Parliamentary Phantom Flan Flinger

Today was meant to be about the questions asked to Andrew Stapleton, the James & Rupert Murdoch and Rebekah Brooks. Now due to one numpty it will be remembered for one custard pie and Wendi Deng, Rupert's wife's left hook.

All fingers are pointing towards Jonnie Marbles who on his Tweeted profile has a UK Uncut Twibbon. He said earlier in the afternoon "I'm actually in this committee and can confirm: Murdoch is Mr. Burns." before just a minute before the disruption Tweeted this.

As someone who says they are an "Activist, comedian, father figure and all-round nonsense." who Tweets "in an impersonal capacity" However, comedian's who are activists should look at people like Eddie Izzard, Lenny Henry and Steve Coogan amongst others for the correct mix of being serious and funny to get their points across. This timing and way in which he tried to use humour has actually buried what should be the story tonight and tomorrow and changed the focus.

The action that he has actually carried out had turned Rupert Murdoch into a victim in the space of 60 seconds from being someone that on Twitter was being mocked, just minutes before. Also it is a common assault on an individual, it happened in full view of a largest than normal BBC News audience that time of the afternoon.

It's also result in the end of the Murdoch's questioning and all of Rebekah Brooks to be carried out without a public gallery. It has already been hinted at that a review may have to go underway into how Select Committees happen in the future. I assume that involves the access of members of the public to such hearings.

Buy Last News of the World or give £1 to charity of your choice

Apparently the last edition of the News of the World this week is giving all the proceeds to good causes.

May I suggest one final thing, instead of buying it, donate £1 the cover cost to the charity of your choice, if you can claim gift aid on the donation do so, it turns your contribution into £1.25 which is far more than the News of World would be giving up of your pound.

One recommendation would be the Royal British Legion or Help for Heroes in light of recent revelations.

NOTW headline 10 July 2011 Got us!!

The latest victim of the News of the World phone hacking scandal is the News of the World. This Sunday will be the last ever edition of the paper News International have announced today.

On a day when it emerged that up to 4000 people have been subject to the paper's phone hacking mentality, something the statement from James Murdoch still blames on some "wrongdoers (who) turned a good newsroom bad and this was not fully understood or adequately pursued." 


The paper was founded 168 years ago, even at the repeal of the stamp act in 1855 when the paper was threepence it was still the cheapest paper. The paper itself was described in the 1890s as being "a very fine paper indeed". In 1968 after a year long battle with Robert Maxwell, Rupert Murdoch acquired the title for his then modest News Ltd. group. The title with a readership of over 2.5 million was the top selling Sunday paper.

The speed of which the leadership of News International went from defending the paper, editors and integrity of the paper to the point where it decided to close down one of the oldest titles in UK publishing shows the extent of public anger, amount of advertiser disquiet and political and public outrage at not just how they acquired their information by phone hacking, but the range of people's who phones were hacked. The missing 13 year old Milly Dowler, the parents of the Soham victims, the relatives of 7/7 victims and the bereaved families of troops. There are also questions being asked about the conviction of Tommy Sheridan and the integrity of evidence against him which came from the News of the World.

The list of 4000 people who have been subject to potential phone hacking by the paper doesn't just indicate an occasional falling into this trap, it suggests an institutional modus operandi of the paper throughout. The closure of the title is the obvious outcome.

However, there are already concerns that the same staff will merely be shifted to another title. Indeed if every employee at the News of the World loses their job except Rebekah Brooks who has been the centre of attention, and offered to resign yesterday apparently, something is seriously still wrong with the way Murdoch runs his empire. Changing the name doesn't change the mentality of the journalists who followed this way of getting that news. The inquiries still need to take place, or even that they will be absorbed into other Murdoch titles. We need to know who was involved in this, and what exactly they did. They cannot be merely shifted and the story buried, with their CVs redacted to merely editor within the  News International Group of papers.

This is the same stable of papers that in 1989 preyed on the mourning of Liverpool football fans in the weeks after the Hillsborough tragedy. It is not just a recent malaise that the group has suffered. It has been an ongoing desire to do all it can to get the sensational to the front page.

Update While I was doddling to make this front page I heard that The Sun's subeditors and journalists have walked out in solidarity or protest at the News of the World. As soon as I have anything on this I will add a new link. Update This walkout is against Murdoch and the way he has treated loyal staff, who are good at their job and doing an honest job now as part of the new way the NOTW is working.

Update 2  Apparently Andy Coulson who was Deputy Editor at the NOTW under Rebekah Brooks has been told he will be arrested tomorrow in connection with the phone hacking allegations.

