tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7132206171945839649.post6524901379085322661..comments2024-02-13T11:11:28.246+00:00Comments on Bishop Alan’s Blog: Hacked off or up? News InternationalBishop Alan Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13879516755776951638noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7132206171945839649.post-50998502588829421282011-07-20T20:33:46.279+01:002011-07-20T20:33:46.279+01:00Great post!
At least the NoW didn't purport t...Great post!<br /><br />At least the NoW didn't purport to be anything other than it was, unlike the Mail.<br /><br />As for shame, well certain politicians are being pretty shameful in denying their shameful complicity!Orbiliahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02555592378215131534noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7132206171945839649.post-73510133762635406602011-07-14T22:31:40.194+01:002011-07-14T22:31:40.194+01:00Hmmm. 'we feed this stuff ...' Up to a poi...Hmmm. 'we feed this stuff ...' Up to a point, Lord Copper. <br /><br />Murdoch's fears that the 8% of the population which reads the NOTW might be preparing to join the 92% of the population which doesn't seems to have been at least one determinant factor in its closure. In its own terms, yes, hugely, profitable and influential. In real terms, probably, fewer people read the NOTW than go to church. <br /><br />So don't draw sweeping conclusions about the moral health of 'us' and 'we' based on the reading habits of such a small section of the population. On the whole, 'we' don't feed this stuff at all. <br /><br />The people who did feed it were other journalists and commentators in so regularly taking the lead from the NOTW and imitating its style and approach. They followed up the stories and have therefore been complicit in affirming the legitimacy of the methods used. <br /><br />In buying in to this, they have ceded justification for mild celebrity indiscretion leading, we guess now, to the illegal harvesting of data on a commercial scale based on the extension of 'celebrity' or 'public figure' to include anyone about whom journalists might have had a reason to be curious, murder and terrorist victims included. <br /><br />'The end justifies the means' reasoning employed by journalists has resulted in them assuming an overriding moral imperative and justification for getting at whatever they, their editors and proprietors decide is the most important truth of the day. Their judgements have produced news which in bulk for the most part looked pretty inconsequential. <br /><br />This is the same kind of crisis that hit politics two years ago; both caused by a small select group free to make up and abide by their own rules and believing themselves to be untouchable by the law, taking for granted their privilege and thereby moving further and further away from 'the passenger on the Clapham omnibus', who sees no justification whatsoever for their conduct. <br /><br />And it has come as a shock to journalists to find, as MPs found last time, that the population at large does not share their understanding of what is right and wrong. <br /><br />This one will run for some time ...Jonathan Jenningsnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7132206171945839649.post-18939624126725116792011-07-14T08:17:00.432+01:002011-07-14T08:17:00.432+01:00Sorry to have been away in brussels, and unable to...Sorry to have been away in brussels, and unable to follow this through as I would have liked until now. Thanks, Ray and UKV. It's true we feed this stuff, in a rather chicken and egg way. The Mail has been, in some ways, far more ruthless and questionable in its methods than the Screws. See Nick Davies' book FEN for details. David, you're right that in the old dispensation press barons have formed as well as reflected taste. The MIrror is curiously weak; but then they all, increasingly, are. RevS thanks for the Bond link! Perhaps our version of the QAab spring will be standing up to Media Barons in a way our politicians have signally failed to do. Charles I agree NoTW wasn't all bad, and Murdoch all evil. NoTW journos will understandably feel they were the fall guys for head office. The BBC isn't impartial, but it's plainly a much more effective, trusted and hi-qualitybrand just now than News Corp. Eternal vigilance, and all that, but there is accountability there you don't get with the old fashioned dinosaur barons. What's busting their power isn't the BBC, but disintermediation which they can't stop. VG very grateful for US perspective. On reflection I was too kind in my estimate of Ms Brooks, probably, certainly morally, when all I meant was she was very good at doing her job for her employers — which is something different. Thanks for the correction.Bishop Alan Wilsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13879516755776951638noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7132206171945839649.post-74713540895512676482011-07-12T10:13:54.977+01:002011-07-12T10:13:54.977+01:00Hm. Two things: in the US, NewsCorp has single-han...Hm. Two things: in the US, NewsCorp has single-handedly contributed the most to the utter decline of anything remotely resembling facts-based journalistic integrity, primarliy through Fox News, and more recently through the decline of the Wall Street Journal. 'Faux News' lies to its regulators and to its viewers on a regular basis and has done for years, so why is anyone other than cynical about anything Murdoch does or says? He wouldn't recognise reality as something beyond his purchase price if the Angel Gabriel introduced him personally to God.<br /><br />Secondly: R. Brooks a "good and gifted journalist"? OSRSLY? I rarely boggle over anything in this blog, but I'm boggling now, asking myself 'for what values of "good", "gifted" and "journalist"?' She, along with the rest of the CNA, are the kind of dysfunctional which perhaps requires the honesty of an Oliver Sacks patient to discern; the ones who are freed by their insensitivity to tone to read faces honestly, and the ones who are face-blind but exquisitely sensitive to tone, and so who are not deceived by faces.<br /><br />Liars all, every one of 'em, to themselves, yes, but to the rest of us too. And yes, we all lie at one time or another but we can't all ring up Gordon Brown and publish the medical details of his infant child's illness, and lie about how we got those details in the first place.Vinaigrette girlhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04503157468363143336noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7132206171945839649.post-3200544378763547352011-07-12T10:10:18.988+01:002011-07-12T10:10:18.988+01:00What NOTW did is disgusting & immoral
