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

how much worse could this get? i am running out of ideas?

have always been opposed to the death penalty but

maybe they hacked the 9/11 guys' phones and deleted the message saying "hey let's blow up the twin towers"?

how much worse could this get? i am running out of ideas?

― caek, Tuesday, 5 July 2011 22:41 (26 seconds ago) Bookmark

where this all started is the worst story: there's a guy whose murder has never been solved because corrupt cops covered it up. the corrupt cops who were being paid by newspapers including...

McMullen: Of course [Rebekah Brooks] knew about it.
Paxman: She denies it, of course.
McMullen: That's an interesting position to take!

jesus who is this sociopath on newsnight?

(not campbell)

the guy who hugh grant bugged

McMullen trying to make phone hacking seem acceptable by estimating that about 10% of the country does it anyway is certainly an interesting tack to take

"this is not a big deal"

You'd have thought he'd have been embarrassed by what he got caught saying in the Grant wiretapped stuff in public, but he seemed to just be happily pushing the same line on national TV, barefaced

Turned on late, did he manage to plug his his pub?

"Sociopath" label otm

I should go to bed before I become too bile-filled to sleep, but I can't tear myself away.

lol @ arianna huffington shamelessly plugging

ya seriously.

Paxman: Will you stop plugging your publications
Huffington: ABSOLUTELY NOT~~~

AC dropping in casual zings of Peston; hoping the camera will slowly pan back to reveal Peston sitting in the room in tears

private eye should be lolz this week

tomorrow's Sun
http://web10.twitpic.com/img/338875321-6bed9508136c9d0087e73c7c64749848.4e139068-scaled.jpg

becktum from blechdom

Looks like hanging Coulson was the Plan A today; Indy stuff about Wade is going to blow that one up. C4 stuff also unbelievable.

Mumsnet's pulled its Sky adverts, good on 'em, unlike fucking Ford's Twitter-friendly shift-ads-to-Sun move.

I really hope that all this gets the country, as a collective, to really think about what we want and expect from our press. Not at all defending anyone, but if the orders from above are to go follow Jade Goody's children or whatever, and you know a) if you say no you're out of a job, and b) someone else will do it if you don't, because thats the all-too-competitive nature of the industry, then it's going to be awfully difficult to refuse, and I'm certainly not sure that I myself would be able. But if audiences were to make it clear that they weren't that bothered about this kind of intrusive story... Obviously I'm dreaming and hoping rather than being realistic, which is so horribly depressing.

Although, not nearly as much as the idea that a final message to someone in the 7/7 attacks never made it as hackers intercepted messages while the event was taking place.

My opinon of the tabloid press, especially of the Murdoch variety, was low enough already, but I am actually genuinely quite taken aback at this.

tomorrow's express: http://twitpic.com/5lqufv

before i look i'm gonna say bikini shot of kate middleton and a free pound of butter for every reader

not bad

oh so close on the butter

Well, you've got the Riposte to Health Fascists Bit right

if you mix bread and water you get butter i think

lead story on daily mail website:

Public sector salary myth exploded: State workers earn MORE - not less - than equivalent staff in the private sector

I really hope that all this gets the country, as a collective, to really think about what we want and expect from our press.

Totally with you on this, boxedjoy. But about "the all too competitive nature of the industry": in the end it's the people buying these fucking tabloids. The people are the industry. So to have those same people think about "what we expect from our press" leaves one horribly depressed indeed.

Plus, there is a massive discrepancy about what people in the UK file under journalism. Newspapers and tabloids, most people don't know the difference and see them all as "press", all as the same "journalism". This has been a unsettling discovery for me (as a Dutchman who's an editor-in-chief of a newspaper in Holland that'll be looking for a job in journalism in the UK next year).

Wait does "health fascists" mean the Express likes them or not?

I went out for 3hrs and this story went absolutely mental and could get worse but Caek basically wins ILX for that 9/11 post.

Yeah, Hillsborough aside it's rare to get a serious boycott for tabloid shit. But that doesn't mean readers don't condemn it, either, or that papers don't get burnt. The Sun's readers famously give it doings when it misreads them, like on Frank Bruno and a few of their "immigrants gtf" stories; I think at least some NoTW readers will on this, too.

The problem is that it's invisible -- a story got by voicemail taping just looks like any other in print. One answer is a PCC with balls, but the hopes of that also leave you a bit depressed. xxp

Would love to know the messages that Murdoch is leaving on Brooks' phone right now.

Would love to know the messages that Murdoch is leaving on BrooksCameron's phone right now.

seriously cheered by tomorrow's express. it's like it's written by one irate guy in a box-office just working through everyone who ever slighted him. 'experts'.

FT laying this squarely w/Murdoch http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/cec0d512-a736-11e0-b6d4-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1QwRIct2n

Yeah, Hillsborough aside it's rare to get a serious boycott for tabloid shit. But that doesn't mean readers don't condemn it, either, or that papers don't get burnt. The Sun's readers famously give it doings when it misreads them, like on Frank Bruno and a few of their "immigrants gtf" stories; I think at least some NoTW readers will on this, too.

The problem is that it's invisible -- a story got by voicemail taping just looks like any other in print. One answer is a PCC with balls, but the hopes of that also leave you a bit depressed. xxp

― stet, woensdag 6 juli 2011 1:02 (9 minutes ago) Bookmark

True, I was zooming this out to "UK Journalism" level style discussion, also because of what Boxedjoy said. I agree to a certain extent that it is invisible to the reader caught unaware. Even though it should be anyone's guess how these tabloids can come up with the crazy stories they do sometimes. One can only hope more advertisers will withdraw, readers too. It's up to them to make a difference and make NotW really see how they feel about it.

What's News of the World's frontpage of tomorrow btw? Are they full-on defending themselves or giving it the silent treatment? Is it out there yet?

it's a Sunday paper

What's News of the World's frontpage of tomorrow btw?

It's a Sunday paper. The Sun is the sister daily.

Really hoping someone is working on some sort of Rebecca Black/Rebekah Brooks piss-taking viral.

Ok sorry guys, should've known that, thanks.

Basically, the NOTW have got until Saturday night to photo Wayne Rooney snorting coke off Pippa Middleton's arse while dressed as Hitler.

Haha NickB :-)

I was already thinking if they'd be going "ok guys, uhm, where's that one photo we always keep back for emergency occasions? Because this is that ocassion!"

time for Thatcher to take one for the team and croak Saturday night /poortaste

I was already thinking if they'd be going "ok guys, uhm, where's that one photo we always keep back for emergency occasions? Because this is that ocassion!"

basically, paul daniels and debbie mcgee should be feeling very anxious this weekend.

Coulson gets stabbed in the front.

The tabloid's owners have passed to the police e-mails which appear to show that payments were authorised by the then editor, Andy Coulson.

Hanging Coulson out to dry doesn't seem sensible, surely he could go nuclear on this if he wanted?

Maybe he's being offered some incentive by NI to take the rap