Where to start?
For the third consecutive day, the BBC devotes a huge amount of resource to further excoriating the Murdoch Empire. Having gained the scalp of the News of the World, the BBC agenda moves on. First, in order to sustain its deluded image of solidarity with “the workers”, the BBC line is that lowly journalists have been sacrificed to save those higher up. Right on, comrades. So the new line is that closing NOTW is a despicable act and that justice will only be done when Coulson is imprisoned, Wade sacked, the BSkyB deal scuppered, Cameron damaged and Miliband elevated to the high moral gound.
Perhaps the greatest example of BBC bias is this interview with Chris Bryant, the new high priest of ethical standards and William Shawcross. Just listen to the interruptions Shawcross endures and compare that to the sympathetic silence afforded Mr Underpants.
If you then listen to the prime time slot, at 8.10am, it consists solely of a BBC journalist interviewing two other BBC journalists. Robinson is cheer-leading for Miliband (“He has found his voice this week” Robinson gushes) whilst Peston has the BSkyB acquisition in the cross-hairs.
I know I have focused on little but this story for the past few days but it’s because it is quite horrific to see a media bully in the shape of the BBC use the N OTW story to further it’s own objectives. Press freedom, consumer choice – this means NOTHING to the BBC. It simply aims to further deepen its own monopolistic position, along with the likes of The Guardian.
The BBC have spent yeras denigrating Fox News, how could they do anything else than fight, fight, fight to ensure that no right-of-centre TV news organisation is allowed to operate in the UK. At the moment TV news in the UK is dominated by the left-of-centre BBC and the smaller and similarly positionned Channel 4. The BBC have spent years carefully constructing narratives for many areas of news, a right-of-centre news operation might allow people to start questionning the BBC’s lines.
It’s got so bad that even the supposed free bloggers are just as bad it’s all no facts and loads of smoke and comment moderation ! but no one except here have I seen anyone asking where this leaves a free press in the UK? the BBC guardian axis now has more control over the media then ever before they control nearly all radio and internet coverage , what the rest of the world sees and hears about us they govern nearly all media,arts,public sector coverage! all while employing hundreds of Labour/ Marxist /Trotsky/SWP going! oh and 2 wet small ‘c’ [and we know what the c stand for !]ex Tory’s and one slightly right-wing media type ,for balance you know!
So now the papers gone jobs lost a scalp gained ! but nothing else,the people who maybe guilty of something wont be cleared or charged the enquires will prob die off as the ministry wont want the spot light to fall too close to them and their dodgy practices !
I despair I really do !!
Thanks be to Godwin, as the defenders of the faith seem only have one default setting on questions – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8o2QqcFRyg … let’s see if there are any sensible responses to this.
<!–StartFragment–>
The BBC is a £3-4Bpa monolith, broadcasting 24/7 across a bewildering array of platforms, including scores of TV and radio stations, plus online and even print.
It has 10’s of thousands of employees, mostly hired by means as selective as its editorial. And it is funded, uniquely, by a system that allows no mechanism for choice or critique by those compelled to stump up. Even our MPs have to stand for re-election every few years.
It brooks little or no criticism, and is actively constraining the few avenues that exist to do so publicly as we speak, as it deploys vast resources to crushing any competition.
One, simple question… how is that not a hugely influential media monopoly to be truly concerned about?<!–EndFragment–>
I just caught a snatch of Cameron’s press conference ( on Sky News ! ) and Prick Robinson just stopped short of calling for the PM’s resignation.
I was going to say “unbelievable”, but it is only too believable.
I think this could well lead to Cameron’s downfall.
And you know what? I don’t care. He showed incredibly crass judgement in appointing Andy Coulson in the frirst place – even if innocent there was still a bad smell attaching to him. Cameron is no better than his predecessor and did nothing to clip the BBC’s wings so he deserves what he gets.
Roland,
I am no defender of Cameron and would love to see him replaced by a real Conservative, but I really can’t see how this can be a resignation issue and would hate to see the BBC claim his scalp.
Failure to give us a referendum on the EU, now that is a resignation issue !
Cameron’s downfall.
Real possibility.
No loss. Especially if clearing dead wood turns fire on all others cut from similar cloth (including any on Labour benches not already in jail or in the MSM not already shredding Hebrew translations as we speak).
But….
I like my democracy via the ballot box, not via the machinations of those who, time and time again, get thwarted by the public not ‘getting’ their vision, and hence devoting considerable resource to getting around that.
