By request, another Murdoch-watcher thread.
Reader Interactions
142Comments
Comments are closed.
Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.
Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.
T R E 4 5 O N
If you are still in the GOP, you are an extremist.
Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.
They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.
A Senator Walker would also be an insult to reason, rationality, and decency.
The GOP couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.
New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.
JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?
A lot of Dems talk about what the media tells them to talk about. Not helpful.
Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.
Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll
Let us savor the impending downfall of lawless scoundrels who richly deserve the trouble barreling their way.
The republican caucus is already covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.
“Squeaker” McCarthy
You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.
It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.
Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.
Peak wingnut was a lie.
All your base are belong to Tunch.
Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.
The revolution will be supervised.
This blog will pay for itself.
Dexter
Thank you.
JGabriel
Thanks, Kay!
.
Violet
Thanks Kay!
I have think Rebekah Brooks is coming across as very defensive. And how in the world do these top dogs know NOTHING about what happened in their empires? Why the hell do we need them if they know so little. Just go Galt already.
asiangrrlMN
Thanks, Kay,
@Violet: Exactly, Violet. If they have no power at all and were clueless as to everything that was happening around them, why the fuck are they there? But again, what other choice do they have given the circumstances?
licensed to kill time
♪♫ We gotta new thread ♪♫
One phrase keeps popping into my mind when I listen to Rebekah: involves butter, mouth, wouldn’t melt, etc.
JGabriel
@Violet:
It’s so hard to know what’s happening in the empire when one is so focussed on maintaining one’s place and appearance in the royal Murdoch court.
.
Nutella
So far the defense is:
1. All the papers did it and everybody knew about it.
2. I didn’t know anything about it.
3. Some company in India lost the e-mails.
Holding together well.
Violet
She keeps stumbling, almost stuttering, with her words and phrases. “We we we saw the story”, “I I have every confidence”, “was one of, was one of shock”. It doesn’t come across well.
MazeDancer
If there is one thing Rebekah Brooks knows it is how NOT to be a soundbite.
Talking in a monotone, saying nothing, being wordy to keep it long with no place to cut but not the least bit interesting. Snoozefest is her best choice.
catclub
After a long train of ‘I did not know anythings’
I would like to ask: is there anything about your company that you _did_ know about?
JGabriel
Rebekah, let me clear this up for you. The MP is asking whether it’s credible that someone at NotW passed information on the Milly Dowler case to the police without informing you?
.
scav
All the working paperwork of anything that happened ever at the NOtW is apparently at an undisclosed location with Mulcaire’s files and held by the police. No wonder they had to fold.
NonyNony
@Nutella
I believe that means the testimony boils down to:
1. I didn’t do it
2. Nobody saw me do it
3. You can’t prove anything
If Murdoch was running the “Ronald Reagan” defense Brooks seems to be running the “Bart Simpson” defense.
MazeDancer
@Violet:
Think it’s a ploy. Say nothing that can be used in clips on the news. Be very dull and uninteresting. She has experience in knowing what tabloids, news and web sites like. She’s doing the opposite.
Dexter
Looks like no one in NI or News Corp had a good idea about what’s going on around them. How can these guys survive in the real world then.
scav
Oh yes, and all of Fleet street does it but NOT the Sun. I think we’ve found her James.
licensed to kill time
Rebekah: “I wuz hacked, too!”
Paul Farrelly: “I will suspend my credulity once again”
Poopyman
@Violet:
It’s called lying, and when it is shortly proven to be a lie she (and hopefully both Murdochs) will be in deep shit.
I only wish we could get some of this shit uncovered on this side of the pond. Time will tell, but I’m not hopeful.
JGabriel
Shorter Brooks:
.
trollhattan
@NonyNony:
Also, too, the very helpful, “It was like that when I found it.”
“Fugu me!”
scav
Portrait of a woman desperately trying to be less interesting than a cream pie.
asiangrrlMN
Man, she sucks. I could do better than she could, and I know very little about the whole sorry mess. At the very least (and, yes, damning with faint praise), she said she would take responsibility if this dastardly story about the phone-hacking of the MURDERED GIRL is true.
