet/supportive of Murdoch as any Fox employee. He tweeted after today's hearing: "Strong finish by Rupert. Love him or hate him, does anyone genuinely think he's a crook or condoned crime? Because I don't."

Yes, I do. Morgan is quoted in the article as saying that when he worked for Murdoch they only talked 15 minutes a week, and Murdoch never got into the methods of gathering news. I have heard several similar defenses of Murdoch today, and of course that is basically what he said in defense of himself a the hearing. It might even be plausible, if this was the first hearing into recent hacking charges. But this has been going on for years, there has been a long, formal inquiry into it, and the idea that Rupert was too busy or too demented to ask any questions, or get any answers, does not pass any kind of smell test.

[Bob in Jersey]

Mark J., in part:

> Now could all this reverberate to the U.S. and in particular Murdoch's
> Fox News?

Two US Senators, Rockefeller of W. Virginia and Boxer of California,
are initiating an inquiry, to be handled by the special committee set
up when NewsCorp acquired Dow Jones, to find out what stateside
officials of the company knew about the scandal and when they knew it
-- Les Hinton, former News Intl head, tho over here running DJ&Co and
the Journal, was one of the execs leaving after the reports.

http://goo.gl/qgYtk



--
BOB