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

It's been pretty much pegged at the top of BBC's "most read/shared" these past few days as well. Not representative of the entire public maybe, but over the years that's been a not-bad guide to what people who're interested in news are interested in, imo.

(catnip to us otm tho. also point about gas bills.)

yeah, granted, it's a big 'news' story alright, but i dunno if ppl are all that interested in news about newspapers. too much more of that and average joe (not our joe, obv) starts hearing the inception dumdumdumdumWAAAAH in his head

me included, like.

i'm not very interested in the pres, but this seems a bit, then again i am a sort of political extremist and anything that sullies tories, labour, NI at the one go is like catnip to me.

press, fuck.

it's not really a story about the media, it's the country's biggest crime story. which was historically the news of the world's first priority.

anything that sullies tories, labour, NI at the one go is like catnip to me

well yeah not for a second suggesting there's not other angles or that it's a small story or anything

dunno what i was saying, apart from agreeing with n1ck a bit tbh

i can't post, since i seem to be missing full words.

basically it is unveiling, to an extent, years of absolute corruption and lawbreaking amongst the most horrific respectable sections of society, press, politicians, and polis.

phone hacking, no matter how widespread, isn't ever going to be the 'biggest crime story' in britain imo- nobody got hit with a brick or had a window broken by youths, if it weren't for the forces/murder victims being a part of it i doubt it would even have been enough for the advertisiers to pull out

i'm not very interested in the pres, but this seems a bit, then again i am a sort of political extremist and anything that sullies tories, labour, NI at the one go is like catnip to me.

and I'm exactly the same. i understand the story and its actual importance, i just think it's important to acknowledge our motivations (and the fact that they might not be the same as those of the general public) when we throw ourselves into a story like this.

xp i mean obviously i can't back that up but i feel vv strongly about this, between sandwiches

speaking of which, in the interest of full disclosure, lenny henry's african famine appeal prior to newsnight, followed by steve coogan, was what originally set ME off tonight.

lenny henry's famine appeal made me hungry for sandwiches tbh

JOKE I DID NOT SEE IT NOR IS FAMINE A LAUGHING MATTER IMO

pretty despicable but nonetheless lolled and now want a sandwich.

South Sudan celebrates its first day. Last US Gov-backed ascent of Space Shuttle. Egyptians protest lack of reform and secret trials by military. Unemployment report in US much worse than expected. Betty Ford dies at 93. Otherwise, and note bit about police telling press what they needed in way of hacks, re cases they were working:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jul/08/phone-hacking-police-coulson-goodman

it's not just about the press though is it, like mdc said it's about a whole bunch of narratives, most of which have defined britain in some way for the past decade, suddenly blowing up together. press, politics, celebrity, crime, conspiracy...

A 63-year-old man who was arrested yesterday over the phone hacking scandal in connection with alleged corrupt payments made to police officers has been bailed, New Scotland Yard said.

(We're being evacuated from the building but the live coverage should resume shortly.)

It's not just a media story, it's a potential lesson in 21st century democracy. In an environment where a handful of corporations are arguably more powerful than governments, press and public outrage at News International hints at a corrective that the traditional mechanisms of politics are incapable of providing. Chances are that it'll largely blow over - that there's not really the appetite on the part of the public to take this all the way - but the reminder that the nation isn't necessarily as supine as its leaders should be a valuable one for Murdoch.

is mcmullan drunk

He was sober but I would guess that's an unusual state for him to find himself. Seems to be something disturbingly masochistic about his need to be debased and insulted by celebrities in public.

coverage in the media itself is also incestuously far out of proportion to the public interest,

Uh, bit of minor detail here, but you live in Ireland don't you?

yeah, but i mean it's not like we have our own media service, really, except for the standard localised topup covering the national specifics- and i think the industry meta-fixation point stands anyway.

We're getting all the same coverage anyway, watching as much of this story as i did need to catch on sky news for instance

church of england joining the pile on a+

We cannot imagine circumstances in which we would be satisfied with any outcome that does not hold senior executives to account at News Corporation for the gross failures of management at the News of the World.

While the EIAG welcomes the decision to close the News of the World, this action is not a sufficient response to the revelations of malpractice at the paper. Nor does it address the failure of News International and News Corporation executives to undertake a proper investigation and take decisive remedial action as soon as the police uncovered illegal phone hacking in 2006.

phone hacking, no matter how widespread, isn't ever going to be the 'biggest crime story' in britain imo- nobody got hit with a brick or had a window broken by youths, if it weren't for the forces/murder victims being a part of it i doubt it would even have been enough for the advertisiers to pull out

― VIRGIN ROO (darraghmac), Saturday, July 9, 2011 1:37 AM (11 hours ago) Bookmark

to return to this in the sober light of day, it's not just about phone hacking anymore. it's about corrupt payments to police and assisting murder suspects in obstructing justice, all carried out by one of the countries' largest and most high profile businesses, with links to the prime minister. gas bills are important, but boring in comparison.

i think the industry meta-fixation point stands anyway.

no. the specific case of phone hacking, which in itself immediately raised questions about the PM and the met, has brought out into the open a really pretty big, no-going-back fight within the political and media elite, and that is #agoodstory.

granted, but milly & the forces were nonetheless the driving public forces while it was gathering steam, rather than the corporate malpractice angle?

xp

absolutely, but this has more fuel to drive it on than public outrage over that, otherwise the cynical and depraved murdochs would be right that closing the notw would end the matter.

