News of the World Scandal

[the acid never lies]

If Bruce Wayne no longer had his epic fight against mega-crime, he might have to deal with picket lines at his company gates, people trying to 'redistribute' his wealth, immigrant workers becoming politically assertive, public prosecutors bashing on his doors to investigate his environmental or labour code violations, all of that petty stuff that real-life CEOs have to deal with. His romantic interests might realise that he was unworthy of love too, and anyone unfortunate enough to marry him would discover a controlling personality given to violent rages, a megalomaniac who spies on her every move through his system of cameras and hidden mics. And what's with all the secret chambers and torture equipment? He might even prove to be rather dim, bigoted and narcissistic, a more handsome version of Donald Trump.

[the acid never lies]

I think form now on I will be reading Lenin's Tomb for his film reviews. Similarly hilarious and possibly more over the top is the Socialist Equality Party's website http://www.wsws.org/. They have LOOOAADS of film reviews and the conclusion is often centred around why if only so-and-so had a firm grasp of Trotsky's conception of permanent revolution they wouldn't have made such a gaff of the ending of Avatar or whatever and it might have been a half decent revolutionary film.

[soul dead]

So what are you suggesting should happen instead? Leave it all alone?

nah let's pretend we give a fuck about journalists supplying a demand by hacking into actors' phones (people who are so desperate for privacy they spend their time parading around in the public eye sniffing coke and selling their 'stories' to magazines) and the bereaved parents of milly dowler (yeah the ones who had copious amounts of BDSM equipment in their wardrobe). those ppl should definitely be taking a moral stance.

regardless of the nature of the news of the world, I'm not going to celebrate its closure and the scapegoating of its entire staff. the same justification which has been used to shut it down could be used to close down and detain the operators of websites which hack email accounts and leak sensitive information.

[firky]

If Bruce Wayne no longer had his epic fight against mega-crime, he might have to deal with picket lines at his company gates, people trying to 'redistribute' his wealth, immigrant workers becoming politically assertive, public prosecutors bashing on his doors to investigate his environmental or labour code violations, all of that petty stuff that real-life CEOs have to deal with. His romantic interests might realise that he was unworthy of love too, and anyone unfortunate enough to marry him would discover a controlling personality given to violent rages, a megalomaniac who spies on her every move through his system of cameras and hidden mics. And what's with all the secret chambers and torture equipment? He might even prove to be rather dim, bigoted and narcissistic, a more handsome version of Donald Trump.

The guy is bat shit.

[capo ultra]

So what are you suggesting should happen instead? Leave it all alone?

nah let's pretend we give a fuck about journalists supplying a demand by hacking into actors' phones (people who are so desperate for privacy they spend their time parading around in the public eye sniffing coke and selling their 'stories' to magazines) and the bereaved parents of milly dowler (yeah the ones who had copious amounts of BDSM equipment in their wardrobe). those ppl should definitely be taking a moral stance.

regardless of the nature of the news of the world, I'm not going to celebrate its closure and the scapegoating of its entire staff. the same justification which has been used to shut it down could be used to close down and detain the operators of websites which hack email accounts and leak sensitive information.

Jesus Christ

[kay]

So what are you suggesting should happen instead? Leave it all alone?

nah let's pretend we give a fuck about journalists supplying a demand by hacking into actors' phones (people who are so desperate for privacy they spend their time parading around in the public eye sniffing coke and selling their 'stories' to magazines) and the bereaved parents of milly dowler (yeah the ones who had copious amounts of BDSM equipment in their wardrobe). those ppl should definitely be taking a moral stance.

regardless of the nature of the news of the world, I'm not going to celebrate its closure and the scapegoating of its entire staff. the same justification which has been used to shut it down could be used to close down and detain the operators of websites which hack email accounts and leak sensitive information.

It's not the public or the government who decided to shut down NOTW though, it was Murdoch. I don't think the (majority) of the public want to see the newspaper shut down either, given that 90% of the people currently working there had nothing to do with this. Whatever justification Murdoch is using to shut the paper down, he can't do the same to other websites or organisation because he hasn't got the power to do that. Lets not confuse the situation.

On the other hand, will the government use this as an excuse to exercise more control over the media, and will it have undesirable side effects? They'll probably take a good stab at it.

Also, are you insinuating that people with a BDSM fetish don't have as much right as anyone else to be bereaved? Or that they should be treated as lessers because they have such a fetish?

[soul dead]

I believe that people like the guy who murdered Milly Dowler are not merely insane or evil, they are the product of a society which encourages misogyny and objectification at every turn. the fetish which her parents had is part and parcel of this. I also think that a lot of the ppl in this country who condemn her killer as scum after the fact, are the kind of people who wouldn't call someone on the kind of misogynistic and sexually violent comments which this culture engenders and which allow rapists and killers to justify their acts to themselves on some level.

they have every right to be bereaved but frankly I feel no sympathy for them. maybe that makes me heartless, but it's just the way I see things.

