News Corp’s deputy chairman and chief operating officer, Chase Carey, said it had become clear that the Sky takeover “is too difficult to progress in this climate”.
I hate when the climate just changes like that. Hot air emissions by NewsCorp clearly had nothing to do with it.
JGabriel
Oh Noez! The Sky Is Falling!
.
Han's Solo
The only thing that could make this week better is if Rush Limbaugh and Mark Levin got caught having sex with each other in a room wallpapered with pictures of a naked Barney Frank.
dpcap
What kind of a paper is The Guardian anyway? Now that they stand to take over the media hegemony in the UK, one must ask, are they evil?
agrippa
Human caused climate change is pretty frightening, and many people do not want to believe it. And, they are afraid of the changes needed if they do accpt it.
So, climate change is denied.
Tsulagi
What’s with those damn Brits messing with Murdoch? Don’t they know you need to look forward, not backward?
gogol's wife
#3: My impression is that The Guardian is a real newspaper and not evil.
David Hunt
They’re a major media corporatation. Of course they’re evil! The best that we can hope for is that they’re less evil than Murdoch’s gang of sociopaths. Normally I’d say that this was a no-brainer, but I’m superstitious about that sort of thing. It’s a bit like asking, “What could possibly go wrong?”
JPL
??? I read somewhere that a government inquiry into News Intl. could slow down the police investigation. I want to see James Murdoch and Les Hinton arrested for bribing police officials so I hopefully this is not true. Does anyone know?
Brachiator
Wall Street is so strange:
So, when the dust settles on all this, Murdoch may still end up OK.
Dennis SGMM
Murdoch is being crucified for the sin of revealing the truth about liberals and their sociaIist agenda!
/wingnut
Origuy
Historically, the Guardian has been a left-wing paper. Wikipedia says it “identifies with centre-left liberalism” and from what I’ve been reading, that’s about right. Of course “centre-left liberalism” over there would be Soc-ialism over here.
It’s sometimes referred to as the Grauniad, but its reputation for typos dates from the hot-metal type days, when the London edition was printed early and rushed down from Manchester.
Citizen Alan
The Guardian is unabashedly center-left … by British standards, which makes it pretty left-wing by American standards.
JPL
What would happen to Sully if Murdoch sold the Times?????????
Dennis SGMM
@JPL
He’ll get a job with the Washington Post.
scav
JPL @ 8 If you knew more about the police investigation as it has been managed so far since at least 2007 you would know this would not be a problem, even if true.
pete
Not only is the Grauniad generally sane, their business plan involves expanding their U.S. coverage. I don’t think they have any intention to print in the U.S. but their website is large and has no paywall. It’s not just part of the physical paper organization but has a solid web-only presence that is thoroughly integrated in the site, making it relatively simple for them to add features of interest to the U.S. audience without necessarily printing them in the U.K. paper. They are clearly aiming at the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, and a good thing too. Oh, and FYI the Sunday print version is called The Observer, but it’s the same website, so if you see a reference to The Observer know it’s essentially the same organization.
pete
By the way, “Grauniad” (or “Giruniad” etc) is an affectionate hat-tip to the old days of typos, popularized decades ago by Private Eye.
catclub
That’s change I can believe in.
scav
Pete: I was always wondering about the origin of those. thanks. Other thing I severely like about the Guard is their Data section. Some seriously interesting new graphics and data-playing-dissemination geekiness.
pete
@scav: “severely liking” sounds kinda kinky to me …
scav
@pete. well, data and graphics, to be graphic, do such things to me . . . .
Linda Featheringill
climate change . . .
Ah Tim! You’re so cute!
I had a good chuckle out of that, mainly because I wasn’t expecting it. You took me by surprise.
:-)
El Cid
A very good comedic routine (the Daily Show / John Oliver bit was good but this is more detailed) came on the BBC’s comedy political review radio show “The Now Show.”
It’s just a straight-out commentary by John Fennimore, but it’s a thorough review and very funny, showing what lying turds *all* of the Murdoch people are.
Skip to 6’30” for the bit.
Calouste
Now that the News of the World has closed and News International has withdrawn its bid for BSkyB, this affair will move on to its next target, which could well be David Cameron’s appointment of former NotW editor Andy Coulson as the government’s director of communication. And unlike News International, Cameron won’t have a tactical retreat. Although the Conservative Party could sacrifice Cameron in the same way that Murdoch sacrificed the News of the World.
WereBear
@Han’s Solo: While your ideas are intriguing, the last thing I want to do is subscribe to your newsletter.
Quiddity
There is no sanction against Murdoch and News Corp that would be too harsh. They have been acting like a criminal organization for decades, and getting away with it. I only hope that the British have the ability to get the purged emails from the News of the World. There is probably some extreme dirt to be found there.
That Murdoch closed the newspaper and withdrew his bid for British Sky Broadcasting can only be seen as a desperate attempt to quell the scandal.
