Murdoch Gate

[Tunnelcat]

When you deal in dirt to peddle the news, everyone's going to get dirty. Rupert Murdock is now desperately trying to clean himself of mess he made, and so is the British police and government. Wow.

http://articles.cnn.com/2011-07-07/worl ... s=PM:WORLD

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/176622/ ... oulson.htm

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/07/world ... itain.html

http://news.yahoo.com/ex-cameron-aide-a ... 43366.html

Fox News next? (You just knew I couldn't resist!)

Edit: I changed the post title. It's getting messier for poor Rupert.

[Krom]

I'm surprised the CNN article wasn't filled with snarks all the way through given the subject. Probably means they are guilty of some of the same behaviors.

[Tunnelcat]

Aren't they all? Get the information by any means possible, legal or illegal.

[Nightshade]

The real story is the ATF, DOJ, Holder and 'Fast and Furious' otherwise known as 'Gunwalker.'

We'll see which scandal is more serious- and which actually cost possibly hundreds of lives.

[null0010]

The real story is the ATF, DOJ, Holder and 'Fast and Furious' otherwise known as 'Gunwalker.'

We'll see which scandal is more serious- and which actually cost possibly hundreds of lives.

This has absolutely nothing to do with anything in this thread.

[Tunnelcat]

Thunderbunny, if you'd had a child that had been kidnapped and/or murdered, and found out that a sleazy newspaper was going through and reading or deleting his or her personal voice mails just to get a juicy scoop ahead of the next guy, wouldn't you get slightly pissed off? These guys were going through the voice mails of the 7/7 bombing victims and those of a kidnapped and murdered teenaged girl. They were even deleting some just to make some parent think their daughter was still alive! Nice slimeballs with twisted priorities.

Now as for the ATF and other related government bozos and their little gun scam that backfired on them, maybe if News of the World had investigated that mess instead of looking for sensationalist claptrap on murder victims instead, more people would know what crap went down with "Fast and Furious" and be righteously ticked off. But we all know where the media priorities are, and what turns on the average uninformed and unconcerned American viewer, don't we? They'd rather report on those bright shiny baubles like murder trials and kidnapped girl stories than look into the rotten meat of what our government is doing behind our backs.

[Gooberman]

My only problem with FNC is they need more competition. There really needs to be a conservative equivalent to CNN.

Liberals have many different degrees of slanted media to absorb, but there is pretty much only one mainstream conservative outlet, which is the ultra-radical fox news channel.

[Will Robinson]

My only problem with FNC is they need more competition. There really needs to be a conservative equivalent to CNN.

Liberals have many different degrees of slanted media to absorb, but there is pretty much only one mainstream conservative outlet, which is the ultra-radical fox news channel.

I guess I agree with the logic but at the same time I think we must be doomed if we are going to look for solutions there.

We need education and intellect to be the new ticket to status and celebrity so the coming generations begin to exercise their minds instead of their genitals. If we could cause that they will start to ask questions of and demand better content from the media and thus set the bar much higher for our government and ourselves.

How do you force a new style of role model on a generation? That is the magic solution and possibly the only one that can save us at this point.

[null0010]

How do you force a new style of role model on a generation? That is the magic solution and possibly the only one that can save us at this point.

Sounds like a job for Big Government!

[woodchip]

How do you force a new style of role model on a generation? That is the magic solution and possibly the only one that can save us at this point.

Sounds like a job for Big Government!

Sounds like a job for Sarah Palin.

[Will Robinson]

Ha Ha to both of you, funny stuff and all that but seriously, if the citizenry doesn't get wiser and start taking care of itself the cancer that is our current system of representation will eventually kill it's host. Without being wise enough to hold the media/free press to a higher standard our diseased form of representation will be free to transform our republic into a terminal patient that is beyond saving. I'd like to see us become more than a mere blip on the timeline of history.

[Heretic]

From the grand scheme of things, humanity is only a blip on a historical time line.

[Will Robinson]

From the grand scheme of things, humanity is only a blip on a historical time line.

Ok you got me. How about on the timeline of great civilizations and/or cultures.

[Tunnelcat]

From the grand scheme of things, humanity is only a blip on a historical time line.

Ok you got me. How about on the timeline of great civilizations and/or cultures.

Lets see, the Roman Empire lasted from 753 BC to 540 AD. The age of the Earth is estimated at 4.54 BILLION years old. Even the Roman Empire is only a blip on the earth's timeline at 1400 years! Humans just can't seem to stay away from greed and corruption, even when it will ultimately lead to the destruction of a large and vibrant empire. The Roman Empire faded because they ran out of slaves, the engine that drove their economy, corruption and greed in government and just plain overextending themselves with empire expansion. Are we next in the grand scheme of things?