By the way, anyone else buying her, “I don’t know anyone who would sanctify such a horrible thing?” re: said hacking? Yeah, me, neither.
P.S. I like the MP currently grilling her.
JGabriel
How dare you impugn my lawyers!
.
Poopyman
@Scav:
ROFL! But I think a cream pie is the least of her worries.
Dexter
Dear Ms. Brooks,
Picking a fight with a MP is not the best idea.
-Dex
Poopyman
@me:
…And a pre–emptive “Knock it off, you pervs.”
dr. bloor
That’s exactly why you could do better. She has too many lies to keep track of, because she knows it all.
Violet
Heh. She just corrected the MP about what he was asking her. I don’t think performances like that will endear her to anyone.
It’s uncanny how much she looks like this female relative of mine. Not the hair, which is decidedly different, but her face, mannerisms, affect, voice, tone, etc. My relative pulls the exact same “not my fault, I didn’t know” crap, but on family matters. They must teach that kind of thing in English schools or something.
shortstop
She will not rest until the real hackers are found!
MazeDancer
@asiangrrlMN:
She’s trying to suck, IMHO. She knows exactly what she’s doing. Trying to save her neck. Trying to not be a viral YouTube clip. Trying to stay under the pie fight lead. She did sensationalism for a living. She wants us to tune out and find her dull, out of it and incompetent.
Violet
@MazeDancer:
She’s doing a good job. I don’t think much is going to get above the pie-ing of Rupert. Heck, maybe she paid the guy to do it.
mpbruss
Sullivan’s live-blogging this; from what I’ve seen he’s being fairly harsh on Murdoch, actually. Let’s all hope this is the beginning on the end…
asiangrrlMN
@dr. bloor: Yes, this is true. That would reduce one to, “I can’t remember, sorry.” “I don’t know. I’m sorry.”, wouldn’t it?
@MazeDancer: I understand the dullness, but not the snappishness and truculence. If I were her, I would be deadly dull, but with a soupcon of remorse and more than a little humbleness. Sweetness and helplessness, too. Her churlishness keeps sprouting up all over the place. She makes me want to slap her, but maybe that’s just me and my high bullshit meter.
Really? She can trust everyone with whom she worked? Stupid or naive?
scav
There’s the story and there’s the case. In terms of the latter, I don’t think she’s doing herself any favors. Also, anybody else notice how she’s roped James Murdoch back into the conversation every so often — I’ve noticed a few seemingly extraneous “as James said earlier todays” creeping it.
GregB
Ms. Brooks playing the part of anti-peedophile crusader.
She’s such a good person.
shortstop
Mistakes were made…by all Fleet Street publishers, who are all the same and do all the same things. And freedom of the press, which is being assailed here, is very precious. Did I mention everyone does this?
Ash Can
My dream: The Murdochs and Brooks finish their testimony, then the law enforcement authorities hold a press conference and say, “The Murdochs and Ms. Brooks said this1, this2, and this3. However, based on the information recovered from the computer and cell phone retrieved from the trash bin, this1 is a lie, this2 is a lie plus evidence sufficient to destroy the Murdoch news empire in the UK, and this3 is a lie plus evidence sufficient to destroy the Murdoch news empire in the USA. In addition, these three people can expect to be behind bars for a very long time once their criminal trials are concluded.”
Violet
@asiangrrlMN:
Just like Rupert, she can’t keep her true self from coming through occasionally. From all accounts she was a difficult boss and screaming and shouting wasn’t unknown. And she was Rupert’s favorite so she, and everyone else, knew she could do what she wanted.
Dexter
Ohhh!! Rupert said earlier he would talk to editors only once a month. Brooks just said that she would talk to both almost daily.
Violet
Why is there an audible car horn on the feed? WTF? Are the windows open?
wrb
OT but too insane to pass up.
“You heard that right: According to the office of Cobb County prosecutor Barry Morgan, Nelson – who had no car at the time – committed vehicular homicide by attempting to cross a five-lane highway with her three kids to get to her apartment, after being let off the bus.
