This seems like big news. I didn’t hear anyone predict it would happen.
Rebekah Brooks has been arrested by police investigating allegations of phone hacking by the News of the World and allegations that police officers were bribed to leak sensitive information.
beltane
Maybe we’ll see the old man himself in shackles before the week is done.
Mojotron
http://hasrebekahbrooksbeenarrestedyet.com/
arguingwithsignposts
I’ll repost this from the previous thread:
Well, the arrest certainly explains her abrupt resignation on Friday. Since it was an arrest by appointment, she surely knew it was coming, and it wouldn’t do to have the current NI chief walking into the police station to get arrested.
aimai
I read the Times article. It looks very serious for Brooks because at the same time they arrested a former NoW journalist who was sent to flack for the Police, at a very high level. This guy, Wallis, is going to turn out to have been paid by both the Police (his official job) and the NoW unofficially and it looks like he may have reported as high as Rebekah Brooks. She won’t be able to deny this connection and not only does it, itself, constitute illegal contact with the Police but Wallis may find himself accused of bribing top Police officers himself.
aimai
Trollenschlongen
The world is a twisted place.
This woman is already in shackles, but Tony Blair, George Bush, and Dick Cheney walk free.
How many people has SHE killed?
arguingwithsignposts
From an earlier NYT piece:
WTF Cameron? Was there nothing else going on in the world over the last year.
bkny
gosh, no mention at all in the new york post … i wonder why… ;-)
beltane
If Rebekah Brooks, knowing that her arrest was immanent, chose to step down to save NI’s reputation, they really are clueless. This is how it always is with sociopathic bullies, once you have them cornered in their bunkers they tend to sh*t their pants like the cowards they are.
JPL
From the Guardian live update, I found this clip..
duh
rob!
“They’re coming to get you, Rupert…”
Observer
Pay attention people: This is what actual justice looks like when a country looks itself in the mirror.
What happens: people who commit (or are alleged to commit) crimes are then arrested and thrown in jail based on the evidence regardless of how much power and influence they have accumulated in their job or via their social circles.
What doesn’t happen: the regional attorney generals don’t all get together and try to work a deal with the corporate miscreants where the companies just pay some fines with no threat of jail to anyone and the leader of the country doesn’t say that everyone needs to look forward not backwards and then only prosecutes the whistleblowers.
Brian R.
I want to sit outside Murdoch’s home all day playing the “chuh-chuh” noise from Law and Order until he cracks.
JPL
Who is next, Les Hinton or James Cameron? If I were a betting person, I’d say Hinton.
rob!
Hey, I thought Avatar was bad, but I think that’s going too far.
bkny
I’d say Hinton.
he did resign unexpectedly … ;-)
Killjoy
Come on, Pirahna Part II was thirty years ago.
cathyx
Here is a good overview of all of the players in the hacking scandal.
Linda Featheringill
As Valdiva said in the thread below:
It would be so nice if one of the bigwigs started talking. Rebekah probably knows where several of the bodies are buried. Does anyone know where all of them are?
Hinton wouldn’t talk if you had him on a rack. But Becky? Maybe.
Cat Lady
More arrests, Les Hinton.
rob!
I wanted Brooks arrested just from that piece of footage of her walking with Murdoch from a few days ago, where they both had shit-eating grins on their faces. Fucking arrogant a-holes.
cathyx
@Linda Featheringill:
It’s hard to predict when we don’t know these people personally how they would react to the thought of years in prison. If they’re given the opportunity to spill the beans and stay out, or keep quiet and do time, who knows what they would choose. Remember, these people are used to living life in the lap of luxury.
Trollenschlongen
So when will Tony Blair be arrested for his part in the manipulation of intelligence and lies leading to the Iraq War?
Joey Maloney
Please. She hasn’t been arrested. She’s “helping police with their enquiries.”
Love that British decorum.
Violet
@Trollenschlongen:
Remember, they got Al Capone on tax evasion. Maybe people like Rebekah Brooks have dirt on those in very, very high places. You never know how things like this will play out.
It certainly looks like Scotland Yard is going to be turned upside down. The corruption there goes to the very top.
MazeDancer
Do not miss the excellent chart – with headshots – of all the players and their interconnectedness at the NY Times articles. Makes it easier to follow who’s who:
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/07/08/world/europe/20110708-key-players-in-the-phone-hacking-scandal.html?hp
In the Times articles, have to say, besides the stunning Scotland Yard involvement, another surprise was Cameron’s many appointments with and invitations to Chequers for Murdoch and minions. Can’t imagine even George Bush having that many Fox execs repeatedly over to the White House or weekends at Camp David. Maybe he did and we just don’t know about it….?
MikeJ
It’s time to leave Rupert alone in a room with a revolver.
me
Hinton is a US citizen so either he’d have to return to the UK voluntarily or he’d have to be extradited and that would take time.
Ash Can
@Linda Featheringill: You’ve got to figure that, given the moral turpitude of this bunch, sooner or later someone’s going to throw his/her cohorts under the bus.
Anya
Trollenschlongen @ 5 ~ Are you saying murder is the only crime that’s arrest worthy?
beltane
@MazeDancer
The relationship between Roger Ailes and Dick Cheney was supposedly very close. I can certainly imagine, indeed i expect, that there were many similar meetings between Ailes and Republican party operatives.
Wazmo
It’s not trending on Twitter yet…#isruppertnext….
Trollenschlongen
@ Anya:
No, not at all. It’s just that one of the many distasteful lessons I learned during the Bush years was that in opposition to the way things should be in a moral universe, the reality for the rich and powerful and connected is that the MORE horrendous one’s crimes, the LESS likely one is to pay for them.
“Little people” like Lynddie England re Abu Grahaib, go to jail while those at the top who give the orders skate.
So with that in mind, I have little regard for the notion of “justice” being served, as it is so arbitrary and corrupt in its application by our overlords.
Violet
Link. It doesn’t look good when editors have to tell their underlings not to engage in unethical behavior, as if this is some kind of new directive. What have they been doing before this? Let’s find out.
SiubhanDuinne
@MikeJ #26:
Hahaha, the “content-relevant” ad at the top of the page is for Front Sight Firearms Training Institute.
Walker
I believe a Murdoch will go down, but it is unlikely to be Rupert.
cathyx
@beltrane: Nothing would happen here if it were discovered that the same thing happened with Cheney and Ailes. Remember, in this country we look forward, not backward.
Violet
@Walker:
Rupert thinks of News Corp as his legacy for his family. He’s going to have a very, very hard time throwing James under the bus. I think that will be his Achilles heel.
JPL
SiubhanDuinne, I just sent you another email.. let me know whether or not you get it..
arguingwithsignposts
@Violet:
You didn’t catch the part where they said *obvious* unethical things, eh?
Southern Beale
I’m stunned, I didn’t think she’d be arrested. Now that she’s been brought in, is Les Hinton far behind?
StonyPillow
And you’ve got at least one paper like the Guardian with real stones to hold up the mirror.
MazeDancer
@beltane:
Good point about Ailes and Cheney. They probably gathered in a lair, somewhere, with regularity.
Was wondering this morning if Roger was trying to put together a pool to buy Fox News. Or if he’s so dirty in hacking that he’ll be needing his money to retain counsel for other purposes.
But in my widest theorizing, seeking a brief respite from debt ceiling misery, was wondering, should hacking continues to be found on US soil (Jude Law now suing for a JFK hacking), what will happen. It’s possible News Corp will be forced to relinquish control of some assets. The NY Post could readily find a buyer. Guess the Koch’s could front Fox News even if it never made a dime.
