Anyone catch the Toady programme this morning? From 8am onwards, the ENTIRE prime time period was devoted the story concerning whether the News of the World had used private investigators to hack into the mobile phones of celebs and politicos. It was amazing to have this entire 8.10 -8.28am time slot allocated to attacking News International and repeatedly demanding the resignation of David Cameron’s Communication’s Director, Andy Coulson. Total bias – out of all proportion to the merits of this story.
OPERATION – GET COULSON!
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That is plainly obvious. Also incorrect, the story is about the voicemail service being accessed. Nobody asks, certainly not the BBC, the obvious question, how did they get the PIN numbers. Not of one but supposedly thousands of accounts. There can only surely be one sensible answer. Someone who had access to the PINs sold them to the reporters. That is the story.
It's the Sun wot lost it, Labours chances at the next election, that is. What a fiasco?
All in in it together, the ghastly Labour/Guardian/BBC triumvirate unite in perfect stage managed harmony as if the electorate will wet it's collective knickers over this non story.
Check out the coverage in the rest of the media this morning and you'll be forgiven for wondering what's it's all about. Murdoch's migration rightwards is obviously a challenge Labour could not even contemplate so in time honoured fashion this is pushed to it's very limit utilising it's captured media outlets.
The dividing lines are now cast.
I only heard as far as the 8 o'clock news, but was struck by the wording in reporting this story in that bulletin. David Cameron was reported to be relaxed about it, but "others" were not so relaxed. Who the "others" were was not specified, although perhaps some light was shed on this later in the programme?
Stating that "others" are not relaxed is entirely meaningless. I can decide how much weight to attach to David Cameron's attitude, because he would say that wouldn't he. But how much weight do I give these mysterious "others"? If it's John Prescott, and from the bulletin it could have been, I don't attach much weight at all. If it's Boris Johnston, it carries more weight. Or perhaps "others" are simply the reporter flogging his agenda, which is what I always suspect whenever the "others say" line is trotted out.
Look who gets invited to "discuss" this (2+ year old) news: Torin Douglas (BBC), Andrew Neil (does freelance work for the BBC but worked – but no more I think – for News International), Nick Robinson (BBC) and former (Labour) home secretary Charles Clarke. I didn't hear that somebody from the Conservatives was invited to appear (but declined), so I assume that this was the "balanced" line-up sought by Today's editors to reflect on the story.
Not one contributor asserted that this might be a storm in a teacup despite the BBC bigging it up: not one asked why this old news is being resurrected now in a famously lefty and essentially pro-government rag. The faux-outrage by the contributors says a lot about their hypocrisy. After all this isn't new "news": possible squaring by the MSM of the PCC, the police and those suffering from borderline criminality of the MSM is very old news indeed and, moreover, is well known to the contributors (and suspected by many of us out here). Whatever happens, we can be assured that the BBC will run this story indefinitely – it will never let it go this side of an election.
So the man who went shagging behind his wife's back on the taxpayers' tab is now the BBC's attack dog on ethics?
You could not make it up.
Did the Beeboids get as hot and bothered when Alistair Campbell took the equivalent job with Nu Liebour, what with his erotic literary endeavours.
And the source for this story?
My guess one Max Clifford, esq. Knew him a number of years ago (very well, by the way!) and know his politics.
Alistair Campbell is an amateur in comparison and a right wing nutter compared with Max.
Why should the BBC give two hoots about the facts of the (non)story? All they have to do is spew the lies and then sit back happily, their work done nicely, no retractions are EVER offered, no appologies are EVER given after the fact, very neat and very effective socialist smears disseminated by the BBC on behalf of their socialist bedfellows.
There is no proof Coulson was involved or even knew so whats the story? Toe nails Robinson was gleefull and happy to dig the dirt when he usually is so keen "to be fair to labour" there is no such sentiment with the hated Tories of course.
