News of the World Scandal

[64hz]

how is it a good thing? do you really want to live in a country where there's only completely bland factual journalism and opinion pieces you agree with?

seeing as there's clearly been a massive demand for the details obtained through phone hacking I'd say this whole scandal just reflects the hilariously misanthropic nature of our society rather than actually indicting the publications themselves.

once again, putting words in my mouth.
i would just like to live in a country where its not possible for ignorance to be sold.

[dreamizm]

we seek to punish a select group for collective misdeeds.

Totally agree

[soul dead]

how is it a good thing? do you really want to live in a country where there's only completely bland factual journalism and opinion pieces you agree with?

seeing as there's clearly been a massive demand for the details obtained through phone hacking I'd say this whole scandal just reflects the hilariously misanthropic nature of our society rather than actually indicting the publications themselves.

once again, putting words in my mouth.
i would just like to live in a country where its not possible for ignorance to be sold.

and who decides what is 'ignorance' and what isn't?

maybe it should be done by committee.

[firky]

I WILL RE-LAUNCH NOTW ON MONDAY

During the Wapping dispute the striking printers produced their own paper THE WAPPING POST. This led eventually to the launch of THE NEWS ON SUNDAY with£25 million behind it – and a hapless dismal editorial failure it turned out to be. A major opportunity squandered by weak insipid journalism. I believe it’s possible to do something similar now – NOT THE FAILURE!! In the past you’d rely on the sacked workers to physically seize control of the plant but there’s fat chance of this supine gutless non-unionisd lot doing that.But you don’t need to do that now – you can simply take over the title. I intend to publish an online version of the NOTW on Sunday July 17th – WITH YOUR HELP. I’ve had copywrite issues with Murdoch empire before when they took my band to the High court in the strand for using the name PAGE 3 – The Sun came out of that £50,000 out of pocket.

Here’s the plan. …to produce a 16 page tabloid online on July 17th. I’ve appointed myself editor and invite your help writing articles and doing the design.I have no design skills so really need Foxy(Sabcat) and Warren(AMP) onside with this – and anyone else with skills………and the rest of you with ideas,scoops, articles. 10 pages features( deadline Thursday noon) 6 pages news (deadline noon saturday) – paper will appear online 12.01 am Sunday. If the online version gets an enthusiastic reception I see no reason we couldn’t move to a limited circulation printed version in London within months. I’ll give some thoughts on the type of paper it might be but I think it should aspire to be the paper THE NEWS ON SUNDAY should have been – something thoughtful and fun – not a crude attempt to mimic the Sun and the word ‘anarchist’ will not be featuring. The discipline of producing first issue on July 17th will concentrate minds as to whetherwe can do it or not. I’m off to Wapping now – whay d’ya think – a runner or not. Don’t let a poverty of ambition hold us back.

http://ianbone.wordpress.com/2011/07/08 ... on-monday/

[64hz]

how is it a good thing? do you really want to live in a country where there's only completely bland factual journalism and opinion pieces you agree with?

seeing as there's clearly been a massive demand for the details obtained through phone hacking I'd say this whole scandal just reflects the hilariously misanthropic nature of our society rather than actually indicting the publications themselves.

once again, putting words in my mouth.
i would just like to live in a country where its not possible for ignorance to be sold.

and who decides what is 'ignorance' and what isn't?

maybe it should be done by committee.

na, its just blatantly obvious.

[magma]

how is it a good thing? do you really want to live in a country where there's only completely bland factual journalism and opinion pieces you agree with?

seeing as there's clearly been a massive demand for the details obtained through phone hacking I'd say this whole scandal just reflects the hilariously misanthropic nature of our society rather than actually indicting the publications themselves.

Last time I checked, celebrity gossip, rumours and conjecture about politicians having affairs were all being handled very effectively for free on the Internet.

It's the market for proper paid journalism that needs saving, not the tittle-tattle merchants.

There's always going to be a demand for tittle-tattle and Max Clifford's crap in print; look at the countless glossy magazines. That part will never go away, even the broadsheets dabble in a bit of celeb bollocks. Intellectual elitism... I'd love to see it as much as anyone else, no more Hollyoaks, no more ITV, etc.

Souldead, I think we all agree that what NOTW was abhorrent, and I think we can all agree that the media and journalists often work in a very grey area of ethics and morals. The difference is they got shopped / caught, and didn't just dabble in the grey, they went off the scale! The public moral outrage actually disproves this, "misanthropic society" invention of yours, no?

But give it six months, a year, two years. When it's all but a memory and we'll begin to see another hydra's head.

I wasn't speculating that the market would disappear (the market for gossip will NEVER disappear... we're humans, it's what we do) - I was replying to Soul Dead's worries that it'd lead to a monopoly for "serious" or "boring" media. There's far too much demand for frivelous bullshit for the closure of one rag to affect it's supply very much.

