Murdoch's Scum Credentials All In Order I See

[stringvest]

Good to see Greggs have joined in the boycott. They wouldn't serve Chris B today when he asked for two pasties, a sausage roll and a diet coke.

[dennis tooth]

Revealed: Brooks’ past link with Milly private detective - Crime, UK - The Independent

 

Glenn Mulcaire, the News of the World private investigator who is accused of hacking Milly Dowler's phone, issued an apology yesterday to his victims, explaining his actions as the result of his ignorance of the law and the pressure placed upon him by the Sunday newspaper.

 

"I want to apologise to anybody who was hurt or upset by what I have done," he said. "I've been to court. I've pleaded guilty. And I've gone to prison and been punished. I still face the possibility of further criminal prosecution."

 

He avoided any direct mention of Milly, but said he was reacting to the news that has emerged in recent days.

 

"Working for the News of the World was never easy," he said. "There was relentless pressure. There was a constant demand for results. I knew what we did pushed the limits ethically. But, at the time, I didn't understand that I had broken the law at all. I never had any intention of interfering with any police inquiry into any crime."

 

As a crowd of reporters surrounded his home, he appealed for the privacy of his family to be respected, adding that he knew he had "brought the vilification I am experiencing upon myself" but that his family could not be blamed. [/QUOTE]

[Chairman Meow]

What a load of bollocks.

 

A private investigator but he doesn't know the laws around what he does for a living? He's either shit at his job or a lying cunt. Lying cunt is my bet.

[dennis tooth]

Anybody There? : CJR

 

Good background, old article.

[dennis tooth]

Hugh grant of all people,: New Statesman - The bugger, bugged

 

I wanted to hear more about phone-hacking and the whole business of tabloid journalism. It occurred to me just to interview him straight, as he has, after all, been a whistleblower. But then I thought I might possibly get more, and it might be more fun, if I secretly taped him, The bugger bugged, as it were. Here are some excerpts from our conversation.

 

Me So, how's the whistleblowing going?

Him I'm trying to get a book published. I sent it off to a publisher who immediately accepted it and then it got legal and they said, "This is never going to get published."

Me Why? Because it accuses too many people of crime?

Him Yes, as I said to the parliamentary commission, Coulson knew all about it and regularly ordered it . . . He [Coulson] rose quickly to the top; he wanted to cover his tracks all the time. So he wouldn't just write a story about a celeb who'd done something. He'd want to make sure they could never sue, so he wanted us to hear the celeb like you on tape saying, "Hello, darling, we had lovely sex last night." So that's on tape - OK, we've got that and so we can publish . . . Historically, the way it went was, in the early days of mobiles, we all had analogue mobiles and that was an absolute joy. You know, you just . . . sat outside Buckingham Palace with a £59 scanner you bought at Argos and get Prince Charles and everything he said.

Me Is that how the Squidgy tapes [of Diana's phone conversations] came out? Which was put down to radio hams, but was in fact . . .

Him Paps in the back of a van, yes . . . I mean, politicians were dropping like flies in the Nineties because it was so easy to get stuff on them. And, obviously, less easy to justify is celebrities. But yes.

Me And . . . it wasn't just the News of the World. It was , you know - the Mail?

Him Oh absolutely, yeah. When I went freelance in 2004 the biggest payers - you'd have thought it would be the NoW, but actually it was the Daily Mail. If I take a good picture, the first person I go to is - such as in your case - the Mail on Sunday. Did you see that story? The picture of you, breaking down . . . I ought to thank you for that. I got £3,000. Whooo!

Me But would they [the Mail] buy a phone-hacked story?

Him For about four or five years they've absolutely been cleaner than clean. And before that they weren't. They were as dirty as anyone . . . They had the most money.

Me So everyone knew? I mean, would Rebekah Wade have known all this stuff was going on?

Him Good question. You're not taping, are you?

Me [slightly shrill voice] No.

Him Well, yeah. Clearly she . . . took over the job of [a journalist] who had a scanner who was trying to sell it to members of his own department. But it wasn't a big crime. [NB: Rebekah Brooks has always denied any knowledge of phone-hacking. The current police investigation is into events that took place after her editorship of the News of the World.]

