Steve Coogan: The media are like the mafia. It's just business. Some call it a kiss-and-tell; Steve Coogan calls it "a dispassionate sociopathic act by those who operate in an amoral universe".
They say potato, he says potahto. "It's like the mafia. It's just business," the actor and writer told the Leveson inquiry of the manner in which tabloids can wreak devastation, under the guise of a bit of fun. "The truth about the man blamed for 'leading Owen Wilson to the brink of suicide'," ran one giggle of a Mail story about Coogan, who debunked it on Tuesday with sarcastic reference to those legally required quote marks. "Their defence is basically punctuation. "So unwittingly, they have made me immune in some ways. " Revenge attacks still come. Then there was footballer Garry Flitcroft, the household name that wasn't, convinced that press hounding in the wake of his overturned superinjunction had contributed to his father's suicide.
Fittingly, in those circumstances, Coogan was adamant that this was not "the Steve and Hugh show". News Corp Accused Of Trying To Bribe Former Australian Senator. CANBERRA, Australia -- Australian police said Wednesday they are investigating a former senator's allegations that a News Corp. executive offered him favorable newspaper coverage and "a special relationship" in return for voting against government legislation.
Former Sen. Bill O'Chee recently made the allegations in a nine-page statement to police and they were published Wednesday by Fairfax Media newspapers, rivals of News Corp. in Australia. The newspapers reported that an unnamed executive of News Corp.' #Hackgate: #Journalist caught on tape in police bugging! (2002) Tabloid journalists were caught on tape by a police surveillance operation obtaining information from a private detective agency which in turn paid corrupt officers for confidential police material. Transcripts record reporters from the News of the World, Mirror and Sunday Mirror doing business with Jonathon Rees, whose company, Southern Investigations, was being secretly bugged. The tapes provide a rare picture of the covert black market in data run by private detectives and corrupt police. A separate Guardian investigation for today's third and final issue of the Big Brother series has established the ease with which snoopers can obtain personal data for anyone willing to meet their price.
A private eye provided only with a reporter's business card took less than 24 hours to obtain a month's worth of his mobile phone records, and only a week to obtain a detailed record of his banking transactions, his home address, telephone number and national insurance number. Matthew Freud Will See You Now. On the night of July 2, Elisabeth Murdoch and her husband, Matthew Freud, threw a party at their country estate on the outskirts of London.
According to an account in the Daily Mail, guests watched a boxing match in the château’s private screening room and test-drove a vintage Jaguar across the grounds. The U.K.’s top political operatives, such as Conservative Steve Hilton and Labor politician Peter Mandelson, mingled with celebrities, including pop singer Lily Allen, director Tim Burton, survivalist Bear Grylls, and TV host Piers Morgan. Murdoch, a 43-year-old TV executive who several months earlier had sold her production company, Shine, to News Corp.
(owned by her father, Rupert, and a Daily Mail bête-noire) for $673 million, gave a welcome toast. Hackergate - Phone Hacking Scandal - In 1999 The Daily Mirror and The Sun could have warned the public about Phone hacking but chose not to. Why ? Coulson got hundreds of thousands of pounds from News Int. 22 August 2011Last updated at 21:50 Mr Coulson resigned from News International in January 2007.
What the DCMS committee was told about payments to Andy Coulson — Tom Watson MP. Hacking scandal: police arrest one of their own. Britain's phone-hacking scandal has taken a new twist, with police saying they've arrested a detective suspected of leaking information about the investigation into the News of the World.
How Bad Is News Corp.? In my biography of Rupert Murdoch, I referred to News Corporation as Mafia-like, provoking the annoyance of my publisher’s libel lawyers.
I explained to them that I did not mean to suggest this was an organized crime family, but instead was using “mafia” as a metaphor to imply that News Corp. saw itself as a state within a state, and that the company was built on a basic notion of extended family bonds and loyalty. But just because it’s a metaphor doesn’t mean it isn’t the real thing, too. Phone-hacking whistleblower Steven Nott went unheard. 6 August 2011Last updated at 15:37 By Matt Prodger Home affairs correspondent Mr Nott said he was "gobsmacked" that anyone could access his mobile phone voicemail messages Twelve years ago, Welsh salesman Steven Nott pulled over at a motorway services in something of a panic.
He had been without a mobile phone signal for hours because the network was down, and he could not access the voicemail messages that were essential for him to do his job. So he rang his supplier, Vodafone, on a landline at the services, and was astonished to be told he could access all his voicemails simply by tapping in a default pin number.
And so, for that matter, could anyone else. UK phone hacking scandal: The News of the World didn't go far enough. From WikiLeaks July 11, 2009 This week the British paper, The News of the World, was condemned by The Guardian for hiring private investigators.
