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

closing it seems worth a shot from their pov tbh

apart from the money it was a big source of political power for murdoch, it's a big thing to give up. i doubt notw would have lost many readers had it been kept going. live in a world where people don't have sky though. i guess there are people with large disposable incomes and shitty taste in entertainment.

e.g. boardwalk empire

ross kemp on gangs is good though

only get it for Glee tbh

don't think notw + the sun is that more influential than just the sun. notw's main politics usp is tougher sentences for nonces etc., which is presumably not murdoch's end game. otherwise he can do it all with the sun.

oh cmon there's always a grand designs on somewhere tbf

wow just saw that roger alton thing. always had him pegged as a cunt.

anyway, rumour has it that will hutton ages ago wanted to write at length in the observer about how the banks were all screwed and therefore all of us were too. roger alton, obs editor, mulls it over and says: "it's a bit... chewy, isn't it? can't you write about cake or something?"

― joe, Monday, February 23, 2009 11:30 AM (2 years ago) Bookmark

never forget.

http://heady.co.uk/ou1/sun_on_sunday.jpg

Roger Alton is basically Paul McMullan in a cleaner suit.

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2011/7/10/1310297595571/Rupert-Murdoch-arrives-at-005.jpg
http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2011/7/10/1310297595571/Rupert-Murdoch-arrives-at-005.jpg
http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2011/7/10/1310297595571/Rupert-Murdoch-arrives-at-005.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/1v1Qt.png

Thinking about this, I've probably been reading the NotW, uh, since I could read basically, 'cuz we got it every Sunday. It was always shite but it actually got shiter over the years - the celebrities took over completely from the randy vicars and perverted scout masters - but all of the British press is obsessed with celebrity these days.

So having read this piece of shite for all of my life, let me say good fucking riddance. Print that.

w/r/t the reasons for shutting down NOTW: one way this is being cast in US papers--dunno how accurate--is as james murdoch flexing. apparently hes the one who convinced rupe and the other guy to close it down; they say he doesnt really give a shit about print the way rupe does, and just wants those sweet, and huge compared to NOTW, tv residuals

OTM. Fingers crossed that the criminal investigation leads eventually to young James' door, but imagine the incriminating documents have already been shredded.

just heard some incredible stuff from my brother. stoked for the madness. apparently the only papers that aren't involved are the guardian and the telegraph. the observer is in especially deep.

Would that be Roger Alton's Observer?

Genuine lol at second comment on that Alton youtube clip, 'Harry Hill is a bit of a twat these days'.

Roger, David, what is it about blokes called Alton and hating women?

Genuine lol at second comment on that Alton youtube clip, 'Harry Hill is a bit of a twat these days'.

genuine lol seconded. alton's clip is some of the most vile and entitled shit i've seen in this whole brouhahaha. also i love it when dudes who work for right wing papers get all vexed when capitalism comes up and bites them on the arse for a change. in short: i hope much pain happens upon him soon.

The Mail especially is in up to its nuts, but will be v surprised if FT or lesser so Indy were also at it.

What's needed is for the Sun to be implicated next.

will be v surprised if FT or lesser so Indy were also at it.

well yeah but the FT is kinda niche/probably not included in caek's brother's list (?) while the indie isn't really a newspaper

kind of funny that conrad black drew the line at phone hacking tho

haha yeah he probably totally forgot about the indie and the ft

he says there is some tinker tailor shit coming

*puts on glasses menacingly*

*bangs russian chick*

*reads newspaper at cafe in european city*

*tweets*

if the observer was at it under alton, i wouldn't be surprised if the indy was as well.

the indy jackpot will be a johann hari interview where the answers have been taken from voicemail intercepts

I've probably been reading the NotW, uh, since I could read basically, 'cuz we got it every Sunday. It was always shite but it actually got shiter over the years - the celebrities took over completely from the randy vicars and perverted scout masters - but all of the British press is obsessed with celebrity these days.

― R. Stornoway (Tom D.), Sunday, July 10, 2011 11:56 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

So having read this piece of shite for all of my life, let me say (make something up here - ed.) it's pretty good fucking riddance. Print that.

Amused that they're running an Orwell quote about settling down after lunch on Sunday to read the NOTW, stripping it of its context in an essay about the public's love of sensationalist murder stories. Murder stories they managed to get by financing the legal defences of some of the UK's most famous serial killers, incidentally.

i don't really follow what might be coming from the other papers, but i would've thought that, if others are revealed to have done the same kind of thing, there's a potential danger in future conversations rotating around who called out who on what. like NI titles calling the others sanctimonious for having criticised etc, and it becoming a matter of degrees and intent, all obscuring the general grossness.

this is all v tantalising anyhow

daily mail's relative silence on this is pretty telling rly

what a funny newspaper the mail is...

http://i52.tinypic.com/jk905z.jpg

not sure anyone anywhere thought 'crap' there

from twitter
arusbridger: sun times says a 2007 internal NI report found widespread hacking & paying cops Claims 9 journos face jail
arusbridger posted this link http://is.gd/U0iztO

Rather good from Paul Mason: Murdoch: the network defeats the hierarchy

News Corp Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch exited his London home on Sunday with his arm around embattled newspaper chief Rebekah Brooks, and told Reuters that she was his first priority.

Murdoch, who flew into Britain earlier on Sunday to deal with an escalating phone-hacking scandal at his News of the World tabloid that Brooks used to edit, answered: "This one," gesturing at Brooks, when asked what his first priority was.

The two, both smiling, then went into the Stafford hotel opposite Murdoch's apartment in the upmarket Mayfair area of London.

quite like mason's retro '1980s marxist' vibes

In addition, even as the tabloid press has money out of the "sexploits" of the famous, mainstream TV drama - including that produced by Mr Murdoch studios - has come to revolve around a single theme: the supposed rampant corruption of the entire political, media, police and legal systems.

Once it was only at places like National Theatre, with plays by David Hare and Howard Brenton, where you could see such stories aired (Hare's Pravda, about Murdoch's takeover of the Times, is worth re-reading; the script was sent by the playwright to the Culture Secretary as a submission in the BSkyB case.) Now it is everywhere, from the Batman movies, to The Matrix, to the Bond movies - leave aside series like State of Play.

the bond movies?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomorrow_Never_Dies

nice to see mason keeping up with the times <---pun

ha ha oh yeah

im pretty sure you had lefties on the bbc (and mason should know) well before 'pravda' though [via ken loach]

He seems to approve of this "everything is fucked" theme, though it goes against his "hurrah,good press busted the evil press" refutation of Chomsky. But cynicism/nihilism is the numbnuts undercurrent relexivity handy for merchants of righteousness (mostly "conservative". re most lucrative merchandising). Overall, he does make some good points. Yet however or to what degree consent is indeed manufactured (in US certainly, however true in UK), there's also a more respectable, and insidious brand of topical theatre, etc: all about the gamesmanship, how will Famous Monster X handle this new challenge?

reflexivity, that is (sorry).

http://twitpic.com/5o7t1a

I think Paul Mason's article is remarkably good and I'm somewhat surprised that the BBC site is hosting such a thing.

Yeah, almost like the Beeb is temporarily intoxicated by not having to be paralysed by neutrality, and going kinda apeshit while they can

well mason claims richard bacon makes a "good point" so yeah, apeshit*

*seem to recall ilx decided this word was racist? sunday night is taboo-busting night