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You are here: Home / Rupert, Rupert, Rupert

Rupert, Rupert, Rupert

by John Cole|  December 13, 20116:27 pm| 30 Comments

This post is in: Our Failed Media Experiment

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The old “I read it on my blackberry” excuse:

An e-mail chain released Tuesday by a parliamentary panel investigating the phone hacking scandal shows that Rupert Murdoch’s son James received and responded to messages in 2008 that referred to widespread phone hacking at The News of the World tabloid, the first documentation that he may have been notified of the wider problem long before he has admitted.

James Murdoch responded to the panel in a letter, saying that he had opened the e-mails on his BlackBerry and had not read their full contents at the time or since.

The e-mail chain was sent to the panel as part of an internal investigation by News International, the tabloid’s parent company. The e-mails contain warnings from lawyers that the phone hacking was more widespread than previously thought. The messages were passed on to the editor of The News of the World at the time, Colin Myler, who forwarded them to Mr. Murdoch, who replied within minutes, saying he would be available to discuss the matter.

Just curious- I thought the point of the blackberry was to be informed on the go, not to just hit read and make the email go away.

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Reader Interactions

30Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    December 13, 2011 at 6:31 pm

    I now receive email notices of most of my bills. I for one would favor “I didn’t read my emails” as a defense to liability. The same rule applies to the 99%, right?

  2. 2.

    Keith G

    December 13, 2011 at 6:32 pm

    He imports. You decide.

  3. 3.

    BGinCHI

    December 13, 2011 at 6:33 pm

    As Falstaff said about Henry IV: “it is the disease of not listening, the malady of not marking…”

  4. 4.

    Liberty60

    December 13, 2011 at 6:35 pm

    I like how when these guys write books they seem to singlehandedly run the company and be in complete command of every detail.

    When the shit hits the fan, it turns out “I just work there, whadda I know?”

  5. 5.

    Violet

    December 13, 2011 at 6:38 pm

    So he replied to the emails within minutes of receiving them saying he’d be available to discuss the matter, yet somehow feels that supports his claim that he didn’t read them. Huh?

    @Baud:
    If they let him get away with that, I hope people try to use it as precedent. “I got the emails and even opened them, but I didn’t read them. Therefore I’m not responsible for knowing the contents.”

  6. 6.

    TommybonesThomasfatone

    December 13, 2011 at 6:38 pm

    When does James Murdoch fly to the U.S. to claim elite asylum?

  7. 7.

    The Bearded Blogger

    December 13, 2011 at 6:39 pm

    @Baud: I think you need at least a million dollars to qualify for the Chewbacca defense.

  8. 8.

    jl

    December 13, 2011 at 6:39 pm

    At first, I thought this post was really an efficiency pro tip for those who want to win and join the one percenter ruling class, instead of remaining a lesser person loser:

    Go to the time and trouble of opening your emails, and then, not read them.

    When you think about it, that takes a lot of discipline, the kind of discipline that separates the winners from the losers, the sheep from the goats.

    Cole just doesn’t get it, does he?

    Edit: I missed the point about REPLYING to the emails with a custom written message, without reading them, but that leadership technique is too advanced for me at this time. Baby steps will have to do for now.

  9. 9.

    piratedan

    December 13, 2011 at 6:39 pm

    the opening line works better if you use Don Adams’ Maxwell Smart voice inside your head….

  10. 10.

    Comrade Dread

    December 13, 2011 at 6:41 pm

    I thought the point of the blackberry was to be informed on the go, not to just hit read and make the email go away.

    I’m sure he was pretty busy creating jobs at the time. We should move forwards, not backwards. Depends on what the definition of ‘read’ is. His dog ate it.

  11. 11.

    jl

    December 13, 2011 at 6:43 pm

    @Comrade Dread: The bytes ate the bits. Ha ha. Get it? Maybe Murdoch should try that little joke later in the investigation.

  12. 12.

    The Bearded Blogger

    December 13, 2011 at 6:43 pm

    @Violet:

    So he replied to the emails within minutes of receiving them saying he’d be available to discuss the matter, yet somehow feels that supports his claim that he didn’t read them. Huh?

    Plus, it was kind of an important matter. Hard to believe he wouldn’t give the email more than a passing glance.

  13. 13.

    jrg

    December 13, 2011 at 6:44 pm

    I thought the point of the blackberry was to be informed on the go, not to just hit read and make the email go away.

    That’s why he makes the big bucks, John.

  14. 14.

    Villago Delenda Est

    December 13, 2011 at 6:51 pm

    Can you say “perjury” boys and girls? Suuuuure you can!

  15. 15.

    Rafer Janders

    December 13, 2011 at 6:52 pm

    I’m going to try that at work when someone gets mad that I didn’t respond to their email: “but I read it on my Blackberry! It didn’t count!”

  16. 16.

    Egg Berry

    December 13, 2011 at 6:58 pm

    saying that he had opened the e-mails on his BlackBerry and had not read their full contents at the time or since.

    So not only did he only give it a cursory glance at the time, but he hasn’t read it since it closed the widest circulation English language daily it the world.

    Good to know.

  17. 17.

    Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal

    December 13, 2011 at 7:02 pm

    Just curious- I thought the point of the blackberry was to be informed on the go, not to just hit read and make the email go away.

    Alas, there are two types of people in the world, those that understand the visceral high, and the sense of accomplishment that comes from an empty inbox, or having zero unread articles in google reader, and those that malinger.

