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

Widely reported as "not suspicious" until just recently.

― invite ← VERB (Schlafsack), Tuesday, 19 July 2011 09:05 (36 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Okay, I just realised you probably didn't know that "not suspicious" is press code for suicide.

it wouldn't also be used if it just seemed like someone had died of natural causes or in circumstances in which it didn't ... seem ... suspicious?

xp i work as a news reporter, and i know that if you assume a "not suspicious" death is a suicide, you sometimes get made to look like a fool.

It is more often than not code for suicide, though. If someone died of natural causes they say that.

CNBC saying Murdoch Jr considering position.

conclusion: fuuuuuuuuuuuuucked

We covered the suicide/no-suspicious-circumstances thing in detail at uni in the '90s. Right now all I can find is mentions on various blogs and page 2 of this (opens a pdf).

xxp AWESOME

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-18/news-corp-said-to-consider-naming-chase-carey-as-ceo-suceeding-murdoch.html

who is Louise Boat?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DG7IURgryjA

Think CNBC meant Rupert going too and I picked it up wrong.

joe i'm still trying to wrap my head around the whole "not suspicious" convention in the uk. you're saying it could mean an OD?

In a number of paper style books I've seen the advice for reporting suicides is to report them as deaths not in suspicious circumstances, because of the risk of copycats. Accidental ODs can be and are reported as such

From that pdf link I posted (Aus Parliament House):

At the time of the establishment of the Press Council in 1976, the Australian press tended not
to report suicide, whether the story related to a particular self-harm incident or to a coronial
inquiry into such an incident. In order to avoid references to suicide, the press employed in
such reports some circumlocutions that persist to this day, for example, "the police say that
there were no suspicious circumstances".

As stet said it's by no means nomenclature that applies only to suicides but it's reasonable to interpret it that way unless explicitly informed otherwise.

so.... what are the other things it can mean?

joe i'm still trying to wrap my head around the whole "not suspicious" convention in the uk. you're saying it could mean an OD?

― 40% chill and 100% negative (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, 19 July 2011 01:01 (3 minutes ago) Bookmark

i don't think it's necessarily a convention in this case, they've probably not carried out a postmortem yet so all they know is that there's a sudden death with no obvious external cause. there are coded euphemisms for violent deaths, when "no suspicious circumstances" does mean that the only logical conclusion is suicide. but for non-violent deaths then "not suspicious" can just mean a guy died, and that's it - but when someone dies randomly in watford and neighbours call the police after they've not been seen for a few days, it's not usually national news.

Given most stories still say unexplained-but-not-thought-suspicious, I think it currently means anything from natural causes to OD to suicide, but no obvious foul play.
xp

accidental death would be another 'not suspicious' one

This isn't really a universal code, no, but once the death is explained, most of these other explanations would be reported as such. The report would just say "believed to have died of an accidental drug overdose" or "accidental death". When you have an explained death that's reported as nothing other than "the circumstances are not believed to be suspicious" that's usually a p. clear code for suicide.

Because this is so high-profile, though, they won't be circumspect about it -- people will report if it's thought to be suicide (cf David Kelly) rather than dancing around it. But it sounds like the cause of death isn't clear, so it's going to take autopsy etc before that happens.

I feel this story would be complete if they could get that nice Freddie Patel to do the post mortem.

lol

Because this is so high-profile, though, they won't be circumspect about it -- people will report if it's thought to be suicide (cf David Kelly) rather than dancing around it.

Yeah, if a suicide is that high-profile somebody will get to the big headline first. I'm now so accustomed to seeing local reports of e.g. a road death attributed to 'no suspicious circumstances' that I rarely think twice about it.