Being charged on top for them having that privilege is an injury on top of the insult to the way this country is meant to be run.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/journalists/andrew-gilligan/8624221/Phone-hacking-scandal-enemies-of-free-press-are-circling.html
Circling above certain TV studios where they drop in with ease, and without fear of challenge. Don’t they have real jobs, or just get paid to be on standby when the next invitation to pontificate is issued from the hive?
The vulture culture is alive and malign, and the stench of hypocrisy can only be covered by BBC perfume so long.
Hmmmmm………..
Be careful what you wish for.
Like I said, we don’t know where the rabbit hole goes, but my guess is that while the BBC might be rubbing its hands today, what happens tomorrow could be another story……
‘Be careful what you wish for’
Indeed.
Just had my morning surf across the BBC blogosphere (twitter would be too much, though they seem to have time on their hands enough) and already a worrying trend emerges on various blogs (especially the Peston-Robinson lines, which seems to have found the staff, time and money to stay open after 4pm all of a sudden).
I am now seeing ‘posters’, emboldened by events, now looking around and muttering darkly about those who are not ‘of the hive’, singling out those who simply have other viewpoints, screaming and pointing like something out of ‘Invasion of the Body Snatchers’.
And they are getting ‘likes’ aplenty, whilst the hapless victims get mercilessly downgraded. Now 30 activists out of 60M should not a movement make, but in the perverse world of the BBC where all your twitter mates aggreeing counts as the UK public being in favour, things are on a slide.
For any Beeboids who think that is a good thing, ponder the fate of Ernst Röhm before firing up the pitchforks and torches too soon.
Relax. It’s not just propaganda, it’s uniquely-funded, national treasure propaganda. And that’s enough for most.
‘Now 30 activists out of 60M should not a movement make’
Tomorrow’s BBC headline?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14073107
20. FairPlayMotty
7TH JULY 2011 – 20:10
This whole affair has been a disgrace. The metropolitan police force in particular has cause to be ashamed.
Hopefully the BBC will take this opportunity to reflect on its own practice of, “reviewing the papers (i.e. the almost exclusively right wing press) and then following the stories in those papers as “news”.
Or, not so much, balanced at -8 to the above’s +8 by:
10. venerablebede
7TH JULY 2011 – 20:03
Well at least Murdoch took action. When the BBC hacked into a celebrity’s answering machine, left an obscene message and then broadcast it on the radio, the BBC was umming and arrring about it for weeks. Did the BBC close down Radio 2? No.
My site,
You are right. The stench of hypocrisy is overwhelming. The self-righteous piousness of the Left , spear-headed by the BBC, makes me sick.
How can these wretched creatures live with themselves ?
I actually agree, I would happily see Nu Liebore come to power again, see even more Muslims flood into the Country our national debt racked up even more and the EU taking ever greater control.
We are a nation of sheep and deserve all we get.
Martin,
Funny. Today I almost posted a similar idea. Cameron could call an election. Labour win. The British sheep think it is their last chance and the destruction is complete. No point in prolonging the agony.
He is an odious tit!
Complete non-story this, and the increasing hysteria from the MSM just shows that they don`t get out enough.
Guessing that it`s easier just to hack from El Vinos or the Wapping “Kebab and Calculator” equivalent.
Are the Met now arresting people by appointment now?…how else were the BBC able to tell us that Coulson would be “arrested” this morning?
I suspect some hacking or the like from the BBC etc here-and hope Murdochs Phoenix will turn its investigatve fire on the hypocrites and phonies that continue to blow up the soufflet with their pastel coloured straws!
We need Fox here as soon as possible!
The Radio 5 phone in was a hoot with Nicky Campbell cheerleading the left yet again.
Why hasn’t anyone asked Red Ed about his own murdoch employee?
Martin, we must have been listening to two entirely different Nicky Campbells.
So when did Nicky Campbell ask Alistair Campbell about why they did nothing for 13 years about phone hacking? or the Murdoch employees now working in Nu Liebore?
Alistair Campbell gets a free ride off Campbell every time he’s on, I hate BBC presenters who continually call Liebore politicians by their first name, sounds too pally.
Martin,
They are all pals . Especially Campbells. Never trust one.
Easy for the BBC to gloat, knowing that they couldn’t possibly be subjected to the same forces of advertiser/consumer pressure as the NOTW was.
