[Update] The News Corp scandal

Originally Posted by Maggy J

Paul McMullen may have come across as a real sleaze but at least he was honest about what he did and was above denial..but as he said there were those in the chain of command who knew far more than they are admitting, pointing the finger at Coulson and the redheaded one.

I think McMullen was a professional troll seeking to crave out a small career as a go-to villain. He was way too provocative. He has been on several news shows doing the same kind of thing before. I mean the phrase 'Privacy is for Pedos' was classic....

Pure, crafted soundbite is what it was. And I bet he was foremost at moaning when nu-Labour were at it in the 90s.

[AdamD]

Originally Posted by slowcoach

Virgin Media being part of the media, and presumably providing what people want to see on it's Homepage, must leave even you wondering if education has failed the masses... case in point, today's top story on the Homepage “Simon Cowell will be back on Britain's Got Talent as a judge, but who's going to join him?�, give me strength.

Heh, was thinking something similiar today when I had a gander at the BBC site, who's main story was about the IMF/Europe, plus the military security for 2012 olympics

A quick look at the Sun's main stories and it's about some idiot from XFactor being drunk or high and someone claiming to be Jimmy Savile's love child...

lol, kinda sad really that papers like the sun, are so popular.

This is not about VM.They are not investigative journalists.They merely place the news gleaned from other sources on their web page. To compare them to the Sun is unfair.

Anyway this is a digression from the topic which is about the hacking scandal.

Originally Posted by heero_yuy

Maybe the NOTW was sacrificed to appease the Guardianistas and the BBC rather than from any real wrong doing. (This time) That may seem amazing to some members here who hate the NI empire with a level of venom.

Any real wrong doing? They still hacked and listened in on the voice-mails of a murdered school girl. Anyone who thinks that this isn't abhorrent, that it somehow absolves NOTW in this matter, is being either disingenuous or lacks a sense of reason into what should be considered acceptable behaviour by the press.

It doesn't stop there though, this was part of a collection of stories. They hacked numerous people whilst denying it at various stages even though it's now quite clear that they knew at the time it went beyond the 'single reporter'. It was a entire avalanche of stories that ended up closing NOTW, Brooks herself said she had seen there were more stories to come.

"some members here who hate the NI empire" I don't limit myself to NI daily mail as well they are an example of all that is wrong with society today constantly looking to get one section of society onto the back of another and victimise them for the sake of pathetic headlines. Our press has become little more then lowlife guttersnipes in the last thirty years and no longer work for the good of the people they work for the good of their banner's and nothing else and damn to who might be hurt or damaged in the process.

Piers Morgan at the Leveson Inquiry today via video link.

[denphone]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16283935

Phone hacking appeared to be a "bog-standard journalistic tool" for gathering information, a former Daily Mirror financial reporter has said.

He told the Leveson Inquiry into media ethics that he overheard showbiz journalists openly talking about it.

In a statement read to the inquiry, he stated: "I witnessed journalists carrying out repeated privacy infringements using what has now become a well-known technique - to hack into the voicemail systems of celebrities, their friends, publicists and public relations executives.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/21/wo...nt&tntemail1=y

The CNN talk-show host Piers Morgan declared on Tuesday that as the editor in chief of two British tabloids from 1994 to 2004, he knew no one who hacked phones or paid police officers for information.
Sometimes annoyed, sometimes combative, often terse in testimony that he delivered by video link from Los Angeles, Mr. Morgan told a British investigation into news media practices that “ethical considerations were interwoven into my work� at both papers, The News of the World and The Daily Mirror

.

Other witnesses have testified that phone hacking was rife at The Mirror while Mr. Morgan was its editor, from 1995 to 2004; a lawyer for the inquiry said that the police had evidence that the practice went on. But Mr. Morgan repeatedly testified that it did not, and that he knew nothing about it. Nor did he admit that anything he did at The Mirror was ethically wrong. He stuck to these positions even when presented with statements apparently to the contrary that he himself had made in interviews and in his tell-all 2005 memoir, “The Insider.�

Hmm! Even today it's been suggested that he knew more than he has admitted. See previous post.

[devilincarnate]

Phone hacking appeared to be a "bog-standard journalistic tool" for gathering information, a former Daily Mirror financial reporter has said.

James Hipwell, who was jailed in 2006 for writing about firms whose shares he owned, said he witnessed repeated privacy infringements at the paper.

He told the Leveson Inquiry into media ethics that he overheard showbiz journalists openly talking about it.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16283935

A 52-year-old serving police officer has been arrested as part of an inquiry into alleged illegal payments from journalists, Scotland Yard has said.

The woman was arrested at a property in Essex on Wednesday morning and is being held at a police station in the county.

She is the eighth person - and first police officer - to be arrested as part of Operation Elveden.

Operation Elveden is running alongside the Metropolitan Police's phone-hacking investigation, Operation Weeting.

The Met said the woman was arrested at a residential address at about 06:00 GMT.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16283948

The Leveson Inquiry is closed until the 9th of January.

[Mr Angry]

hung out to dry?

So it seems.

Originally Posted by Mr Angry

hung out to dry?

So it seems.

Good - I hope the same applies to James Murdoch.....

[denphone]

Originally Posted by Mr Angry

hung out to dry?

So it seems.

No sympathy here as if you sell your soul to the devil then you must suffer the consequences of that alliance.

[Pierre]

Originally Posted by Mr Angry

hung out to dry?

So it seems.

Who cares?

This story became boring months ago, and irrelevant weeks ago.

Time to move on