Nelson, 30 and African-American, was convicted on the charge this week by six jurors who were not her peers: All were middle-class whites, and none had ever taken a bus in metro Atlanta. In other words, none had ever been in Nelson’s shoes:
They had never taken two buses to go grocery shopping at Wal-Mart with three kids in tow. They had never missed a transfer on the way home that caused them to wait a full hour-and-a-half with tired and hungry kids for the next bus. They had never been let off at a bus stop on a five-lane speedway, with their apartment in sight across the road, and been asked to drag those three little ones an additional half-mile-plus down the road to the nearest traffic signal and back in order to get home at last.
And they had never lost control of an over-eager four-year-old as they waited on a three-foot median for a car to pass. Nor had they watched helplessly as a driver who had had “three or four” beers and two painkillers barreled toward their child.
That’s right: Because Nelson did not lug her exhausted little ones three-tenths of a mile from the bus stop to a traffic signal in order to cross five lanes of traffic, she is guilty of vehicular homicide. Because she did as her fellow bus riders, who crossed at the same time and place, and because she did what pedestrians will do every time – take the shortest reasonable path – she is guilty of vehicular homicide.
What about the highway designers, traffic engineers, transit planners and land use regulators who allowed a bus stop to be placed so far from a signal and made no other provision for a safe crossing; who allowed – even encouraged, with wide, straight lanes – prevailing speeds of 50-plus on a road flanked by houses and apartments; who carved a fifth lane out of a wider median that could have provided more of a safe refuge for pedestrians; who designed the entire landscape to be hostile to people trying to get to work and groceries despite having no access to a car?”
http://t4america.org/blog/2011/07/18/prosecuting-the-victim-absolving-the-perpetrators/
shortstop
Ash Can, lay off the luscious pron. This is a family blog.
asiangrrlMN
@Violet: Yep. One cannot keep the true self hidden at all times.
She’s not sure what the term “police informant” means? Really?
And, yes, I imagine she would be a difficult boss. A chip off the old block.
@scav: I had noticed, and your explanation makes sense. I would laugh uncontrollably if she tries to hang this on Murdoch the Younger.
@shortstop: Wot she said!
ETA: Reallllllly? She’s trying to cast herself and the Murdochs as victims? And, “mistakes were made”?
I HATE THAT PHRASE!
JGabriel, oooooh. Good question!
JGabriel
I like how Brooks keeps saying we in reference to NI.
Habit? Or a freudian slip revealing an undisclosed continuing relationship?
.
Violet
@JGabriel:
James did that at the beginning of his testimony. He said, “We, I mean News International” or something like that over and over. It was kind of striking.
Culture of Truth
So Cameron was close Brooks, Coulson and now Wallis too?
MazeDancer
@asiangrrlMN:
Understand how sweetness would help. But this may be as warm and fuzzy as she gets. She may not be a good actor, and knows that. She may also be a total power monster and not able to change flinching when questioned.
So she may have decided, when they were practicing this on tape, repeatedly, that having no tone best. Monotone. No place to cut. Nothing interesting. No inflection, no short responses. Really important was to be as dull as possible. Make casual listeners turn off the telly.
@Violet: Crossed my mind as well if someone “encouraged” the pie. Great way to shave 30 seconds off the top of every nightly news report.
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
@wrb: Can’t get in to the link, but that’s sickening. Of course any link to Republican pro-big-oil, pro-car, anti-mass-trans policies is purely coincidental.
Nutella
@Violet:
In family-owned businesses family members tend to think that the business is the family and the family is the business. The 60% of stock owned by non-Murdochs and the thousands of employees and millions of customers are irrelevant to this attitude. It’s all a private playground for the family.
Brooks hasn’t gotten over thinking of herself as a ‘fifth daughter’.
licensed to kill time
Oh Gawd, Davies asks her if she/they became Royal Villagers and she pulls out “we support the troops”.
JGabriel
Shorter Brooks:
Schadenfreudey.
ETA: I wonder if Brooks is even capable of recognizing the irony of her complaints about the press.
.
aliasofwestgate
She’s not quite monotone. Not to my ear, but that’s my audio obsessed self. Her smaller inflections are telling though, much less the obvious verbal stumbles she’s literally walking into.
Culture of Truth
But didn’t they hack soldiers too?
