The Murdoch family "imbroglio2 - fascinating piece by Michael Wolff

[Ponders]

\link{http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jul/08/news-corp-murdoch-news-of-the-world-closure?CMP=twt_gu\everybody has a tense relationship with everybody else, pretty much}

Mrs RM III does not like RB which means RM can't fire her because it would look as if he was siding with the Mrs over his children

Now that makes sense!

[Ponders]

'Family insiders say it was Freud who suggested closing the paper. He is said to have described it to James as a "Wapping" approach ? that is, when Rupert in the dead of night moved his British papers to Wapping to break the print unions.'

That makes a lot of sense too.

Let's hope the whole thing will implode before long

[AitchTwoOh]

it's very Borgias, innit?

[Pannus]

You couldn't make it up - I feel ashamed that as a society we've stood back and let it happen to us. My grandparents would be ashamed - they fought fascism and voted for the founding of the welfare state... and we stand back placidly letting a media mogul decide on our governments and policy for us.

[Pannus]

(Reuters) - News Corp Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch exited his London home on Sunday with his arm around embattled newspaper chief Rebekah Brooks, and told Reuters that she was his first priority.

Murdoch, who flew into Britain earlier on Sunday to deal with an escalating phone-hacking scandal at his News of the World tabloid that Brooks used to edit, answered: "This one," gesturing at Brooks, when asked what his first priority was.

The two, both smiling, then went into the Stafford hotel opposite Murdoch's apartment in the upmarket Mayfair area of London.

[AitchTwoOh]

see the thing i find interesting about all this is that they ARE all at it, clearly to such a degree that they no longer thing that it is anything other than the 'done thing'. paying the cops for info is illegal, but RB had gone so beyond that point when she testified at the select committee that she didn't see anything wrong in saying so. it evidently has been absolutely endemic for decades and decades, a relationship that has gone from a bottle of whisky at christmas to a wodge of cash, but same diff, it's all corruption at the end of the day.

i have found it interesting, though, that rusbridger and others have said that they warned cameron that coulson would prove to be a problem. why would he do that? it surely is a better story for a left-leaning paper if this man is at the heart of government.

i think the lot of them are intoxicated by proximity to power, whether they care to admit it or not. i know i am, i think it's a human instinct tbh, i don't judge them harshly for it, but i am interested that rusbridger hasn't said what he hoped to gain (ie some favour or other further down the road, or maybe just the glory of having been influential on the pm, even one he can't stand) if Cammo had taken his warning and dodged the Coulson bullet.

[Ponders]

but maybe this wasn't about 'the best story for the left-leaning paper' as far as Rusbridger was concerned? Call me a mug but maybe he has a sound moral compass? Is that possible?

I'm as keen on Campbell as the next woman man, but after years of having him as a Dark Power behind the PM could they have just thought it would be better for the country to have someone ethical & above suspicion for a change?

[AitchTwoOh]

nah. not having coulson wouldn't mean that the tories employ a 'good' man. look at steve hilton. look at osborne, fgs. they aren't good people. so to bring them down, as any right (left) thinking person should want to do, the bigger the fuck-up, the better. imo.

[EldritchCleavage]

I think Rusbridger is fairly sound (to the point of being prissy, actually). Perhaps he didn't want the kind of contemptuous attitude to law and morality that Coulson seems to have shown at Wapping brought into the heart of government.

[AitchTwoOh]

i am not saying he's unsound, not at all. he's done an amazing job. but he is no more an elected official than i am, so why is he advising the PM? it's not a big massive point, i just mean that it IS intoxicating hanging out with these people, they are impressive, and if you hang with that crowd you do easily over-step the mark. in his job, knowing what he did, he actually should have let the tories hang, but he didn't. i do think that is interesting.

[EldritchCleavage]

I see what you mean. I agree, and in the end it is all so incestuous. One of the lessons of this story is how much harder it is to avoid conflicts of interest or stand firm on standards when everyone is so very matey and involved.

[JohannaM]

Scuse me but while Rusbridger's paper has provided the wherewithal it is Nick Davies who, along with some hardworking lawyers, has done the spadework on this.

Like all the Media the Gruan's got its grubby parts. However, this is interesting.