General Stuck
I think the case of the missing/murdered child, whose phone messages they tapped into and deleted giving false hope she was alive, has really set off British fury that is open ended as far as News corp is concerned.
If the allegations are true of hacking 9-11 families in America, that will be a similar firestorm, and have quite a lot of political ramifications as well, since 9-11 has been exploited so shamelessly by GOP candidates.
Joseph Nobles
As Emptywheel just pointed out on Twitter:
Well, so much for that. Brooks can clam up and it’s just the Murdochs facing down the Culture Committee on Monday.
Justice? Heh. The fix is bloody well in.
JPL
Stuck, If Murdoch showed up to apologize, he would not walk away without help.
WereBear
It’s not a question of IF someone will turn; it’s who and when.
Like the joke goes: we’ve established what kind of people they are. What’s left is haggling about the price.
JGabriel
arguingwithsignposts:
True, but it leaves Hinton’s resignation somewhat unexplained. As a naturalized citizen in US territory, he’s not about to be arrested by the UK police.
Sure, it might be to preserve appearances — it doesn’t look good to have WSJ run by a CEO whose deputies in the old country have all been arrested — but that’s never really been an issue for News Corp. before. I mean, we’re talking about a company that hired Glenn Beck and still employs Sean Hannity.
Frankly, I’m surprised that Murdoch & fil haven’t skipped out of the UK already for the US’s safer (at least for now) shores.
.
asiangrrlMN
@arguingwithsignposts: You got there before I could. “Obvious” leaped out at me.
@General Stuck: Very good point, General. And I’m vicious enough to enjoy every minute of the denouement.
scav
Only reason I’m not instantly leaping to the notice of arrest leading to resignation idea (and I may get there) is that that A) I would think there had to be some negociations (and thus time) with NI first as it all proceeded so smoothly and with such a courtly series of bows and thanks and I doubt that could all be arranged on a single Friday (oh yes, and why would NI be so nice if they knew? — she may have been screwing them, hell I’m now arguing with myself mid-sentence); B) the whole double resignation works too well with the highly visible Rupert Day of Atonement Sorry Sorry Sorry Head-Holding tour. All I’m sure of is I’m not sure yet and there’s a hell of a lot coincidence left unaccounted for so far (beans and rice entirely unmixed) and it’s pointing in all directions except maybe to there maybe being a FSM because who arranged for the arrest of the flaming-haired Priority #1 on the same day (temporal, not newsprint) as Rupe’s ubiquitous single-page blah blah.
Violet
@arguingwithsignposts:
Well, of course they said “obvious.” They don’t want to get caught. It’s actually worse that they used the word “obvious” as it just serves to highlight the fact they don’t want to get caught.
The very fact they are telling their employees things like that is a bright red flag. If your corporate culture is such that your employees act with integrity and ethics, you don’t have to tell them anything about it, using the word “obvious” or not. If they routinely act unethically, then little wonder there’s a late hour attempt at CYA.
beltane
@scav
Rebekah Brook’s PR rep is now claiming that Brooks did not know she was going to be arrested and this claim has been confirmed http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2011/jul/17/phone-hacking-live-blog?commentpage=last#block-18
So yes, maybe the FSM does have a bone to pick with Rupert.
Cat Lady
@Stuck:
There is a Shakespearean flavor to this whole unfolding – that a little girl no one ever heard of and dead for years reaches out from beyond the grave to snare the most powerful person in the world with his own arrogance and hubris. Nothing good ever comes from intercepted communications if you operate on the wrong side of the moral ledger.
bkny
Editors at the New York Post pulled junior staffers into two closed-door meetings on Tuesday and told them, “We have to be on our P’s and Q’s and not engage in any kind of obvious, unethical journalistic things,” according to a source close to the Post.
i read elsewhere that a live mic caught a fox panel (including judy miller) jokingly passing around ‘who’s gonna mention news of the world … hahaha’ comments and no takers… i’ll see if i can find the link..
scav
just possibly, but the Parliamentary committee is really much bugger all in terms of long-term real justice for individuals which, like it or not, must come through the legal system. The met is up to its neck, hell, nose, and sinking fast in this, if anything, they’ve got just as much invested institutionally in proving they can nail NI as anybody now. And, however the details come out, and I can’t see them being contained at this point, the bulk of parliament (not just just a tothless committee) is the one to deal with it.
bkny
here’s a link to miller, cal thomas and james pinkerton avoiding rupert’s troubles:
On the show’s website, Fox News posts “Behind the Breaks” videos of the panel chatting during commercial breaks. In the first break, the panel — including Judith Miller, Cal Thomas and James Pinkerton — can be heard chatting about “the subject we’re not talking about today.” Thomas asked his colleagues if anyone is willing to bring up the scandal. “Sure,” Pinkerton answered jokingly. “Go ahead, Cal.” As the panel laughs, Thomas responds, “I’m not going to touch it.”
http://www.mediabistro.com/tvnewser/fox-news-watch-avoids-news-corp-scandal-almost_b75808
wazmo
Brooks arrest, according to a BBC reporter, “…is a huge deal – one degree of separation from the most powerful people (several of them) in the UK”.
Too bad Labor party has Millbrand as their standard-bearer.
Ruppert thought he could contain the damage by simply placing some well-placed phone calls-the fact that he’s calling in Edelman so late after this thing blew up means the old man has lost his edge. And the NewsCorp board of directors can’t be feeling real comfortable, even though they are essentially a rubberstamp.
Maybe Murdoch is in reality the reincarnation of William Randolph Hearst-that would certainly explains the way Fox News operates.
JGabriel
@Observer:
Maybe.
But, given police involvement in the bribery part of the scandal, we can’t ignore the possibility that Rebekah Brooks’s arrest — rather than being justice — was a step taken by them to pre-empt Brooks’s scheduled questioning by Parliament on Tuesday.
.
scav
Oh, and I just thought, with the amount and history NI/NC has already leaking details early so as to derail investigations there may very well be a legitimate reason to get, nay force, some of the evidence behind closed doors for a bit. Much as that pains and worries me.
stuckinred
wazmo
Rosebud
Jennifer
With the revelations about the Metropolitan Police and Scotland Yard, NI is ripe for prosecution under our own foreign corrupt practices act.
In fact, we should all start peppering the Justice Department demanding exactly that – prosecution for the very obvious violation of that law. Who knows what treasure trove of slime will get uncovered over at Fox if we can push a prosecution.
JPL
Colbert Report..has a new motto for Fox News We don’t touch it, you decide.
bkny
oohhh, i’ve got an idea … eliot spitzer’s looking for work … hire him to do an investigation. he’s actually very good at overseeing them.. or maybe cnn could assign him that task. could you imagine. lol.
eemom
is it possible this could bring down David Cameron? Like a vote of no confidence or something? I know next to nothing about British politics.
ChrisNYC
Brooks told Cameron to hire Coulson — “someone acceptable to NI”. Jesus.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2015573/Rebekah-Brooks-vetoed-BBC-man-told-Cameron-No10-job-Andy-Coulson.html
Anya
It looks like America is becoming the land of the lopsided justice system.
eemom
@ bkny
yep, Spitzy’d be out there sniffing around like a horny dog after a b*tch in heat. Or something.