Charles Clarke gets unlimited airtime and a sympathetic ear to waffle about nothing other than a partisan assassination job on Coulson, pure spite from a wholly hostile witness that was left without any counterpoint or r cross examination, BBC tactics to a tee?
The today show always and without exception gives uncritical support to newlabour ideologues when it comes to the supposed effects and causes of 'global warming' and again the ever greasy Ed Milliband gets to spew out his lies about AGW again!
The upcoming Copenhagen summit in mind and the G8s muddle were prime opportunities for a hard cross examination and as usual the toady asked only fawning prescripted questions given out by Milliband beforehand to the toady interviewer.
Milliband lives in a world of fantasy inhabited by fellow parasites with a common purpose to lie and cheat the masses into accepting their own oblivion, he is a typical parasite class commissar living high on the hog with NO expense spared while he happily prods us into a black hole of poverty,misery,debt and fear, the billions nay trillions of dollars about to be wasted and frittered away on a non existent global warming means nothing to him, the pain and misery about to be inflicted on ordinary people mean nothing!
He along with his insane master are pushing for the UK to waste money we no longer have to bribe poor nations to toe the line on cutting a harmless trace gas that in fact is actually HARMLESS FFS!
While the western world declines by economic suicide and the east rises by hard effort our commissar class speed our civilisations demise into oblivion via civil strife and bone crushing poverty.
Milliband kept repeating the mantra 'what science is telling us' and 'scientists are saying' we all know WHY he says this over and over again dont we? ooooh yes the scumbag is covering his arse by pre blaming the obvious scapegoat whipping boy if(when)the AGW conspiricy goes tits up, he will say in his own perverted defence that he was 'only following orders' the defence of ages past the excuse of toadying cowards and blameshifters the world over!
Indeed, indeed. How convenient that the most vigorous proponent of robust private media ownership in the UK should be dragged into this by the Guardianistas and Beeboids.
It's not as if Murdoch's crew have anything to hide. The £1m payments to various individuals to hush the story up are clearly normal commercial practice which is none of the BBC's business.
The long list of people whose phone messages were hacked were clearly individuals whose every breath is in the public interest to expose. When did the BBC ever have the guts to pay private eyes to hack into the voicemail of a new mother like Ms Paltrow? Exactly.
And, as we all know here, there are two moralities:
1. The BBC. Beacuse it's paid through the licence fee, it must remain clear of anything which we declare to be none of its business.
2. Everyone else. Because you can do any old shit when you're privately financed. Obviously.
Gentlemen, we have reached the tipping point. The BBC and its Guardian lackeys are finally exposed as humbugs and corrupt wheeler-dealers who deserve not a moment longer on the air.
How dare they claim to breathe the same clean air as Rupert Murdoch, Andy Coulson. And Coulson's employer.
To the tumbrils….
I note Robinson announced this in the same breathless, but grave, tones as when they tried to stitch up Osborne last year.
As regards Coulson, well we a have a past don't we. One particular fellow who still advises the Labour Party, and the PM, not only worked for one of the biggest pension fraudsters in history but inadvertently drove a man to suicide. Does he have any questions to answer? Should he be advising a political party?
The excesses of:
1.)big business broadcaster (Murdoch):
'Guardian'-
"Ex-Murdoch editor Andrew Neil: News of the World revelations one of most significant media stories of our time."
[Extract]:
"Former Sunday Times editor says tabloid did not have a public interest defence and Andy Coulson has questions to answer.
"One of Rupert Murdoch's former leading editors said last night the Guardian's revelations of the News of the World's phone hacking represented one of the 'most significant media stories of modern times'.
"Andrew Neil, who edited the Sunday Times, said the News of the World did not have a public interest defence for its practices, exposed by the Guardian."
2.)statist broadcaster (BBC):
"Lords rule Balen report was wrongly blocked under FoI"
('Press Gazette',11 February 2009)
[Extract]:
"A legal bid to force the BBC to disclose an internal report on its coverage of the Middle East was given a massive boost by the House of Lords today.
