DEM not gonna CON dis NATION: Rolling UK politics in the short-lived Cleggeron era

xps

http://twitter.com/#!/keverrst/status/88170986737909760

The thing is that right now the public cares more about Cheryl and Ashley or Kate and Wills. Phone hacking – a complex business, difficult to condense into a snappy paragraph, not black and white, might land some connected people in trouble, therefore #notagoodstory.

I just remember everyone throwing their hands up on the Sunday morning we woke up to the news about Diana and it was all “tabloid scum we’ll never buy their rotten papers again” and then five minutes later in Sainsbury’s people were fighting over the last three copies of the Mail on Sunday.

The thing is that right now the public cares more about Cheryl and Ashley or Kate and Wills. Phone hacking – a complex business, difficult to condense into a snappy paragraph, not black and white, might land some connected people in trouble, therefore #notagoodstory.

they care a lot about murdered children too, dude.

and also mobile phones.

diana's death hypocrisy is a very daily mail thing though, isn't it? the height of prurience - tut-tutting at the tabloids' behaviour, but still wanting to look at the pix the paps get through their underhand behaviour.

like, they've run countless pieces on how awful young women's behaviour is now, alongside many lurid pix of drunk women in states of undress in town centres on a saturday night.

wish those angry angry little englanders would chill out

Phone hacking – a complex business, difficult to condense into a snappy paragraph, not black and white, might land some connected people in trouble, therefore #notagoodstory

?
feel like these things are true of the economy, of budgets, of a million other things but probably not of a newspaper hacking phones. seems really simple, lends itself to concision, black & white, & re: might land some connected people in trouble - one would hope that was, for someone, at least, still a potential strength rather than a limitation. there's a lot of journalistic potential for it.

dan wootton is the fucking WORST

i mean obviously not the worst worst, as far as i know he's never hacked into a dead girl's phone, but he is just an awful bully and reprehensible human being

While we’re on the subject:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14024079

I predict a £1000 fine and smack on the wrist apiece; that’ll teach them.

Detectives from Scotland Yard's new inquiry into the phone hacking, Operation Weeting

Operation who? Operation wha'? Important as this phone hacking story is, I don't think it should be allowed to overshadow Iain Duncan Smith calling for British bosses to employ British workers and then two days later 1400 (and the rest) of said workers being made redundant because the government gave a contract to a German firm instead. They said they wanted a manufacturing led recovery, they just didn't specify what country the recovery was to take place in.

Well they were never going to listen to Mr La-Di-Da Gunner Graham (whom IDS always unaccountably reminds me of).

looooool truth

Murdoch's been giving quotes backing Brooks "100%".

If he wants BSkyB to go through he's going to need to spin this as an isolated cancer that doesn't affect the rest of NI. Having Brooks at the top doesn't help with that.

Yes, he seems particularly fond of that harpy

are there other significant steps to bskyb going through though? i sorta assumed that hunt's say so would be it, & that, lol, any change in that now would practically constitute another u-turn. it obviously shouldn't, both after & irrespective of this, but it seems unlikely that some topical development would actually unsettle this ..?
xp

Quasi-judicial role quasi-judicial role quasi-judicial role quasi-judicial role quasi-judicial role quasi-judicial role... repeat ad infinitum

it's in a fairly prominent position on the mail's website (and has been moved up since it was first put up last night)

now the lead story, even the royal fluff banner's been taken down now

I dunno, if the Milly Dowler court case hadn't been last week, and hadn't been the 'outrageous' trial that it was, maybe the GenPub would have gone oh well.

The difference, also, that formerly it was Sienna Miller having her privacy invaded for looking for skeletons that were not there (I'm assuming), and now it's about messages being deleted that brought false hope to the family.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14026369

the way Rebekah Brooks speaks around the topic is so maddening - "sickened that these evens are alleged to have happened" - so she's sickened by the fact of the allegations being made? or by what is alleged?

In a statement to News International staff she said: "I am sickened that these events are alleged to have happened. Not just because I was Editor of the News of the World at the time, but if the accusations are true, the devastating effect on Milly Dowlers family is unforgivable."
She added: "It is almost too horrific to believe that a professional journalist or even a freelance inquiry agent working on behalf of a member of the News of the World staff could behave in this way.
"If the allegations are proved to be true then I can promise the strongest possible action will be taken as this company will not tolerate such disgraceful behaviour.
"I hope that you all realise it is inconceivable that I knew or worse, sanctioned these appalling allegations."

