I know there was some minor talk in the shoutbox regarding News of the World last week. They were apparently employing very underhanded means (including voicemail hacking) to get info out of their sources. In an interesting, almost cinematic turn of events, it seems the first journalist to bring this to light has been found dead in his home.
QuoteNews of the World whistleblower found dead
Rob Beschizza at 10:41 AM Monday, Jul 18, 2011
Sean Hoare was the first journalist to publicly allege that former News of the World editor and government spokesman Andy Coulson knew about voicemail hacking at the newspaper. He was found dead today at his home.
http://www.boingboing.net/2011/07/18/news-of-the-world-wh.html (http://www.boingboing.net/2011/07/18/news-of-the-world-wh.html)
I'm posting the Boing Boing link since it has links to both the current article and some background.
OK so the News of the World scandal or NOTW. I did mention this off the cuff during the skype call we did on Sunday.
About six months ago the NOTW was accused of phone hacking celeb and politicians phones to get inside scoops and dish the dirty really. The British public were a bit meh about it all, mainly because we're a bit bored about celebs and footballers.
BUT about a month ago it was revealed that a investigator hired by the NOTW had hacked into a murdered young girls phone and read the messages and then the reporters had wiped the messages leading the poor family to think that the young girl was still alive and erasing messages.
Now this caused a uproar (and rightly so) with the British public, and so a huge public back lash via telephone calls, twitter etc caused not only a further police investigation but also for the NOTW to close down for good.
NOTW is owned by Rupert Murdoch and we all know he owns the world of media (FOX) and generally the Montgomery Burns of the real world.
News this week has revealed phone hacking of dead soldiers along with other victims of serious crimes. Rebbecca wade (Brooks) the former editor of NOTW has resigned but frankly i would hope she gets locked up for good.
wow...and I thought I was messed up! :)
I've been following a hacker who has just broke into the sun newspapers site so when you go there you get directed to his twitter feed. They are planning a full on attack on all the Murdoch owned media. Quite fun actually the media controllers falling victim for once.
This just reinforces why I do not trust any big media company anymore...this sort of stuff is just down right wrong.
King
Yeah, we haven't seen the bottom of this yet.
Yeah and think about the fact that if it's happened here who's to say it hasn't happened anywhere else say at any other news Corp company ( wall st journal, NY Post) (*disclaimer*) lol
Quote from: HawkeyeMeds on July 18, 2011, 11:34:35 PM
Yeah and think about the fact that if it's happened here who's to say it hasn't happened anywhere else say at any other news Corp company ( wall st journal, NY Post) (*disclaimer*) lol
I think if it happened there...you can be sure that other papers have done the same thing. I can imagine all the editors trying to cover their tracks everywhere.
I read some more about this in this week's Entertainment Weekly involving Hugh Grant. This is all pretty crazy and wild stuff. I always think that if people do things like illegally tap phones and so forth that they will get found out. Especially in this day and age. These news companies better be careful. I'm sure it happens all over the place, but they are all on borrowed time. I think it's one of the reasons I don't watch or read much "regular news." I depend on the masses of the Net to give me a better view of things.
Reminds me of a class I had in college where they showed us a "60 Minutes" story and then showed us the real facts behind the piece. Lets just say I had no faith in "60 Minutes" after that class.
Quote from: billybob476 on July 18, 2011, 01:55:57 PM
I know there was some minor talk in the shoutbox regarding News of the World last week. They were apparently employing very underhanded means (including voicemail hacking) to get info out of their sources. In an interesting, almost cinematic turn of events, it seems the first journalist to bring this to light has been found dead in his home.
QuoteNews of the World whistleblower found dead
Rob Beschizza at 10:41 AM Monday, Jul 18, 2011
Sean Hoare was the first journalist to publicly allege that former News of the World editor and government spokesman Andy Coulson knew about voicemail hacking at the newspaper. He was found dead today at his home.
http://www.boingboing.net/2011/07/18/news-of-the-world-wh.html (http://www.boingboing.net/2011/07/18/news-of-the-world-wh.html)
I'm posting the Boing Boing link since it has links to both the current article and some background.
I heard this on the news last night. The BBC were very quick to add that the police "aren't treating the death as suspicious." In truth, it's probably not suspicious but, despite it being the story of a death, I almost had to laugh at the headline. Mind you, I doubt the police have much capacity to investigate this anyway - both the Comissioner and Assistant Comissioner of the Met have resigned (over this matter) in the last two days.
Yeah, this is, excuse my French, a shit storm of epic proportions. I get the feeling Murdoch doesn't seem to have a grasp of how big and bad this could get for him.
Agreed Bryan. Check this out...