(Blog plug: http://wp.me/p1CkQu-2N)
Despite what the BBC have claimed this is very much a media storm. First they shout that the public is outraged then they make a full on non-stop attempt to whip up that outrage.
Tell me who has actually been surprized by the press practices exposed?
This big push by the BBC/Guardian axis is a corporate and political assault.
Cameron should have moved against his enemies at the BBC as his first priority.
The BBC are the unofficial opposition, and I expect – if I could bear to listen or watch today – they are calling for a General Election.
Watch closely after this dies down a little. Just see if the BBC don’t come away with concessions such as control of the internet, new EU-wide responsibilities etc etc…
Agree entirely, this story is largely a creation of the bbc and just shows the depths they will sink to to try and discredit rivals.
It also shows the utter naivety of cameron, in not comming out with a strong policy in place to reform the left wing bias of the bbc during his first week in office.
>>Tell me who has actually been surprized by the press practices exposed?<<
Suprised at the evident hacking of the phones of war widows and murder victims?
Nope more shocked at so far baseless rumour mongering during a ongoing police investigation ! how the hell can anyone get a fair trial after this?
Baseless rumour mongering? Phone numbers of murder victims and war widows are found in the possession of a PI who was convicted of mobile phone hacking in pursuit of NoW news stories?
When I look at the associations of Caged Prisoners with key Al Qa’eda ideologues I know how far the balance of probability falls that Caged Prisoners is a terrorist propaganda group.
Would though of course, the BBC place the same credence in this information as they are placing in the hacking scandal info.
Oh, and of course, there is the gross hypocrisy that the BBC/Guardian aided and abetted Wikileaks in disseminating Top Secret security information that endangered the lives of pro-US Coalition Afghans.
‘Phone hacking’ ie low tech ‘pranking’ (I think thats what teenagers call it?) of voice mails….
Tell me how that is so very different to sticking long photo lenses through curtains, doorstepping neighbours, miss quoting, tapping up coppers for the inside track etc etc….its called a free press.
The excesses are already illegal. I just don’t get the sudden moral outrage. It’s a messy world, but what’s the alternative?
Perhaps you would like to eliminate all free press and see the state media control every source of information? You’ll find you have plenty of allies at the BBC.
What hacking of war widows? As far as I’m aware some of them have had their phone numbers appear on a list, that does NOT mean any of them were hacked, if fact I’m not aware that any of them have formally complained.
This is just like the BBC stating that people only got angry about MP expenses when duck houses and moats were put on expenses. As we know neither of those were actually approved and the REAL thieving took place mostly amongst Liebore MPs several of them having now gone to jail, but the BBC likes to ignore that. Hazel Blears, Jackie Smiff and Margaret Moran should ALL be doing time in my view, but hey talking about tory duck houses is more fun (Tory toffs you see, thieving by hard working liebore MPs is OK in BBC land)
As I see it,
Quite agree. The dim muppet, Miliband, at PMQs was saying “the public demand… “.
He is a wealthy, spoilt , Leftie elitist. How would he know what the public “demand”.
Seems to me the “Public” are more worried about their jobs, the economy, security, immigration and the many other issues which decades of useless politicians have buggered up in this country.
“”He has found his voice this week” Robinson gushes”
Well Radio 5 gave over the station to Milliband at 8am for him to deliver his speech without interruption. But his spiel was getting so crushingly boring by 8:20 that they had to ditch him & instead get the views of Straight Candidate Simon Hughes
David, no need to apologise for majoring on this.
If the BBC was a relative you would have them sectioned under the Mental Health Act.
They have devoted, I guess, almost the entire output (such as it is) of Radio 5 Listeners and Radio Bour to this story this week.
‘And now we cut away from The One Show to David Dimbleby in the Question Time auditorium’.
‘Obsessive’ doesn’t begin to describe it. The BBCC have absolutely lost the plot on this. I don’t remember the openings of either the Iraq or the Afghanistan campaigns getting anything like the saturation coverage of what is nothing much more than minor criminality by journalists and PIs.
I think that Cameron is a true blue Tory masquerading as a husky-hugging wet. Perhaps now he’ll realise what a canker the BBCC is and perhaps consider how much more appropriate might be a subscription only model.
I’m sure the baby-eating rightwingmurochpress will be right behind him on this.
One can only hope.
