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The Latest Media Scandal: Murdoch Finally Under the Gun?
Well, it's certainly proving to be a fine summer for the Europeans.
PD toolbar!First, Silvio Berlusconi's sexual antics managed to make even Mark Sanford look like the archbishop of Canterbury.
Then there was that Wimbledon final. As we say over here: "Hard luck, Andy."
But now the Europeans have bested us where it hurts most: the media scandal.
You thought that whole WaPo dinner-with-the-stars thing was a bit outré? Move over, America. Let me tell you what a real media scandal looks like.
The Guardian broke a story revealing that Rupert Murdoch's News Group Newspapers has paid out more than 1 million pounds in court costs after its journalists were accused of involvement in phone tapping. The journalists allegedly hired private investigators to hack into the mobile phones of public figures ranging from former deputy prime minister John Prescott to supermodel Elle McPherson, as well as numerous other politicians, sports stars and actors. The investigators allegedly gained access to all sorts of confidential information about these people, including tax records, bank statements and social security files.
Sure, this is England, a place where tabloids are famous for their Page Three Pinups and rather dubious methods for obtaining a good scoop. It's not for nothing that the News of the World is often nicknamed "Screws of the World." Should we really pay any attention to this?
But even one of Murdoch's former editors at the News of the World says that this scandal constitutes one of the major media stories of modern times. First, it suggests that such behavior -- if shown to be true -- was not the result of a few rogue reporters but a systemic policy in the newsroom, opening the paper up to the possibility of a class-action lawsuit. Second, the scandal also threatens to embroil the Metropolitan police -- who apparently did not alert all those whose phones were targeted -- as well as the Crown Prosecution Service, which did not pursue all possible charges against News Group personnel. Finally, even Conservative party leader David Cameron could be tainted by this one: The party's chief of communications, Andy Coulson, was an editor at the News of the World when the alleged wire-tapping took place.
Murdoch, for his part, maintains that he knew nothing about any of this. This morning, the Commons Culture, Media and Sports Committee of the British Parliament announced it is launching an official investigation into the use of illegal surveillance techniques.
I must say that there was a point earlier this summer -- as I watched various prominent public figures in American life wander off the reservation -- that I wondered if Europe could still hold its own where scandals were concerned. But thanks to Rupert Murdoch and our dear friend Silvio, we can still hold our heads high.
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PD toolbar!First, Silvio Berlusconi's sexual antics managed to make even Mark Sanford look like the archbishop of Canterbury.
Then there was that Wimbledon final. As we say over here: "Hard luck, Andy."
But now the Europeans have bested us where it hurts most: the media scandal.
You thought that whole WaPo dinner-with-the-stars thing was a bit outré? Move over, America. Let me tell you what a real media scandal looks like.
The Guardian broke a story revealing that Rupert Murdoch's News Group Newspapers has paid out more than 1 million pounds in court costs after its journalists were accused of involvement in phone tapping. The journalists allegedly hired private investigators to hack into the mobile phones of public figures ranging from former deputy prime minister John Prescott to supermodel Elle McPherson, as well as numerous other politicians, sports stars and actors. The investigators allegedly gained access to all sorts of confidential information about these people, including tax records, bank statements and social security files.
Sure, this is England, a place where tabloids are famous for their Page Three Pinups and rather dubious methods for obtaining a good scoop. It's not for nothing that the News of the World is often nicknamed "Screws of the World." Should we really pay any attention to this?
But even one of Murdoch's former editors at the News of the World says that this scandal constitutes one of the major media stories of modern times. First, it suggests that such behavior -- if shown to be true -- was not the result of a few rogue reporters but a systemic policy in the newsroom, opening the paper up to the possibility of a class-action lawsuit. Second, the scandal also threatens to embroil the Metropolitan police -- who apparently did not alert all those whose phones were targeted -- as well as the Crown Prosecution Service, which did not pursue all possible charges against News Group personnel. Finally, even Conservative party leader David Cameron could be tainted by this one: The party's chief of communications, Andy Coulson, was an editor at the News of the World when the alleged wire-tapping took place.
Murdoch, for his part, maintains that he knew nothing about any of this. This morning, the Commons Culture, Media and Sports Committee of the British Parliament announced it is launching an official investigation into the use of illegal surveillance techniques.
I must say that there was a point earlier this summer -- as I watched various prominent public figures in American life wander off the reservation -- that I wondered if Europe could still hold its own where scandals were concerned. But thanks to Rupert Murdoch and our dear friend Silvio, we can still hold our heads high.
and download the new Politics Daily toolbar!
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Delia Lloyd
Delia Lloyd is a writer based in London. Her work has appeared in The International Herald Tribune, The Guardian Weekly and on the BBC World Service... moreRelated Articles
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Comments (216)
Kortney Dunkle
9:12AM Jul 9th 2009
A left wing (feable) attempt to discredit Fox News. You guys just hate
Fox don't you. The truth makes you scream. Truth and suffering do
not matter for the greater good...right Communists ?