#agoodstory but not, imo, as all-encompassing a media event as has been seen. Hard to speak for 'the public' obviously, but prob the bigger watercooler or w/e story is the immediate NOTW drama rather than the background political/legal machinations.

xp remains to be seen whether they're right on that or not!

deems i know you think a gentle troll on a warm morning is good for the constitution but yr really going nowhere here

ha not it at all, i'm just interested, more ill-informed than challopy tbh

it's not just about the press though is it, like mdc said it's about a whole bunch of narratives, most of which have defined britain in some way for the past decade, suddenly blowing up together. press, politics, celebrity, crime, conspiracy...

― lex pretend, Saturday, July 9, 2011 9:30 AM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

this is otm

Hard to speak for 'the public' obviously, but prob the bigger watercooler or w/e story is the immediate NOTW drama rather than the background political/legal machinations.

you can chalk this up to me being a pessimistic jerk-wad, but y'know: not everyone in the country is politically engaged. probably a lot of people are pretty much oblivious. the reason this story matters is that -- while one would never use terms like 'sheeple', of course, of course -- the murdoch media is very influential among people who aren't overly interested in the background political/legal machinations that affect their lives. so you win the point: not everyone even knows who r. b. rebekah brooks is. but it still matters.

ha not it at all, i'm just interested, more ill-informed than challopy tbh

― VIRGIN ROO (darraghmac), Saturday, July 9, 2011 1:34 PM

yah, i don't think you really get the extent of the political debility engendered by fealty towards new corp over the last decades

from overseas they probably seem like just another lot of snipes from the gutter press, yet their influence has been significantly greater than that would suggest

matt dc calling this britain's season finale was hilarious, i dunno if its otm but i hope it is

yeah that was perfect.

alan rusbridger and andreas whittam smith both ~astonished~ by the closure of the notw (though i suspect the former was being drolly hyperbolic)

it's almost as if they haven't been reading my posts itt

almost!

So have the Murdochs succeeded in halting the doomsday machine before it reaches into their boardroom under Section 79 of the The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000? Section 79 is entitled the "Criminal liability of directors etc.", which I think gives a sufficient indication of what could be involved. The short answer is No – No, even though I assume they will avoid the mistake of re-starting the News of the World as the Sun on Sunday or some such title. If they did this, they would have been seen as having perpetrated a fraud on the public, for their contrition would have been shown to be false. No, because the police inquiries cannot be stopped and the doomsday machine will continue to do its work. Imagine what each new suspect will do under questioning – attempt to throw the blame on others. If you run an organisation, as the Murdochs have done, where all is hardball, where it is each person for him or herself, where there is no love lost between bosses and subordinates, then the consequence is that the police will have to spend a lot of time sorting out accusation and counter-accusation. I believe myself that Rebekah Brooks, James Murdoch, and even Rupert Murdoch himself – if he can be extradited from the United States – will find themselves in court answering charges under Section 79 of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act.

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/andreas-whittam-smith/andreas-whittam-smith-bullies-and-cowards-who-have-killed-a-newspaper-ndash-for-nothing-2309532.html

just a ~little~ tendentious by the end

granted, but milly & the forces were nonetheless the driving public forces while it was gathering steam, rather than the corporate malpractice angle?

milly dowler and the war widows are not separate to this, is the thing - the reason it's so big is because it includes those stories, folded into this massive one

not everyone in the country is politically engaged. probably a lot of people are pretty much oblivious. the reason this story matters is that -- while one would never use terms like 'sheeple', of course, of course -- the murdoch media is very influential among people who aren't overly interested in the background political/legal machinations that affect their lives. so you win the point: not everyone even knows who r. b. rebekah brooks is.

a lot of those oblivious people are not oblivious any more - that's another mark of how big it's become

tomorrow i'll be visiting my news of the world-buying family who are very much not "overly interested in the background political/legal machinations that affect their lives", i'm very interested to see what they think about all this.

In my local this afternoon, which is either working class, unemployed or servicemen (ok, the drunks of those groups, but we don't vary that much from the sober) everyone was talking about this, as they were yesterday. It's a good rule not to underestimate the inteligence or political literacy of the working class.

http://yfrog.com/klypnrj

Sun_Politics
NotW - RIP. A loss to 1st class journalism. Ed Miliband, Guardian and BBC; how proud you must be of your work this week.

I'm sorry but what kind of a thick, poisonous bastard do you have to be?

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cb-NuBnTLb0/Thi-bhDGmxI/AAAAAAAACFc/ZrnQ8aQH9AU/s1600/Sun%2527s%2Btweet%2Bdeleting%2Bearlier%2Btweet.jpg

Yeah, right. Wankers.

kind of a result for ed milliband there though

Was noticing that Cameron's mea cupla incl spread the blame/guilt to all pols--note the bit in here, near the end, re Blair aking Brown to cool it with the inquiries (apparently a fairly "conservative" paper, re can now reveal Max Mosley "bankrolling" suits re hacking and visions "police being dragged through courts by civil claimants"; nevertheless, a also copper sez "industrial" degree of hacking)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/phone-hacking/8628052/John-Yates-I-failed-victims-of-News-of-the-World-phone-hacking.html