Just how have the News of the World remembered our forces?

You know things are getting bad when the one organisation that hardly anybody will say a bad word about takes their support from you. So it was today for the News of the World today when the Royal British Legion severed its ties with the paper as a campaigning partner.

The News of the World as the most widely circulating Sunday paper with a demographic readership that is liable to be very much behind our troops and the relatives of those who lose loved ones or the ability to serve through conflict would be a major component in Legion fundraising efforts. However, while outwardly appearing to support our troops and their families the allegations yesterday that the News of the World phone hacking scandal went as far as to hack grieving families of our brave troops was a step that the Legion could not condone.

The News of the World partnership with the Legion has been terminated and the Legion is currently looking at its advertising package with the paper as well. A spokesman for the charity has said:

"We can't with any conscience campaign alongside News of the World on behalf of Armed Forces families while it stands accused of preying on these same families in the lowest depths of their misery.

"The hacking allegations have shocked us to the core.

 "Clearly, it would make a mockery of that campaign to go hand-in-hand with News of the World. We think we'll do better without them."

What if we'd more mobile phones 22 years ago?

The following is a work of fiction as many of the devices used were a thing of science fiction at the time. Or were out of the realms of everyman usage.

It is late in the evening of 15th April 1989, the News of the World editor Patsy Chapman, was calling an emergency meeting of her Editorial team as a result of the day's events. She looked at them and said,"We need a scoop, we need an angle that nobody else will have tomorrow. Go and get me it. Just don't tell me how you get it, just what you get."

Her technology editor started to ring Racal Telecom and BT Mobile asking for the records of any Liverpool based users that were coming up being used in Sheffield. He also checked Facebook, Foursquare and Twitter, while he was waiting, to find the users who were wearing Red, or using the hashtags #FACup, #LFC #Sheffield or #Hillsborough. He noticed that a number of them had posted pictures live from various pubs in the Sheffield area.

He found one really sad picture of a father, taking his son's wristwatch, gold chains, signet ring and newly purchased top of the range trainers away from his son's lifeless body at the temporary morgue. There wasn't really a News of the World story there. But he looked at the face there and noticed that the father was in one of the pictures taken in a pub.

He got the records of the numbers later and cross referenced them with the list of dead as they were being announced. He found the father's name and number on the list. It wasn't late Sunday night that he managed to get hacked into the number and check the voice mails. There was one, it went:

"Get in eight pints for the lads dad we're be arriving in five minutes." 

 The time of the message was 14:27. A headline formed in his head, "Drunken fans stealing from the dead." It was too late to make his own paper, but he called his colleague at The Sun. He told him what he had. The reply came back,

"Great, we've been waiting for our Gotcha! moment on this. The boss wants to get his free season ticket for Old Trafford, this should do it for him."

The two of them laughed and said, "see you at Highbury for the match", before they hung up.

And now the serious bit

Of course Mobile Phones weren't as prevalent as they are now, there were only really two networks and most of the users weren't the sort of people who would turn up to football matches. Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare of course have all only just appeared in the last 10 years, as has the ability to take, never mind upload pictures from your phone.

But 22 years ago, the paper that I normally don't mention on this blog, The Sun, did run that headline, amongst others and a story that was anti-Liverpool fans. A headline that is such a way has led to an effective 22 year boycott of The Unmentionable Paper on Merseyside and for many other Liverpool fans elsewhere.

This News of the World phone hacking story has appears to have affected not only the Milly Dowler case (Walton-on-Thames, Surrey), but also the Soham murders (Cambridgeshire), the 7-7 Attacks (London) and the parents of Madeline McCann (Liverpool again). One wonders if other stories are yet to linked to this, the Cumbrian shootings etc, after all it seems to be a modus operandi of this paper for some time.

There is nationwide outrage this time. There are also the accusations of paying police for information: a criminal offence. We could well be seeing the death knell of the NOTW, but what about News International of which it is part. Rupert Murdoch is in the process of trying to buy the control of BSkyB, will he be allowed to get it. Of course there was outcry when the Business Secretary, Vince Cable originally said publicly he was concerned about allowing it. Many including David Cameron and the Green Party have been caught out saying that this phone hacking incident wasn't all that important in the past. Now we are finding out they may have been disturbing hopeful families, getting extra info from the police for substantial sums of money.

There is a flashmob tomorrow (Thursday) outside the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, 2-4 Cockspur Street, London at 17:30 to hold the Murdoch Empire to account. There is currently a debate going on in the House of Commons into the affair which you can watch here.