Fox don't you. The truth makes you scream. Truth and suffering do
not matter for the greater good...right Communists ?
RATE THIS COMMENT:
(-1)
(-1) 
The Real Truth
9:32AM Jul 9th 2009
The truth? I've been living with right wing lies for more than 50 years. Back in the 1950's members of the same defective gene pool that spreads nonstop lies about Obama today was telling everyone that we had to stop the fluoridation of our water because it was a communist plot. For some reason the recreation of choice among Limbauciles is getting together on the intenet and swapping lies. It doesn't work with the reality based community.
RATE THIS COMMENT:
(4)
(4) WADE....
9:41AM Jul 9th 2009
THE DEMOCRAT PARTY HAS MOVED SO FAR TO THE LEFT THAT EVEN THE COMMUNISTS ARE WAITING WITH OPEN ARMS….
http://wadesayswhat.wordpress.com/2009/07/07/dictator-of-the-united-states-dotus/
http://wadesayswhat.wordpress.com/2009/07/07/dictator-of-the-united-states-dotus/
RATE THIS COMMENT: (-2)
(-2) WADE....
9:43AM Jul 9th 2009
Some people lie when backed into a corner and they don’t know what else to do, but not Obama…Obama’s got a problem. ‘A BIG PROBLEM.’
http://wadesayswhat.wordpress.com/2009/07/08/obama-just-cant-seem-to-tell-the-truth/
http://wadesayswhat.wordpress.com/2009/07/08/obama-just-cant-seem-to-tell-the-truth/
RATE THIS COMMENT: (-2)
(-2) cjjanis
4:36PM Jul 9th 2009
Great Wade got his own site! Now we won't have wade though all his BS!
Funny how you right wingers are so in love with a non-American who shapes your news to fit his investments, nothing like being spoon feed BS.....................
Funny how you right wingers are so in love with a non-American who shapes your news to fit his investments, nothing like being spoon feed BS.....................
RATE THIS COMMENT: (4)
(4) moderate
1:12PM Jul 9th 2009
huh, it's in all the major newspapers for one, why would he comment if it were not true. you are delusional and a denier of the truth.
RATE THIS COMMENT: (-2)
(-2) Pundit
6:07PM Jul 9th 2009
Rim shot! Faux: The Criminal Channel for the truly criminally insane... no wonder Cheney lives, breaths, loves & eats Faux turds... Is that chocolate on dicks face & fingers?
Unfairly targets Dems and should loose their FCC license for repeatedly proven Bill 'o et al racism and TREASON!
Martha MacCallum, co-anchor of the Fox News program "The Live Desk," apologized today after Fox News "inadvertently" used a six-month-old clip of Joe Biden talking about the economy.
The misleading segment featured splices of recent interviews with Obama administration officials discussing the state of the economy. One clip showed Joe Biden saying that the "fundamentals of the economy are strong." The Huffington Post reported yesterday that the clip of Biden was taken from a much earlier stump speech, and that he was repeating a statement John McCain made on the campaign trail. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/03/17/fox-news-apologizes-for-m_n_175906.html And Don't BS about the source, look at the accurate links providing Faux's video apology PROOF!
Sins of a well proven FAUX Past..Kincaid asks us via email: "At what point do we stop saying that this is accidental?"
Laughably & Fraudulently the same mis-identification of these REPs were Dishonestly identified as well: Foley, Craig, Ensign, Vitter, Sanford!
Conservative Evangelist Ted Haggard & GOPUSA's faux WH Reporter Jeff Gannon, may also have been mis ID'd in this way too!
One can only wonder how these obvious TREASONOUS FRAUD's do not result in lost FCC licenses as they should have!
The original appearance of such an "accident" occurred, as we reported it last week, when Fox "News" labelled the Republican Foley as a Democrat in a chyron over a video cutaway. Three of them, in fact. Across two different O'Reilly Factor segments. After our report brought attention to the issue, Fox blanked out that part of the screen during their two subsequent of the program later that night.
Like phony news organization Fox, who told Editor & Publisher a few days later that they felt no "correction per se" was necessary, phony news organization Newsmax apparently doesn't believe they need to tell anybody of the "error." They changed the "D" in their story to "R" later in the day --- after who knows how many had read the article --- but didn't bother to note the change in the updated article.
So much for Republican journalistic ethics. So much for Republicans taking personal responsibility. For anything.
UPDATE 10/4/06 2:04am PT: Confirmed! We just watched the second late-night rerun of O'Reilly, and indeed, the evidence goes down the memory hole as Fox removed the mis-labelled chiron entirely from their later broadcasts without explanation! BTW, we watched both full segments this time, including the one with Florida's own alleged Queen of Voter Fraud, Ann Coulter who swears up and down that Hastert just couldn't have known anything about Foley's problem, he just couldn't have!
