Paul Dacre at the Leveson Inquiry

[bananaistheanswer]

here

I was going to add comment to the other thread I started here at the beginning of the inquiry but purely for the comedy value alone, I felt this warranted it's own, shiney new thread. The above isn't word for word, just the guardian blog, but there are some crackers in there, and I haven't even got to the end.

Did you know, criticism of the Daily Mail stems from a lack of understanding on how journalism works? Next time you see a thread on here quoting the Daily Mail, just remember, we just don't understand how journalism works. Feast your eyes on the pearls of wisdom dished out by the one and only Mr Dacre, and enjoy...

[blackoutthesun]

damn, pressed too soon

you can watch it here

[MrsDeeBee]

blackout

Thanks so much for the link. I can be watching and posting...not that I shall make any sense.

[edam]

When I was a keen, bright eyed and bushy tailed young reporter on a trade mag, I was surprised to find the national correspondents in my field would get together after the big BMA/RCN/whatever annual conferences and decide what the story was AND what the names of the speakers would be. Heaven forfend they might actually check what people's names actually were... if there's one thing I've learned in the past two decades, it's that getting people's names wrong is the thing that pisses people off most. You can write stories that paint them in a bad light all you like, but if you spell their name wrong they will be furious!

[limitedperiodonly]

Copying stuff to curry favour with the news editor is just an entry drug to things like this for the News of the World

Before you know it you're sprawled on the camberwick bedspread masturbating to camera.

As a journalist it's my duty to see those pix so you don't have to.

[Catkinsthecatinthehat]

I've followed the Morgan murder case for years as I've met Alistair Morgan, Daniel's brother, who has led the justice campaign. The Morgans have always believed that Daniel was killed on the orders of serving Met police officers as he was about to blow the lid on corruption and drug running within the force, which is why the Met, the PCA and later the IPCC spent years obstructing any investigation.

The prime suspect for the murder, Jonathan Rees, has since turned out to be one of the NOTW's most prolific hackers, and worked for them either side of a prison sentence for peverting the course of justice (he was working with a police officer to plant drugs on an innocent woman so she'd lose custody of her child). When a serious investigation into the murder finally started, the NOTW set out to intimidate and discredit the investigating officer, Dave Cook, Hames' husband. They also threatened the Morgan family. Some of those NOTW staff were also working for and with the Met police at the same time. When Cook complained to the Met Police, Rebecca Brooks was called in to see their Head of PR Dick Fedorcio. He squashed all further action against the NOTW people who'd attempted to derail a murder investigation to protect a colleague as he wanted to maintain a good relationship between the Met and News International.

The Morgan case did come to court last year but collapsed as, whoops, the Met hadn't disclosed all the evidence. They issued a statement afterwards stating that police corruption had hindered the case for years. Sorreeee!

The level of corruption involved and the depth of the relationship between the Met and News International is breathtaking.

[MrsDeeBee]

edam

Noted.

blackoutthesun

My apologies for missing out half of your name.

limitedperiodonly

My apologies for missing out some of your name.

[SerialKipper]

Watching Leveson regularly, and also reading this thread - so you're not crying in the wilderness. Not energetic enough to comment much, but keep it going!

For those who don't know, Daniel Morgan was a private investigator whose business partner worked for NOTW. A Met police officer who later replaced Morgan in the business was tried for the murder but the trial collapsed. The police now admit the investigation was affected by corruption.

[SerialKipper]

Bleh, x-post!

[limitedperiodonly]

edam oddly enough it was a Sunday for Monday.

Catkins I agree, breathtaking. I would like to see people go down but I won't hold it.

[MrsDeeBee]

Catkinsthecatinthehat

[limitedperiodonly]

As Edam says, getting people's names right doesn't matter when you're a journalist deebee. See what I did there?

[blackoutthesun]

i agree Daniels family need justice

[edam]

Getting people's names right DOES matter, there's nothing more guaranteed to cause complaints. But if you are on the Mail, you don't have to care, as you don't need to talk to those people ever again (if it's members of the public, more care is taken with experts or top people in organisations like the BMA).

deebee

[MrsDeeBee]

Argh !

If you're going to shorten it, make it MrsDB please !

If you do deebee it takes me 10 minutes to realise you're 'talking' to me !

[edam]

I have fucked up over names, though, even though I know it's really important and do try hard to get it right. Once subbed a letters page and managed to confuse two letters on the same subject - I'd asked one writer to clarify some details and when she responded added her comments into the other writer's letter. They were Not Best Pleased.

[MrsDeeBee]

don't mind really...

[edam]

what's that, MsCeeDee?

[bananaistheanswer]

yay I got company! Thanks for the link blackoutthesun, I was contemplating sky+ing BBC parliament but don't have the disk space . And Catkins, thanks for that info. I was not too clued up on the finer details of what happened, so that was really helpful. I am dying to hear what Tom Watson has to say tomorrow.

[MrsDeeBee]

What, wensleydale ?

[MrsDeeBee]

Have just read the wiki page.

I knew that the 'powers that be' were/are corrupt, but the lengths that they go to are astonishing.

If you could see me I am sitting here like this -->

[limitedperiodonly]

edam I'm joking. Actually, I think that if you're trained properly to ask for spellings, ages etc it becomes automatic.

Why on Earth wouldn't you check details even if you intended to make the rest of it up? It becomes more important to check details in those circumstances so you can get your story straight. So I'm told.

I think many of the people working today never had that training and think it's all a bit of a fuss and bother over nothing. I've worked for a women's magazine editor who wailed to the lawyer trying to avert a contempt of court: 'You're always trying to ruin things.'

[bananaistheanswer]

MrsDB, my face has been like that --> most of the day reading through this stuff. It is really mind blowing isn't it?

[limitedperiodonly]

Sorry never mind John Whittingdale - the Metropolitan Police Horse Welfare Society

[VivaLeBeaver]

Will definetly watch parliamentary debate tomorrow.

[bananaistheanswer]

limited that is the million dollar question isn't it? Just what does she know that keeps her from getting too acquainted with the inside of a prison cell? The mind boggles...