SiubhanDuinne
@Cat Lady #52:
Shakespearean, yes indeed. The word that keeps coming up for me is “operatic.”
However this plays out, and it may be a very long process, this story is going to become an important part of our culture for years to come. And by culture I mean the Anglo-American zeitgeist as well as high art and pop culture. I admit my schadenfreude is getting a nice workout (so is my German!), but there’s also a kind of intellectual fascination with the multiple layers of arrogance and corruption, from the little dead girl “reaching out from beyond the grave” in your haunting phrase to Number Ten Downing Street, Scotland Yard, Buckingham Palace and Clarence House, Hollywood, and arguably the Cheney vice-presidency. And FSM only knows who else. Plays, movies, musicals, operas and dissertations enough for a couple of generations!
WaterGirl
The links provided by cathyx and MazeDancer are really great.
I would love to see the Iraq War, torture, etc each get their own list/chart in those formats. I would suggest both formats because various people learn differently. My sister, for instance, would completely tune out the graphic chart (linked by MazeDancer) but would be all over the list (linked by cathyx).
If someone was able to put that together quickly, it might gain some traction because YOU KNOW there are a ton of people following this scandal who might not be paying attention otherwise.
Just a thought.
handsmile
It is the Guardian’s crime correspondent Vikram Dodd who has confirmed reports that Rebekah Brooks was arrested today. The Metropolitan Police had issued an anodyne statement that a “43-year old woman had been arrested by appointment at a London police station.”
There are conflicting reports (Guardian/BBC/CNN/Sky) about whether NewsCorp executives and Brooks herself were notified that an arrest was imminent at the time of her resignation on Friday.
It is Sky News (a Murdoch entity) and Brooks’ own PR Flack (not a disinterested party) who are peddling the notion that her arrest may scupper her scheduled appearance on Tuesday before the Parlimentary committee on culture, sport and media.
All of the above and much more may be found on the Guardian updating live report: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2011/jul/17/phone-hacking-live-blog
I suspect that David Cameron is not spending this Sunday sittin’ back enjoying the final round of the British Open.
Arguingwithsignposts: Nice to see that this story finally merits your attention. But the NYT is certainly not the place to find the most incisive reporting and analysis on it. Crikey, they’ve got John Burns filing copy! Of course, if this is all a warm-up act for a epochal expose of Murdoch’s American media holdings….
Has anyone here watched ‘Press the Meat’ or its bobble-headed ilk this morning to see how/if this scandal has been addressed?
doofus
Trollenschlongen @ 5
Dumbass. You can’t get Cheney and the others without taking down Murdoch. And Murdoch still has the U.S. in the same way as he used to (??? hope hope hope) have the U.K.
pete
@eemom (63): Yes, Cameron is in some jeopardy, though that would really be a stretch (cough, I mentioned this a few days ago). There are two possible mechanisms: (1) His own party could essentially throw him out as leader — the Tories are traditionally good at the shiv in the back — which would mean that he resigns and some other Tory takes over; (2) more likely, though still implausible, the LibDems withdraw from the coalition and force an immediate general election. Now that would be fun.
ChrisNYC
@ handsmile
I heard Gregory asked about Brooks’ arrest — guests were Durbin and (ech) DeMint. Durbin said, “serious harrumph needs looking into.” DeMint said, “Let the UK do their thing. We need to talk about cap, crash and destroy (or whatever that new GOP slogan is).”
pablo
And what a fine sight to see!
Linda Featheringill
@Jennifer: #60
foreign corrupt practices act
email address for contacting the DOJ:
[email protected]
[no attachments allowed and you must include your mailing address, along with your real name I would think]
I sent an email suggesting an investigation under that act. Can’t hurt. Might help.
Peter J
The police, that’s also implicated in all of this, just want some alone time with Ms Brooks to make sure that their stories won’t deviate.
Roger Ailes
Should I be looking for a good lawyer?
JGabriel
This is amusing: some wag has already put together casting and a promo for a hypothetical movie based on the hacking & bribery scandal (via The Guardian).
I don’t to spoil any laughs, but let’s just say there are some inspired casting choices in the promo, especially for … well, watch it and see.
.
pete
Correction of the day (it’s in the Grauniad but I closed the tab and can’t be bothered to find the link):
Elizabeth Murdoch did NOT say Rebekah Brooks fvcked the company. No, she said Rebekah and her brother James fvcked the company.
The weasels seem to be trapped in a bag and clawing at each other.
scav
SiubhanDuinne: Don’t forget the Greeks. Hubris has simply got to come in here somewhere. And more I’m thinking: Lighting bolts! Torn to death by dogs! Sex Boycotts (ETA Harpies! Furies!) ‘Sides, Greek drama means we have a legitimate role on-stage as the chorus on the side making scary pronouncements and commenting on the goings-on.
ChrisNYC
Ha! Sullivan’s blog hasn’t mentioned Brooks’ arrest. They have a post now about Nietzsche (sp?) contemplating metaphors. The man has zero integrity.
General Stuck
No Sunnybrook Farm for Rebekah.
DougJ in Damascus
They have mentioned once or twice, but the lack of discussion around it is strange, very strange.
Bunter
There’s an ex News of the World employee on Twitter who’s been making predictions since the NotW closed. Usually in anagrams, but she said yesterday Brooks arrest was imminent. The twitter feed is @ExNOTWjourno2 I miss a fair amount of what’s hinted since I’m not that up on anagrams or British crosswords.
Davis X. Machina
Don’t these idiots watch spy movies? Or Mafia movies? Cutouts… plausible deniability …compartmentalization?
@pete: The LibDems can’t leave the Coalition. They’re so compromised by it that in a snap General Election, they’d retain about ten seats.
What price Nick Clegg’s ego?
JenJen
Love this quote from Wolcott:
Oh yes indeed.
WaterGirl
For Rupert Murdoch’s actual daughters: OUCH!
Violet
@Linda Featheringill:
As with most government things, email isn’t the recommended contact method. The DOJ’s contact page is here.
Snail mail:
Correspondence to the Department, including the Attorney General, may be sent to:
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001
Phone:
Department of Justice Main Switchboard — 202-514-2000
Office of the Attorney General Public Comment Line — 202-353-1555
There is more detailed info on the contact page if you want to contact a specific person or department.
Linda Featheringill
@JGabriel: #76
hackgate, the movie
LOL. That was good. I don’t always get the visual jokes because I don’t keep up with popular culture enough, but even I caught some of those gags.
[still chuckling]
Scott
If Rupert goes down, I wonder if Ailes will go down, too. How many Fox reporters/producers/anchors will go to jail? How many Republican politicians will get indicted?
Oh, I know it’ll be zero, but you must allow me my dreams.
stuckinred
I keep harping on Hannity’s Freedom Concert ripoff on the backs of dead GI’s.
beltane
Crooked Timber has an interesting take on the fall of the Murdoch regime http://crookedtimber.org/2011/07/17/dont-look-at-the-bank-behind-the-curtain/
Makes good reading while waiting for more arrests.
The collective silence of the Sully borg is highly amusing. I can’t see Sullivan ever being too critical of Posh Boy Cameron so I expect the silence to continue even after he comes back from vacation.
bkny
#69. …But the NYT is certainly not the place to find the most incisive reporting and analysis on it. Crikey, they’ve got John Burns filing copy! …
i saw him interviewed about this a couple of days ago, and he was really soft-peddling it.
