Public Address | Cafe | Hard News: A nation bullied

nzlemming

Mon, 18 Jul 2011 23:02:53 +1200

Yeah but the game ain't over yet. Jude Law is suing the Sun – all it will take is someone going after her for personal damages and that 3.5 mill won't go very far.

Ian Dalziel

Mon, 18 Jul 2011 20:13:45 +1200

...and Brooks gets a whopping
3.5 million pound payout...
the wages of sin, eh?

Ben Austin

Mon, 18 Jul 2011 06:43:27 +1200

So the Met Police Commissioner, Sir Paul Stephenson has just resigned

Islander

Thu, 14 Jul 2011 17:43:09 +1200

Whew! Kitten saved!
Actually, this is something I’m interested in also – but look forward to seeing the public version-

Stephen Judd

Thu, 14 Jul 2011 17:15:25 +1200

Rob, email me and I'll send you a draft now.

Robert Urquhart

Thu, 14 Jul 2011 14:49:25 +1200

This may or may not be relevant here

http://www.shirky.com/weblog/2011/07/we-need-the-new-news-environment-to-be-chaotic/
The business environment for newspapers continues to be grim. Pew recently reported that advertising revenue rebounded in 2010 for all forms of media, except newspapers.* This might just be a matter of transitioning from print to digital revenues but for the…

Rob Stowell

Thu, 14 Jul 2011 12:53:57 +1200

I am ready to repeat the call I made here a couple of years ago to create a charitable trust to fund public interest journalism. Gimme a day or two, I have a draft already that I need to tidy up.
Genuinely interested in this notion- though of course it’s…

Joe Wylie

Thu, 14 Jul 2011 11:19:06 +1200

how are Kingdom Holdings – 7%- (which is basically Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal of the Saudi Royal Family – check out what he owns or has shares in...) taking this particular clusterf*ck?
He already appears to have survived a fatwa.

Ian Dalziel

Thu, 14 Jul 2011 11:12:51 +1200

the dirty digger's hole...
one wonders if Murdoch has pulled the strings of the Chipping Norton set – and lo, Cameron is now going to cut the country adrift before he is taken to the Tower – well that may be over-reaching, but we'd best watch what happens carefully, as…

Islander

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 19:15:12 +1200

Who are not common in ANZ – or generally broad community-minded anywhere.

Sacha

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 19:09:37 +1200

All you need now is a friendly billionaire

Kumara Republic

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 19:07:31 +1200

Time for PAStv has come.

Al Gore's CurrenTV offers a template to follow.

merc

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 18:41:34 +1200

Time for PAStv has come.

Rob Stowell

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 17:27:12 +1200

James Butler

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 17:26:18 +1200

The Fox News website ran a leading headline about fractions in the Republican party for a short while today. They never do that.

What? Basic numeracy? Agreed.

Ian Dalziel

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 17:21:46 +1200

I am ready to repeat the call I made here a couple of years ago to create a charitable trust to fund public interest journalism.
Great idea...
Something like the Paul Foot Award would be good – with a blog category as well, natch!
Maybe this trust could take over…

Ian Dalziel

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 17:09:08 +1200

the Slapper from Wapping...
...was explicitly threatened by Rebekah Brooks with having their private lives turned inside out...
It all makes you wonder just what Rebekah Brooks has on Rupert and James, they are distressingly supportive of someone who seems to have destroyed a major asset?
Maybe hard man (and ex-hubby…

Jeremy Eade

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 16:18:40 +1200

The Fox News website ran a leading headline about fractions in the Republican party
for a short while today. They never do that. Coincidence?

Kumara Republic

Mon, 11 Jul 2011 19:39:47 +1200

Why Murdoch should never be allowed to get anywhere near a BSkyB takeover.

Holy shit. And yet the TPPA will still insult our collective intelligence, knowing that backyard file-sharers would be far easier targets than news conglomerates.

Stephen Judd

Mon, 11 Jul 2011 18:49:48 +1200

. Maybe there is a model here that could / should be encouraged if not legally mandated. Or maybe we should dig into our own pockets and make one.

I am ready to repeat the call I made here a couple of years ago to create a charitable trust to…

81stcolumn

Mon, 11 Jul 2011 16:26:48 +1200

For interest: I tweeted a bit of this but thought it worth a broader explanation.

Why Murdoch should never be allowed to get anywhere near a BSkyB takeover.