If what ...What NOTW did is disgusting & immoral<br />If what is alleged is true the people involved should go to prison<br /><br />None of this should blind us to the fact that like many other papers NOTW did some harm and did some good.It has run some great campaigns <br /><br /><br />Believe it or not The Murdoch's have also done some good -On Newsnight last week the editor of the Guardian (who have done a great job over phone hacking)admitted that they saved the newspaper industry a few decades ago, as well as several great individual titles.<br /><br /><br /><br />I have 2 other concerns one is that important though this is, I am not sure that it is the most important story around at the moment (famine in Africa ),the story that broke last week of another vulnerable adult being murdered for his benefits having been kept in slavery after coming out of care and being failed by social services (which seem to be as systemic as phone hacking at NOTW)and the chaos that might be about to ensue in Southern Sudan would all be further up my list.<br /><br />The other is that I note that the BBC is not impartial in this, and it would be good just once or twice to hear them remind viewers that News International are a major competitor to the BBC<br /><br />Having said all that I am pleased there is to be a public enquiry and hope the truth will out and the right conclusions drawn <br />What I do not want is an end to freedom of the press and an end to competition for the BBC.Charleshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00968654263482623689noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7132206171945839649.post-75645362009370445282011-07-09T15:15:36.392+01:002011-07-09T15:15:36.392+01:00The Murdochs pere et fils are doing a great impres...The Murdochs pere et fils are doing a great impression of Elliot Carver in the James Bond film <i>Tomorrow Never Dies</i>.<br /><br />The general public in Liverpool have never forgiven the Sun for their post-Hillsborough disaster stance, in spite of the paper's attempts at an apology a couple of years ago. I only hope that the whole of the British public, including advertisers, will keep up the pressure in spite of News Corps tactics to try to wriggle out of their responsibilities by closing NOTW.Revsimmyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06723218589040920365noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7132206171945839649.post-70741481828293082522011-07-09T11:56:09.785+01:002011-07-09T11:56:09.785+01:00I agree, great post. But I have to say I have alwa...I agree, great post. But I have to say I have always thought the Daily Mail was worse than the News of the World. At least the NOTW had a comic air about it, the Daily Mail however, pretends to be real intelligent news...Redhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17296757944586260677noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7132206171945839649.post-36161623483325193822011-07-09T10:19:42.678+01:002011-07-09T10:19:42.678+01:00The speed at which the closure happened is so brea...The speed at which the closure happened is so breathtakingly opportunistic as to suggest that Murdoch has other tricks up his sleeve.<br />Ray Barnes notes that the flourishing empire is a sad reflection of depraved public tastes. But it's the media that shapes taste and views. That's why they are in business. I could say that we would not get such a sad reflection if we had a better Mirror. But then ...the Joghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09563781001202374826noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7132206171945839649.post-37356778563799369822011-07-09T09:29:43.344+01:002011-07-09T09:29:43.344+01:00Excellently dissected. I think that Ray has underl...Excellently dissected. I think that Ray has underlined my thoughts exactly.<br /><br />I can truthfully say that I have not read either the NOWT or Sun for more years than I care to remember. I've always thought them as treating news and people as objects to be praised, used or abused. I could never share their glee at bringing people down having built them up. <br /><br />Their exploitation of others misery has perhaps contributed somewhat to the state of then nation today.<br /><br />News International, under the leadership of the 'Murdoch' dynasty, is not in safe hands, its a desire to dominate media, both print and broadcast, globally, by hook or by crook seems to me to be undesirable and needs to be reined in now. Their takeover of BSkyB needs to be stopped now. <br /><br />The Daily Mail is another nag, from a different stable, but with a like agenda of poking and prying by whatever means to get the story that will damage someone and is sensationalist and exaggerated. <br /><br />Hopefully the lessons learned from this particular situation will be translated into legislation, which while maintaining the freedom of the press, will make it clear what and what is not acceptable in seeking stories for publication.<br /><br />Finally, I would hope that Reecca Brooke would see for herself that her integrity is fatally damaged and do the honorable thing and fall on her sword.UKViewerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18114944341930758335noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7132206171945839649.post-54564111812160759082011-07-09T08:19:44.258+01:002011-07-09T08:19:44.258+01:00While all that you have written is indisputably tr...While all that you have written is indisputably true, the fact remains that as long as a gullible and sensation seeking public is prepared to pay for defamatory and scandalous 'dirt' on public or private figures there will always be a Murdoch or his equivalent to supply it.<br />The fact that his rotton empire has flourished for so long, is a sad reflection of depraved public appetites.Ray Barneshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09209429097744326143noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7132206171945839649.post-91759308113251996042011-07-09T08:01:57.990+01:002011-07-09T08:01:57.990+01:00Excellent Post!Excellent Post!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7132206171945839649.post-11050915836173916632011-07-09T07:51:19.267+01:002011-07-09T07:51:19.267+01:00I rather like this post!I rather like this post!Gurdurhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13832862073297092984noreply@blogger.com