I HOPE THAT YOU ALL REALISE IT IS INCONCEIVABLE

it's inconceivable that she sanctions these allegations being made!

if she didn't know how the paper she was editor of was getting its information, what kind of editor was she?

Rebekah, is your hope also false?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v216/FujikoMine/Articles/vizzini.jpg

It's not phone-hacking, it's the combination of phone-hacking and murdered children. And if the public don't care about murdered or missing children then why the three years' worth of Maddy front pages?

Speaking of which, bet the McCanns are consulting their lawyers right now.

Brooks is taking on the air of an inept politician on the Thick of It making a desperate speech unaware of the Malcolm Tuckers running around making gunfingers at her.

If the Daily Mail has not only made it its main story but is explicitly mentioning Rebekah Brooks then that's pretty serious. Good.

News Int execs tell me they fear there may have been worse examples of NOTW hacking than that of Milly Dowler's phone. The mind reels

Jesus. This still feels like the tip of the iceberg. There really should be a public inquiry (though of course it won't happen).

It's not phone-hacking, it's the combination of phone-hacking and murdered children. And if the public don't care about murdered or missing children then why the three years' worth of Maddy front pages?

#itsagoodstory

The Telegraph is going hard at Peston:

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/tobyyoung/100095296/robert-peston-news-internationals-press-officer/

Not sure if that's because he broke the Vince Cable story though that they initially covered up.

Ah, Toby Young, projecting again.

also:

She added: "It is almost too horrific to believe that a professional journalist or even a freelance inquiry agent working on behalf of a member of the News of the World staff could behave in this way.

"Horrific" is the wrong word for this sentence. I'll agree that it is possibly horrific to her that this happened on her watch, yes. But the rest of this statement gives the impression of "I had nothing to do with this, and I will sue anyone who suggests I did"

Plenty of people, both outside and at work, reading the Sun regardless and not passing any comment.

In any case the “it’s my paper”/constipation-like status of newspaper readers who would doggedly stick with “their paper” even if its front page told them they were scum and should slash their own throats will mean that this will do no real damage to News International. The story has been effectively neutered.

Well it's the most popular story on www.bbc.co.uk/news ...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14032287

Well, it strikes me that it's sort of like that G20 Policeman thing, in that:

The media will go lightly around this, until it looks like this won't wash, at which point they will form a kicking queue.

According to the BBC News website it's currently the ninth most popular story. Top is "Ferdinand angry at 'affair' story."

You see, that's all people want, a Good Story.

most shared is: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-14025550

not even a good story :(

Haha how quickly the attention shifts...

Peter Gabriel has been warning us about those fridges for years.

er it is true that peston is a conduit for news internash propaganda tho

otoh according to private eye that's via his old telegraph buddy whatshisname

Milly Dowler's family currently the main photo on the New York Times web site.

Yay for the WSJ/NYT rivalry!

In any case the “it’s my paper”/constipation-like status of newspaper readers who would doggedly stick with “their paper” even if its front page told them they were scum and should slash their own throats will mean that this will do no real damage to News International.

So I assume the circulation figures for the Sun on Merseyside are much the same now as they were after Hillsborough then?

Ha the NY Times has gone full bore on this. Homepage has an inline photo gallery of: 1) the grieving parents 2) Milly Dowler and 3) ... Rebekah Brooks at Wimbledon looking sinister

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2011/07/05/world/05britain_337cham/05britain_337cham-custom3.jpg

xp

Only when there's footie at stake.

Sun's cup coverage doubles sales in Liverpool

As predicted: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jul/05/phone-hacking-soham-families-police

yeah. wouldn't be surprised if they got involved w/ things like baby p and madeline mccan too.

Peta Buscombe of the PCC admits that the PCC is fucking useless: "There's only so much we can do when people are lying to us. We know now that I was not being given the truth by the News of the World."

yeah. we already knew the practice was endemic...so at this point it'd be more of a surprise if they hadn't.

i guess people have checked out the bylines of the reporters assigned to these stories at the time?