Violet
“Just just just one thing”. She’s been doing that kind of stumble or stutter or repetition or whatever all day. I seriously doubt she talks like that in real life.
wrb
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
Their server seems to be hiccuping. The link works for me but I have to try two or three times.
asiangrrlMN
@MazeDancer: Yes. Good point. If that is outside her ken, much better that she just go for the dull monotone upon which she settled rather than the superior irritation that kept peeking through at the beginning.
Who’s up next?
licensed to kill time
Rebekah: “After my legal troubles are over I hope you will invite me back to answer your questions more fulsomely”
Panel: “You betcha we will!”
JGabriel
Shorter closing remarks:
.
scav
She thinks like a publicist. Not a lawyer, not a reporter.
ETA: Oh, and seriously, more fulsome in future? “Complimentary or flattering to an excessive degree” GSD help us.
Nutella
“in a more fulsome way”?
She doesn’t know what fulsome means?
shortstop
As editor, she had no knowledge of what her reporters were doing nor familiarity with the English language. She’s not sure who was responsible for hacking folks and knowing words, but it assuredly wasn’t she, and that’s all she can tell you.
Nutella
Guardian notes that Brooks
So they’ve got her for false testimony there.
Martin
Fucking Georgia, how does it work?!
licensed to kill time
P’raps she means “answer your questions in a more complimentary and flattering to me degree”
R-Jud
Meanwhile, below the fold: NHS Services To Be Opened Up To Competition
Violet
@Nutella:
It also means abundant, generous. Perhaps that’s what she meant.
Citizen Alan
What the hell do these “pie in the face” imbeciles think they’re achieving, anyway?!? What could pieing an elderly (if malevolent) man in the face during a formal proceeding possibly achieve except to make him more sympathetic in the eyes of most people?
Chris
Here’s to another thirty years of Reagan/Thatcher bullshit. Ain’t it grand?
JGabriel
@Citizen Alan:
It could serve to make him look ridiculous, instead of all-powerful.
Personally, I think it would have played better if Murdoch had been pied on his way out of the hearing instead of during it. Other than that, I can’t say I have a strong objection to the practice, just to interrupting formal hearings with it.
Given that they used shaving cream, I hope it was a really cheap and smelly foam.
.
arguingwithsignposts
What did I miss?
Violet
@Citizen Alan:
That’s why I wonder if he was “encouraged” to pie Murdoch during the hearing. The Empire is so big, they could easily have some off-the-radar underling make contact with him and offer him some cash. The police checking those entering the room could look the other way (the police are implicated in this scandal so they’ve got incentive to make people sympathetic).
My money’s on Rebekah Brooks setting it up. She arranged it off the record, so the Murdochs would be surprised. Serves her well because the headline on every news show will be Ruper’s pie-ing and certainly not her testimony.
So what’s next in the scandal? The hearings are obviously the big news today. Have the police released any info on the contents of Charlie Brooks’ bag or any more info on Hoare’s death? Who’s next in line to resign?
I see News Corps’ stock price rebounded today. They must think Rupert and James did a good job.
Amir_Khalid
@Nutella:
I was going to say that too, and note how rich it was that a former newspaper editor didn’t know the meaning of the word “fulsome”. But then maybe Rebekah Brooks does know what it means. After all, she has been responding to the Parliamentary committee’s questions today in precisely this manner:
2. : aesthetically, morally, or generally offensive
– fulsome lies and nauseous flattery — William Congreve
– the devil take thee for a…fulsome rogue — George Villiers
drkrick
I think they call it epistemic closure. They and everybody they know have thought of Murdoch as an evil troll for years and they can’t imagine how anybody could have sympathy with him.
If it wasn’t a setup, which is still my working theory.
Culture of Truth
I’ve heard that, but I don’t get it, myself. Surely no one thinks in addition to being powerful and evil modern villains have a glitter/pie deflection shield.
lamh34
OT, but kinda a big deal right? Is this true?
President Obama Endorses DOMA Repeal Bill – Historic Hearing Tomorrow”
NonyNony
@Citizen Alan
15 minutes of fame.
Possibly hoping that it can be parlayed into “more than 15 minutes of fame”.