Also, the proliferation of bullshit isn't really a problem. The employment and protection of people willing to break the law in order to sell bullshit is the problem.

[soul dead]

how is it a good thing? do you really want to live in a country where there's only completely bland factual journalism and opinion pieces you agree with?

seeing as there's clearly been a massive demand for the details obtained through phone hacking I'd say this whole scandal just reflects the hilariously misanthropic nature of our society rather than actually indicting the publications themselves.

once again, putting words in my mouth.
i would just like to live in a country where its not possible for ignorance to be sold.

and who decides what is 'ignorance' and what isn't?

maybe it should be done by committee.

na, its just blatantly obvious.

you're right, ethical lines usually are blatantly obvious, that's the reason we don't have to debate them.

[magma]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/ju ... ernational

Police are investigating evidence that a News International executive may have deleted millions of emails from an internal archive, in an apparent attempt to obstruct Scotland Yard's inquiry into the phone-hacking scandal.

FLUSH THE STASH!

[firky]

Source at Daily Star tells #c4news the paper's editor is to address staff this afternoon at 4pm. Police have raided tabloid's offices. #NOTW

[Words]

any chance of the daily mail ending as well? that would be lovely

[soul dead]

in some ways it's fascinating how they engineer cheering crowds and even journalists as police raid newspaper offices and arrest writers.

[firky]

Oh yeah, the whole thing was engineered. Someone pulled out a card from the bottom of the house.

[soul dead]

Oh yeah, the whole thing was engineered. Someone pulled out a card from the bottom of the house.

I don't mean engineered in some sort of blatant organisational way. I mean the way they've used ideology to subtly undermine any belief in press freedom so that (despite the fact we look at totalitarian states and ask, how did that happen?) people are delighted as they use the full power of the state to force newspapers to close (oh no wait that was their own decision, right?) and then send in the police to arrest those 'responsible'.

[kay]

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

[Pedro Sánchez]

Apparently NOTW, instead of giving away the usual free music CD's on Sunday, will be giving away £10 topup vouchers instead.
I heard this joke on 8 out of 10 cats and yes, I ashamed.

[capo ultra]

lol poor gutter journo's standing against the might of the totalitarian state!

[the acid never lies]

Indeed, brave Murdoch, man of the the free people, standing up to a totalitarian state apparatus. What a load of bollox. It isn't just the 'free press' that is implicated here but the state itself, from politicians through to the police. I swear people must think they live in an Ayn Rand novel... capitalism doesn't actually work that way. It is a utopian fantasy used to justify monopoly power and allows the ruling classes to continue ruling. We should celebrate the end of this scab-paper, historically on the forefront of fighting against workers rights here and in the US. Despite its claim to speak for the ordinary man or woman it is one of the most elite institutions that exist (News International) and this represents a blow that has implications reaching beyond even Murdoch's empire. Let us not mourn, but let us rejoice!

The concentration of political, ideological and economic power in the Murdoch empire that has been in process has been part of the accumulation of class power by media corporations in the UK and beyond. Its disruption and modest reversal - and it could be much more than a modest reversal if the crisis spreads across the Atlantic - is in general a benefit for the working class, not least for media workers who lost massively from the rise of the Murdoch empire, especially after Wapping which enabled not just the destruction of the union, but also the spatial and technological re-organisation of newspaper work in such a way as to transfer ever more power to management's hands and subordinate labour. In the closure of News of the World is a specific political situation that condenses not just the prevalent antagonisms and crises in the media industry - which, faced with a crisis of profitability has resorted more and more to the sort of methods recently disclosed - but also a generalised crisis of authority for the state, from politicians to the police.

http://leninology.blogspot.com/2011/07/killed-in.html

[firky]

I hope you read Lenin's Tomb with a good pinch of salt?

He has a habit of saying something extremely insightful and at other times utterly bat shit mental. Check out his review of the Dark Knight, it's a chuckle.

[the acid never lies]

I hope you read Lenin's Tomb with a good pinch of salt?

He has a habit of saying something extremely insightful and at other times utterly bat shit mental. Check out his review of the Dark Knight, it's a chuckle.

I don't read for the cultural analysis, his take on Toy Story is also rather funny.

Still though, Blue Labour, the Tories and the political tasks ahead

Sometimes he goes right over my head, but a lot of the time I think 'right on!'

[the acid never lies]

Actually since we're on the topic of po-faced analysis of movies, check this about the fascist undercurrent to the works of Walt Disney. It's pretty funny, but I can't fault the argument either (seeing as Disney was a fascist sympathiser ad an anti-Semite)

http://www.ejumpcut.org/archive/onlines ... nKing.html