ITVDigital launched a new satellite channel in the UK, they used the same encrypted card system used by a major French broadcaster…

Russell Brown

Mon, 11 Jul 2011 16:23:54 +1200

Stephen Judd: Papers like the Guardian are distinguished by ownership via a trust or foundation with a charter stating the values they must adhere to.

The big problem is that The Guardian is emphatically in the midst of its most influential and important era — and losing 50 million quid…

Russell Brown

Mon, 11 Jul 2011 16:20:46 +1200

all journalist use subterfuge, like all council workers on garbage trucks collect garbage, it's just the way it is and I for one have a choice, don't read them, anyofthem! The press in NZ is diabolical and there is not one journalist I would trust, period.

In which case, you…

Steve Withers

Mon, 11 Jul 2011 15:09:20 +1200

Stephen Judd: Papers like the Guardian are distinguished by ownership via a trust or foundation with a charter stating the values they must adhere to. The Toronto Star has a similar charter and while it isn't the Guardian it isn't a shrill journal owned by any billionaire with a political…

Lilith __

Mon, 11 Jul 2011 13:03:20 +1200

The press in NZ is diabolical and there is not one journalist I would trust, period.

You do realise you’re commenting on the blog of one of them?

[whoops, that's to Richard, not Lucy]

Lucy Stewart

Mon, 11 Jul 2011 12:57:05 +1200

I for one have a choice, don't read them, anyofthem! The press in NZ is diabolical and there is not one journalist I would trust, period.

How would you suggest learning about goings on beyond one's own personal experience, then?

Richard CLARK

Mon, 11 Jul 2011 11:19:08 +1200

"It is true that the News of the World has sometimes used subterfuge to pursue matters of genuine public interest"

all journalist use subterfuge, like all council workers on garbage trucks collect garbage, it's just the way it is and I for one have a choice, don't read them, anyofthem!…

Russell Brown

Sun, 10 Jul 2011 22:37:37 +1200

I watched Thursday night's BBC Question Time, in which Shirley Williams stated as fact that the last select committee to look at the phone-hacking allegations was explicitly threatened by Rebekah Brooks with having their private lives turned inside out, and the committee chair was subsequently outed as gay by The…

nzlemming

Sun, 10 Jul 2011 22:28:01 +1200

Point

giovanni tiso

Sun, 10 Jul 2011 21:12:30 +1200

Too true.

Stephen Judd

Sun, 10 Jul 2011 21:04:39 +1200

Blogs

Yeah nah. What the Guardian brings to this is the ability to fund Nick Davies for a long and indefinite period of time, and to defend him in the courts if need be. I can see the possibility for a valiant and quixotic whistleblower to blog, but what we…

nzlemming

Sun, 10 Jul 2011 20:51:57 +1200

Without a local Guardian equivalent, how would we find out about something like this in New Zealand?

Blogs.

Kumara Republic

Sun, 10 Jul 2011 20:39:27 +1200

And Graeme could enlighten us on whether Ansell is in breach of the Human Rights Act.

Human Rights Act 1993, S61 – Racial disharmony

Human Rights Act 1993, S63 – Racial harassment

recordari

Sun, 10 Jul 2011 18:31:00 +1200

It was only a matter of time. Does this count as a Godwin?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8zwwdmNYeY

Islander

Sun, 10 Jul 2011 17:30:19 +1200

He dis-claimed any link to the other Ansell in a thread on Poneke's website.
Given the similarities, you do have to wonder eh?

Kumara Republic

Sun, 10 Jul 2011 17:22:21 +1200

Oops, wrong link... http://bit.ly/oscKQ1

Matthew Littlewood

Sun, 10 Jul 2011 16:49:50 +1200

The latest reports are that LibDem leader Paddy Ashdown- who had been a frequent target of the Murdoch tabloids himself- warned David Cameron about Coulson' s appointment. Cameron is becoming increasingly compromised here. As an aside, given that the LibDems are the only one of the big three parties who…

Kumara Republic

Sun, 10 Jul 2011 16:11:43 +1200

Ha ha …
http://www.ou1.com/53

He’s not by any chance related to Colin Ansell?

Russell Brown

Sun, 10 Jul 2011 15:41:51 +1200

BBC Newsnight proved again why it is the best news programme on the planet.

Hell yes. Friday night's Newsnight was just superb.

uroskin

Sun, 10 Jul 2011 15:36:39 +1200

BBC Newsnight proved again why it is the best news programme on the planet.