If it wasn’t a setup by Murdoch. Which it might have been. Then again, you’ve never really needed to pay people to be stupid.
I still don’t know how the guy got the pie past security though.
scav
Their shoe-shields aren’t that impressive either.
The Moar You Know
If they wanted to change the dynamic of the story to “Rupert’s jus’ a poor innocent old man tryin’ to look out fer his fambly” they could not have done a better job. I really hope that Murdoch paid handsomely for that, because if he didn’t and this was some grandstanding Fox hater’s idea of a protest, it really does mean that liberals are just as stupid as conservatives.
Martin
No, because Obama sold us out to right-wing framing about deficit reduction. And Donnie McClurkin, too. Also.
SKapusniak
Ms. Brooks playing the part of anti-peedophile crusader.
Ah yes, the (in)famous News of the World campaign that amongst other things resulted in the house of a *paediatrician* being vandalised, and kicked off a mass moral panic that was subsquentally very darkly satirised in Brass Eye’s ‘Pedophilia Special’.
Yevgraf
The DFHs are fuck-all stupid enough to be earnest about it. I don’t think it was a setup. Had the assailant been a Spaniard or an Italian it would have at least been intimidatingly red, if it had been a Greek or a Slav it would have been a rock causing a real injury.
Instead, in the Anglo Saxon world, we get a namby pamby sissy assed cream pie.
PanAmerican
Watch without the sound. She’s visibly freaked out. My guess is she didn’t quite understand that she was the fall gal here until they found that dead guy. Mush-headed monotone talking points is all you’re going to get.
They’ll publicly humiliate her, toss her in the can for whatever bullshit charges and that will be that.
Amir_Khalid
Also, more on Sean Hoare’s death from the Grauniad’s P
Politics blog:
At this stage it looks like, unless the tox screen comes back with some indication of foul play, the cops are thinking that Hoare likely died of natural causes, which his previous substance abuse may have contributed to.
stuckinred
Washington (CNN) — President Barack Obama offered strong praise Tuesday for a deficit reduction plan put together by a bipartisan group of senators, calling the measure’s mix of tax changes and spending reductions “broadly consistent” with his own approach to the current debt ceiling crisis
Culture of Truth
At least get creative. Throw holy water on him.
lamh34
@Martin…
yeah, I have heard the Obama “hatz the gayz”
This should be a big deal, but heck naw…this is Obama’s usual “empty words…”
Violet
@The Moar You Know:
That’s why I think Rebekah Brooks set it up. She somehow arranged for the guy to get past security and paid him handsomely to do it. Probably offered him an exclusive interview in a tabloid in addition to cash. But the Murdochs didn’t know about it so they would truly be surprised.
This serves her well in two ways. One, Murdoch looks sympathetic and by extension she’s more sympathetic. Two, the lead story is Murdoch’s pie-ing and certainly not her testimony. Win-win.
Mike E
I hear that the pie deflected away from Murdoch and hit Tom Friedman, again. Bad luck, that.
scav
OK, speaking of pies and fingers in them, is there any pie that Wallis didn’t have his finger in?
catclub
On google finance the headline was “Man rushes at Murdoch at hearing” but did not follow up with: Market up over 2%.
Maybe they will hire me for headlines
jwb
The Moar You Know: Well, he appears to be anarchist, but that doesn’t mean that he wasn’t paid off, aided or encouraged by someone with ties to Murdoch.
Warren Terra
I’ve had CNN on in the background for about the last forty minutes. This means that I’ve heard about the damned face-pie at least half a dozen times, with multiple video clips each time, speculation about the assailant, revelations about Rupert’s heroic wife, her jacket, etcetera. And not a damn thing about the substantive content of the hearing or the underlying issues (well, about half the time they mention Rupert’s blanket denial). Our media, ladies and gentlemen. An utter travesty.
Davis X. Machina
@lamh34: I’m confused? Does this mean Obama’s throwing the bus under the bus?
George
What the hell do these “pie in the face” imbeciles think they’re achieving, anyway?!?
Just doing what Murdoch paid them to do.
Poopyman
Excellent choice! They discount heavily for this sort of work.