ChrisNYC
@ DougJ
Yeah. He’s constantly going on and on about “real journalism.” Also too this is one of the few subjects he actually has expertise on. He gets UK political culture. Zero integrity. Sad because I do like his sort of silliness, the crazy jihads he goes on — but I can’t read him anymore.
WereBear
Don’t… mention… the war.
Linda Featheringill
@ChrisNYC: #79
Nietzsche? Wow. Herr Professor Nietzsche has been the justification for so much blood-letting, I don’t consider him a respectable philosopher. And don’t bother telling me that his work has been perverted. Save your breath. Even if you leave out the superman stuff, the man was an ass.
[Yeah, I get emotional about the strangest things. Just don’t get me started on architecture!]
JGabriel
The Guardian:
Huh. There’s a quote you’ll never see in The New York Times.
While feeling for the victims, I have to admit I’m kind of loving this scandal — particularly the way in which News Corps various associates are turning on each other like rabid … well, like rabid humans.
.
scav
bkny et al. Sad to note also that soft-peddling is still miles ahead of anything else we’ve seen to date in the US. So, if we grade an a very loose curve. ouch! hack! gagging noise
General Stuck
I can sense the entire wingnuttosphere all holding their breathes in unison, for the other shoos to drop on the GOP Pravda that is Fox News, and what role they might have played on similar behavior on this side of the pond.
They are the tip of the RNC propaganda spear, and all of this puts that fine tuned weaponized bullshit in some risk of losing that edge. Talk radio is the handle of the spear, but Fox News is the visual business end that circulates the main poison through the American political bloodstream. And makes all the other outlets try to copy it’s dishonest style, to varying degrees.
handsmile
Pete (#71)
The implausibility of the second scenario (Liberal Democrats withdrawing from the governing coalition) withers by the day.
Nick Clegg has been a pinata ever since he agreed to increasing higher education fees last autumn, breaking a campaign promise and long-standing party policy. The party was eviscerated in recent local council elections. LIbDem politicians were not a factor in the failed Alternative Vote referendum.
All this to say, with historic polling lows for the party, it may calculate that the most expeditious way to curry public flavor and restore its tattered reputation as the alternative to Labor and the Tories is to break with David Cameron who daily becomes more singed by the scandal. Also, with revelations continuing to spew, more and more will spatter Labor’s own coziness with Murdoch’s empire.
Linda Featheringill
@Violet:
contacting the doj:
The mailbox connected to the comment line is full and so they aren’t accepting any more.
That’s interesting. I suspect they clear that out on a regular basis.
Maybe tomorrow morning or so.
pete
@ Davis X Machina (82) It was my view a few days ago that the LibDems wouldn’t dare risk an election, but I now think there is a small but not entirely trivial chance that Clegg et al will make a desperate gamble as they sink ever further in the quicksand.
Thus far, the most delightful and unlikely outcomes have been bubbling to the top (to the amazement of almost everyone), so it’s worth a mention, even though, as I said, still implausible.
PeakVT
@pete: I think the LibDems taking down the government is especially unlikely, given the latest polling. Labour, OTOH, probably wants that to happen so bad they can taste it.
pete
@ handsmile (97): Posted simultaneously!
lol
Linda:
Holder confirmed on Friday that the FBI had opened an investigation.
JenJen
Former Fox News employee and current wildly unpopular Governor of Ohio John Kasich was on “Meet The Press” this morning. David Gregory asked him what he knew, what he’d heard, about the Murdoch scandal vis-a-vis Fox News, and Kasich told him he’d been assured from people within that “Fox News has not, and will not, be touched” by the growing controversy.
Thought the question by Gregory was surprising, and I appreciated it, but isn’t it interesting that the Governor of Ohio has spoken so recently to Fox News employees, and that Murdoch was the topic of conversation?
Davis X. Machina
Does Nick Clegg really want to become just head of what pieces survive the explosion — the SNP? (Somerset Nationalist Party)
Jennifer
@ 94, J Gabriel – I remember reading several years back about how Rupert’s children pretty much actively hate one another and were engaged in a struggle unto death as to who would control the old man’s empire once he kicks off. Don’t know if they ever had any rapproachment or not. Sounds like “not”. Wish I could remember where that article was – maybe Vanity Fair?
eemom
this is ever so much more fun than gloomy talk about debt ceilings and crashed economies.
God Save The Queen.
WaterGirl
Stuckinred
How is your wife’s ankle?
Did you pick up the Arniflora today? Not sure if you saw my post suggesting that you get arnica montana, too?
MikeJ
@handsmile:
Oh they were a factor all right, just not the way they wanted to be. Nobody wanted to pass anything that might put more libdems in office.
scav
Question for the UKpolitico types. But, if the last election was a meh between all three parties (ok, one getting an unexpected step up to be included in the major league mehs) and given they all seem to be smeared in the same smelly stuff from the bottom of bird-cages, what would a new election do? Another coalition but this time predicated on the A Plague On All Your Houses vote? Throwing it open to the nutters on the right? What all three parties seem to me to need is internal revolutions, e.g. new shiny faces to put on the posters. Help, I’m clueless about this end of the equation. thanks.
MikeJ
@scav: Monster raving looney party may win a majority.
scav
Well, that party I would get behind myself.
handsmile
ChrisNYC (#72) and JenJen (#103):
Thanks for the ‘Press the Meat” info. You are valiant souls indeed to suffer such trials merely to inform those of us here too timid to endure that ordeal.
Hey JenJen! Anything special on your calendar this afternoon??
stuckinred
WaterGirl She just about whacked me in the head with the walking boot! The arnica montana is on it’s way as soon as the hippy dippy store opens. No Strawberry Fields here!
wazmo
Oh, I almost forgot….
Remember when Barry Ritholtz (The Big Picture Blog) opined that Roger Ailes would be indicted back in February?
The last followup back around that time: http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlny/more-on-roger-ailes-indictment-rumor_b29212
Perhaps there maybe more to this story after all?
ChrisNYC
I hope Holder stands back on the FCPA investigation — do it but let the UK do the heavy stuff. DOJ can use UK convictions later. Too much risk of “politically motivated” screams, to me.
bkny
if the fbi so much as finds a new yorker’s phone number in one of those 9/11 batches, the howling for rupert’s head will commence on this side. gotta say i was very surprised when peter king was so quick to jump on this; but the sensitivity felt by ny pols towards 9/11 families cannot be underestimated…
too bad anthony weiner is an idiot… he would have been unrelenting to have on this.
ChrisNYC
@ bkny
I don’t think 9/11 hacking will make a ripple. I feel like NYC is over 9/11 — except unfortunately where Muslims are concerned. I’m just not seeing outrage on this one.
ChrisNYC
Twitter says multiple UK sources say James Murdoch to be arrested before Tuesday. No link to news org, tho.
JenJen
@handsmile: Oh, gosh no, nothing special going on this afternoon at all. Thinking maybe of re-caulking my bathroom tile, but that’s about it…
SQUEEEEEEE!! 2:00 can’t get here fast enough!
CaseyL
CatLady:
This reminds me of that old saying, about how powerful people are not brought down unless they’re “caught with a live boy or a dead girl.”
Oddly, and not at all in the way meant, Milly Dowler is the “dead girl” Murdoch was caught with.
FSM grant that the scandal engulfs and destroys Murdoch’s US operations.
bkny
#117 … that’s because nothing’s been discovered … yet. what i’m saying is IF they do find something re 9/11 families being targeted, the shitstorm will commence. imagine what the daily news will do with that story.
