In your face Murdoch

[Seshmeister]

I don't usually post much about UK news but this may be of interest.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14070733

To summarize Murdoch has had to shut down the biggest Sunday newspaper in the UK with 3 million readers because of their sordid shitty evil practices.

For months there has been a scandal on this when it was discovered that for years journalists had been hacking peoples cell phone voice mail. It may work in the US too so worth checking, basically if you don't change the default security(PIN) number on your phone then it's quite easy for someone else to pick up your messages. This was bad enough when it was thought they were doing it just to get sex stories about celebrities but in the last week it was discovered that the News International people had done it with the phones of crime victims.

A kid who had gone missing had her messages hacked and then when they deleted them, obviously the parents and everyone else thought they may still be alive. Kid turned up dead 6 months later. They have been doing this with terrorist victims families and all sorts.

Final sting in the tail is it seems they were bribing cops to get the phone numbers of the victims.

If anyone ever had any doubt that News International are evil fucks then that's over.

[FORD]

Yeah, I've been paying attention to this story. Not that the whore media in the US are covering it, but Hartmann, Olbermann, and Malloy have.

Murdoch and his minions are accessories to that girl's murder, as far as I'm concerned. And what's with the report that they were also hacking into the cellphones & laptops of troops in Iraq?

And if they're doing this in the UK, does anybody doubt that they aren't doing the same thing here? Or do they just outsource it all out to Breitbart and his little "pimp" boyfriend James O'Keefe?

[sadaist]

Such a shitty fucking world we live in when so many care so little for their fellow man. We need Van Halen more than ever!

[Seshmeister]

Half the fucking newspapers here aren't even mentioning it because either Murdoch owns them or they also have closets full of skeletons.

I bet Fox News hasn't either.

Shows just how important a diversity of ownership of the media is.

James 'Damien' Murdoch wants the BBC broken up which is the biggest argument I've ever heard for it.

[Seshmeister]

Yeah, I've been paying attention to this story. Not that the whore media in the US are covering it, but Hartmann, Olbermann, and Malloy have.

Murdoch and his minions are accessories to that girl's murder, as far as I'm concerned. And what's with the report that they were also hacking into the cellphones & laptops of troops in Iraq?

And if they're doing this in the UK, does anybody doubt that they aren't doing the same thing here? Or do they just outsource it all out to Breitbart and his little "pimp" boyfriend James O'Keefe?

Another thought if you want to be paranoid is that up until very recently News International and Murdoch owned Myspace.

How many people use the same passwords for their email and their social networking sites...?

[sadaist]

I bet Fox News hasn't either.

Correction. I was watching Casey Anthony stuff earlier and FOX did say some stuff about this but I wasn't really paying attention. So I don't know if they maybe glossed it over or not.

[chefcraig]

NBC Nightly News is featuring this as a lead story as I type this (6:35 PM), including the details of the armed forces.

[Seshmeister]

He's just closed the biggest selling newspaper in the Western world which has been running for 168 years.

His newspapers here led today with the royals canoeing in Canada.

Maybe it's just got too big.

[BITEYOASS]

In honor of this occasion:

Lyrics to Dear Mr. Murdoch :
(Roger Taylor)

Dear Mr. Murdoch, what have you done
With your news of the screws and your soaraway sun?
You sharpen our hatred
You've blunted our minds
We're drowning in nipples and bingo and sex crimes
How many time must they poke and they pry
Must they twist and lie?
Just to add to the grime they even screwed up the times
Love to kick their arse goodbye oh wouldn't i!

Dear Mr. Murdoch you play hard to see
But with your bare-arsed cheek you should be on page three
And dear Mr. Murdoch you're really the pits
Bad news is good business, you're the king of the tits

They stain all they touch, they're real woman haters
But we're on their trail
They go straight for the lowest common denominators
How could they fail? go straight to jail - (no bail)!

Dear Mr. Murdoch you're a powerful man
You control half our media whose values don't scan
And dear Mr. Murdoch we're not so amused
Just line up the people whose lives they've abused

Dear Mr. Murdoch what do you know
With your minions like vultures and carrion crow
They've sunk just as low as humans can sink
For profit they tell us how mass murderers think

And dear Mr. Murdoch you come down from on high
You even bought up the air waves, you control all our sky

Dear Mr. Murdoch you're a dangerous chap
With your jingoist lingo we're drowning in crap

Dear Mr. Murdoch where are you coming from?
Getting so hard to tell if you're a yank, oz or pom

Dear Mr. Murdoch you're really the pits
Bad news is good business, you're the king of the tits