"The Law Lords held by a 3-2 majority that a case brought by lawyer Steven Sugar under the Freedom of Information Act was wrongly blocked by legal rulings at earlier court hearings.
"The case now returns to the High Court for further argument before a final decision is made.
"Sugar, a commercial solicitor from Putney, south west London, argues that the 20,000-word report by senior news editor Malcolm Balen should be published as part of the debate about a perceived anti-Israeli bias at the BBC."
I noticed this NOWorld story on Newsnight and wondered what was going on. I assume the Murdoch papers have decided to end any support for NewLabour and this is the BBC/Guardian counter attack.
Does anyone really care? All mobile phones are insecure. I thought we all knew that. Good try BBC but like all your ill thought out schemes it will get you nowhere. Newlabour have reached the end of the road. Get used to it. Not that Cameron's lot are much better it is just that he won't keep the job adverts going that prop up the Guardian.
This is a rather desperate and pathetic effort by the Labour/Guardian/BBC left-wing axis.
I take comfort that they are really panicking now.
The big story is, if the Police had evidence of criminality, why were there no more prosecutions ?
As for Coulson. Either he knew or he didn't. If he did and is lying, it should be easy to prove. If he didn't and is telling the truth, end of story.
Word veri. "fasceism" ! Spelt slightly differently, could be a comment on this government.
@Dave s:
Does anyone really care? All mobile phones are insecure
Now we're getting somewhere. If I read the Guardian accounts clearly, so are our BT accounts, our utility bills, social security records, police records, DVLA data and even Granada TV's personnel files!
How typical of the BBC-Guardianistas to demand protection of personal details which the rest of us would happily divulge to the News of the World to help cement the success of privately-financed media! The fact that such details are also protected by law is a matter only the whining jackals of Beeb-land need care about.
Onward into a world where we happily divulge our voicemail messages to anyone bearing a card which reads: "I work for Murdoch. So it's all right, really."
Brave times, mes amis. Brave times!
Yeah, suddenly the stinking Beeboids are so interested in "ethical" journalistic techniques. Of course their Chief Westminster Propoagandist Nick Robinson was content to go along with the MacBride/Brown dirty tricks department, but now – in their obvious attempt to discredit Cameron and Murdoch – they take the high moral ground and use all their (ie our) resources to spin the usual self-serving line.
Disgusting, stinking bunch of hypocrites.
Anonymous 11.39
None of the private details of our lives are secure from the state and it's myriad agencies. All the so called data protection is an illusion. The state, and this is Newlabour's dream, wants total control of our lives and our thoughts. I do not defend the Murdoch press but it too is part of a complex system of control and intrusion into our lives. This is really a quarrel between allies. The normal service of control and oppression will be resumed as soon as possible.
This has been a really dumb move by the BBC. The Sun mocks the BBC, but I am not aware of any sustained hostility in the Murdoch press against the BBC – nothing to compare with the Telegraph, for example.
But an outright attack on the Murdoch empire by the BBC invites retaliation. Either now – or better still, after a Tory election victory, when the BBC's future is up for review.
Young Rupert is no mug. He ain't gonna take this one as just a slight spat. The clear sense I had during all the Today prog – starting well before 8am – was that the BBC is going full-court-press on this, is really picking a fight. Sanctioned from the very top.
I agree with cassandra. The real news this morning is the general bog-up at G8 over climate change.
@Dave S
None of the private details of our lives are secure from the state and it's myriad agencies. All the so called data protection is an illusion.
Good point. Perhaps you could pass it on to the News of the Screws royal editor who got 4 months for offences against the illusion.
And the private eye who did the hacking, who got 6 months.
Sentenced for an illusion!
A miscarriage of justice which those damned Beeboids should be exposing. But will they? Damn right they won't.
Dave and co,
What we should be concerned about is how Al Beeb has seen how the MSM can manipulate the public to elect the people the MSM wants elected.