It started off as fun - you know, it wasn't against the law, so why wouldn't you? And it was only because the MPs who were fiddling their expenses and being generally corrupt kept getting caught so much they changed the law in 2001 to make it illegal to buy and sell a digital scanner. So all we were left with was - you know - finding a blag to get your mobile [records] out of someone at Vodafone. Or, when someone's got it, other people swap things for it.

Me So they all knew? Wade probably knew all about it all?

Him [...] Cameron must have known - that's the bigger scandal. He had to jump into bed with Murdoch as everyone had, starting with Thatcher in the Seventies . . . Tony Blair . . . [tape is hard to hear here] Maggie openly courted Murdoch, saying, you know, "Please support me." So when Cameron, when it came his turn to go to Murdoch via Rebekah Wade . . . Cameron went horse riding regularly with Rebekah. I know, because as well as doorstepping celebrities, I've also doorstepped my ex-boss by hiding in the bushes, waiting for her to come past with Cameron on a horse . . . before the election to show that - you know - Murdoch was backing Cameron.

Me What happened to that story?

Him The Guardian paid for me to do it and I stepped in it and missed them, basically. They'd gone past - not as good as having a picture.

Me Do you think Murdoch knew about phone-hacking?

Him Errr, possibly not. He's a funny bloke given that he owns the Sun and the Screws . . . quite puritanical. Sorry to talk about Divine Brown, but when that came out . . . Murdoch was furious: "What are you putting that on our front page for? You're bringing down the tone of our papers." [indicating himself] That's what we do over here.

Me Well, it's also because it was his film I was about to come out in.

Him Oh. I see.

Me Yeah. It was a Fox film.

[A pause here while we chat to other customers, and then - ]

Him So anyway, let me finish my story.

Me Murdoch, yes . . .

Him So I was sent to do a feature on Moulin Rouge! at Cannes, which was a great send anyway. Basically my brief was to see who Nicole Kidman was shagging - what she was doing, poking through her bins and get some stuff on her. So Murdoch's paying her five million quid to big up the French and at the same time paying me £5.50 to fuck her up . . . So all hail the master. We're just pawns in his game. How perverse is that?

Me Wow. You reckon he never knew about it?

Him [pause] I don't even think he really worried himself too much about it.

Me What's his son called?

Him James. They're all mates together. They all go horse riding. You've got Jeremy Clarkson lives here [in Oxfordshire]. Cameron lives here, and Rebekah Wade is married to Brooks's son [the former racehorse trainer Charlie Brooks]. Cameron gets dressed up as the Stig to go to Clarkson's 50th birthday party [NB: it was actually to record a video message for the party]. Is that demeaning for a prime minister? It should be the other way round, shouldn't it? So basically, Cameron is very much in debt to Rebekah Wade for helping him not quite win the election . . . So that was my submission to parliament - that Cameron's either a liar or an idiot.

Me But don't you think that all these prime ministers deliberately try to get the police to drag their feet about investigating the whole [phone-hacking] thing because they don't want to upset Murdoch?

Him Yeah. There's that . . . You also work a lot with policemen as well . . . One of the early stories was [and here he names a much-loved TV actress in her sixties] used to be a street walker - whether or not she was, but that's the tip.

Me and Chum MLTVA?!

Me I can't believe it. Oh no!

Chum Really??

Him Yeah. Well, not now . . .

Chum Oh, it'd be so much better if it was now.

Him So I asked a copper to get his hands on the phone files, but because it's only a caution it's not there any more. So that's the tip . . . it's a policeman ringing up a tabloid reporter and asking him for ten grand because this girl had been cautioned right at the start of his career. And then I ask another policemen to go and check the records . . . So that's happening regularly. So the police don't particularly want to investigate.

Me But do you think they're going to have to now?

Him I mean - 20 per cent of the Met has taken backhanders from tabloid hacks. So why would they want to open up that can of worms? . . . And what's wrong with that, anyway? It doesn't hurt anyone particularly. I mean, it could hurt someone's career - but isn't that the dance with the devil you have to play?