Screenshot from the rebroadcast, where the "(D-FL)" has been excised from all three video cutaways.
All Murdoch media is Very well proven, UNFAIRLY BOGUS!
Faux; The Criminal Channel for the criminally insane...
Unfairly targets Dems and should loose their FCC license for repeatedly proven Bill 'o et al racism and TREASON!
Martha MacCallum, co-anchor of the Fox News program "The Live Desk," apologized today after Fox News "inadvertently" used a six-month-old clip of Joe Biden talking about the economy.
The misleading segment featured splices of recent interviews with Obama administration officials discussing the state of the economy. One clip showed Joe Biden saying that the "fundamentals of the economy are strong." The Huffington Post reported yesterday that the clip of Biden was taken from a much earlier stump speech, and that he was repeating a statement John McCain made on the campaign trail. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/03/17/fox-news-apologizes-for-m_n_175906.html And Don't BS about the source, look at the accurate links providing Faux's video apology PROOF!
Sins of a well proven FAUX Past..Kincaid asks us via email: "At what point do we stop saying that this is accidental?"
Laughably & Fraudulently the same mis-identification of these REPs were Dishonestly identified as well: Foley, Craig, Ensign, Vitter, Sanford!
Conservative Evangelist Ted Haggard & GOPUSA's faux WH Reporter Jeff Gannon, may also have been mis ID'd in this way too!
One can only wonder how these obvious TREASONOUS FRAUD's do not result in lost FCC licenses as they should have!
The original appearance of such an "accident" occurred, as we reported it last week, when Fox "News" labelled the Republican Foley as a Democrat in a chyron over a video cutaway. Three of them, in fact. Across two different O'Reilly Factor segments. After our report brought attention to the issue, Fox blanked out that part of the screen during their two subsequent of the program later that night.
Like phony news organization Fox, who told Editor & Publisher a few days later that they felt no "correction per se" was necessary, phony news organization Newsmax apparently doesn't believe they need to tell anybody of the "error." They changed the "D" in their story to "R" later in the day --- after who knows how many had read the article --- but didn't bother to note the change in the updated article.
So much for Republican journalistic ethics. So much for Republicans taking personal responsibility. For anything.
UPDATE 10/4/06 2:04am PT: Confirmed! We just watched the second late-night rerun of O'Reilly, and indeed, the evidence goes down the memory hole as Fox removed the mis-labelled chiron entirely from their later broadcasts without explanation! BTW, we watched both full segments this time, including the one with Florida's own alleged Queen of Voter Fraud, Ann Coulter who swears up and down that Hastert just couldn't have known anything about Foley's problem, he just couldn't have!
Screenshot from the rebroadcast, where the "(D-FL)" has been excised from all three video cutaways.
All Murdoch media is Very well proven, UNFAIRLY BOGUS!
Faux; The Criminal Channel for the criminally insane...
RATE THIS COMMENT: (4)
(4) sherry4sue
8:14PM Jul 9th 2009
BUSTED!!! Open your eyes, loser
RATE THIS COMMENT:
(0)
(0) ScamN2
8:23PM Jul 9th 2009
Faux News with the Likes of Bloviating O'reilly, Glenn the Shill Beck, Sham Hannity and the rest of those impostors spewing their 24hrs of Bullsh^t, It's about time that the Hammer comes down on Murdoch.
The Cable news reminds me of the Congress and their childish bantering and back and forth bickering.
They never get anything done and are full of LIES.
Hope that was "Pithy" enuff for ya.
The Cable news reminds me of the Congress and their childish bantering and back and forth bickering.
They never get anything done and are full of LIES.
Hope that was "Pithy" enuff for ya.
RATE THIS COMMENT: (0)
(0) solodrop
8:34PM Jul 9th 2009
actually dumb ass the act we are speaking of would be ok in a communist country that doesnt protect the rights of its people. maybe fox news hasnt explain what communism is to the uneducated morons that watch it and think its the truth. you might want to go to school and study, well anything.
RATE THIS COMMENT:
(2)
(2) adiaris
8:52PM Jul 9th 2009
The truth hurts don't it. Fox news has more skeletons in the closet than all the cemetaries in the USA.
RATE THIS COMMENT: (0)
(0) BFeger
9:14PM Jul 9th 2009
that can't really be your name.
RATE THIS COMMENT: (-2)
(-2) eros20001
9:52PM Jul 9th 2009
I hope there will be a class action suit against this lying and manipulative organization. I hope Murdock gets sued right out of business. He controls way too much media and disperses lies with total right wing bias. "Fair and balanced" is a total lie. The News Corp couldn't be farther from "fair and balanced". The sooner he and his hacks are out of business, the better off the world will be.