Al Beeb has seen how well this has worked in the states and will no doubt try its hardest to inform people of the right way to vote shortly.
We should be concerned about this!
Mailman
It was absolutely disgraceful a piece of blatant and insulting propaganda. I was speechless, they are a threat to our liberties. I especially deprecated the contribution of that smarmy toad Robinson pretending to be above it all and impartial – like a spokesman for The Guardian Council.
I sincerely hope the Tories are going to get even when they win next year. Firstly they should make them disclose all the details of the pay and expenses of the "talent". Then they should abolish the poll tax licence fee and make consumption of the BBC's sometimes excellent output a voluntary purchase like any other.
If the Labour Party and the Muslim Council of GB want to make programmes they should be entitled to co-produce them and anyone who wants to can consume them. They just need to stop being allowed to pretend that they are the voice of the people which ludicrous conceit is at the heart of all this bias.
Anonymous 12.46.
The editor of the NOW deserved all he got. Agreed. But I referred to the state and it's apparatchniks. They are the ones we should worry about. Above the law and not accountable to anyone.
" The state is the coldest of all cold monsters" Nietzsche.
Two sorts of people in this country. Those who trust and believe in the state and those who don't. I don't.
Anon 10.02 There can only surely be one sensible answer. Someone who had access to the PINs sold them to the reporters. That is the story.
The more likely answer being touted around is that the people targeted never bothered to change the default PIN for their answerphones, so journos with their numbers were able to pick up their messages without any effort at all.
One reason why the Beeb is so hot on this story is because it involves Murdoch, and everything he stands for is anathema to the Beeboids
The spin has continued on Radio 2's Jeremy Vine Show – with the same 'guests' and suspicious comments from Max Clifford.
This all started last night. From what I've heard Coulson resigned over the original case but denied he knew anything about it.
I assume the Police would have done some investigation here being as two men went to jail?
For all the crap the BBC have come out with there appears to be nothing that actually links to Coulson, unlike McBride where there were emails from HIM.
And what a joke that Mandelson goes on about Coulson when HE should be in jail for mortgage faud.
I notice the BBC keep hammering this story but also keep adding in "allegations" (which come from the lawyers at the BBC)
Anyone want to guess which story will be No1 on QT tonight?
I notice that this story is a convenient distraction from the continual slaughter of our soldiers in Afghanistan.
Gordon Brown gets his stooges the BBC and Guardian to do his bidding.
I wonder how often the BBC checks where it gets information from?
Anon 1.52 writes: "One reason why the Beeb is so hot on this story is because it involves Murdoch, and everything he stands for is anathema to the Beeboids".
What is more, he is the only real competition the BBC has.
Funny that. Couldn't possibly be connected with the BBC's puffed-up enthusiasm for this story, could it?
dave s: Good point. They didn't 'hack' mobile phones they simply guessed the pin number.
What about all the unencrypted data lost by this corrupt bunch of twats in the Liebour party?
I don't remember Home Secretaries resigning then?
If you leave your bank card pin number unchanged from the bank and your account gets hacked, guess who gets blamed.
Leave your car unlocked and it gets stolen, guess who the Police will blame.
Well, politics and journalism are the two dirtiest businesses. But, wouldn't it be funny if this one backfires on them.
Did anyone in government put pressure on the police not to prosecute ?
@Martin
Leave your car unlocked and it gets stolen, guess who the Police will blame.
This is the real stuff. If the BBC should be blaming anyone, it's Paltrow, Jade Goody and everyone else for not triple-locking their personal communications.
It's the absolute pinnacle of hypocrisy for the BBC, the Guardian and all their lackeys to be complaining about the News of the Screws's behaviour.
Thank God a blog campaigning for an end to unfairness and bias in the media sees the truth in all this.
I for one have emailed the Screws with all my mobile phone codes, email passwords and various log-in details to save Mr Murdoch any further expense in hiring private detectives to obtain these behind my back.
Just think: If we all did this we could make News International more profitable – and teach those Beeboid bastards a lesson in media ethics!