Me Well, I suppose the fact that they're dragging their feet while investigating a mass of phone-hacking - which is a crime - some people would think is a bit depressing about the police.

Him But then - should it be a crime? I mean, scanning never used to be a crime. Why should it be? You're transmitting your thoughts and your voice over the airwaves. How can you not expect someone to just stick up an aerial and listen in?

Me So if someone was on a landline and you had a way of tapping in . . .

Him Much harder to do.

Me But if you could, would you think that was illegal? Do you think that should be illegal?

Him I'd have to say quite possibly, yeah. I'd say that should be illegal.

Me But a mobile phone - a digital phone . . . you'd say it'd be all right to tap that?

Him I'm not sure about that. So we went from a point where anyone could listen in to anything. Like you, me, journalists could listen in to corrupt politicians, and this is why we have a reasonably fair society and a not particularly corrupt or criminal prime minister, whereas other countries have Gaddafi. Do you think it's right the only person with a decent digital scanner these days is the government? Whereas 20 years ago we all had a go? Are you comfortable that the only people who can listen in to you now are - is it MI5 or MI6?

Me I'd rather no one listened in, to be honest. And I might not be alone there. You probably wouldn't want people listening to your conversations.

Him I'm not interesting enough for anyone to want to listen in.

Me Ah . . . I think that was one of the questions asked last week at one of the parliamentary committees. They asked Yates [John Yates, acting deputy commissioner of the Metropolitan Police] if it was true that he thought that the NoW had been hacking the phones of friends and family of those girls who were murdered . . . the Soham murder and the Milly girl [Milly Dowler].

Him Yeah. Yeah. It's more than likely. Yeah . . . It was quite routine. Yeah - friends and family is something that's not as easy to justify as the other things.

Me But celebrities you would justify because they're rich?

Him Yeah. I mean, if you don't like it, you've just got to get off the stage. It'll do wonders.

Me So I should have given up acting?

Him If you live off your image, you can't really complain about someone . . .

Me I live off my acting. Which is different to living off your image.

Him Yeah, but you're still presenting yourself to the public. And if the public didn't know you -

Me They don't give a shit. I got arrested with a hooker and they still came to my films. They don't give a fuck about your public image. They just care about whether you're in an entertaining film or not.

Him That's true . . . I have terrible difficulty with him [points to pap shot of Johnny Depp]. He's really difficult. You know, I was in Venice and he was a nightmare to do because he walks around looking like Michael Jackson. And the punchline was . . . after leading everyone a merry dance the film was shot on an open balcony - I mean, it was like - he was standing there in public.

Me And you don't see the difference between the two situations?

Chum He was actually working at this time? As opposed to having his own private time?

Him You can't hide all the time.

Me So you're saying, if you're Johnny Depp or me, you don't deserve to have a private life?

Him You make so much more money. You know, most people in Dover take home about £200 and struggle.

Me So how much do you think the families of the Milly and Soham girls make?

Him OK, so there are examples that are poor and you can't justify - and that's clearly one of them.

Me I tell you the thing I still don't get - if you think it was all right to do all that stuff, why blow the whistle on it?

Him Errm . . . Right. That's interesting. I actually blew the whistle when a friend of mine at the Guardian kept hassling me for an interview. I said, "Well if you put the name of the Castle [his pub] on the front page of the Guardian, I'll do anything you like." So that's how it started.

Me So, have you been leant on by the NoW, News International, since you blew the whistle?

Him No, they've kept their distance. I mean, there's people who have much better records - my records are non-existent. There are people who actually have tapes and transcripts they did for Andy Coulson.

Me And where are these tapes and transcripts? Do you think they've been destroyed?

Him No, I'm sure they're saving them till they retire.

Me So did you personally ever listen to my voice messages?

Him No, I didn't personally ever listen to your voice messages. I did quite a lot of stories on you, though. You were a very good earner at times.

 

Those are the highlights. As I drove home past the white cliffs, I thought it was interesting - apart from the fact that Paul hates people like me, and I hate people like him, we got on quite well. And, absurdly, I felt a bit guilty for recording him.