Linda Featheringill
@General Stuck: #96
I totally agree that Murdoch set up a propaganda machine in the US and that Fox is the main part of that machine.
I personally wouldn’t care whether any of these scoundrels spent any time behind bars if the DOJ or somebody could disassemble that dissembling fountain of right wing propaganda.
PeakVT
@scav: See my link to the polling above. I’m certainly not an expert on UK politics, but I do know that it’s been a long time since a major new party has risen to prominence (Labour in the 1920’s). My sense is that unlike in other parliamentary democracies, the party system in the UK is very stable at this point.
JGabriel
scav:
I’m not in/from the UK, but the polling seems to be good for Labour.
The Tories and NI always appeared to this Yank’s eyes as ideological soul-mates, while the ties between Labour and NI look more like a power-sharing affair of convenience & necessity.
That doesn’t make Labour’s past cozying up to NI any less corrupt, but it does suggest they’d be more likely to go after NI with a real vengeance instead of retracted claws. Furthermore, the Lib Dems and Tories austerity program is wrecking the country — Labour would be far more effective from an economic standpoint.
But Ed Milliband is not a very popular Labour leader, so who knows?
.
doofus
This is how a corrupt system looks and these are the fixes a corrupt system demands. This is obviously a portion of the system the right wing has used to game the global system. If Murdoch gets out of this only wounded then God save us all. Now that Scotland Yard and the Met are implicated in the corruption the game goes into the next phase. Do the institutional needs of Scotland Yard (to clear its name and root out the corruption) trump the needs of the corrupt individuals (in the UK primarily, but there is a US component as well) to cover this up? If we ain’t still talking about this 3 months from now, then corruption wins yet again.
wazmo
@stuckinred: Indeed.
JGabriel
@ChrisNYC:
I think that may be true for those under 30 or so, or who weren’t here when it happened, but I think the rest of us New Yorkers have pretty long memories with respect to 9/11 — and especially long sympathy for its victims.
.
Anya
@JGabriel: #76 ~ Rowan Atkinson as Ed Miliband is the funniest.
Citizen_X
Well, they won the House of Representatives in the last election in this country, so anything’s possible.
ChrisNYC
Well, Sully’s blog has finally addressed Brooks’ arrest. Here’s what Massie adds:
Commentary from some parallel universe where what this scandal shows is that Cameron is *not* friends with the UK press.
Kirk Spencer
@JGabriel (124)
Actually, Ed Milliband has been picking up a lot of popularity in this event. In turn few people have begun pointing out the largest detractors of Ed Milliband have been Murdoch owned or supported, which is then increasing his stance – a bit of positive feedback.
KeithW
Answers given by witnesses before a Commons Select Committee are given absolute privilege. This means that they can’t be used against them in a court of law – this dates back to the 17th century Bill of Rights. In theory, the arrest should make no difference. She still has to answer.
http://www.parliament.uk/documents/commons-committees/witnessguide.pdf
aimai
Its not going to be hacking the 9/11 families that’s going to get them. It is that they will have hacked everyone else, from celebreties to murder victims and politicians. Once they had such a powerful tool in their kitbox doing investigative journalism the old fashioned way became too costly and time consuming. Jude Law has already charged that they wire tapped him on US soil. The old “it was just celebreties” isn’t going to cut it after the Milly Dowler affair. In about five seconds its going to come out that they hacked some blonde girl missing phone here in the US. Plus I’m holding my breath until it comes out that they hacked various politicians and blackmailed them. I can’t wait to see Ailes go down because you just know he was involved up to his chins in this.
aimai
JenJen
@aimai #133: Truth.
jwb
doofus: I expect the cost for Rupert saving his empire will be the sacrifice of James. So the first question is whether Rupert will in fact see that he needs to sacrifice James in time. But that’s not necessarily the end. Since by all accounts James is as much an asshole as Rupert, it will then be interesting to see whether James decides to bring down the whole edifice for being sent to slaughter. Soon to be a major motion picture, indeed.
JGabriel
@ChrisNYC:
James has US citizenship. So does Rupert. If they can get out of the country, or maybe just to the US embassy, then it could be difficult for the UK to arrest them.
I think it’s unlikely that the UK would even try.
On the other hand, I wonder how much effort the Obama administration would be willing to extend to Clan Murdoch. They may rally to them anyway, just on the basis of US citizenship, but I can’t imagine it would be with any real enthusiasm. Question: Would it be worth it to rescue Murdoch & fils from the clutches of Scotland Yard in exchange for the replacement and disgrace of Roger Ailes?
.
bkny
aimai — it wasn’t the years long revelations of celebrities, the royals, politicians that goosed this latest. it was the guardian’s revelations about the phone of milly dowler that outraged and inflamed the public and goosed this story. until then, it was just fun gossip. so i think the reaction here would be the same if it’s discovered that 9/11 families were hacked.
ChrisNYC
@ J Gabriel
No — James has dual UK/US citizenship. Confirmed by News Corp last week.
scav
PeakVT and JGabriel: Thanks. So, looks like Labour is slightly stronger than I thought (an impression I only gained by Blair’s overt attempts to affix Brown’s head on the tombstone) and Millipede Jr. might be gaining traction. And with LibDemss riding a fading star and prone to hail marys. Somebody tell those butterflies in Brazil to standdown and stop fluttering. Things are complicated here.
bkny
jgabriel .. the telegraph is saying james has dual uk/us citizenship… oh, i so hope he’s next.
JGabriel
WARNING: This post contains SPOILERS for the Hackgate Movie Promo. DON’T READ unless you’ve already watched it.
@Anya: Heh. My favorite run was: Hugh Grant as David Cameron, Colin Firth as Hugh Grant, Steve Coogan as Steve Coogan, and Mick Hucknall as Rebekah Brooks.
Joel
This would have been a much better plot for the fifth season of The Wire.
bkny
jgabriel — can you imagine how much grant, law, et al are loving this. those peeps were hounded by the tabs in the uk…
handsmile
MikeJ (#108):
A wry riposte!
Scav (#109):
The short answer: Ed Miliband 2.0.
Since upsetting his brother, (yes, his own better-known brother David) at intra-party elections last fall to become Labor chief, he has been widely regarded as a placeholder. Labor’s failure to capitalize on widespread anger with draconian and often unanticipated Tory reforms to national health service, education, housing, welfare, etc. cemented that reputation.
But with the revelation of News of the World phone-hacking into a murdered teenager and the families of the 7/7/05 bus bombing, Miliband has been transformed into an avenging firebrand. He has channeled public and parliamentary outrage into a series of statements and proposals denouncing Murdoch media practices, as well as rebuking David Cameron for his pallid response and his hiring of Murdoch minion to be his first communications director.
Miliband has demonstrated astute political leadership on this matter, no better evidenced than Cameron’s own belated remarks on Thursday in Parliament outlining new public investigations into NewsInternational operations and earlier police whitewashs of same. In response, Miliband cordially skewered him to go even further.
British political parties of the far-right are of no national significance (they even failed to advance in recent local elections.) Openly racist, they are treated by the British media (even Murdoch’s) as the irrelevance all of us wish would be the model for coverage of the Tea Party.