Anonymous 255
Congratulations!
You are the first beeboid (even those paid millions of public money a year) to actually make me laugh in ages.
Fair play to you.
The usual imbalance. Where was the Tory?
@Anonymous4.21
The usual imbalance. Where was the Tory?
Busy shredding all his personal correspondence before the News of the Screws paid someone to retrieve it.
I'm waiting to see what the Media Standards trust says about this.
Dear Anonymouse,
there was no hacking involved. Its easy you ring the nmber, press star and type in the standard default pin code. My son can do it and he is 12. It doesnt take a brain of Britain. Its hardly espionage is it. Imagine James bond ringing up his KGB rivals phone and typing 3333 or 1234 and then having access to top secrets.Who's at fault. News int for having reasonably sneaky reporters, the phone companies for not forcing people to set a decent pin number or the idiots in high places who dont pay proper attention to their phone security. And as for auntie how many times does our state broadcaster try and trip up companies and individuals with hidden camera techniques bannned in most countries.
the Grauniad with its fallling sales and its desperate finances is doing its best to attack the right wing press. Lets see if they reap the whirl wind. What with off shore accounts and dodgy finances.
Anon: Well since your favoured Government (Liebour scum) keep telling us that we should be happy to give our DNA to th EPolice, have ID cards and be filmed on CCTV.
"If you've nothing to hide, you've nothing to fear..". I've lost count the number of times Liebour politicians and the BBC have spouted this crap.
If you have nothing to hide then why fear the NOTW hacking your phone?
Well said Paddy. The media have been portraying this as some sophisticated "hacking" The reality is that the people "hacked" were too stupid to change their pin numbers. The fact that Prescott was amongst them tells me all I need to know. This is a non story and essentially reflects the clutching at straws mentality that has overtaken ZaNu Liebore and their media shills.
Well Yates of the Yard has just made it clear he knew of no evidence that fat boy had his phone hacked.
As far as I'm aware the Guardian hasn't released any real evidence yet and certainly nothing that links Coulson to any of this.
I did detect Radio 5 rowing back from the Coulson involvement this afternoon.
Guido reports that he was phoned last night by a Labour spin doctor who told him that NuLab were going to do to Coulson what the Tories had done to Damian McBride. The spin doctor predicted that today would be Coulson, Coulson, Coulson.
The BBC has been fulfilling that prediction in spades. Coulson, Coulson,Coulson….plus 'Cameron's right-hand man'….etc.
So there we have it.
Total and unambiguous confirmation and proof that the BBC takes its line directly from the Labour spin doctors.
They don't even try to be subtle.
The bias is blatant.
F*@# me. Beeboids on R4 are giving this higher profile than outbreak of WW3: urgent beakawys to live statements, promises of more reaction later – the full nine yards New Liebour hatchet job.
Not even the pretence of priority or balance, full on leftist propaganda.
This is a good story for Guardian or New Statesman, but not an impartial public sector broadcaster.
Umbongo & Liquid,
Nick Robinson and Charles Clarke were also on 'The Daily Politics'.
Watching the 6 o'clock news on this has given me the urge to throw up. How does the BBC get away with such unmitigated bias?
Yates at the Met has poured cold water over the whole story. But STILL the BBC gives it 10 whole minutes at 6pm on Radio 4. "It is said that"…."The Guardian says that"….yadayadayada.
This whole thing really stinks as a put up job, a deliberate hatchet job by the Guardian and the BBC.
Murdoch will have their guts for garters. Starting with – attacking the BBC ad revs to the Guardian, which props it up. And teams of people put on the BBC case, dig the dirt week in week out. Starting with the dirt about how the BBC has been playing this story.
BBC programming goes from bad to worse, the great British public cannot be relied upon to rush to the BBC's defence any more.
I don't think many people care much about this story anyway – it revolves around some Tory staffer who no-one has heard of. Nothing like the McBride affair that went right to the heart of Downing Street.