 

And he does have a very nice pub. The Castle Inn, Dover, for the record. There are rooms available, too. He asked me if I'd like to sample the honeymoon suite some time: "I can guarantee your privacy."

[bossy]

Did you see that journalist, him in article above, on newsnight last night? He looked like he'd come staggering back on to ask if they'd found his car keys.

[Whelan]

The top ten advertisers are sticking with them though! 16 million pounds worth, Everywhere Everywhere, Tesco, O2 amongst them, BSKYB is the biggest so hardly expect them to walk away.

[Stu Monty]

Why haven't the police taken all the computers out of the NI buildings? Seriously. Crimes have taken place and they are allowing the criminals to destroy evidence at their leisure.

 

They come out of this just as badly as the NOTW in my eyes. They are are investigating as little as they possibly can because they know they're balls deep into the criminal activity.

[dennis tooth]

Why haven't the police taken all the computers out of the NI buildings? Seriously. Crimes have taken place and they are allowing the criminals to destroy evidence at their leisure.

 

They come out of this just as badly as the NOTW in my eyes. They are are investigating as little as they possibly can because they know they're balls deep into the criminal activity.

 

Him So I asked a copper to get his hands on the phone files, but because it's only a caution it's not there any more. So that's the tip . . . it's a policeman ringing up a tabloid reporter and asking him for ten grand because this girl had been cautioned right at the start of his career. And then I ask another policemen to go and check the records . . . So that's happening regularly. So the police don't particularly want to investigate.

Me But do you think they're going to have to now?

Him I mean - 20 per cent of the Met has taken backhanders from tabloid hacks. So why would they want to open up that can of worms? . . . And what's wrong with that, anyway? It doesn't hurt anyone particularly. I mean, it could hurt someone's career - but isn't that the dance with the devil you have to play?

Me Well, I suppose the fact that they're dragging their feet while investigating a mass of phone-hacking - which is a crime - some people would think is a bit depressing about the police.

 

.

[Anubis]

Coulsen will get dragged into the police investigation as he's being hung out to dry. Brooks will be fired, and within two months will have a radio show on Talksport. Murdoch will wind up the News Of The World name, claiming he's shut it down as a measure of disgust. He'll then announce the all new The S*n On Sunday, a Sunday edition of the UK's 'best-loved' red top. Cameron will announce that the government are meeting with the PCC to tighten regulations. Outraged of Tooting will start buying aforementioned Sunday newspaper because he's stupid enough to believe it's a new paper that just happens to have the same journalists on board.

[RoboRiise]

Revealed: Brooks’ past link with Milly private detective - Crime, UK - The Independent

 

Glenn Mulcaire, the News of the World private investigator who is accused of hacking Milly Dowler's phone, issued an apology yesterday to his victims, explaining his actions as the result of his ignorance of the law and the pressure placed upon him by the Sunday newspaper.

 

"I want to apologise to anybody who was hurt or upset by what I have done," he said. "I've been to court. I've pleaded guilty. And I've gone to prison and been punished. I still face the possibility of further criminal prosecution."

 

He avoided any direct mention of Milly, but said he was reacting to the news that has emerged in recent days.

 

"Working for the News of the World was never easy," he said. "There was relentless pressure. There was a constant demand for results. I knew what we did pushed the limits ethically. But, at the time, I didn't understand that I had broken the law at all. I never had any intention of interfering with any police inquiry into any crime."

 

As a crowd of reporters surrounded his home, he appealed for the privacy of his family to be respected, adding that he knew he had "brought the vilification I am experiencing upon myself" but that his family could not be blamed.

 

 

Hahahahahahaha oh fuck me no he didn't did he? Is he actually the least self-aware man in Britain?

[L19red]

Coulsen will get dragged into the police investigation as he's being hung out to dry. Brooks will be fired, and within two months will have a radio show on Talksport. Murdoch will wind up the News Of The World name, claiming he's shut it down as a measure of disgust. He'll then announce the all new The S*n On Sunday, a Sunday edition of the UK's 'best-loved' red top. Cameron will announce that the government are meeting with the PCC to tighten regulations. Outraged of Tooting will start buying aforementioned Sunday newspaper because he's stupid enough to believe it's a new paper that just happens to have the same journalists on board.