Craig Young

Sun, 10 Jul 2011 15:06:47 +1200

Sigh. Now, if only something similar would befall our own benighted Investigrunt...

Hebe

Sun, 10 Jul 2011 15:04:44 +1200

Or: "Hello. You're fucked."

Jeremy Eade

Sun, 10 Jul 2011 15:00:51 +1200

Fuck you and Hello, that's the murdoch mantra.

Islander

Sun, 10 Jul 2011 14:52:50 +1200

Trying again...(has lightning befuddled this machine??)

That was a good wry laugh – considerably lightened a thunderstormy sleet-ridden
very cold afternoon.

Russell Brown

Sun, 10 Jul 2011 14:51:50 +1200

And this ...

http://audioboo.fm/boos/407854-rebecca-brooks

Russell Brown

Sun, 10 Jul 2011 13:43:48 +1200

Ha ha ...

http://www.ou1.com/53

bmk

Sun, 10 Jul 2011 12:50:20 +1200

I know he did – but I took the intent as being UK and 'the human race' as just a mis-type. But can see how you thought what you did too.

Dinah Dunavan

Sun, 10 Jul 2011 12:27:26 +1200

Hugh Grant's performance was equally good

"you should try real journalism Paul, you're not an idiot, you could probably do it"

Brilliant!

chris

Sun, 10 Jul 2011 12:21:02 +1200

"A large(?) section" no less.

Islander

Sun, 10 Jul 2011 11:27:12 +1200

He referred specifically to "the human race"-

Craig Ranapia

Sun, 10 Jul 2011 11:03:22 +1200

Many others were simply cowed into silence. Which makes Tom Watson’s campaign all the more admirable.

Yes, but I think it would be fair to say Watson also showed an admirable amount of bottom in calling out his own party leadership on their addiction to flat-out character assassination via tabloid.…

Russell Brown

Sun, 10 Jul 2011 09:52:45 +1200

I also think politicians have to held to account for their part in creating, enabling and cynically exploiting this toxic media culture

Some of them, I think, not all. Tony Blair would clearly have made a pact with the Devil and convinced himself he was on the side of the…

Ross Mason

Sun, 10 Jul 2011 07:54:30 +1200

Yup. 60 million UK. The rest of the world would never read THOSE kinds of papers anyway........

Ben Austin

Sun, 10 Jul 2011 07:24:24 +1200

People do seem genuinely angry here, judging by the fact that the topic comes up unprompted in casual discussion. Whether or not that will be enough to sustain the rage is another question.

On the employment law matter, given as this is my profession, I can safely say that dismissing…

Lea Barker

Sun, 10 Jul 2011 06:48:01 +1200

Besides being angry about what everyone else is justifiably angry about, I'm annoyed that I wasn't smart and knowledgeable enough to register the sunonsunday domain name before any else did--I'd be set for life selling it to the Murdoch empire.

Thanks for posting the video... the only BBC Newsnight I've…

Craig Ranapia

Sun, 10 Jul 2011 01:31:01 +1200

But there has been something particularly troubling about the Murdoch era. Other publishers have had their political preferences, but Murdoch’s role as kingmaker has been something else. It has been like bullying a nation.

Hearing those MPs finally feeling able to criticise NI really brought that home to me.

Perhaps…

Yamis

Sun, 10 Jul 2011 00:56:17 +1200

Now if only the Blackcaps could bowl cancer, we might start to win a few games!!!

Robert Fox

Sat, 09 Jul 2011 23:59:25 +1200

I know Rupert Murdoch is a trendy bogeyman (and not entirely without reason), but anyone who thinks Fleet Street was a fragrant bower before that ghastly Ocker vulgarian slithered above the salt is guilty of nostalgia of the most fatuous kind.

Meh, I'm certainly not nostalgic for an imagined pre…

Russell Brown

Sat, 09 Jul 2011 22:35:05 +1200

England was quite happily breeding squalid press barons and media outlets with the moral probity of pox-ridden whores long before Keith Murdoch got his first tabloid in the colonies.

Indeed. The history of the politicians and the press barons in Britan is extraordinary.

But there has been something particularly troubling…

Craig Ranapia

Sat, 09 Jul 2011 22:07:04 +1200

The Elephant in the room of course Murdoch’s takeover bid for BSkyB, which has been opposed by pretty much every media outlet whatever their political bias.