Quentin Letts, ‘Daily Mail’, appropriately concludes his article on MPs and NoW, thus:
“Meanwhile, outside the Chamber, the BBC was giving yet more airtime to Alastair Campbell, deploring the devilishness of the popular press. Campbell! Did anyone wade deeper up the political-media sewer than that man?”
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2012038/Phone-hacking-Rupert-Murdoch-lies-world-politics.html#ixzz1RVc6Btqn
DV, I listened to the Justin Webb interview of the Hon Chris Bryant MP and William Shawcross and have to say I think it bears little relation to your perception. There was of course the comment by Justin Webb that Mr Shawcross “supports” Rupert Murdoch’s BSkyB bid which Shawcross took strong exception to as Justin Webb ‘putting words in my mouth’.
Haven’t heard the second segment you referred to, but what I do not is that last night I found the coverage led by Clive Myrie on BBC News 24 last night was disturbing.
With this sacrificial lambs talk, it seems to have escaped the BBC’s attention that NoW had haemorraghed advertising revenue.
As for the Robinson / Peston spiel half way into the link you posted, again I found your perception to be exaggerated.
hip
I disagree – Chris Bryant was allowed his rants without interruption, Shawcross was being interrupted – and treated scornfully. Bryant is a nobody, Shawcross is a fairly eminent author and biographer – I recall his original biography of Murdoch many years ago was a very complete and balanced treatment.
But then – “complete and balanced” is not in the BBC’s ken.
A question I dont hear being raised is whether the Rt Hon Leader of Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition is exploiting the NoW issue to tar the Prime Minister.
Good point. No chance the BBC will raise that – Miliband is playing their tune
He’s got Kirsty Wark as his Press Officer – oops!, sorry, his interviewer.
All news sevices are devoting loads of time to this matter, out of all proportion to its importance. It isn’t just the BBC.
This kind of thing happens all the time. Just think of Princess Diana’s death, the recent royal wedding etc.
That the BBC news dept behaves in exactly the same way as other news providers simply demonstrates that there is nothing unique or useful about it, and therefore no reason why the government should force us to pay for it.
Melanie Phillips:
[Excerpt]-
“Moreover, the ecstatic BBC and Guardian are hardly dispassionate observers of these events. They are direct competitors of NI and have an overwhelming commercial interest in bringing it down.
But that isn’t the worst of it. In a western world whose intelligentsia is consumed by irrational and malevolent hatred of America and Israel and is hell-bent on undermining the west and assisting its mortal enemies, Murdoch has provided the one media voice putting forward a pro-America, pro-Israel, pro-defence of the west position — including support for the Iraq war.
“That’s why the left hate him so much. They display the same kind of frenzied, irrational obsession over Murdoch as they do over America, Israel and Iraq. When you consider the BBC’s ‘group-think’ bent journalism, or the disgusting support the Guardian provides, week in, week out, to anti-Jewish, anti-gay, women-beating hate-mongers, to see the BBC and Guardian scarcely able to contain themselves over Murdoch’s disaster is a nauseating spectacle.”
http://www.melaniephillips.com/britains-media-earthquake
I see Lord Ashcroft has gone on the record and made a very serious allegation against a former Times journalist, accusing him of unlawfully using a third party to obtain private financial information about his (Ashcroft’s) payments to the Conservative Party.
The former Times journalist is now working as a senior press advisor to a well-known politishian, whose name isn’t David.
I expect Ashrcoft’s allegations will be all over the news this afternoon.
(A bar door swings in the breeze…a sheep moos nearby…tumbleweed floats by…)
They are a repeat of the allegations he made in his book years ago. They have never been challenged.
BBC-Labour-NUJ, Peston, and Murdoch.
Toby Young ‘Telegraph’:-
“Robert Peston: News International’s press officer”
[Excerpt] –
“In the light of Peston’s close links to News International, shouldn’t the BBC be asking whether he’s a ‘fit and proper’ person to report on the phone hacking scandal?”
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/tobyyoung/100095296/robert-peston-news-internationals-press-officer/
Peston is a City gossip. He has close links to nearly everyone in one way or another. His contact list is the reason he has his job at the BBC.
As I predicted the next line of attack from the BBC/Guardian is Sky itself. On Radio 5 Peston has just been spinning the following
That Ofcom should be BOLD and look at refusing the Murdoch BSkyB takeover
That Ofcom should be BOLD and look to see if Murdoch’s current 39% shareholding in BSkyB should be reduced
That Ofcom should be BOLD and look at removing Sky’s licence to operate unless Murdoch gets rid or reduces his 39%
It’s quite obvious that the attack will now be on Sky, I suspect we will see Peston and others now spinning unfounded lies and garbage.