Violet
I’ve got MSNBC on and they’ve covered it several times. They’ve touched on the pie incident, but they’re not dwelling on it. Right now Brian Stelter from the NYT is discussing the health of News Corp. and the company in general.
Edit, forgot to add, it’s Ezra Klein in for Martin Bashir. Ezra looks like a deer in the headlights.
lldoyle
Every second spent watching American cable news confirms the fact that the only reason we’re excited about this is that it is going down somewhere other than here, where Murdoch/FoxNews would emerge even stronger, with GOP politicians lining up to condemn the unwarranted and politically motivated attacks on the accused by a far-reaching liberal conspiracy that is at once weak-kneed and omnipotent.
Tony J
Culture of Truth @ 46,
Oh yes. Very close. Regular dinners, direct access when they wanted it, he even hired Coulson because Brooks told him he needed to have someone acceptable to the Murdochs as his conduit to the Media. Explains why he’s been so very, very quiet for the last few days.
This is part of the reason he won the Conservative leadership in the first place. He was the guy who could give the Tories the Murdoch seal of approval that Blair enjoyed while he was in power. Young(ish), media-savvy, personally friendly with all the ‘right’ people, he could ensure that the far-right conservative base got the policies they wanted without being portrayed in the Press as the Thatcherite class-warriors they are, thanks to the adamantine shield against bad publicity NI represented.
Now, he’s the guy whose extreme closeness to the Murdochs could seal the doom of the first Tory Government in over a decade (‘Coalition’ my left dangler) less than halfway through their first term. Prior to this, it was conventional wisdom over here that, because New Labour worked so very hard to be ‘friendly’ with the Murdoch empire, the Tories couldn’t credibly be faulted for doing the same thing, only in a more genuine fashion. The implosion of the ‘Murdoch brand’ has turned that on its head.
It’s his own Party he has to fear now. They’re wanting to get as far away from this scandal as they can ASAP, but Cameron ties them to it. Not just the closeness to the Murdochs, but the emerging evidence that he tried to erect a ‘plausible deniability’ shield between his office and the hacking investigations by basically refusing to let the Police officially tell him about what they knew.
That’s the next shoe to drop in all this. If Cameron knew enough about what NI was doing to try and maintain an artificial distance from even hearing evidence of it, he’s toxic. They have to get rid of him.
Poopyman
Marginally related, but two Reuters blurbs:
And despite the pall over the MotU, the Dow is up 218 at the moment, surprisingly.
Stillwater
I gotta say that the way the Brits handle this is refreshing. When did the scandal break – a week ago? – and Brooks is already being grilled in Pariament. A similar situation is unimaginable in the US.
scav
There’s seems to be some solid evidence of payments to police that emerged in a different committee meeting (the ever present Guard liveblog)
Possibly of more long-term value than any pie or lack of pie dramatics. Legal liabilities, possibly in the US, lots of threads to keep track of.
Bobby Thomson
@lamh34
Shhh. Doesn’t fit the narrative.
I’m not sure what happened at the end of last year, but the sea change in the administration’s approach to civil rights is noticeable. And praise is due.
Davis X. Machina
@Poopyman:
The Dow is up on rumors that pizza has been delivered to the hostage-takers…and they asked for enough pizzas to support the theory that some of the hostages are still alive.
Amir_Khalid
Graun Political blog post time-stamped 8:01pm quotes upcoming story by Legal Affairs correspondent Owen Bowcott:
Explain that one away, Mrs Brooks!
ETA: scav beat me to it. Goshdarn it
ChrisNYC
Awesome — let’s blame the media for talking about the pie. The f***ng idiot that staged it couldn’t be the problem. No, media is the problem, not ineffective, counterproductive immature “activists.”
Violet
@Stillwater:
Beginning of July, so it’s been a few weeks now. But honestly, it’s been grinding away for years. The Guardian has been investigating it for two years I think. It’s been in the works a long time. It just hit critical mass at the beginning of July.