Who knows – even the wet-as-water Cameron might start to recognise the anti-Tory bile at the Beeb.
As I suggested earlier – I think this will all blow back on the BBC, bigtime, after the election. Revenge is a dish best supped cold.
Toenails was a joke on the 6PM News. Continually hinting that Coulson was involved. The BBC have been made to look utter utter fucking wankers today.
No story. I notice they dropped that fat bastard Prescott claiming that he had had his phone hacked. This is coming from a fat bastard that was shagging slappers in work time.
As others have pointed out Guido has the real handle on this.
@Paddy
Its easy you ring the nmber, press star and type in the standard default pin code. My son can do it and he is 12.
Excellent idea for "the News of the Screws: Why pay private eyes £2,000 a pop, when your lad'll do the business for a football mag and a sherbert dip? Win-win there, I'd say.
PLUS:
At 12, he's unlikely to get 4-6 months in prison. Unlike poor Clive Goodman and his gumshoe. Probation, most likely, for Paddy junior.
Win-win for Murdoch. Again!
Imagine James bond ringing up his KGB rivals phone and typing 3333 or 1234 and then having access to top secrets.
The name's Goodman. Clive Goodman. And you must be Passwords Galore?
Who's at fault. News int for having reasonably sneaky reporters,
Reasonably sneaky? How unkind. I think they'd prefer unreasonably….
the phone companies for not forcing people to set a decent pin number
The future's bright, the future's, ahem, forceful.
or the idiots in high places who dont pay proper attention to their phone security.
Contributory negligence. Gets them every time. Like going for a walk and complaining you were mugged. Just serves you right, Gwyneth Paltrow.
The BBC announcer on Radio 4's PM sounded positively tearful when she had to read out a statement saying that, "since we've been on air", the police have decided not to follow up on the Guardian's Coulson non-story.
Cue for a Guardian executive being allowed five minutes on-air to fume about the decision.
If this episode doesn't open the eyes of the Conservative party to the true nature of the BBC, then nothing will.
This whole affair has made me chuckle. It's so bloody obvious, isn't it, that they're trying to pin some scandal on those eeevviiillll Tories now that the whole '10% cuts' attack line has failed. If this is the worst that they can dig up then no wonder DC is 'relaxed'. All he has to do is compare this to McBride/Campbell/Draper/Maguire…
This pathetic attempt will not go unnoticed by Team Blue, for sure.
What our sarcy anonymous Beebophile seems to be overlooking is the sheer alacrity with which the BBC has carried this story.
As ever with the Corporation, it's the selectivity that gives the game away.
Both it and s/he, protests too much.
BBC's Nick Robinson, in shifting his story sounds like Andrew Gilligan.
Robinson is writing about nothing else today, of course.
At 9:24 today on his 'Newslog', he writes:
"They [the Tories] argue that the interventions of John Prescott, Charles Clarke and Alastair Campbell should be seen simply as a politically motivated campaign to damage David Cameron and one of his key advisers."
At 18:00 today he writes:
"This is a story fuelled by genuine outrage at abuses by the press and politically inspired protests designed to damage the Conservatives."
Run that bit past me again. Nick:
"AND POLITICALLY INSPIRED PROTESTS DESIGNED TO DAMAGE THE CONSERVATIVES."
I thought that's what you said. Now Nick, come clean, do these "politically inspired protests" not come from Labour and the BBC?
Did I hear Nick Robinson correctly on the 10 O'clock News tonight? Did he really say Alex Ferguson may have questions for the Tories if his phone has been tapped?
I must have misheard him.
Didn't I?
Roland Deschain 10:50 pm
Guardian' (online now) has follow up piece:
"Sir Alex Ferguson and Alan Shearer calls were hacked."
Roland,
That's exactly what he said.. and I thought it was a remarkably ridiculous statement as well.
(unless Cameron's election strategy depends on knowing whether Giggs is going to play, or be on the bench, at the Reebok)