  18. 18.

    ChristianPinko

    December 13, 2011 at 7:08 pm

    I thought the point of the blackberry was to be informed on the go.

    No, the point of the blackberry is so you can text your friends in class while the professor is just lecturing instead of doing something important. [/bitter faculty member]

  19. 19.

    RandyH

    December 13, 2011 at 7:12 pm

    Honestly…

    I Open and Delete ALOT of emails without ever having Read them. Happens dozens of times a day. But NEVER EVER have I Opened and email and actually Replied to it without having Read it. That’s just moronic.

  20. 20.

    The Bearded Blogger

    December 13, 2011 at 7:14 pm

    @ChristianPinko: Someone should invent a device that jams telecommunications within a 30 meter radius.

    [/ another bitter faculty member]

  21. 21.

    Catsy

    December 13, 2011 at 7:16 pm

    I thought the point of the blackberry was to be informed on the go, not to just hit read and make the email go away.

    You don’t work in IT, do you?

  22. 22.

    waratah

    December 13, 2011 at 7:16 pm

    I like to skip reading some emails, but I do not know if I would skip an email from a lawyer. I would think he would have at least forward to his lawyer. Oh, they were his lawyers, right?

  23. 23.

    Violet

    December 13, 2011 at 7:32 pm

    @RandyH:
    It’s the replying to it that’s his biggest problem. If he just opened it and now claimed he didn’t read it, there would be a lot of smart phone users who could relate (heck most people with overflowing in-boxes can relate). But replying to it? That’s the universal sign you have read and understood the email. No getting around that.

  24. 24.

    Peter

    December 13, 2011 at 7:44 pm

    I used to hang out with James Murdoch, back in 1991-3 when we worked together in Italy and then he was at Harvard and I was teaching in the area. He was a really nice, kind, easy-to-be-with guy with a big smile and a sharp sense of humor. We haven’t been in touch since then, which was as much my fault as his (pre-email days, don’tcha know).

    Since all this shit broke open, I’ve been wondering, per @BGinCHI: above, whether it was all a scam, and he underwent a Prince Hal moment at a certain point, casting off the Falstaffs of his callow youth to unfurl his cold-blooded Galtian superego on our asses or whether he was just sort of gradually co-opted into the amoral corporate world his father ran with such skill so that his former warm humanity just sort of fell away through atrophy. Since I don’t have his number any more, I have no way of knowing. But there’s little doubt that this scandal has his name writ large all over it. It’s too bad; the me of the early 90s would be stunned to learn that he did all this evil shit.

  25. 25.

    Roger Moore

    December 13, 2011 at 8:27 pm

    Just curious- I thought the point of the blackberry was to be informed on the go, not to just hit read and make the email go away.

    Yeah, and you probably thought the point of having a CEO was that he was supposed to be in charge and responsible for what’s going on in his company. Those are the old rules. In the new reality, CEOs are only responsible for the good stuff their company does, and somebody else is at fault for all the bad stuff. It’s kind of like privatizing profits and socializing losses, but at a personal level.

  26. 26.

    cat

    December 13, 2011 at 8:27 pm

    Just curious- I thought the point of the blackberry was to be informed on the go, not to just hit read and make the email go away.

    You realize he’s lying his ass off right?

  27. 27.

    Roger Moore

    December 13, 2011 at 8:34 pm

    @The Bearded Blogger:

    Someone should invent a device that jams telecommunications within a 30 meter radius.

    Just line the inside of the lecture hall with tinfoil and turn off the wifi. See those fuckers try to run their radios through a Faraday cage.

  28. 28.

    Roger Moore

    December 13, 2011 at 8:42 pm

    @Violet:

    That’s the universal sign you have read and understood the email.

    I’m not sure about that. I’ve certainly responded to emails after skimming through them, only to find that I missed what the people who sent them thought were salient points. I’d have to see the emails to know for sure, but I can imagine him sending a “sure come and talk to me” message without bothering to check details like the topic. I would think that’s a sign that he’s guilty of criminal negligence and should be sued into oblivion by outraged shareholders, but I can imagine it happening.

  29. 29.

    cat

    December 13, 2011 at 8:51 pm

    @Roger Moore:

    I’d have to see the emails to know for sure, but I can imagine him sending a “sure come and talk to me” message without bothering to check details like the topic.

    What you say can still be true, but it means on several occasions someone tried to tell him by email about the widespread hacking and then you fired off one liners saying, to paraphrase, “lets talk”, and nobody ever took him up on the offer and filled him in face to face? Its unbelievable and most likely means he is lying.

  30. 30.

    JoeShabadoo

    December 13, 2011 at 9:00 pm

    @Peter: That is because nearly everyone is nice and personable when you get to know them on a one-on-one basis. Not only that but if you get to meet them on this basis it means they basically consider you an equal or near enough. When you know someone it is easy to forgive there negative traits to because they “are generally a nice a guy.”

    I know people with abhorrent views that you would think are the nicest people in the world when you actually talk to them.
    I know others that are always nice until it benefits them not to be. People who are assholes don’t go around twirling their moustache, they screw people when it helps them which personal aqcuaintances generally won’t find out about until they go into business with someone. Why do you think people say don’t go into business with friends? It is because as a personal acquaintance you only see one side of them and are not ready for the other.

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