ChrisNYC
How can James not be arrested? Brooks told Parliament committee in 2003 that NotW paid police for info. Payments to hack victims is part of conspiracy. Hard to see how he evades it.
scav
handsmile: thanks again, esp. for additional info on UK far right. The general ilk seems to have been getting mildly stronger elsewhere in Europe (M. LePen et al) in elections and we have got the economic climate that tends to favor them. wouldn’t want them to get any additional bounce.
stuckinred
I’d like to turn Omar loose on some of these punks.
pete
Eyes on the prize, people: The cops. Nick Davies of the Guardian has been saying that their investigation into other cops is for real, for once. I suspect it won’t be Rebekah that brings James down so much as some corrupt senior policeman trying to stay out of jail, and hopefully failing.
This is so much fun. BTW, did the formerly upwardly-mobile redhead manage to cash her cheque [sic] on Friday? Because if not, it might just bounce. Tee-hee.
WaterGirl
Stuckinred,
Tell your bride no head-whacking is allowed. Especially if you are doing her gardening and running to the store for her. :-)
If you have never taken the arnica montana (little white balls) I would suggest 5 under the tongue 4 times throughout the day and evening. And what you do is twist the little cap round and round until you can see the number of little balls you want, then take the cap off and toss them from the cap directly under your tongue.
Definitely get the 1M, not the 30 or the other one. But if the 1M isn’t available, the 30 would be better than nothing.
bkny
pete … freakin’ scotland yard, was in cahoots for chrissakes.
astonishing level of corruption. imagine what’s going on here…
The Republic of Stupidity
This is just getting better & better by the farkin’ hour…
Every time I read Lord Murdoch’s weasel word apology, it immediately translates into: “There… I apologized… will you now NOT prosecute me? Pleasepleasepleaseplease don’t…”
bkny
RoS — there was a description of his meeting with the fowler family of him ‘holding his head in his hands, and saying repeatedly ‘i’m sorry’ … i imagine that contrition was him seeing the implosion of his empire… lol.
Elizabelle
Somebody — Annie Laurie? — posted a wonderful cartoon the other day.
Rebekah Brooks with a headful of little journalist snakes.
Anybody have the link?
scav
pete # 48? The Met? Nicely wrapped with a big shiney bow, yes. Appetizer that could be a main course on certain days? yes. Do I want that box? Yes. But not the prize or the biggest shiny wrapped package under the tree that I’m most interested in opening and smashing to bits on the hearth.
ETA: especially when there’s that third box that looks like it’s got Big Ben complicating the wrapping.
Joel
@pete: Incidentally, that might be good strategy for the LibDems, as they have come out looking (relatively) good from this mess and could use it as leverage to pick up some more seats.
stuckinred
WaterGirl
roger that
JGabriel
@WaterGirl:
That seems a bit promiscuous.
.
handsmile
scav (#146):
Happy to oblige!
Ominously, the European far-right has become more than “mildly stronger” in recent years, with electoral successes at local, regional, even national levels, in Holland, Denmark, Sweden (!), Italy, almost all of Eastern Europe, and France as you mentioned. And that is sadly but a partial list.
Yet even with anti-immigrant and anti-Islam sentiment on the rise in England, the racist appeals of the British National Party and the British Defense League remain unpersuasive electorally. It is attributable in no small part to a leadership that makes Tea Party leaders like Paul, Armey, and Bachmann look positively Aristotelean.
gelfling545
@MikeJ: In the library. In traditional English novels it’s usually the library.
SiubhanDuinne
@jgabriel, bkny: it would be really funny to have the entire hackgate cast made of of rupert’s hack victims. They’d all give the performances of their lives! LOLOL!
scav
Elizabelle. Steve Bell’s Medusa here.
bkny
siubhanDiunne — or doing a public reading of the testimonies… i wouldn’t be surprised to hear that hugh grant is putting together a script proposal now… he’s been all over commenting on this story and telling americans to pay attention.
scav
handsmile: Good for you on multiple fronts, but can you explain UKiP (correct capitalization?) and where does it fit in? All I know about them is what I pick up from HIGNFY (ETA: and the Now Show, how could I omit them! ?) and my brainspace is following too many threads at the moment to track down this general information tidbit. Not critical.
Jay in Oregon
Imagine the outrage if Casey Anthony’s daughter was old enough to have a mobile phone…
Keep in mind that the wingnuts are perfectly happy to throw children into a wood chipper if they are too closely tied to the Democrats. Just ask Graeme Frost and his family.
Elizabelle
@ scav, comment 161:
Thank you sir or madam. That’s the one.
gocart mozart
Larry Flynt finds Murdock offensive.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/larry-flynt-rupert-murdoch-went-too-far/2011/07/13/gIQA9ifnGI_story.html
pete
@scav (154): Me too. My point, which may not have been completely clear, is that the cops are actors in this drama, not merely swooping in to clean up the mess, so their motivations (personal and institutional) are very significant and definitely various.
To review: Milliband wants to blame Cameron (and Rupert). Cameron wants to blame Rebekah (Rupert if he must). Rupert wants to save his empire (and if possible James). And the good cops? I suspect they want to nail their bad colleagues. Meanwhile Rebekah, while in very deep sh1t, may be capable of thinking more clearly than anyone else, and I’m not yet certain what her best long-term move is. But no one gets everything they want. More popcorn, vicar?
lllphd
please forgive my drive-by comment here, but prepping for a car trip to GA in the morning.
first point: re: brooks thrown under the bus and what she’ll expose because of it. well, remember judy miller? and that cryptic note from scooter about the aspens, etc? she didn’t talk, she served time, she ultimately testified about a load of fluff (private atty conversations and all that), and now she’s comfy at fox. however, that fall-back is not available to becky, so hard to know what kind of promise was made. of course rupert will sacrifice her in order to keep his son clear, but if there is evidence, then it will get too interesting. my bet is rupert is already having to consider if he’d sacrifice himself before letting his son go down in order to keep the empire going.
second point: related to the first, remember that the big diff between this scandal and the oh so many that have occurred in the country over the past two decades is this: the very reason these scandals have gotten a pass in the past in england is now at the very heart of the scandal, which undermines its capacity to manipulate the story. with fox under scrutiny here, it will be harder and harder for them to drive the plot of this story, as they’ll be perpetually on the defense. for a taste of what that will look like, check this from fallows; sets a new low, even for fox.
third point: ok, i want to know why NO ONE has interviewed ailes on this!!! if i were a US reporter, he’s the first person i’d be hounding. but i haven’t even heard of anyone asking him the obvious question. related to this, wild guess here that he and his kochmafia buds are plotting for a way to purchase fox from murdoch in order to keep it in tact and to excise them from the tainted murdoch brand. oh wow! just see where mazedancer had the same prediction! we’ll hear lots of condemnation for the guy once this purchase is completed, at least for a bit, and then – life will get back to ‘normal’, as in SNAFU.
fourth point: all of that said to make the point that we truly need to be insisting at every turn that this opportunity be exploited for some real discussions about what why a free press is so important in a democracy and what that means. fox has trumpeted the ‘free speech/press’ mantra as if that were all that needed to be said, but the discussion requires considerably more nuance and sophistication. and courage, for chrissake; fox has played the bully for so long, and that plug needs to be pulled so the swamp can be thoroughly drained.
final point: sully is on vacation, so the blog is rather disjointed at this point. i fully expect to see some serious prevaricating from the boy when he returns, what to do what to do, he loves him some cameron, but does despise fox. will be interesting. but linda featheringill, please, have you actually read nietzsche?? um, yes, he has been exploited for horrible purposes because what he actually said was not actually read – you would blame him for that? his understanding of the power of metaphor is matchless, and his disdain for the follies of standard, trite thought impeccable. he was able in the midst of syphillis to grasp more about the human condition and the mind that fosters it than just about all other philosophers put together.