 

and what will Chris Bascombe do then? poor thing.

[Section_31]

All out war on Murdoch in the Commons now they know they've got 'some' public opinion on their side. They really are shithouse bastards. They'll probably use it as an excuse to try and neutralise newspapers altogether.

[RedEagle]

Coming out that they've been hacking dead Soldiers family phones too. Fucking sick.

 

I was worried that the hostility would die down in a few months and the public would go back to buying that shite paper. However the public give soldiers unequivocal support meaning that this shit isn't going to blow over now.

[melons]

Coming out that they've been hacking dead Soldiers family phones too. Fucking sick.

 

I was worried that the hostility would die down in a few months and the public would go back to buying that shite paper. However the public give soldiers unequivocal support meaning that this shit isn't going to blow over now.

 

Quite the conundrum given one of their papers is the main supporter of 'help for heroes'. That said, wasn't it them behind Sarah's law? and Sara Payne is down as being one of those subject to the hacking.

[WaltonRed]

Its a fucking mess.

 

What a shower of cunts from top to bottom, from MP's who are shitbags right up the antichrist himself

[Anubis]

Why haven't the police taken all the computers out of the NI buildings? Seriously. Crimes have taken place and they are allowing the criminals to destroy evidence at their leisure.

 

They come out of this just as badly as the NOTW in my eyes. They are are investigating as little as they possibly can because they know they're balls deep into the criminal activity.

 

They were certainly balls deep in News International payments for information. It's a sick joke that Andy Hayman was allowed, indeed encouraged, to try to shut down the police enquiry.

[WaltonRed]

The Met will be rocked to the foundations by this.

 

Its all unravelling.

 

My mum is suspicous about the whole thing with Ken Bigley now, they might of been on to our family too. Wouldnt be suprised.

[RedEagle]

The Met will be rocked to the foundations by this.

 

Its all unravelling.

 

My mum is suspicous about the whole thing with Ken Bigley now, they might of been on to our family too. Wouldnt be suprised.

 

Some fella on Twitter sadly planted the thought about the Hillsborough families too. They know no limit the fucking scum.

[Red Phoenix]

There's a petition here if anyone wants to sign it : Avaaz - 48 hours to stop Murdoch's UK media takeover

 

Not stupid enough to think it'll change much, but it might help them know just how many people are getting sick of the bunch of corrupt bastards.

 

Quote from the page :

 

We have 48 hours to flood the BSkyB public consultation and stop the deal.

 

We've done it before -- in the last consultation Hunt said our avalanche of 40,000 messages delayed the deal as his officials had to read each email carefully, fearing a legal challenge. Now our voices could halt the deal and get a full inquiry into this vile hacking.

[Gym Beglin]

What do you people WANT to happen now?

 

Just seems like the Iraq enquiry to me, where there is general outrage but we'll all be ground down via a purposefully lengthy, boring, and delayed series of court cases over the next 5 years, until you just give up on anyone in authority being the least bit bothered that horrendous crimes have occurred.

 

There will probably be an angry facebook page kicking around though.

[Gym Beglin]

40,000 messages?

LOOOOOOOOOOOL

 

A million marched to stop the war, they were all told to fuck off, one of them was killed, and we still joyously took part in the elections and av.

 

Even hippies were harder than us.

[Phoenix]

This one isnt going to die down without a few heads rolling. If there is one sacred cow for NOTW readers it is the armed forces.

 

Brooks must be feeling the pressure.

[Phoenix]

The top ten advertisers are sticking with them though! 16 million pounds worth, Everywhere Everywhere, Tesco, O2 amongst them, BSKYB is the biggest so hardly expect them to walk away.

 

Probably because they will remain the number one selling sunday paper.

[dennis tooth]

Conservatives trying to deflect the blame off the media people who got them into power, Labour doing similar pretending to be really angry, the police acting dumb, corrupt country, you wont see Cameron asking for Brooks head while he owes her the favour for being in power after all the charming he did to woo her, I put my faith in the people to revolt. Lets topple these bastards getting fat while everybody starved on the street. Its our time.