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-19/rupert-murdoch-has-most-humble-day-in-u-k-testimony-over-hacking-probe.html (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-19/rupert-murdoch-has-most-humble-day-in-u-k-testimony-over-hacking-probe.html)
Rupert Murdoch has just been attacked with a custard pie during the committee proceedings!
and the Sun News website was hacked by LulzSec
QuoteThe Sun Website gets hacked by LulzSec
Tuesday, July 19, 2011, 9:15:08 AM
Despite rumours that internet hackers LulzSec were disbanding, The Sun website has recently found itself at the receiving end of one of the groups attacks.
Lulz Security managed to redirect The Sun visitors to a site where they posted a news article claiming that News International owner Rupert Murdoch had been found dead in his garden.
After a while visitors were directed to the hacktivists Twitter page where they took full responsibility for the hack, Tweeting the rhyme "We have joy we have fun, we have messed up Murdoch's Sun". The hours following the hack saw many more amusing Tweets from LulzSec including comments such as:
http://uk.webhostdir.com/news/ShowItem.aspx?ID=90453 (http://uk.webhostdir.com/news/ShowItem.aspx?ID=90453)
The Brits love their cream pie tosses! It must be a Benny Hill thing. :)
Quote from: Bryancd on July 19, 2011, 09:28:07 AM
The Brits love their cream pie tosses! It must be a Benny Hill thing. :)
Now I have the music in my head!
Quote from: Bryancd on July 19, 2011, 09:28:07 AM
The Brits love their cream pie tosses! It must be a Benny Hill thing. :)
Lol
Quote from: Dangelus on July 19, 2011, 09:07:07 AM
Rupert Murdoch has just been attacked with a custard pie during the committee proceedings!
That's awesome! That plus the LulzSec thing - it's anarchy I tell you!!
Personally, its about time the media got bitten by the public like this, maybe they'll think twice next time?
Btw, deeply amused by all of it :).
King
Was Moe Howard seen fleeing the site of the pie-throw?!
Since when did we do custard pies as a nation?
Hopefully it won't detract from the goings on. The politicians are making a bit of headway at the moment (for once!), I'd hate for them to lose it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pieing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pieing)
Quote from: Rico on July 20, 2011, 04:51:10 AM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pieing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pieing)
Not one mention of the Stooges in that clearly biased Wikipedia article...
:)
Quote from: Rico on July 20, 2011, 04:51:10 AM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pieing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pieing)
I prefer the associated article on Egging since John Prescott gets a mention and that still makes me smile :)
It was a drive by pieing!
Quote from: Bromptonboy on July 20, 2011, 06:38:05 AM
Quote from: Rico on July 20, 2011, 04:51:10 AM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pieing (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pieing)
Not one mention of the Stooges in that clearly biased Wikipedia article...
:)
They mention the Stooges. Look in the Slapstick area.
How does a guy in a plaid shirt, carrying a pie gain entry to a hearing in progress?
Did he bribe his way in?
I loved the prancing bobby!
Quote from: davekill on July 20, 2011, 09:17:30 AM
How does a guy in a plaid shirt, carrying a pie gain entry to a hearing in progress?
Did he bribe his way in?
I loved the prancing bobby!
Well it seems our security services aren't quite as vigorous as the TSA!
Maybe he claimed one of the MP's ordered pie as a refreshment? There is precedent for that - Neil Kinnock was famous for Huckleberry Pie, and in Harold Wilson's day - strawberry cream was "de rigueur"..don't even get me started on what James Callaghan was into..
:)
Quote from: Dangelus on July 20, 2011, 09:23:52 AM
Quote from: davekill on July 20, 2011, 09:17:30 AM
How does a guy in a plaid shirt, carrying a pie gain entry to a hearing in progress?
Did he bribe his way in?
I loved the prancing bobby!
Well it seems our security services aren't quite as vigorous as the TSA!
lol, at least they could have chased him once around the hearing room!
(cue Benny Hill music)
Murdoch's wife sure wanted a piece - of him. he he
Well the prat who got in (and i will say this now regardless of what Murdochs business has done you DO NOT attack a 80 year old) was a member of the labour party (not a member of parliament but a joined member). There is a area for the general public to sit and watch what is going on but there is no way he should have been anywhere near the actual bench.
The News Of The World is gone, but I have a hankering to see its sister paper, The Sun, disappear as well. Section 6.1 of the following link explains, partially, why.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillsborough_disaster (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillsborough_disaster)
It's known as The Rag by many now & still largely boycotted in Liverpool and by Liverpool fans.
JFT96
Very much a touchy subject in Liverpool. I have an incredible dislike for Kelvin McKenzie.