Oh and a cracking comment from Peston was that we’ve seen the banks, politicians and now the media go wrong and all since 2000.
“What has happened” said Peston, well having an utter wanker like Bliar followed by Brown and Nu Liebore is probably the answer, thrown in with the usual EU madness Peston.
What a twat.
It wasn’t all banks. Peston is such a drama queen.
The serial deceit and manipulation of Blair and Brown that dragged British Politics through the mud and the rest of the country with it – especially the BBC with its blatant collusion – will, I somehow doubt, not be raised for the Great British Public to consider.
Year zero is a favourite leftist tactic and strategy and the BBC have taken to it like a maggot to dead flesh.
Who began this incestuous and unhealthy alliance with grubby MSM insiders? Newlabour perfected the insider trading and attendant dirty tricks with its MSM cronies, no trick to low, no smear to grotesque. Years of iron control of the MSM route to public opinion and they used it like a wicked weapon. Mr Cameron simply learned from Mr Bliar how to manipulate the MSM and copied his tactics and strategy by employing that vile scumbag Coulson and now he is paying the price for it.
No context or background or history from the BBC, the listener/viewer is not allowed to see the whole grubby story and how it evolved over the years and who was involved. I hope Scumeron is nailed to the wall, I hope he gets whats coming to him in spades but just because I and many others hate him does not mean we dont want the whole story. And dont tell me that the Mirror/Guardian and others were not above employing PIs who sifted through bins and hacked phones etc, they were all at it. The BBC though only sees its political enemies and competitors in the frame, you just know that if the Mirror or the Guardian got fingered then you could fit the BBC coverage on a postage stamp.
Interesting how the Guardian managed to break that Coulson was due to be arrested today. I’m sure everything was tickety-boo on that.
Check Guido’s site the Guardian have a hack who admitted the Police used Police logs to check for them, tut tut.
Nasty Uncle Rupert is damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t. If he had fired Brooks, that wouldn’t have been enough, because the actual goal of those making the fuss (including St. Hugh) is to prevent him from owning BSkyB. Everyone moaned about the “culture” of naughty behavior at NoW, and if Murodch had merely replaced the top bosses with employees from elsewhere in his “empire”, it wouldn’t have stopped those complaints.
So he shut it down. Naturally, that’s not good enough, and his enemies had to find an angle to condemn it. Never mind that nearly all of the NoW staff will find work elsewhere. I think its offices are in the same building as the Times, so it wouldn’t surprise me if the sainted tea ladies worked all floors for both companies, and still have their jobs today.
The BBC brings out the “expert” editors, as if somehow Robinson and Peston saying it means it’s all objective and not a demand to shut down an international media organization over purely political partisanship.
Even now Sophie Beebod is asking somebody on the News Channel if this means “a divorce between politicians and the Muroch empire”, in case anybody wasn’t yet aware of the actual goal of all this noise. She hasn’t yet asked anyone why Coulson wasn’t arrested years ago, though, or why Labour didn’t raise a massive fuss then like they are now. I’m surprised – NOT – that the BBC hasn’t been a lot more cautious in its reporting on this, seeing as how competition laws are looming over them here. It’s especially curious the way they have allowed so many people, including Lord Prescott, to libel Murdoch and his business by stating crimes as fact which are now either allegations or mere speculation. That more than anything else shows where the BBC’s bias is.
David P,
Yes, it will be interesting to know what new evidence PC Plod has on Coulson.
The whole media, political and judicial system in the UK is rotten to the core.
Thank goodness for the freedom of expression on B-BBC.
Each day I find myself despairing more and more about what used to be a great country. Then I log on to this website and realise I am not alone , and retain a modicum of sanity.
Keep up the good stuff chaps and chapesses !
What a load of crap this demagoguing is, the latest from Clegg. Clean it up? Make sure it never happens again? I call BS on everyone covering this or talking about it publicly.
If Labour and the police had done their jobs properly the first time this hacking noise came up, none of the current alleged “crimes” would have happened. Labour and the police failed the public, not Cameron.
Cameron might be guilty of bad judgement, but all of this stuff went on under Nu Liebore, the Police have always had a corrupt element to them, but this just seemed to get out of control over the last few years, perhaps Murdoch’s lot thought they could get away with it as the Police were sucking up to Bliar (the Met) with Ian Blair in charge.
