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..?

Talking heads...once in a lifetime?

Inevitably the high drama of Murdoch & Son appearing before the Culture, Media & Sport Select Committee yesterday grabbed all the headlines and in between some of Murdoch senior’s Pinteresque pauses he really did say ‘I must not prejudice the cause of justice’, which was worth the two and a half hours of theatre alone.  Although his claim that Singapore is the example of democracy and freedom we should all aspire to does run it a close second.

However, it was ultimately an anti-climax, in part due to the apparent amnesia and lax management claimed by Murdoch senior and the patronising obfuscation of Murdoch junior.  But just as much it was due to the poor quality of most of the questioning, which was all too often convoluted, rambling and failed to pick up or challenge the unlikely answers offered to the committee.

Honourable exceptions were – unsurprisingly – Tom Watson MP whose pressing of Murdoch senior had James Murdoch desperately trying to intervene and Louise Mensch MP, whose closing questions finally asked direct questions about Rupert Murdoch’s own responsibility as CEO.  Which of course he denied.

Far more revealing and forensic was the Home Affairs Select Committee, that was relegated to a support act.  Which was a shame, as, in the course of three sessions with senior Metropolitan Police figures the dysfunctional nature of the Met. Police was laid bare.  Each witness contradicted each other, passed blame around and showed a remarkable lack of knowledge of their own processes.

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?