[capo ultra]

you need medical treatment

[HamCrescendo]

(has anyone seen the back cover of the actual paper, has a orwell quote on it, with the one meaningful line cut out hahahah)

[Pedro Sánchez]

I believe that people like the guy who murdered Milly Dowler are not merely insane or evil, they are the product of a society which encourages misogyny and objectification at every turn. the fetish which her parents had is part and parcel of this. I also think that a lot of the ppl in this country who condemn her killer as scum after the fact, are the kind of people who wouldn't call someone on the kind of misogynistic and sexually violent comments which this culture engenders and which allow rapists and killers to justify their acts to themselves on some level.

they have every right to be bereaved but frankly I feel no sympathy for them. maybe that makes me heartless, but it's just the way I see things.

are you that basic that you can't see the contradiction in that drivel you typed?

[soul dead]

are you that inarticulate that you have to resort to petty insults by way of reply? evidently.

I'm guessing you're suggesting that I'm justifying their crimes, which I'm not, I'm just recognising that there is a reason for their existence beyond mere 'evil' or 'insanity'.

why don't you enlighten me anyway?

[kay]

I believe that people like the guy who murdered Milly Dowler are not merely insane or evil, they are the product of a society which encourages misogyny and objectification at every turn. the fetish which her parents had is part and parcel of this. I also think that a lot of the ppl in this country who condemn her killer as scum after the fact, are the kind of people who wouldn't call someone on the kind of misogynistic and sexually violent comments which this culture engenders and which allow rapists and killers to justify their acts to themselves on some level.

they have every right to be bereaved but frankly I feel no sympathy for them. maybe that makes me heartless, but it's just the way I see things.

I think I can agree with your first sentence to some extent. The rest, I'm not so sure about.

[the acid never lies]

I believe that people like the guy who murdered Milly Dowler are not merely insane or evil, they are the product of a society which encourages misogyny and objectification at every turn. the fetish which her parents had is part and parcel of this. I also think that a lot of the ppl in this country who condemn her killer as scum after the fact, are the kind of people who wouldn't call someone on the kind of misogynistic and sexually violent comments which this culture engenders and which allow rapists and killers to justify their acts to themselves on some level.

they have every right to be bereaved but frankly I feel no sympathy for them. maybe that makes me heartless, but it's just the way I see things.

I think I can agree with your first sentence to some extent. The rest, I'm not so sure about.

Ditto. That's not really a sound analysis. You're pretty much taking the idea of this couple's fetish somehow contributing to more widespread social/sexual problems (i.e. a cause) from what seems to be little more than intuition. We have to draw the line I think between what a couple gets up to in private (an effect if you like) and the kinds of misogynistic and violent imagery that we see in public. You can make a stronger argument that it is these things in the public arena contribute to our attitudes about sex and violence but in any case I strongly believe you have to start from there rather than hold the parents responsible. There is a contradiction in you argument because you are recognising the extent to which people are shaped by the social world rather than self-made but then fall short of extending it to include what a couple might do in the private sphere. This separation is wholly artificial. IThat aside, they are also consenting adults doing something weird in private in a way that couldn't possibly affect anyone else so I am a little puzzled as to why you find this morally reprehensible.

[soul dead]

yeah but it wasn't private cos their daughter stumbled across it and then ran out the house confused and upset. I don't think it's morally reprehensible, but equally I'm not going to feign sympathy for them. I was referring to both influences in the private world as well as the public sphere, using their private interests as an example of its pervasive nature.

what I'm saying is, it's hypocritical to buy into the misogynistic and sexually violent underside to our culture, and then entirely condemn the people who carry out terrible crimes as if it were in no way foreseeable or linked to a wider issue. I'm not holding the parents entirely responsible for their daughter's disappearance, that would be ridiculous, but I do think that they have engaged with the forces which indirectly led to their daughter's murder.

[the acid never lies]

I still don't think we see eye to eye on this... to say that the parents are engaging with the same forces seems a bit like comparing the violence that occurs in war to that simulated in computer games. Both are linked phenomena but it is quite clear that it isn't the war games which contribute to war, war makes itself pervasive in culture by virtue of it being war but we shouldn't mix up the causal links here. At the very least it is easy to see that there is no moral (or other) equivalence to be drawn between the two things. I wasn't aware that it was the S&M business that made the daughter run away, but she could equally have walked in on 'normal' sex and reacted in the same way.

[soul dead]

we'll have to agree to disagree.

[the acid never lies]

I figured as much

[soul dead]

[arktrix45hz]

In the middle of a conversation with a friend who worked there

well, don't go by what most of the bbc are saying, they're being really bias about it and are talking to the most dumbfuck members of the british public that they can find anyway...i could ramble on forever about that

[the acid never lies]

In the middle of a conversation with a friend who worked there

well, don't go by what most of the bbc are saying, they're being really bias about it and are talking to the most dumbfuck members of the british public that they can find anyway...i could ramble on forever about that

Of course there's a bias against them - it's because it's News International and because they peddle toxic shit to the public.

To use a slightly simplistic analogy, the corporate media do not have our politicians by the balls, they have them in their pockets. That is to say that it isn't a 'free' press versus the establishment. There is a rather cosy relationship which develops between the media which is shaped by its proprietors' interests and politicians who pander to them who inevitably carry weight within their parties. This corruption is the REAL scandal, but this is something which is endemic. Anything which undermines the legitimacy of either the media or our politicians is a good thing imo because it makes the atmosphere riper for a more critical and scrutinising public, knowing that corruption extends through the entire establishment. This is not to downplay the criminality that has been taken place here. It is reprehensible. But the significance stretches beyond how dubious particular methods of information gathering are and touches on more fundamental questions of freedom (of the press) and democracy.