The investigators were alleged to have accessed messages left on the answering machines of thousands of the UK's social and political elite. The information was used (possibly unknowingly) by the paper to develop its stories. Key Figures in the Phone Hacking Scandal - Interactive Graphic. With Tabloids Under Fire, Bribe Statement Surfaces. Murdoch Scandal Journalist Nick Davies on What’s Next: Watch Video. The Lone Star State has led a surprisingly progressive overhaul of its incarceration system.
The story behind the bipartisan push that GOP contenders may be extolling come 2016. It appears Rick Perry is going to run for president again in 2016. Letter Clearing The News of the World Comes Under Scrutiny. Nick Davies - Falsehood, Distortion and Propaganda in the Global Media - Uploaded by frontlineclub. Why James Murdoch should resign today. 07-26 The Murdoch scandal: More to come. The past few months have seen an ongoing series of revelations that have rocked the Murdoch media empire.
'Brunt of the Yard' and a seven-hour lunch with a top police officer. Known as "Brunt of the Yard," Martin Brunt, the crime correspondent at Rupert Murdoch's Sky News, was typically first with the story that is now dominating the headlines. "Police corruption has always been a delicate issue for crime hacks," he admitted in an interview four years ago.
"What's acceptable in return for help on a story? A drink, lunch, an envelope full of fivers? " Tomorrow's Independent front page - "DPP was warned. News. How Murdoch’s Times of London and Fox News Coordinate Their Deceitful Reporting on Climate Change. By Climate Guest Contributor on July 24, 2011 at 11:32 am "How Murdoch’s Times of London and Fox News Coordinate Their Deceitful Reporting on Climate Change" By David Fiderer, a lawyer who covers the energy industry for several global banks in New York. This is an OpEdNews.com repost. If you wondered whether Murdoch’s various news outlets operate in sync when they misrepresent the facts about climate change, consider the deceitful reporting done by Ben Webster, the Environmental Editor for The Times of London. His smears against the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change were immediately amplified and embellished by Fox News in New York. Today we know that one of the Murdoch employees arrested in Britain, Neil Wallis, was deeply implicated in two hacking scandals, the first pertaining to the News of the World, and the second pertaining to the invasion of computers at the University of East Anglia, the victim of the phony Climate-gate scandal touted by Fox News.
Rupert Murdoch’s Tabloid Culture. On March 21, 2002, a thirteen-year-old English schoolgirl took the train home. Usually, she took it all the way to Hersham, seventeen miles from London, where she lived, but on that day she got off one stop before, at Walton-on-Thames, to get something to eat. From that decision flowed two events, one terrible and final, the other more ambiguous and by no means complete. The first was the death of the girl, whose name was Milly Dowler. Walking home from Walton, she was abducted and murdered by a man named Levi Bellfield. Her body was found six months later, in a field twenty-five miles away, by mushroom pickers. Rupert Murdoch shirking responsibility over phone hacking, says police chief. Sir Hugh Orde, the president of the Association of Chief Police Officers, has lambasted Rupert Murdoch, saying the chairman of News Corporation had shown a complete denial of responsibility for what had gone on in his company.
He contrasted Murdoch's behaviour with the leadership shown by Sir Paul Stephenson, the Metropolitan police commissioner who quit last week over his indirect links with former News of the World editors. Orde is tipped as a possible replacement for Stephenson, and it is the second time in a few days that he has attacked the irresponsibility of News Corps. Speaking on the BBC's Andrew Marr programme, Orde said "You saw the chief officer of the police service of this country, Sir Paul Stephenson, saying, 'Look this happened on my watch. I am responsible. I am therefore … It's on my watch.
"It is a stark contrast to the way in which others have sought to meet their responsibilities. " Culture select committee members said they hoped to write to Myler and Crone. Cressida Dick's appointment: more proof that the Met is an utterly shameless police force. Sir Ian Blair (right) with John Yates (Photo: PA) When Jean Charles de Menezes was shot dead, and the Met put out a farrago of nonsense about the events leading up to his death (he didn't resist arrest, he wasn't wearing a "bulky" jacket, he didn't vault the tube ticket barrier and run off to the train), and then all their – what shall we say – dissembling was unpicked, piece by piece; when this happened, I thought (in between wondering how it was, that I was now living in a city where being Brazilian meant running the risk of being shot in the head by policemen), "At least, now, the case to reform the Met leadership is unanswerable.