IMHO.
;-)
Elizabelle
The Lord/Spaghetti Monster gives and takes away.
On the bad side: Citizens United and millions of Koch Bros cash.
On the good side: Fox News and its execs might have to watch themselves more closely this year, and spend millions on lawyers.
The WSJournal’s publisher has quit.
Meanwhile, someone has asked how the Spitzer/Client 9 scandal blew up.
Also some other poutrage dubious sources to wonder about.
Some juicy stories to break out there.
Hope a lot of them break bad for Fox and the Murdoch clan.
scav
pete: here, and I’ve got some with caramel on it if you need a change. I read somewhere Rupekah isn’t that great a manager as all that (turned down the tip on the Expenses brouhaha among other things) so may owe her meteoric rise to style rather than substance but I’ve lost the location where I read it so treat it as heresay.
Sly
@Linda Featheringill:
Nietzsche is the philosopher-patron of sullen and withdrawn teen-aged boys who hate the world for demanding conformity and have secret dreams of transcending its confines and becoming powerful men able to right all the wrongs done to them in High School. It’s understandable that his work is hard to enjoy, because the best kind of person it can possibly produce is Severus Snape.
lllphd
does anyone else see the opportunity here to make the link with dropping ethical and legal boundaries to get info, as in torture?
ends justify the means has been such a theme for newscorp, and their propagandizing the whole idea has turned this country’s principles on their heads.
we need to get ‘right’ again, but not in their sense of that word.
handsmile
scav (#163):
A quick answer, and then I must turn my attention to the really important story of the day: the final of the Women’s World Cup! (Yes, really.)
The United Kingdom Independence Party is not a far-right party (as characterized by racist and demagogic policies). It is vehemently, almost exclusively, an anti-European Union party, with virtually no presence in British local or national races. It is no small irony that whatever public profile it enjoys is due to its leader, Nigel Farage, being a member of the European Parliament. Mr. Farage, moreover, is an orator of considerable skill. UKIP has several members in fact in the EUP, all the while denouncing its predations upon British sovereignty.
Oh, and HIGNFY??? WTF??? :)
jwb
lllphd: If Ailes and buddies did make a play to buy Fox News, wouldn’t it be open to hostile bids? and since Murdoch’s company is nominally public and his share holders are not particularly happy with him right now, might it turn out to be difficult to give Ailes a sweetheart deal especially in the face of a hostile bid? Then, too, I don’t believe Fox News is actually profitably on its own. It’s only profitable as part of the whole package, and requires, at the very least, the entertainment divisions of the company.
kuvasz
The woman ought to have been arrested for such fucked up hair.
scav
handsmile # 173. Whew, weirder than even I anticipated. AND So I adore Paul Merton and have come to relish Ian Hislop as a cute little garden gnome with fangs. Off to your more important things, shoo shoo.
Trollenschlongen
Wow, stuck, those are some awesome, megamixed metaphors. You should write for fox news.
Cronin
I think this is appropriate if no one’s posted it yet:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1aZcsY-O8Q
Nutella
@aimai:
A lot of politics in the past few years can be explained by this, most blatantly in Spitzer’s case, but I really believe there’s a lot more blackmail we haven’t heard about yet.
Joel
@Sly: Mmm.. I’m not a Nietzsche fan but this description is more accurately attached to Ayn Rand.
Nietzsche said and did a few things that were pretty revolutionary for his day:
1) He relentlessly criticized the church and its hypocrisy. Before Nietzsche, atheism/agnosticism was something that was undeclared in polite society. You could justifiably argue that he set the precedent for agnosticism/atheism as we know it today, and not just for that cliche from Zarathustra.
2) Ironically, Nietzsche was also a vocal critic of anti-semitism and German nationalism at a time when those ideas were gaining a lot of traction.
JGabriel
@kuvasz:
If we start arresting people for fucked up hair, how many BJer’s are doomed?
I’m fairly sure I could be prosecuted on that charge rather frequently — every time I go past the 4 months since my last haircut deadline.
.
MazeDancer
@bkny:
The biggest outrage about hacking that poor child’s phone was the deleting messages from her voicemail, because it was full of frantic messages from her parents, so couldn’t let in more juicy bits for NoW tabloid-ing, and letting her distraught family think their baby was alive because of the deletions. And then NoW going to interview the family saying “Do you think she is alive?”
Beyond imagination in its reprehensible scumminess.
And if any Fox outlet here deleted any voicemails from any 9/11 victim or victim’s families phones, or anything close to that kind of tampering, agree with you there will be reaction, and no amount of money will keep Murdoch’s empire intact. Even the Tea Party will pitchfork Fox.
And the clearest indication that something foul occurred is Rep. Peter King. R-LI-Wingnut, initiating probes. (As is Louise Slaughter, Upstate D.)
But Peter King is calling for investigations that could tumble Fox???? Pigs piloting supersonic jets outside my window.
lol
A lot of politics in the past few years can be explained by this, most blatantly in Spitzer’s case, but I really believe there’s a lot more blackmail we haven’t heard about yet.
Paging Roger Stone…
lllphd
jwb, you’re right, a sale would not be an easy fix. but as for profitability, i think the fact that it’s profitable in the long term as propaganda is its biggest selling point. and an excuse for getting it for a song. the noise from shareholders is all about the money – i mean, who else would invest in fox? – so it might not be impossible to massage a deal that would even excise it from parent company, as that would be the point, after all. something would have to be done, as you point out, to make it profitable for the shareholders to be brought on board, so it won’t be easy.
and sly, i take great issue with your characterization of nietzsche!! i may be his biggest fan, and i can tell you i am a far far cry from snapes. people have called me pollyanna, just to give it a face. my read of him is that he is simply appalled at how the ‘powers that be’ interpret the world to be so confined and, well, snape-like, when it’s just far more flex than that. his biggest beef, to my mind, is with those who claim the keys to the kingdom and then turn it into a prison of their own fears.
nietzsche was nothing if not fearless.
Mouse Tolliver
Fox also hired a guy who admitted working as a prostitute and is every bit the nut job Glenn Beck is.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@stuckinred: I do too but it hasn’t caught on. Perhaps because I’m not a vet, though I am the daughter of one (WWII/Korea) and granddaughter of another (WWII and the designer of the 4.2 mortar). I hope mrs. stuckinred is doing better with continued ice and arnica gel.
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
@Linda Featheringill: Architecture?? How about, hmm, lessee, all good architecture ended with Louis Sullivan. Less isn’t more, less is less.
RossInDetroit
When all is said and done, this is going to make a hell of a Broadway musical.
Tehanu
@Catlady 52: well after all, it was Shakespeare who said “murder will out” so yes, very appropriate. I wonder if any of the deleted messages might have led to the poor kid’s actual murderer.
@JGabriel 76: thanks for posting the link to the parody trailer!
JustBeingPedantic
And now the head of Scotland Yard–Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson–has resigned: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2011/jul/17/phone-hacking-live-blog#block-32
Tony J
handsmile @ 173
Have I Got News For You. Long running British satirical comedy show that skewers politicians left, right and centre. It has celebrity guest hosts each week, since the last permanent host – Angus Deyton – resigned after a Hookers and Blow tabloid scandal back in the 90’s. Yes, I believe it was the News of the World that broke the ‘story’, but it was the brutally funny reaming he was given by the show’s permanent team-captains – Private Eye editor Ian Hislop and comedian Paul Merton – when he tried to ride it out that made him jump.
