The Official Newscorp/UK end of season finale/Rebekah Brooks did 9/11 thread

this hacking scandal has caused such a distraction to my work that i am also resigning today

fry and laurie sketch on rubert murdoch from 1995 -

http://www.bbc.co.uk/comedy/clips/p00j5rz8/a_bit_of_fry_and_laurie_its_a_soaraway_life_the_rupert_murdoch_sketch/

uh ruPert

this hacking scandal has caused such a distraction to my work that i am also resigning today

Yes, I'm finding it really hard to concentrate today!

no we have to get work done today because tomorrow it'll be impossible what with the select committee and all

Are we getting called up, or just cited?

Don't think anyone could blame me for finding "Hostile & Generous Toleration (A New Theory of Toleration)" by George Jacob Holyoake not exactly riveting

Imagine the Manic Street Preachers are reading it alongside you.

xp

wd read tbh

Things are looking up, I'm on to "Life and Death (Part I. - Death)"

No spoilers.

Wait, part I?

part 1?
xp

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01949/boris_1949319c.jpg

Part II is yr phone gets hacked.

lol

Part III is You're Fired.

14.54 Boris Johnson appears to have lost his temper at a question from Jon Snow, answers in raised voice. Starting to look more flustered than usual; fiddles with his tie. And to another question - "Come on, be fair".

Finally, challenged again on dismissing hacking as codswallop, says: "I misunderstood the severity of the allegations." Blames poor information he was given.

This guy.

"Come on, be fair" shd be the Tory campaign slogan for 2012.

2.58pm: You just effectively sacked two of the most senior officers in London, the mayor is told.

"Yeah ... That's not an operational matter," Johnson says. And with that the press conference is over.

Jon Snow?

... and Part II is......... Life! They got that one arse over tit there.

xpost -- is this the real life, is this just fantasy, etc.

A sick masochistic part of me wants to turn on Fox News today.

Why are you bored of the scandal? You wpn't find it reported there.

ha, true. Just thought Doocey might do some more spinning, but Fox & Friends is already over today.

Death is four pages longer than Life :(

Thankfully it's mostly footnotes.

Meantime I note Sullivan's back blogging and has things to say, thus here and here. I admit to being amused:

I've lived in America for twenty-five years, and yet I can come home as a native son and personally knew at college the current Mayor of London (an Oxford Union successor), the Foreign Secretary (an Oxford Union predecessor), the editor of the Economist (Magdalen history), and from Reigate Grammar School, the director of strategy at Number 10, the director of public prosecutions and, last but not least, Fatboy Slim.

Death is four pages longer than Life :(

― R. Stornoway (Tom D.), Monday, 18 July 2011 15:26 (10 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Thankfully it's mostly footnotes.

― Ned Raggett, Monday, 18 July 2011 15:27 (8 minutes ago) Bookmark

http://image.shutterstock.com/display_pic_with_logo/150571/150571,1247024235,1/stock-photo-human-feet-with-toe-tag-bar-code-33300391.jpg

I love how this reads:

15.40 Theresa May says the Met is stronger today than when Sir Paul Stephenson took over. She has agreed he should leave "as swiftly as possible".

News America was led by Paul V. Carlucci [who engaged in unethical and illegal practices that eventually forced settlements exceeding $500 million], who, according to Forbes, used to show the sales staff the scene in “The Untouchables” in which Al Capone beats a man to death with a baseball bat. Mr. Emmel testified that Mr. Carlucci was clear about the guiding corporate philosophy.

According to Mr. Emmel’s testimony, Mr. Carlucci said that if there were employees uncomfortable with the company’s philosophy — “bed-wetting liberals in particular was the description he used” Mr. Emmel testified — then he could arrange to have those employees “outplaced from the company.”

…

So what became of him? Mr. Carlucci, as it happens, became the publisher of The New York Post in 2005 and continues to serve as head of News America, which doesn’t exactly square with Mr. Murdoch’s recently stated desire to “absolutely establish our integrity in the eyes of the public.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/18/business/media/for-news-corporation-troubles-that-money-cant-dispel.html

The Guardian's fault for the typo but even so:

May concludes by saying that many Met officers serve the public bravely. An officer was short in the course of his duties only three days ago. It is for their sake that these inquiries need to be successful.