It’s interesting and very telling of the NI corporate culture that they didn’t have a crisis plan in place. They’d never needed one. And Murdoch just figured he could “handle it” they way he’d always handled things in the past. Strong arm people, pay off politicians, threaten, etc. But since so many branches of public service are involved, it’s just not possible this time. And so they were woefully unprepared.
aliasofwestgate
@Stillwater:
Ever seen the Prime Minister’s ‘Question Time’ every week in front of the House of Commons? Let’s just say that there’s no such thing as congeniality. *grin* When they want something, they go for it.
Cameron’s got some serious ‘splainen to do this week. /evil grin
Violet
I checked in on Sully’s live blog (I know, I know) and he had this intriguing observation:
And The Guardian liveblog has this statement from Murdoch’s lawywers;
The lawyers are not going to be the fall guys. No way.
NonyNony
@ChrisNYC
I think there’s plenty of blame to go around. I can feel quite comfortable holding the opinion that the pie hurler is a moron AND that the media that has decided to focus on the pie hurler rather than the testimony are also morons.
In fact the media culture is somewhat worse since they make it tantalizing for morons to do stupid things like this to attract attention. If the media bobbleheads would ignore the morons they’d stop pulling stunts like this.
But then if the bobbleheads ignored the morons they’d have to talk about the actual substance of this scandal. Which they’re scrupulously trying to avoid doing because of the Omerta code that US bobbleheads seem to live under.
scav
Amir_Khalid: you had more precise attribution AND inserted some bold.
Martin
Apple reports today. Intel tomorrow. Microsoft thursday.
The banks aren’t that large. Apple could buy Goldman Sachs with cash-on-hand. Apple, Intel, MSFT are worth more than the largest 10 banks in the US, and Apple is worth almost double GS and BofA combined.
Tech owns the stock market right now.
Violet
@NonyNony:
Like I said, MSNBC has been covering it pretty thoroughly. Ezra Klein did a quick rundown with Stephanie Gosk (sp?) followed by an in-depth discussion of it and the health of News Corp, then a quick discussion of the pie-ing (along with showing other pie-ings and glitter-ings), and then checking in with Martin Bashir who’s in London to talk about the scandal some more.
So some media outlets are covering it better than others.
Mouse Tolliver
Since CNN employs a former NOTW editor who’s now acting as an unapologetic Murdoch defender, they’re the one name we can’t trust in hack-gate news.
Martin
Gotta keep something in the bag to push turnout for re-election. Wish the answer wasn’t that cynical, but that’s how politics works. Campaign season is starting up, so it’s time to rally the troops – and you need something to rally them behind.
JPL
IMO..The media would be talking to specialists about Murdoch’s memory issues and his age if the guy didn’t throw the pie.
Stillwater
@aliasofwestgate: What’s the prognosis on Murdoch? Any reports of dirt on him? I’d love to see that guy take a big fall.
Only if he’s guilty of course.
arguingwithsignposts
You know, sully has no business liveblogging this. It’s not
his story, and He has an obvious conflict of interest.
Violet
@Martin:
Speaking of voter turnout, I was just lurking over at GOS and saw this interesting diary about wording and getting people to vote (quoted from the link inside the diary):
It’s interesting. Seems that if you ask people if they’re going to vote, it doesn’t encourage them to vote as much as if you ask them if they are going to “be a voter.”
Something to think about.
JPL
Since I’m in mod for the dreaded c.i.a.lis I’m reposting
IMO..The media would be talking to speci,alists about Murdoch’s memory issues and his age if the guy didn’t throw the pie.
Elliecat
[email protected]
I think someone here last night linked to this article on Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger, which says the Guardian has been on this for five years, despite it looking for a long time like the story might go nowhere.
Violet
@Elliecat:
Yeah, five years. I think the last two years was some special bit of it, which is why two years stuck in my head. But I know they’ve been on it forever. Their doggedness is pretty incredible.
licensed to kill time
@Mouse Tolliver:
Yeah, Piers Morgan did a 20 minute segment on his show yesterday that amounted to “I never did anything bad or saw anything bad also Rupert is a really nice man who wouldn’t do anything bad, either!” and then segued to Nancy “Tot Mom” Grace talking about Casey Anthony doing Very Bad Things.