it's such a cocktease of a phrase

http://i.imgur.com/IPLPc.jpg

cameron-and-a-hoodie.jpg

from toynbee today, btw:

the Mail on Sunday reported that Cameron intended to hire the BBC's Guto Harri as his press secretary. So close, apparently, was the appointment that the Harri family visited the Camerons one weekend in 2007 at Chipping Norton to discuss it, but the job went to Andy Coulson after Rebekah Brooks "is said to have told Mr Cameron that the post should go to Mr Coulson to strengthen links between the Tories and News International". Is this true? Reviewing the papers on the Andrew Marr programme on Sunday, I pointed out this story and said Harri was well-known in the BBC as a straight-as-a-die, honest man. I was pleased to get a text from Harri just after the show saying "Thanks". Does that mean it is true? I called Harri, who now works for Boris Johnson, to check. Yes, he said he'd heard tell that his name was not acceptable to News International. "I heard it as gossip on the grapevine – but I have no idea whether or not it's true. Yes, I did talk to David Cameron about taking the job – but whilst I lingered they'd clearly approached Andy Coulson." He had a good idea who the source from the Sun was for the story. How Cameron must wish he had given Harri the job. The idea that News International planted their man in the heart of Downing Street is truly shocking.

lol yesterday's guardian liveblog

8.29am: "The number of dead bodies on the stage is beginning to resemble the final scene of a Shakespearian tragedy" is how the Guardian puts it today.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-07-19/news-corp-share-slump-murdoch/2799888

News Corp total value down an estimated 20%/US$9b since all this started. DELICIOUS.

It is going to be interesting after all the fallout to see how (if?) this changes the tone of bias in news reportage in the media in general.

i know lol no-one buys papers but are there any figures re: how the sun/times has done this month?

@DavidPrescott What a truly bizarre coincidence. The bodies of Sean Hoare and David Kelly were both discovered on July 18.

Nice little overview of the board via Sorkin:

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/07/18/murdochs-board-stays-silent-as-scandal-widens/

timebomb about to go off y/n

All the hacked sites seem to be completely down now--anyone got a screencap or something showing what the hackers did?

Here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jul/18/sun-website-hacked-lulzsec
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-07-19/the-sun-hacked-by-lulz/2799822

Fantastic! Thanks

http://www.tnr.com/blog/jonathan-chait/92159/news-corp-vs-its-critics

/meta
/uscentric

we covered the redolently desperate WSJ editorial itt already, but it was even worse that i thought

News Corp papers worldwide seem to be covering this thing in two ways:

1. by focusing entirely on the phone hacking aspect (as if to say "right well we've done our job as journalists, let's move on")
2. by cranking up the noise about anything at all that serves as an effective distraction

I'm not allowing myself to ~really~ believe it just yet, but this is starting to feel like the death of News Corp as a political force. Those WSJ pieces are the kicking and screaming laid bare.

papers media outlets

Remember how last week there was the fuss over Cameron hosting The Sun's Police Bravery Awards at Downing Street? The next night he hosted a Downing Street reception "to commemorate the top 100 companies listed in The Sunday Times Profit Track 100 2011 awards".

9.18am: Chris Bryant, the Labour MP who has been campaigning on phone hacking for ages, has just dropped an intriguing hint about "more to come" in an interview on BBC News.

The theatre of [today's appearance] is irrelevant. In the end we've got to get to the bottom of what is a very murky pool. And I tell you Rebekah Brooks was right. We're only half way into that pool at the moment. There's stuff about Surrey police as well and other things that are still to come out.

The Millie Dowler investigation was handled by Surrey police. So was Abigail Witchalls iirc.

it's kind of amazing to me that less has been made of hacking of the soham victims' families

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/files/2011/07/dcamrb.jpg

Cameron in full photo-bombing mode

it's kind of amazing to me that less has been made of hacking of the soham victims' families

― 40% chill and 100% negative (Tracer Hand), Tuesday, July 19, 2011 10:13 AM (19 minutes ago) Bookmark

it's gone so fast that im not sure the full extent of the hacking is common knowledge. was sarah payne's family hacked? remember this as a rumour. but the milly dowler story has stood for all the rest.

I think that's Louise Boat stood behind him btw xp

http://www.isdavidcameronstillprimeminister.com/

LOLz...

"Bookmakers William Hill are offering odds of 16/1 about "under pressure" PM David Cameron being out of office by the weekend."

Bigger LOLz...

"London Mayor Boris Johnson, at 4/1, is favourite to replace him as permanent leader of the Conservative Party"

What was Darren Clarke again? 150-1?

What's the best (online) way to watch the questioning this afternoon?

The evil BBC are the only people allowed to broadcast Parliament I think?