I suspect there is an awful lot more ot come out yet, people seem to have forgotten how the Met Police carried Liebore party political stickers on their cars, or senior Police officers campaigned for 90 day detention.
Terrororism laws had Walter Wolfgang dragged from a Liebore conference like a Jew at a Hitler rally.
The whole 13 years of Liebore stinks to high heaven and much of it remains covered up, the lies over Iraq, the death of David Kelly, the cash for honours, the F1 bung, the banks it just goes on and on.
But don’t expect the BBC or Guardian to highlight any of it.
If the BBC and Guardian’s MAIN agenda was always to run this phone-hacking story against NI for the purpose of damaging or halting Murdoch’s bid for BSkyB, then two thoughts come to mind:
1. In a backhanded sort of way, you have to hand it to BBC/G; they have played this story in such a cunning way that it is almost impossible for people (such as this site) to point out the real, hidden agenda to the casual observer, without making it seem as if you either don’t care about the phone hacking or don’t think it’s that big a deal. Yes, it IS a big deal, and the phone-hacking (if and when the proof is made plain) is an awful abuse of the press, etc. No question about that. But, our emotional reaction to it should not stop people from bringing to light the BBC’s real agenda, for there are two separate issues involved in this whole story.
2. If it turns out that the BBC/G have, without sufficient proof that actual hacking occurred, needlessly dragged the Dowler family into this, only a week or so after we read of their distress in the courts, just in order to further a political agenda, then that would be so despicable that I can’t think of words strong enough to describe it.
Am I missing something? The Guardian/BBC/Nu Liebore are up in arms that the NOTW was getting information passed to it from the Police.
But I keep reading via the BBC that the Guardian are being told this and that by the Police (like the claim over the deleted emails)
So just WHO in the Police is leaking information to the Guardian about what is supposed to be a serious investigation?
Yes; and such a joint political understanding between all of the hierarchies of BBC-Labour-NUJ-Guardian and Met comes naturally to them all, given the common ‘multicultural’ and ‘political correct’ ideology which imbues the lot of them. Get Murdoch, get EDL, get Israel, get Geert Wilders, appease Islam.
Multiculturalism Has Destroyed The British Police
http://paulweston101.blogspot.com/2009/10/multiculturalism-has-destroyed-british.html
A reprise:
The real reason for the Guardian-BBC assault on News International
Hmm, yet another step in the ‘get Sky’. On Newsnight the vile Hattie Hatemen commented that Murdoch’s call to break up the BBC shows how we must protect the BBC.
I think we can all see what is coming. I suspect we will see the Guardian/BBC Nu Liebore try to actually break up Sky, all of Peston’s hints about how Sky is the BIGGEST broadcaster in the UK is him trying to scare people into thinking Sky is taking over everything.
So I expect to see Sky News sold off and reduced in size (less of a threat to BBC News), Sky Sports broken up, the football hived off (expect to see the BBC/Guardian/Liebore tell the Premiership that it’s wrong ot be part of the evil Murdoch empire blah blah blah) also other Sky channels will be broken up. Sky will be reduced to simply a delivery platform and not a broadcaster.
The Guardian had a political desire to hurt the Tories and the BBC had a desire to see Sky weakened, Nu Liebore had a desire to promote the BBC & Guardian. The right have fallen right into this trap even though plenty of anti BBC blogs like this one have been highlighting it for months if not years.
Unless Murdoch is sitting in a leather chair stroking a white cat and planing to nuke the BBC I think he’s really been done over, not such a smart man after all.
If Cameron had any brains (stop sniggering at the back now) he’d take the opportunity to say ALL large media groups are dangerous for democracy and announce plans to break up Sky AND the BBC.
Surely easier to break up the BBC!
I`ll buy Solent Radio for £7.70!
Rupert Murdoch will have the best lawyers in Britain working on this – he’s no dummy. (I had a minor dispute with Sky and therefore Keith Rupert M of 1 Pennington Street E1, the JUNIOR lawyer acting was Antony Julius – who went on to get £20 million for Princess Di’s settlement.)
The attack on Murdoch and Sky may well over-reach itself. Most Sky viewers are happy with the services they receive -otherwise they would not stay, they are not forced under duress to stay. They’d be pissed off if the Government started to threaten to break the whole thing up. 40% of the UK population are on Sky ?
