Bears... woods...

So according to a couple of ex-News International managers, James Murdoch might, just possibly have fibbed a bit, when he was being so helpful to the Culture, Media & Sport Select Committee.

Gosh.  Really?  No, that can't be right.  What's that?  Humpty Dumpty, he was fat you say.  That Pope chap, he really is a Catholic and you're quite sure about the bears doing poo poos in the woods.  Phew, who'd have though it eh..?

Er, am I missing something..?

Hacking scandal pt 194...

As various sometime News Corp employees are getting arrested - although not charged - in connection with police corruption, as well as phone hacking, has anyone else wondered if the Metropolitan Police isn't getting into conducting an investigation into themselves..?

We are assured that the judge led inquiry will look into police corruption, as will an MP's Select Committee and quite possibly the Police Complaint Commission for that matter, but any actual prosecutions will come from the same police force as any likely suspects.

Meanwhile there are now a growing number of inquiries set to be launched into the whole affair, 6 according to the BBC News, but an hour later Channel Four news was claiming it was 10! the term 'inquiry spaghetti' is already being bandied about and with good reason.

So, as the top Met Police bosses are resigning, while claiming to have done nothing wrong, I was thinking it might be worth bringing in an outside police force.

At least until I heard an interview on the radio with a former Detective Chief Constable of West Yorkshire, who was so dismissive of the phone hacking at News International (and by extension the alleged bribery of police officers) that I thought he was an News Corp spokesperson.

Oh dear, they still don't get it, or is it just they don't want to?

The Strange Death of Illberal England

Everything I could hope to say on the News of the World/Metropolitan Police/phone hacking story has already been said, written, blogged and tweeted.  And no, I’m not just using this as a weak link to The Jam’s ‘News of the World’.  I did think about it, but seeing as it’s now better known as the theme tune to a TV comedy quiz show...no, it’s been done.

Of course there are a wealth of songs aimed at journalists or the media.  Straight off the top of my head – Adam & The Ants ‘Press Darlings’ and The Cramps ‘TV Set’ spring to mind, but that probably says more about me.

Oh, yes, back to the matter in hand.  The demise after 168 years of NOTW.  You almost have to admire the sheer arrogance of Murdoch in sweeping away a title he’s owned since 1969 as soon as it becomes a problem.

That’s almost.  But not quite.  While the staff are coming to terms with being summarily dismissed by managers who remain in place and data is wiped from hard drives before the boys in blue have moved in, it seems like another case of the elite pulling up the drawbridge.

Just like the bankers and the MPs a few sacrificial lambs will be offered up and an awful lot of good and blameless people will lose their jobs.  Meanwhile take a look at whose running the media in six months time.  Just like parliament and the banks, I suspect there will be a lot of familiar faces.  A few job titles may have changed and some nice fat pensions will have been cashed in, but is it really a pivotal moment, when power shifts and we have a ‘step change’.  (What is a ‘step change’ by the way?  I’m sure we never had such a thing when I was a lad...)

So now we’ll get a properly regulated press externally controlled by the body that comes out of the Public Inquiry that’s just been announced.  Sounds like a good thing right?  Erm no, actually that’s the irony of this whole sorry mess.

There is a real danger that politicians and/or business interests will find it far easier to gag the real news that a free press should be digging up all because we liked hearing about celebrity gossip.

21st Century South Sea Bubble

Remember when Myspace was Facebook?  The site everyone just had to have a page on?  Seems a long time ago now, but there really was a time.  In fact those of us of a certain age and disposition – i.e. anyone involved with an unsigned band – can remember the angst and worry going round when News Corp bought Myspace. 

Was every channel on Myspace now just a small part of the News International empire?  Well, yes, probably... Would Rupe have a claim on all the music we were uploading?  Perhaps, although push never came to shove on that one.

That was 2005 and £362 million changed hands.  Last week News Corp sold all but 5% of Myspace.  For £22 million.  Still a considerable chunk of change, but you don’t need to be an accountant to spot it isn’t the best bit of business the ex-Australian paperboy’s done.

But then, getting burned on a social networking site deal is probably not top of Rupert’s agenda right now...

The moral of this story is, the value of shares can go down as well as up.  Terms & conditions apply.