He’s going to be on Wulfie today making the same BS points.
nellcote
If reporters were pushing out all that bribe money either they’re extremely well paid or someone signed off on the expense. Follow the money…
When Rupert got pied I immediatly thought of Code Pink. Does that make me a bad person?
El Cid
The world’s best news broadcast, BBC’s Newshour on its World Service (radio only, TV is a completely different thing), has a 2 hour special combining coverage of the Parliament testimony and much else.
Listen here or download as MP3 or get the podcast from iTunes here.
Elliecat
@Violet
You’re right, I think it really started coming together two years ago, so that stuck in my mind too. I was impressed to learn it was even longer than that.
burnspbesq
Jeez, did Roopit actually say (as he is quoted in the Telegraph) “I do not accept ultimate responsibility?”
Talk about failing Corporate Governance 101 …
Dude, it’s your fucking company. You are ultimately responsible for everything. That’s what being CEO means.
Sheesh.
Violet
@nellcote:
No, it just means that Code Pink is best known for disrupting politically related events. In fact, I would guess that’s pretty much all most people think about if Code Pink is mentioned. That’s if they know of them at all.
WTF is the purpose of Code Pink’s disruptive activities anyway? If it’s just disrupting, they certainly succeed. If they have some other goal, they’re failing miserably.
lldoyle
“Dude, it’s your fucking company. You are ultimately responsible for everything. That’s what being CEO means.”
Rupert was responsible for kicking ass and making lots of money. Others are responsible for any failings or getting caught.
And that’s what being a modern CEO really means.
shortstop
Um, well, the reason ineffective, counterproductive, immature “activists” throw pies and glitter is that they know quite well that our ineffective, immature media will fall all over it like a starving man on a PB&J. There’s plenty of blame to go around on both ends of that, and you can see many people in this thread openly yelling at Marbles if you look closely. Or even not closely.
El Cid
You can never predict or control who might throw a pie at somebody (not perfectly, at least).
I suppose you could endeavor to spend more time on a public action campaign to deter individuals from throwing pies at controversial figures.
However, billion dollar news organizations can choose what it is that they emphasize in coverage. So even though the individual pie-thrower enables the billion dollar media’s shock value / conservative-favoring agenda, it’s still true that the billion dollar news media are a bunch of dicks for fetishizing such stories.
shortstop
I love how Dickensian “Harbottle & Lewis” sounds. And I love even more that they’re declining to take the whole fall.
burnspbesq
@Ash Can:
Are you a Murdoch plant? Or has the phrase “prejudicial pre-trial publicity” never penetrated your noggin? It’s hard to imagine anything the cops could do that would be worse.
shortstop
Nobody expects the Cornish pasty to squish him.
Violet
@shortstop:
Nobody expects the whipped cream confection.
Stillwater
@lldoyle: And that’s what being a modern CEO really means.
He’s just being consistent in applying the principles of the modern corporation: privatize the profits, socialize the costs.
Evolved Deep Southerner
Fuck yeah, Alan. I made a comment on an earlier thread. What kind of DUMB motherfucker does this, or “glitter bombs,” or any of that other shit? It’s silly, and it’s dominating the shit out of the headlines (of course.)
The world owes the guy a big, heartfelt “Thanks, asshole. Great fucking job.”
geg6
Damn, they’re stupid. Who the fuck throws their lawyers under the bus in the middle of a criminal investigation? Do they not expect the lawyers to defend themselves? Seriously?
Joel
How about a kick to the nuts?
shortstop
I think we’re seeing people who have gone so long without being told no by anyone that they truly cannot grasp the situation they’re now in. It’s just phenomenal entertainment.
Chet
False-equivalence-trolling from the WSJ‘s Bret Stephens:
News of the World vs. WikiLeaks
Ash Can
@burnspbesq: Part of said dream is to have none of those legal niceties exist, of course. I would have prefaced my comment with all sorts of caveats except that, under the circumstances, I didn’t then and do not now give a damn.
Amir_Khalid
Let’s hope the Grauniad (or somebody else) sits down with the transcripts for Rebekah Brooks’ and the Murdochs’ testimony to highlight any and all inconsistencies between the two, along with any particularly strong hints at culpability. That would make for interesting, and probably damning, reading.