J
Among its many strengths, the Guardian has one of the most devastatingly effective and funny political cartoonists in the business, Steve Bell. Look him up on their web site some time. Anyone curious about the Guardian would be well advised to buy a copy of their weekly, which selects from the daily paper and makes especially good reading if you’re travelling.
JGabriel
dpcap:
Origuy:
Citizen Alan:
Translation for dpcap: The Guardian appears to be largely more objective, honest, and reliable than most of its peers.
.
Unabogie
Chase Carey traded away Mike Piazza for Gary Sheffield.
Is there anything more to be said about what an asshole that guy is?
Sheesh, Frank McCourt is awful, but at least he isn’t Rupert Fucking Murdoch.
Yurpean
Praise be to Steve Bell indeed. This cartoon is the source of my name. Here’s today’s cartoon.
Origuy
I don’t know if any one has posted this yet:
Billy Bragg, “Never Buy the Sun”
Edit: A “scouse” is someone from Liverpool.
sukabi
@ Quiddity
Rumor has it that Murdoch’s also been trying to sell off News International, but with no luck…
so there’s apparently a whole lot of ‘there’ THERE… and Murdoch’s trying desperately to stop the fire before it consumes his whole operation.
Brachiator
Calouste:
I’m not really seeing how the Conservative party could sacrifice Cameron, since he is Prime Minster. Is there some historical precedent that you are thinking of?
Interrobang
Allow me to present to Tim F., one internets, awarded for “Most Laugh-Out-Loud Funny Short Post Today.” Would you like your internets with a side of fries and a Coke?
Comrade Kevin
@Brachiator: Yes, there is precedent for it. It is how John Major replaced Margaret Thatcher.
Tony J
Origuy @ 31,
Yes we are, and no we don’t.
Alright, SOME do, but they’re the people with a sports-team based ‘reason’ to think that what The Sun said about Liverpool supporters was funny, and there aren’t a lot of them.
The News of the World was a scummy rag, but if The Sun goes down the tubes because of all this… that would be a very good thing.
Yurpean
Brachiator, to expand on Comrade Kevin, the only people who get a vote on who should be Prime Minister are MPs (well, technically only the Queen gets a ‘vote’), not the public directly. Thatcher was deposed as leader of the conservative party, and replaced by John Major, and since the Tories had a parliamentary majority, they made him PM (or rather, the Queen invited him to form a government, and so become PM, as he had the support of a majority of the Commons).
Similarly, when Blair was replaced by Brown, he announced he was resigning as leader of the Labour party, Gordon was ‘elected’ (although nobody stood against him) as leader then subsequently became PM a few days later when Tony resigned.
Tony J
Brachiator @ 33,
It’s still in the realms of “Not Likely”, but if the Coulson link burns Cameron’s brand badly enough, the Conservatives – could – ditch him in a number of ways. Force him to resign through internal pressure, hold a new leadership election, etc.
He’s not ‘elected’ Prime Minister, he only holds that post because he’s the leader of the largest Party in Parliament and formed a coalition with the Liberal Democrats to make up a governing majority.
Tony J
Sukabi @ 32,
The way I heard it covered on Newsnight, the idea is that Murdoch wants the BSkyB takeover so very much that, now it’s being sent to the Competition Commission for a fresh ruling (thanks to his friends in Whitehall), all he has to do is get rid of his entire British newspaper stable and, as if by magic, the only grounds for the Commission to rule against him disappear.
It’s along the same lines as the ruse Blair repeatedly relied on to prevent any serious inquiry into our involvement in Bush’s Iraq clusterfuck. Get a ruling from a friendly body on some very specific and limited aspect of said clusterfuck, then leverage that into a “See? I’ve been proven innocent of all the charges, especially the ones they weren’t allowed to consider!” moment.
But from the way Parliament is reacting to having the fear of Murdoch’s blackmail racket lifted (if only partially) from the necks of MPs, it’s even money on whether it’ll work this time.
pete
In the realms of “not likely but not impossible” due to the British system, IF Cameron were so badly burned by his association with Coulson (not to mention his Christmas with Rebekah, who is married to an old school chum and lives not far down the road) that he was forced to quit as Tory leader, the LibDems could theoretically quit the coalition and force a virtually immediate general election. Now the LibDems have been in deep political doodoo for a while, so they may not want to risk it, but then it might offer them a way out of a mess of their own making. Fun fun fun …
sukabi
@ Tony don’t think Murdoch’s going to be getting his BSkyB party basket… he’s withdrawn his offer, and is under increasing pressure from this side of the pond… more calls by senators for an investigation into his business practices under the Foreign Corruption Acts…. both for allegedly hacking 9/11 victims phones / records and for his orgs other clearly and admittedly illegal practices of bribing / blackmailing foreign politicians…