Oh, and more and more nastiness is coming out in Murdoch Gate.

http://news.yahoo.com/murdoch-empire-sc ... 52219.html

[Will Robinson]

.. The Roman Empire faded because they ran out of slaves, the engine that drove their economy, corruption and greed in government and just plain overextending themselves with empire expansion. Are we next in the grand scheme of things? ...

See, that's where they went wrong, using slaves as their engine. Stupid people reproduce faster and that is what we are running on...so we should at least double the Roman experiment!

[Tunnelcat]

Well, they didn't have any modern motive technology to make their goods and infrastructure, although they were smart at moving clean water around and waste sanitation. But all they had was human and animal power to move or make things and plant the food needed to survive. When you've used up your source of human slaves, and they didn't treat the slaves they captured all that well which continually shrank their numbers, you've run out of the ability to feed, cloth and build your society. So would you want to be a Roman slave? That's what corporations are doing globally, trying to find the cheapest labor for building their products. What's next, pure servitude to these guys? Which begs the question, if we all become slaves, who will have the money to drive the engine of commerce? Slaves have no money to spend as far as I know.

[Spidey]

The Romans never ran out of slaves…they ran out of the will to go and get more.

[callmeslick]

I've been watching Fox News(or is it Faux News?) every night, and no word of a problem with the Murdoch empire. Must not be anything happening, I guess.......

[CUDA]

then you must be watching your Local affiliate. because I've seen several mentions about it. also pointing out that it is the parent company of Fox news corp.

[Tunnelcat]

Yeah, but only little mentions I'll bet. It's not exactly headline news there when Murdoch's empire is crumbling under the weight of a really nasty sleazy scandal. If he wasn't implicit in this mess, I've got a bridge to sell you..... I'm sure he doesn't want to point out that tidbit and all his other dirty laundry to his ...ahem.... informed viewers.

One good thing to come out of this, Murdoch no longer wants to press his takeover bid for the pay-TV company BSkyB anymore. It could be because his company lost around 3 billion in market capitalization in one day, or that Murdoch just wants his name out of the headlines. Doesn't like the spotlight does he! One less Murdoch propaganda machine out there to peddle his wares on everyone.

http://www.smh.com.au/world/murdoch-dro ... 1he75.html

Or blackmail:

Olbermann's Story

[Krom]

I think it is a pretty big stretch of the imagination to think that this will somehow demolish "News Corp", or have much of an impact at all. It is an entertainment company and this is entertaining, so if anything it will be good for their bottom line.

[callmeslick]

I think it is a pretty big stretch of the imagination to think that this will somehow demolish "News Corp", or have much of an impact at all. It is an entertainment company and this is entertaining, so if anything it will be good for their bottom line.

the stock market would disagree, so far.

[Tunnelcat]

The FBI is now looking at News Corp. over suspicions that 9/11 victims were hacked.

http://www.latimes.com/news/custom/la-n ... 4074.story

Krom, I'm betting the rot goes deeper than just in Britain with News Corp. Getting the news at any costs and the corruption that goes with it is probably endemic to the company. Murdoch runs things with an iron fist. He probably knows full well what goes on within his empire. He owns 70% of Australia's news outlets. How much media should one man control?

[Heretic]

The world is not enough

[ Post made via Android ]

[Tunnelcat]

Bwuaaaahaaaaaaaahaaaaaaaaaaaahaaaaaaaaaaaa!

[CUDA]

How much media should one man control?

ask the White House. they own everyone BUT Fox

[Tunnelcat]

How much media should one man control?

ask the White House. they own everyone BUT Fox

Not by a longshot. I've heard very few media outlets kissing up to Obama, other than perhaps MSNBC or Current, Besides, he isn't a corporate media mogul like Murdoch.

[Top Gun]

The world is not enough

Does tomorrow ever die?

[null0010]

The world is not enough

Does tomorrow ever die?

You only live twice.

[CUDA]

You only live twice.

so you can Die Another day?

[Heretic]

Only if you Live and Let Die

[null0010]

The guy who blew the whistle on this has been found dead.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/ju ... sean-hoare

And it's not being treated as suspicious.

[CUDA]

Only if you Live and Let Die

seems we've both got a View to a kill. but I saw with mine with my Golden eye, and it scared the Living Daylights out of me. because he had a License to kill, while he was On her Majesty's Secret Service.

[Tunnelcat]

The guy who blew the whistle on this has been found dead.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/ju ... sean-hoare

And it's not being treated as suspicious.

For now...............seems too coincidental to happen at this particular moment, when the world's most powerful media mogul gets his empire trashed and is probably really pissed off at the guy.

[Tunnelcat]

The old pie-in-the-face routine during the Murdoch Parliamentary Hearings. Still funny now.

[Top Gun]

I couldn't help but think of this.

[Tunnelcat]

Those were the good cartoons! They don't make them like that anymore.

Back to Murdoch. It seems he might be involved in a little mafia-style shenanigans here is the U.S. after all. The rot is endemic, not just in Britain.

http://www.businessinsider.com/murdoch- ... ing-2011-7