Dear Mr. Murdoch you do it with zing
At lowering the standards you're really the king

And dear Mr. Murdoch what have you done?
You're not quite as nice as attila the hun

[chefcraig]

George Michael Thrilled That 'News of the World' is Shutting Down

Singer takes to Twitter to criticize former editor Rebekah Brooks in phone hacking scandal

ROLLING STONE

George Michael has responded to the news that Rupert Murdoch's News International has shut down the scandal-plagued British newspaper News of the World by declaring that today is a "fantastic day for Britain." The paper has been accused of eavesdropping on the phone messages of murder victims, politicians and celebrities such as Michael. According to the Associated Press, the News of the World got a lead on the singer's DUI arrest last year by hacking his phone.

In a series of tweets earlier today, Michael accused News of the World editor Rebekah Brooks of corruption. "Rebekah Brooks sat two feet from me in my own home and told me that it was never the public that came to them with information," the singer wrote, "or celebrities, and that the police always got there first." He further explained that Brooks had not been invited into his house and that he had no idea how she got in.

Michael clarified that his attack on Brooks is "in no way an excuse for any of my behavior," referring to his substance abuse issues and imprisonment for driving under the influence of drugs. "I was happy to do my time, because I was so ashamed."

"I believe every individual, whether privileged or the average citizen, deserves the law," the singer tweeted. "And many of us, rich or poor, have been denied it by News International."

[standin]

Cheers!

[Seshmeister]

I don't see a lot of media reporting it in the US but just to clarify, next week Murdoch is awaiting the decision on whether he is allowed to take over 1/3 of the TV in the UK which is worth a fuck of a lot more than any newspaper. Dominance that would breach the law in the US or Australia but we don't have that protection.

Also a lot of advertisers had already announced in the last days or two that they were pulling out in disgust from the News of the World.

[Nitro Express]

Newspapers are pretty much a dinosaur. I used to get the Wall Street Journal, the local paper, and the USA Today. Now everything I used to read in the Wall Street Journal is on the internet in real time. Many local papers have disappeared or are owned by a larger conglomerate. They are basically a rehash of what you already read on a major internet news site with some local news added. Our local paper has a website with ads so if I want a local story I just go there instead of subscribing to the paper. The USA Today was great in the 1980's. The problem is if you need to line the birdcage or start a fire, you can't find any damn newspaper in the house anymore.

[standin]

UK tabloid closure points to Murdoch savvy

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Rupert Murdoch's decision to close the 168-year-old weekly British tabloid at the center of a phone-hacking scandal is an example of what the controlling shareholder of News Corp. does best — seize the news agenda, and when necessary, cut his losses.
He's also got his eye on a much bigger prize.

The surprisingly bold move to shutter News of the World, a financial pipsqueak, is the best way to stem the flow of damaging headlines at rival newspapers and clear regulatory hurdles that stand in the way of News Corp.'s pending multi-billion-dollar acquisition of British Sky Broadcasting, a cash cow that will boost earnings of the media giant.

"This is, to me, Murdoch taking back control," said Louise Cooper, a markets analyst at London-based BGC Partners. "The whole thing is an utter mess. He's trying to make the best of it he can."

Murdoch, 80, has a long history of daring business decisions. He was born in Australia, the son of a newspaper magnate, and started his own newspaper empire there. He's purchased assets, like Wall Street Journal owner Dow Jones & Co., and created others from scratch, like the Star tabloid and Fox broadcast network.
As the company's chief executive, Murdoch presides over an empire with a wide array of media assets, including the Fox broadcast network, cable channels such as FX and Fox News, TV stations, the 20th Century Fox movie studio and newspapers around the world, including The New York Post and The Sun in the U.K. Murdoch controls 40 percent of News Corp.'s voting stock, mostly through a family trust.

News of the World's value as an enterprise is "a drop in the bucket" compared to News Corp.'s overall $46 billion market capitalization, said Collins Stewart analyst Thomas Eagan. Closing the paper is a small sacrifice to try to save News Corp.'s $12 billion proposal to takeover BSkyB, which still needs U.K. government approval.
"I think it assuages some of the concern over ongoing problems at 'News of the World,'" Eagan said. "It's unclear what it means for the actual (BSkyB) deal approval."


Read more...

http://news.yahoo.com/uk-tabloid-closure-points-murdoch-savvy-211802604.html

[sadaist]

I'm really surprised how fast this decision was made. The paper wasn't even losing money ...quite successful actually. To just pull the plug so fast and so completely i dont know. This had to be something that was being considered for a long time.