" Phone hacking: Murdochs and Rebekah Brooks face MPs - Tuesday 19 July 2011. 8.12am: BSkyB haven't yet launched Sky Select Committees as a premium pay channel, but there would be a lot of us who would willing to pay good money to watch Rupert Murdoch, James Murdoch and Rebekah Brooks go through the wringer this afternoon. In one paper at the weekend this was described as the most important select committee hearing in parliament's history and - although claims of this kind are generally, by their nature, implausible - it's hard, off-hand, to think of any single hearing that beats it.
But what are we going to actually find out? Letters could provide more details on James Murdoch's involvement - Crime, UK. MPs on the Culture, Media and Sport Committee are to use a scheduled meeting on Friday to consider whether to make public letters – due to be sent to them this week – "clarifying" evidence already given to MPs. Inquiry urged into Surrey Police over Dowler leak - Crime, UK. Tom Watson: 'It has seemed like surfing a giant wave for two weeks' - Profiles, People. News International staff told to stop deleting emails - Crime, UK.
In an email sent to employees over the weekend, the company reveals it has suspended all automatic deletion of files and destruction of documents. Nick Davies on Democracy Now!: Murdoch Empire "Pummelled" By Phone Hacking Scandal. 1 of 2 Military-Industrial Journalism. Host: YouTube Understanding of humans’ earliest past often comes from studying fossils. They tell us much of what we know about the people who lived before us.
Phone hacking: prevent others having News Corp's influence, Cable says. Murdoch’s 98% Tax On News Corp. Shareholders - Peter Cohan - The Startup Economy. Piers Morgan's History Becomes Part of Hacking Story. Murdoch's New York Post Publisher Also Has A Hacking Problem. One week ago, Rupert Murdoch's longtime aide, Les Hinton, was forced to resign as publisher of the Wall Street Journal because of the central role he'd been playing for years in News Corp.' Watch the watchdog. Illustration: Matt Golding. Andy Coulson investigated for perjury while working at No 10. Solicitors' phones 'hacked by News of the World' Hacking was endemic at the 'Mirror', says former reporter - Press, Media. Phone hacking also rife under Piers Morgan at Mirror, claims ex-reporter.
Justice Department Prepares Subpoenas In News Corp. Inquiry. Phone hacking: missing News of the World executive Greg Miskiw to fly to UK for police talks. Tom Watson: police to investigate James Murdoch phone hacking evidence. Phone hacking inquiry judge attended parties at home of Rupert Murdoch's son-in-law. Rupert Murdoch's Fox News ran 'black ops' department, former executive claims. Exclusive: News Corp executive suspected of orchestrating leak. Something Rotten in the Yard Met Police accused of phone-hacking inquiry failures.
Phone hacking: mandarin not targeted while Coulson at No 10, says O'Donnell. Phone hacking: Police examine bag found in bin near Rebekah Brooks's home. Whistleblower ready to tell inquiry that other UK newspapers hacked phones. Daniel Morgan (private investigator) Sean Hoare & George Webley Now Dead. Surrey Police officers breach Data Protection Act - Communities - Addlestone. Andy Coulson was never given top security clearance in government. Phone hacking: Sean Hoare, the News of the World whistleblower, found dead. News of the World phone-hacking whistleblower found dead. Phone hacking: Sir Hugh Orde concerned scandal has damaged public confidence in police. Phone-hacking scandal: Who's who - interactive. THE MURDOCHS & BROOKS AT THE SELECT COMMITTEE - WORD COUNT. Rupert Murdoch, James Murdoch, Rebekah Brooks, testify in News of the World phone-hacking scandal - This Just In - CNN.com Blogs. Phone-hacking scandal: live coverage. Phone-hacking scandal: Wednesday 20 July.
As it happened: MPs quiz Murdochs. Did Murdoch get a pie in the face? U.K. Hacking Testimony in News Corp. Case Is Disputed. Murdoch and His Critics. Video of Rupert & James Murdoch grilled over hacking scandal Justice Department Prepares Subpoenas in News Corp. Inquiry. Inquiry into Australian media Petition. Framing The Narrative: Murdoch v. Assange. Red-top redemption: Why tabloid journalism matters - Press, Media.
Inquiry into Australian media Petition. Phone hacking: MPs 'were misled' by James Murdoch. James Murdoch accused of misleading parliament. David Swanson: The Blood on Murdoch's Hands. David Cameron met Rebekah Brooks twice in four days. Former News Corp. Executives Dispute James Murdoch’s Testimony. Phone hacking: Rupert Murdoch and son James plumb new depths. 07-19: Wall Street Journal's Murdoch-Shilling Ratchets Up. M.guardian.co.uk. Anonymous News Update July 2011 The Sun Job Search XSS : xss. LulzSec: Presseerklärung zu Murdoch-Mails verzögert sich.