Althouse: "Murdoch hacking crisis deepens with war dead outcry."

July 7, 2011

"Murdoch hacking crisis deepens with war dead outcry."

Let's get up to speed on the big scandal.

21 comments:

JAL said...: Absolutely wrong to do what they did.

But I doubt Murdoch knew. And don't think it reason to dissolve his "empire". (<-- Brit useage.) Though who -- Soros? might be pushing it.

People need to be fired and penalized by their legal system.

The scandal that *needs* to be on the front pages is the DOJ-ATF-FBI-BHO GunRunner scandal that Obama's Boyz were running "under the radar."

Operation Fast and Furious is / was unbelievably illegal, callous and poorly thought out. Oh yeah, and primarily evil.

Heads need to roll in many directions. (<-- Not a threat of physical harm.); 7/7/11, 8:59 AM
Fen said...: This:

The scandal that *needs* to be on the front pages is the DOJ-ATF-FBI-BHO GunRunner scandal that Obama's Boyz were running "under the radar."

Operation Fast and Furious is / was unbelievably illegal, callous and poorly thought out. Oh yeah, and primarily evil.; 7/7/11, 9:01 AM
madAsHell said...: Someone wants me to believe that newspaper journalists have 1337 5kill5, and can hack the phone system??

Not only that, but they can target specific individuals?

How very unlikely!!; 7/7/11, 9:10 AM
Paddy O said...: An outrage in need of a scandal finally found one.

The families are only sympathetic to such people when they can be used as tools to attack political opponents.

When the coffins returning home are photographed, names are read, other personal information is shared to 'raise awareness', family wishes are ignored.

What happened here is certainly wrong, but the outrage is selective and targeted towards an established political opponent, all while other scandals, like JAL mentioned, are ignored or dismissed.

But, at the same time, I don't like media semi-monopolies (nor mostly-monopolies in any industry, like cell phones), so a little humbling for Murdoch isn't too worrisome.; 7/7/11, 9:10 AM
Almost Ali said...: 'Then I'm going to blame some people in this room, and that I will not forgive.' - Don Rupert-Corleone; 7/7/11, 9:15 AM
garage mahal said...: Might be bad, BUT .....; 7/7/11, 9:23 AM
Scott M said...: Might be bad, BUT .....

Agreed. Not as bad as Gunrunner or Kagan/Obamacare.; 7/7/11, 9:25 AM
garage mahal said...: I know right?!; 7/7/11, 9:30 AM
rhhardin said...: I couldn't get a sentence into the scandal without zonking out from boredom, when it came up on Drudge.

It's good that it deepens, though.

Widening and lengthening is probably next, and then it will loom, and still nobody will say what it's about in the first sentence.; 7/7/11, 9:31 AM
roesch-voltaire said...: The media strangle hold that the Murdoch papers have had on politics in England may be loosen thanks to this scandal exposing just how dirty his organization can be. You catch the scope of this read Hugh Grants article based on a bugged interview with one of the reporters.; 7/7/11, 9:59 AM
The Drill SGT said...: Nasty, sleezy stuff.

I have no idea of the span of Nurdock's Brit news empire, but I gather it is wide. We know that the Brit press is more stratified than the US press, meaning there are the "legitimate" press and the Tabloid broadsheets.

I expect that Murdock has a number of down market rags (e.g. The National Enquirers, Tattler, etc)

I expect that those brands are even sleezier than their US versions.

On the other hand, I don't expect Murdock knows what the activities are beyond the balance sheets.

OTOH, as Paddy O said, our media has no problem exploiting our war dead to both sell papers and to hurt selected Bush's, when feels like it.

The hypocrisy shows; 7/7/11, 10:14 AM
Anonymous said...: Publishing international secrets of the US diplomatic cables : triumph of world peace. Supposed hacking of a cellphone for a news story/ dead soldiers : outrage!!!outrage!! Poor soldiers, and God Bless America!!! Leftists don't care at all about the soldiers, this is only a cudgel, real or imagined, to beat Murdoch with. Fortunately it's all very obvious to all but the most indoctrinated these days. Doesn't look like that playbook will change any time soon.; 7/7/11, 10:17 AM
Carol_Herman said...: You want to know the crisis?

STOCK PRICE DROPPED.

Hanging in the balance, is Murdoch's reach "for the SKY." The competitors are crying foul.

The deal? It's all political. So maybe it flushes down the toilet?

The gamble? You buy the stock because the price has dropped.

I just don't do these things, anymore.; 7/7/11, 10:26 AM
edutcher said...: What JAL said. All of it.

Considering we have "journalists" going through people's trash and stalking public figures to the point of moving in next to them, this isn't that surprising.; 7/7/11, 10:33 AM
JimMuy said...: Yes, and digging through dumpsters to find dirt on Palin; moving in next door to spy on her = legitimate newsgathering techniques.
Just like digging through the tax and other records of Joe the Plumber was just a legitimate newsgathering technique.
Or hacking the email of Palin--not one leftist complaining about Murdoch made a peep of a complaint about that!; 7/7/11, 10:45 AM
Sigivald said...: I see the headline is now "Murdoch stuns critics, shuts down scandal-hit paper".

Which makes more sense, since it was not a "Murdoch hacking crisis", since there's not the slightest evidence (or even allegation, as far as I can see) that Mr. Murdoch had anything to do with the phone hacking, or even knew about it until everyone else found out.

And contra the Frenchman, I see no reason that this should implicate any other Newscorp property in Britain, based on any extant evidence.

Funny thing about a company like that; the subsidiaries are pretty damned independent, and thus insulated from one-another at the management level.; 7/7/11, 12:05 PM
Paddy O said...: Murdoch just announced he's shutting down News of the World.

No obfuscation, no excuses, the paper is no more, last issue on Sunday.

Good, bold response shutting off the critics.; 7/7/11, 12:05 PM
Phil 314 said...: The details of the scandal are horrible

AND

I'm impressed at Murdoch's response.

BUT

Much more to come. When scandal meets bias (i.e. Murdoch is evil) then we will hear about it ad infinitum.; 7/7/11, 12:08 PM
erictrimmer said...: Carol writes like James Ellroy.; 7/7/11, 12:11 PM
roesch-voltaire said...: That poor innocent Murdoch had to close down one paper for bad behavior so that he can continue to build his empire, but I suspect the Brits smell blood and will continue to hound him.; 7/7/11, 3:22 PM
AmPowerBlog said...: I've been blogging this story for days. The progressive left is gleeful, chanting, "One down ..."; 7/7/11, 5:14 PM