And their own commercial self-interest? I’m sure this is going to wound Murdoch’s ego tremendously, but England was quite happily breeding squalid press barons…

Hebe

Sat, 09 Jul 2011 21:27:31 +1200

I get your point; apologies for my one-dimensional reading. Hmmm; who knows, are we as a nation even big enough to bother the likes of Murdoch? Not that he's a presence in NZ now. (Though when he owned INL one would hear occasional tales from ashen-faced printers of coming across…

Stephen Judd

Sat, 09 Jul 2011 20:45:50 +1200

Hebe: I was more thinking about the evident complicity of the British PM and the Met, than the voicemail snooping and bribery per se. In other words, how would we know to what extent pols compromise to pacify media proprietors?

bmk

Sat, 09 Jul 2011 20:12:54 +1200

Humans now number about7 billions...

I am guessing that the 5 million out of 60 million Ross was referring to was strictly the UK. But it wasn't clear – that's just how I interpreted it.

Robert Fox

Sat, 09 Jul 2011 20:07:27 +1200

The Elephant in the room of course Murdoch's takeover bid for BSkyB, which has been opposed by pretty much every media outlet whatever their political bias. It is broadly viewed as a Murdoch acquisition too far and has helped forge an unholy anti News Corp alliance right across the political…

Hebe

Sat, 09 Jul 2011 20:03:31 +1200

Individual contracts? Yes they've been big for well over 15 years (exact date eludes me). Surprising who sold out; and not so surprising who didn't want anyone else to know....
The lily-livers would still keep the luvly pension pot if they went though, especially luscious if it dated from the…

Islander

Sat, 09 Jul 2011 19:50:44 +1200

Humans now number about7 billions...

Ross Mason

Sat, 09 Jul 2011 19:15:39 +1200

But what Britain now seems suddenly to be recovering from is a form of bullying sustained over decades.

What I keep seeing/hearing as I read and watch are the like of bubble bursts, financial crashes and housing prices drops. Eventually it comes to an end and something reacts.

I think…

Islander

Sat, 09 Jul 2011 19:07:49 +1200

O but would the threat of being sacked from the Fairyfaxedfactory – just before you were due for your pension et al – be enough for you to sell your (trade union) soul?
Yup – in the cases of 2 people I know.

Hebe

Sat, 09 Jul 2011 18:58:29 +1200

As I follow this scandal I am oscillating wildly between the joy of watching a deserved come-uppance unfold, and horror at the emerging evidence of just how far the rot goes. We might once have suspected, but now we know.

Without a local Guardian equivalent, how would we find out…

Craig Ranapia

Sat, 09 Jul 2011 18:53:11 +1200

The act I found most despicable, though I certainly haven't addressed myself to the whole litany of ills, was breaking into the cell account of a missing (and later found murdered) 13-year-old girl, deleting messages in order to free up space so that more messages could be left; and listened…

Matthew Littlewood

Sat, 09 Jul 2011 18:28:00 +1200

Hugh Grant's performance was equally good, although he had already got one over McMullen in the New Statesman where he gave the guy a taste of his own medicine. What startles me is the guy's complete frankness about who they bugged and how unscrupulous they were about it.

But how…

Matthew Poole

Sat, 09 Jul 2011 18:04:11 +1200

Karma's a bitch, or so they say. I don't think there're too many people out there who won't be thinking "Whatever they get, they've had it coming."

The act I found most despicable, though I certainly haven't addressed myself to the whole litany of ills, was breaking into the cell…

Islander

Sat, 09 Jul 2011 17:57:02 +1200

We have our suspicions – but no journalist/paper willing to dig in the dirt....

Stephen Judd

Sat, 09 Jul 2011 17:47:27 +1200

Gotta say that from a television point of view, this is a splendid story. Hugh Grant was fabulous, Brooks could be played by Nicole Kidman (not my idea, read it on Twitter) and McMullen actually looks part weasel (especially in the earlier footage where he still had tatty whiskers),.

As…

Julie Fairey

Sat, 09 Jul 2011 16:23:31 +1200

Hitler was nice to dogs – genius!

Kumara Republic

Sat, 09 Jul 2011 15:50:21 +1200

News of the World raced to the bottom with no brakes... and ended up totalled. This hopefully serves as a wake-up call to Fox News and other mass media cartels.

Public Address

Sat, 09 Jul 2011 15:50:21 +1200

Discussion from blog post.