A few little technical details. Sky’s service depends on satellite channels leased long-term from SES-Astra by Sky. Sky – or Murdoch – could say – “hey, we have those channels, no-one else can use them, you cannot invent or create an alternative without buying your own channel leases”. Who is going to risk that amount of money – even if there were spare channels, which I doubt. So at 23,000 metres up there, Murdoch has satellite transmission capability by the balls.
How about down on the ground ? Sky boxes are the property of Sky. Sky also owns the Israeli company that designed the encryption system.
So even if a new operator somehow found – and was willing to gamble on investing in satellite channel capacity capable of beaming signals to UK Sky dishes – the encryption system could be used by Sky to turn everything off – to block any incoming signals. Why on earth should Sky let other people use its boxes ?
……………………………………………..
Rupert Murdoch has a track record of providing what the market wants. On 5 continents.
In Britain – just part of his global scope – that is why he ended up owning much of the UK press. He delivered products people were willing to pay for. He saved the News of the World and then the Sun (Daily Herald) from ruin. For better or worse – he and he alone was able to keep the Times and Sunday Times alive. All this offsets any sins of the flesh with NOTW and the Sun – that’s the tabloid Sun that has had the best political coverage of ANY UK newspaper.
And Murdoch’s sense of the market and public demand is why he runs UK’s satellite TV – he bet the whole farm on setting up Sky in the mid-1980s, when the BBC and all the ITV companies were scared to try, and then made a hash of things with the ridiculous BSB squarial project. Sky has been well managed for 2 decades providing what the punters are willing to pay for. Now 40% of the UK population ?
……………………….
I would not be at all surprised to see Murdoch give an interview this weekend where he calls out the poison dwarves who are trying to screw him. Including both Cameron and Miliband. Murdoch is a giant compared to these clowns. “Not a fit and proper person” ….. that applies to Cameron and Miliband and Clegg more than it does to Murdoch, and the UK population knows this.
There is deep and abiding animus against all our politicians. We are stuck with them, all the creeps who want to rule us, all the parties who have failed us. By contrast, there is NOT deep and abiding animus against the broader sweep of what Murdoch owns and sells – he is just the Dirty Digger, take his newspapers or TV or don’t take them – it is a free choice.
………………..
And for a comparison – there was universal outrage at Jonathan Woss and that Russell Brand creep two years ago – but the BBC’s audience was hardly dented. The BBC sailed on regardless, people wanted to watch its channels, we all have to pay for them through the compulsory, pay-or-go-to-jail licence fee. This week the biased BBC has had the knives out for Sky and Murdoch, hence their obsessive round-the-clock coverage of this story – who cares about the last Shuttle, about Portugal going bankrupt, about the US being one month from its debt ceiling, about 10 million at risk of starvation in Africa?
Two Beeboids (at least) lost their jobs over Ross/Brand/Sachs. And they all had to go on a mandatory course about how it’s wrong to steal money from and lie to children after those phony phone competitions were busted. Oh, the humanity!
Brendan O’Neill : –“After the News of the World, who’s safe?
The unprecedented harrying to extinction of a tabloid newspaper is likely to have a chilling effect across the British media.”
http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php/site/article/10746/
That is a superb article – better than anything I have seen anywhere in the UK press
“There are few things quite so emetic as the liberal-left on its high horse ”
(James Delingpole)
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100096148/there-are-few-things-quite-so-emetic-as-the-liberal-left-on-its-high-horse/
I’m a little nervous to venture out into the streets today. I hope things have calmed down after the widespread storm of public anger and outrage we’ve had this week. Looking out of the window it all looks normal. Have the BBC been misleading me?
I’ve been away for a few days, so apols if I’ve missed it already buried amongst the deluge of comments in one of the Murdoch threads, but I thought this article by Donal Blaney in The Commentator is worth a mention.
“Worse is the way that bitter tribalists and those with commercial axes to grind – led by the BBC and Guardian – are improperly trying to destroy Rupert Murdoch’s reputation and business empire. The actions of rogue reporters, investigators and perhaps even executives at the News of the World have absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the proposed takeover of BSkyB. Nothing. “
“And those on the left who think they have been brave in courting positive headlines in the Guardian (which continues to lose money hand over fist) or on the BBC (whose dominance of the media really ought to concern those who profess to care about media plurality) will regret their actions this week.”
(my emphases)