RATE THIS COMMENT: (-3)
(-3) Gregory Dittmer
10:00PM Jul 9th 2009
Kortney Dunkle
9:12AM Jul 9th 2009
A left wing (feable) attempt to discredit Fox News. You guys just hate
Fox don't you. The truth makes you scream.
##############################################################
This is really choice... a supporter of Fox that actually THINKS they tell the truth! Fox News discredits itself virtually every time they let O'Reilly, Beck or Hannity speak.
9:12AM Jul 9th 2009
A left wing (feable) attempt to discredit Fox News. You guys just hate
Fox don't you. The truth makes you scream.
##############################################################
This is really choice... a supporter of Fox that actually THINKS they tell the truth! Fox News discredits itself virtually every time they let O'Reilly, Beck or Hannity speak.
RATE THIS COMMENT: (-1)
(-1) pmhmerc
6:32AM Jul 10th 2009
I agree that this is an attack on Fox News, but it won't work for many Americans. Having seen the way the local stations and our local newspaper misrepresented our last tea party event and how many people attended our tea party event, I know yellow jounalism exists and outright attempts to discredit and eliminate any opposition to this administration's tax and spend and dictatorial agenda. If you belong to a tea party group, you know what the left is capable of when Acorn (the goons for this administration) show up to every event and try to disrupt. This is a war on freedom loving people who think they can do a better job managing their own lives than a government that has made a mess out of every single thing they have ever taken on (look at the post office, amtrak, auto companies, democrats in congress and 2 presidents pushing loans for people who could not afford them bringing on this recession, our public (socialist training) school system, social security, medicare, medicaid, and on and on). About the only thing this group is good at is slinging mud.
RATE THIS COMMENT: (0)
(0) Bobbie
8:08AM Jul 10th 2009
Ha ha! The Republican party is mad at everyone. They boycott NBC because they can't take a joke. They boycott ABC because it aired a special with President Obama. And forget about anything with the initials NBC...they basicly only listen to Fox news...so who's afraid here?
RATE THIS COMMENT: (-1)
(-1) glrdi56
9:25AM Jul 10th 2009
A left wing (feable) attempt to discredit Fox News. You guys just hate
Fox don't you. The truth makes you scream. Truth and suffering do
not matter for the greater good...right Communists ? *********Hey Kortney,is that how they spell feeble in your trailer park?Maybe we should end this battle between the republican inbreds and the thinking people by having a spelling contest......
Fox don't you. The truth makes you scream. Truth and suffering do
not matter for the greater good...right Communists ? *********Hey Kortney,is that how they spell feeble in your trailer park?Maybe we should end this battle between the republican inbreds and the thinking people by having a spelling contest......
RATE THIS COMMENT: (-1)
(-1) enkelin
9:58AM Jul 10th 2009
Rupert Murdoch is a Naturalized American Citizen. He openly admits he uses his media control to push his political agenda. Control of the News is and has been a practice of the media moguls for a long time now. Only lately it has become outright propaganda. Google "Orwell rolls in his grave"
RATE THIS COMMENT:
(3)
(3) Crandall
9:53AM Jul 9th 2009
Well well well...another scandal for the right wingers who think they are so perfect...they just keep piling up...more news to come on the Ensign
scandal as well...I do not understand why they call these guys christian
conservatives? Cheating on your wife and paying people to keep your mouth shut what is so christian about that.
Not that the democrat men are not without scandal ....they just don't put themselves on a pedistal claiming to be a christian who has temporarily fallen from grace or crying about being a sinner.
Now Mr. Murdoch...says I know nothing about it..someone bit is going to be the fall guy you watch...lets see how many lose their jobs to protect
Mr. Murdoch....I am sure he will pay them well.
scandal as well...I do not understand why they call these guys christian
conservatives? Cheating on your wife and paying people to keep your mouth shut what is so christian about that.
Not that the democrat men are not without scandal ....they just don't put themselves on a pedistal claiming to be a christian who has temporarily fallen from grace or crying about being a sinner.
Now Mr. Murdoch...says I know nothing about it..someone bit is going to be the fall guy you watch...lets see how many lose their jobs to protect
Mr. Murdoch....I am sure he will pay them well.
RATE THIS COMMENT: (2)
(2) casadederrick
10:28AM Jul 9th 2009
Crandall - it is not a right wing or left wing thing. People cheat on thier wifes and it is from either wing it is not a right wing thing. You mentioned only Republican people but you forgot Ted Kennedy and the murder of Mary Joe. I think murder is far worst then cheating or how about the IRS boss who forgot to pay his taxes. He thought that he was above paying taxes. The real issue is that they have broken the law and should be in jail. Rather people in politics think they are above the normal laws of comman man and are not subject to these laws. It does not matter in what country they are located, they all belong in jail.
RATE THIS COMMENT: (0)
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