Friday, April 8, 2011

We Regret That We Did Not Pay Off The Coppers Better

Fear and Ballast

Little Rupert Watches His Favorite Film, Leni Reifenstahl's
Tiumph Of The Will (Graphic By Mongo)

The New York Times reports that News International, the British newsprint publishing division of Little Rupert Murdoch’s oligarchy, apologized today for illegally intercepting the voicemails of a number of international celebrities. The illegal acts were performed by bottom-feeding suckerfish journalists at News International's News of the World tabloid. They also announced settlement payments to some of the victims of a total of twenty million Pounds ($32 Million US).

Earlier this week, the Times reported, two of the employees of a sociopathic right-wing scumbag and the embarrassment of all Australia journalists "were arrested, questioned and released on bail as part of a renewed criminal inquiry into the five-year-old case."

Some of the celebrities whose private communications had been hacked include (primarily British) actors and actresses; British politicians; and sports agents, designers and publicists whose voicemails would have come from clients (or lovers, or business partners, or family; even British Royals, who knows?) not yet named in British court.

This went on for years. Little Rupert's empire had quite the window into the private lives of Britons who were wired into the establishment and the arts; and that's a very small and interconnected group in England. Cheers!
The phone hacking scandal was consuming increasing amounts of corporate time and attention, and as more lawsuits were filed, it threatened to become increasingly expensive and damaging for the reputation of the company, part of Mr. Murdoch’s News Corporation empire.

The scandal has also engulfed Scotland Yard, which was criticized for what some critics called a lax original investigation in 2006 and for failing to inform all the victims of phone hacking by the News of the World. Scotland Yard, which reopened the investigation earlier this year, said on Friday that it had no comment on News International’s announcement.

The scandal also claimed the scalp of the newspaper’s editor, Andy Coulson, who left the newspaper after the hacking episode in 2007. He went on to become communications director for Prime Minister David Cameron. Mr. Coulson denied ever knowing of hacking under his editorship, but he was nonetheless forced to resign from his position in the Conservative government in January over the growing publicity for the scandal.

In its statement to the press, News International said, "It is now apparent that our previous inquiries failed to uncover important evidence and we acknowledge our actions then were not sufficiently robust." You can, in One Dog's Opinion, read that as Ahhh; them Politicos and Coppers jus' wouldn't stay bought.

For a scabrous piece of filth person of Rupert's ilk, $32M is just a cost of doing business; he'll make that back in a season of ad revenue from Fox sports. And, with a nod and a wink from Britain's conservative government, Little Rupert's poised to monopolize the UK's cable teevee soon, too -- where he intends to run the "liberal" BBC into the ground (with a nod and a wink from Britain's conservative government), just as Rightists in America would like to do to "liberal media " NPR and PBS.

With that terrible, liberal-dominated part of the media gone, people will just have to read or watch a News Corp subsidiary. They're so Fair; so Balanced. Yes, yes; thay have all that right-wing stuff -- but they have The Simpsons, too! They have Family Guy too! They're funny, huh.

And what about the accuracy of their broadcasts? Well... the truth is a pliable thing. Little Rupert could show you that -- and does, in fact, every day. Don't worry your little heads about it. Have a beer and watch that Bill O'Reilly.

So, does the "News Of The World" scandal mean that News Corp. will shortly release a statement, admitting its business model relies on the cynical manipulation of viewers and readers through deceit and fabrication, presented as "news" -- just to increase the personal wealth and political power of Little Rupert and his Issue?

Not Bloody Likely, Mate.


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