Hislop especially has been very good in dripping unvarnished contempt over the behaviour of the ‘great and good’ in this affair. Private Eye has been talking openly about how corrupt and corruptive ‘The Digger’s’ Press empire in Britain is for decades, and for a small man he radiates an astonishing amount of vindicatory heat.
MazeDancer
If the Scotland Yard Chief has resigned, not looking good for law enforcement in Britain is it…? Though, does look better for Scotland Yard wanting to investigate deep, clean house, and thoroughly reveal the situation.
Sly
@Joel:
The development of Objectivism as a philosophy was heavily influenced by Nietzsche’s work. Particularly The Genealogy of Morals. The notion of transvaluation is a core component of Rand’s entire oeuvre, and their criticisms of Christianity are practically identical. The biggest area of difference is on the importance of emotion, which Nietzche embraced and Rand discarded.
And, personally, I think people like Hobbes and Spinoza are better representative of primarchs of western atheism than Nietzsche, mostly because Nietzsche wasn’t widely read until well after his death. Philosophical naturalism, the precursor to materialism, made skepticism of the supernatural more palatable. One can draw a direct path from theism to deism/pantheism to atheism because people like Hobbes and Spinoza made the “middle step” possible, even though they both vociferously denied that they were atheists themselves.
@lllphd:
Snape is probably the closest thing in contemporary fiction to the Nietzschean hero. The parallels are really too numerous to count.
And I would dispute the assertion that Nietzsche himself was fearless. In the intellectual arena he certainly was, but his lack of an audience gave him permission to be fearless more than anything else. Its pretty easy to write about the decayed morality of Christian society when no one is reading you. His much more complex personal life, including and especially his romantic inclinations toward women? Not so much.
JustBeingPedantic
@JGabriel
Rupert and James originally declined the invitation to appear before the Parliamentary investigating committee, so they were summoned to do so. Failure to appear after having been summoned, never mind leaving the country (which would presumably preclude their ever returning to Britain), would result in severe legal consequences.
wazmo
And now Channel 4 is reporting that the UK’s Serious Fraud Office has opened an investigation into HackerGate.
ChrisNYC
I’m addicted to this story. For fellow addicts, here’s a link to the UK Culture Comm. homepage. They will livestream the Tuesday hearing with the Murdochs.
http://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/culture-media-and-sport-committee/news/news-international-executives-respond-to-summons/
JustBeingPedantic
@wazmo…which will, in turn, provide a steady stream of evidence for the FBI’s investigation into potential News Corp. violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
From the DoJ’s guide to the FCPA:
“The following criminal penalties may be imposed for violations of the FCPA’s anti-bribery provisions: corporations and other business entities are subject to a fine of up to $2,000,000; officers, directors, stockholders, employees, and agents are subject to a fine of up to $100,000 and imprisonment for up to five years. Moreover, under the Alternative Fines Act, these fines may be actually quite higher–the actual fine may be up to twice the benefit that the defendant sought to obtain by making the corrupt payment. You should also be aware that fines imposed on individuals may not be paid by their employer or principal.”
RossInDetroit
@ChrisNYC:
It’s early days but considering what’s been exposed so far and the sudden arrests and people quitting nothing would surprise me. The FBI and DOJ will spend months if not years grinding through evidence, then we’ll see indictments and trials. I truly hope for some mud to hit Fox before the 2012 election but from this point we have no idea.
Tony J
wazmo,
Now that the Chief of the Metropolitan Police has ‘resigned’ (i.e. been handed a gun and allowed to offer one last service before the mob arrives at his door) it looks like it could be open season on the Met’s cozy relationship with Murdoch and his shitflingers.
pk
If you listen to an interview by Nick Davies (Guardian journalist investigating this story for two yrs) he says much more is going to come out, such as many more significant victims, use of various illegal techniques, eg using trojan e-mails to hack into computers, burglary and tapping of live phone calls, and involvement of other newspapers. Sounds like lots of fun. He has had a source for two yrs giving him the details.
Fluffy
if any Fox outlet here deleted any voicemails from any 9/11 victim or victim’s families phones, or anything close to that kind of tampering, agree with you there will be reaction, and no amount of money will keep Murdoch’s empire intact. Even the Tea Party will pitchfork Fox.
I will believe that when I see it. Much more likely — we will never hear about deleted voicemails, whether the deletions occurred or not. We will not hear about the bribes.
We have no Guardian in this country. The outlets we have that come close are comparatively small, frivolous operations (Rolling Stone) that don’t have the societal legitimacy that the Guardian & Observer have.
wazmo
@JustBeingPedantic: NWS’s stock has had high trading volume the last 3 days and is down almost 20% from 3 months ago. Short ratio isn’t in bear territory yet (1.4%), but that could change.
The Channel 4 report noted that one of the payouts was for over $1 million-which is in the purview of the UK’s SFO floor of $1 million.
Murdoch’s elder son Lachlan is on the board; Ailes and the younger Murdoch are officers.
wazmo
@Tony J: While the UK damage plays out, I’m watching what Mr. Stock Market does. If I had some significant cash I’d short NWS. For giggles, say $10,000-let’s see what happens.
JustBeingPedantic
@wazmo: The recent volatility was helped along by the collapse of the BSkyB acquisition as the hacking scandal deepened. It’ll be very interesting to see whether the short positions explode when the markets open in the morning.
wazmo
@JustBeingPedantic: A lot of what will happen in the market this week will be based on the outcome of the dysfunctional kabuki theater between Congress and The White House-but with all the shoes falling in the UK the past 48 hours, we could see all of the gains in the DOW in this so-called recovery wiped out in a week.
The real problem is no one knows WHAT would happen if a US technical default happens. We know we can survive a closed stock market for an extended period of time; we also know a downgrade would hike up borrowing costs. But anything beyond that is anybody’s best guess.
Joel
Well done, Japan.
I hope (no pun intended) Solo doesn’t take the GoDaddy contract. I hate those guys.
Joel
@wazmo: Murdoch bought back 12% of the stock for the cool price of $5 billion. I’m imagining that accounts for a large amount of the volume.
wazmo
@Joel: And the stock still dropped. Pissing into the wind, as it were-unless he intends to take NWS private, as reports are indicating as well.
Now, having said that, a HuffPo thread surfaced this little tidbit regarding the buyback:
BlairSupporter
The Head of the Metropolitan Police Sir Paul Stephenson resigned tonight (shortly after Brooks was arrested) and it has nothing to do with Tony Blair, for all you Blair pursuers.
Stephenson has only been Met Chief since January 2009, two and a half years after Blair left office. His resignation has even less to do with Iraq.
Imho Sir Paul has fallen on his sword because the Assistant Commissioner – John Yates – another who wanted and FAILED to jail Tony Blair (over nonsensical “honours” business) – didn’t resign. He, Yates, was incompetent when the hackgate business started in 2006, long before Sir Paul took over as Chief.
Rebekah Brooks of the now defunct News of The World is the TENTH person to have been arrested over this. It’s meltdown at the MET too.
The first politician to fall over this WON’T be Tony Blair, but could be David Cameron whose links are to another one arrested – Coulson – are clear and even admitted by the present PM.
I’ve written on this, for those interested:
http://wp.me/p1KI1-iwE