Now, since ‘News International Associated Services’ is a News International subsidiary based in Wapping, it’s fairly clear that the GLA has paid a Murdoch company several thousand pounds for something, reasonably regularly, during 2009/2010.

Around that time, we know that the now defunct Murdoch freesheet The London Paper was running advertorials for Boris’s shiny new Story of London festival:

Publicity for the Story of London Festival was mainly through the GLA website, poster campaign and pamphlet supported by articles in the ‘londonpaper’.

Yes, if you close down your ‘Pyong-Yang style freesheet’ you effectively end up paying, well, Rupert Murdoch to print your PR.

4.23pm: PoliticalBetting is taking the prospect of David Cameron quitting quite seriously, reports Paul Owen.

The website's respected guru Mike Smithson reports that Ladbrokes has tightened the price on Cameron's being the next cabinet member to quit the government from 100/1 ten days ago to 12/1 now. Stan James offers 7/1 against Cameron not lasting the year.

Of the frontrunners to replace Cameron, David Davis represents "outstanding value" at 33/1, and Smithson has put some money down. Boris Johnson is top of the heap at 4/1, despite his not being an MP. Paul's own tip to replace Cameron would be William Hague, whose reputation and image as a statesman have steadily and markedly improved since he was last Tory leader – give or take a few embarrassing stories about his sleeping arrangements.

Ugh, Boris.

Paul's own tip to replace Cameron would be William Hague, whose reputation and image as a statesman have steadily and markedly improved since he was last Tory leader

bleeeaarrghhhhh

THOUGHT WE WERE RID OF HIM A DECADE AGO >:(

He's back and balder than ever.

does he still have his beard

Inquiries inquiries inquiries:

• IPCC oversight of Operation Elveden:
Operation Elveden, looking into corruption, is being supervised by the Independent Police Complaints Commission. As soon as individual suspected officers have been identified, IPCC investigators will lead an independent investigation of those officers. Both of these matters will then be considered by the Leveson Inquiry, already established by the Prime Minister.
• Review of police-press relations:
Elizabeth Filkin, the former Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, has "provisionally agreed to examine the ethical considerations that should, in future, underpin the relationships between the Metropolitan Police and the media, how to ensure maximum transparency and public confidence, and provide advice".
The management board of the Met has "agreed a new set of guidelines relating to relationships with the media, including recording meetings and hospitality and publication on the internet".
• Investigation into police corruption:
Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) has been asked to consider "instances of undue influence, inappropriate contractual arrangements and other abuses of power in police relationships with the media and other parties".
• Review of IPCC powers:
IPCC chief executive, Jane Furniss, has told the Home Secretary she has the power she needs for now but the Home Secretary has "commissioned work to consider whether the IPCC needs further powers, including whether it should be given the power to question civilian witnesses during the course of their investigations".
Ms May said: "Given that the IPCC can at present only investigate specific allegations against individual officers, I have also asked whether the Commission needs to have a greater role in investigating allegations about institutional failings of a force or forces."

Oh and:

16.35 Breaking: David Cameron will now curtail his Africa trip - having already shortened it once and insisted earlier today he would not do so again.

At this rate he'll be refused reentry as an undesirable.

i so want one of the principles to try to flee the country while they can

Re: Hague. Let's put the (purely platonic) bed sharing with attractive pouting young (male) political "advisers" to one side then, shall we?

PRINCIPALS

godfkndamnit

The principles themselves having long since gone.

http://www.5chicago.com/theindex/jamie-principle/photo.jpg

4.38pm: My colleague Vikram Dodd tells me that the home affairs committee has Lord Macdonald, director of public prosecutions at at the time of the first phone hacking prosecution in 2007, to appear before it tomorrow in a special session. Macdonald has been criticised because he has subsequently agreed to do some work for News International.

it is seriously difficult to keep all this shit straight

Everyone is arresting everyone else before they resign during a committee appearance.

isn't it gonna be quicker to pull in everybody who hasn't been paid by News Corp?