What the hell can happen next?
Well, bloody hell, it's been one hell of a week in the UK, hasn't it?
Last week NI closed down The News of the World. Since then it hasn't got any easier for them.
1) After it became clear that the House of Commons was going to vote unanimously for News Corp to pull out of the BSkyB bid, they did just that:- Rupert Murdoch gives up BSkyB takeover bid.
1A) It took Cameron a bit of time to join Clegg and Milliband in calling Murdoch to withdraw the BSkyB bid:- BSkyB bid: all-party assault gives Rupert Murdoch an £8bn headache.
2) Then US Democrat senators starting calling for Senate committees and for the FBI to investigate whether or not phones of 9/11 victims and survivors were hacked. While I'm not saying it's out of the realm of possibility, their sole source is The Daily Mirror. Let me repeat that:- The Daily Mirror.
3) Then there was the small matter of James and Rupert Murdoch being summoned to appear in front of a parliamentary committee.
4) Neil Wallis - a former NOTW executive editor - was arrested:- He is the 9th person arrested in relation to the phone hacking since January
4A) Timeline of arrests
5) Oh yes, and the FBI announced they were going to investigate New Corp.
6) Then Rebekah Brooks FINALLY resigned. And Les Hinton quit. Not a good day to be a Murdoch
Less than 24 hours after insisting the company had made only "minor mistakes" in handling the crisis, a contrite Murdoch arranged a private meeting with the family of Milly Dowler and issued a full-page apology in every national newspaper for his company's behaviour.
7) And, finally, this morning, Rebekah Brooks was arrested in relation to the phone hacking It took long enough
This is a really good timeline by The Guardian
This is a really good timeline by the NYP
But there are SO MANY other issues that this brings up, it's not even funny.
Not only are there obvious questions about the practices of the media in the UK, there's also questions about how the police and politicians behaved during the entire thing and just how corrupt the police are.
1) Scotland Yard's finest called to account over 'culture of collusion' with the press
1A) Met chief quits over phone hacking So this happened this evening. Which makes this a rather busy Sunday.
1B) Phone hacking: Met police put pressure on Guardian over coverage
2) Media freedom: Rights and responsibility
And then there is everything that is happening in the US
1) Murdochs fight to stay afloat in US as sharks circle News Corp
2)If News Corp hacked the phones of 9/11 families, Fox News is finished
3) And this, if nothing else explains perfectly why Fox News should disappear into the realm of history, never to darken our lives again The Most Incredible Thing Fox News Has Ever Done
4) Former Fox News Executive: Americans' Phones Were Hacked
Oh, and there was this as well:- Preliminary inquiry into News International by Fraud Office
I can only imagine what is going to happen over the coming week.
And this comment in The Guardian expresses precisely what I want to say:-
The terribly sad conclusion that must be reached from following the phone hacking scandal is that if a large proportion of our population is happy to support such a brand of populist press they must obviously have a deep lack of interest in anything other than tittle tattle and celebrity gossip.
People have been limiting themselves to a narrow, blinkered and sometimes dangerous view of the world sold to them by an unscrupulous, corrupt and immoral element of our press.
Ignorance today is sometimes treated as a badge of honour and some brands of newspaper are considered "not for the likes of us".
A sad reflection indeed on the current state of our politics, society and the educational level many achieve.
Are people simply not interested in wider issues and those who run their lives? Not only do the quality broadsheets report on a wide range of news issues, they also offer serious debate.
Politicians must ask themselves if they wish to engage more people in politics, and people must ask themselves if they wish to live in a better world and start to question what goes on around them. source
Last week NI closed down The News of the World. Since then it hasn't got any easier for them.
1) After it became clear that the House of Commons was going to vote unanimously for News Corp to pull out of the BSkyB bid, they did just that:- Rupert Murdoch gives up BSkyB takeover bid.
1A) It took Cameron a bit of time to join Clegg and Milliband in calling Murdoch to withdraw the BSkyB bid:- BSkyB bid: all-party assault gives Rupert Murdoch an £8bn headache.
2) Then US Democrat senators starting calling for Senate committees and for the FBI to investigate whether or not phones of 9/11 victims and survivors were hacked. While I'm not saying it's out of the realm of possibility, their sole source is The Daily Mirror. Let me repeat that:- The Daily Mirror.
3) Then there was the small matter of James and Rupert Murdoch being summoned to appear in front of a parliamentary committee.
4) Neil Wallis - a former NOTW executive editor - was arrested:- He is the 9th person arrested in relation to the phone hacking since January
4A) Timeline of arrests
5) Oh yes, and the FBI announced they were going to investigate New Corp.
6) Then Rebekah Brooks FINALLY resigned. And Les Hinton quit. Not a good day to be a Murdoch
Less than 24 hours after insisting the company had made only "minor mistakes" in handling the crisis, a contrite Murdoch arranged a private meeting with the family of Milly Dowler and issued a full-page apology in every national newspaper for his company's behaviour.
7) And, finally, this morning, Rebekah Brooks was arrested in relation to the phone hacking It took long enough
This is a really good timeline by The Guardian
This is a really good timeline by the NYP
But there are SO MANY other issues that this brings up, it's not even funny.
Not only are there obvious questions about the practices of the media in the UK, there's also questions about how the police and politicians behaved during the entire thing and just how corrupt the police are.
1) Scotland Yard's finest called to account over 'culture of collusion' with the press
1A) Met chief quits over phone hacking So this happened this evening. Which makes this a rather busy Sunday.
1B) Phone hacking: Met police put pressure on Guardian over coverage
2) Media freedom: Rights and responsibility
And then there is everything that is happening in the US
1) Murdochs fight to stay afloat in US as sharks circle News Corp
2)If News Corp hacked the phones of 9/11 families, Fox News is finished
3) And this, if nothing else explains perfectly why Fox News should disappear into the realm of history, never to darken our lives again The Most Incredible Thing Fox News Has Ever Done
4) Former Fox News Executive: Americans' Phones Were Hacked
Oh, and there was this as well:- Preliminary inquiry into News International by Fraud Office
I can only imagine what is going to happen over the coming week.
And this comment in The Guardian expresses precisely what I want to say:-
The terribly sad conclusion that must be reached from following the phone hacking scandal is that if a large proportion of our population is happy to support such a brand of populist press they must obviously have a deep lack of interest in anything other than tittle tattle and celebrity gossip.
People have been limiting themselves to a narrow, blinkered and sometimes dangerous view of the world sold to them by an unscrupulous, corrupt and immoral element of our press.
Ignorance today is sometimes treated as a badge of honour and some brands of newspaper are considered "not for the likes of us".
A sad reflection indeed on the current state of our politics, society and the educational level many achieve.
Are people simply not interested in wider issues and those who run their lives? Not only do the quality broadsheets report on a wide range of news issues, they also offer serious debate.
Politicians must ask themselves if they wish to engage more people in politics, and people must ask themselves if they wish to live in a better world and start to question what goes on around them. source