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Gary Younge - 6 May 2012
Shortly after Mitt Romney's failed 2008 campaign for the Republican nomination his son Tagg set up a private equity fund with the campaign's top fundraiser. One of the first donors was his mum... Tagg had no experience in the world of finance, but after two years in the middle of a deep recession the company had netted $244m from just 64 investors.
Tagg insists that neither his name nor the fact that his father had made it clear he would run for the presidency again had anything to do with his success. ...
Class privilege, and the power it confers, is often conveniently misunderstood by its beneficiaries as the product of their own genius rather than generations of advantage, stoutly defended and faithfully bequeathed. ...
The evidence has laid bare the...web of social, familial and personal ties between the political, corporate and legal forces that govern a country...
We now know that James Murdoch met with David Cameron 12 times between January 2006 and January 2010 – eight times for dinner, twice for breakfast, once for lunch and once for drinks. Between May 2010 and July 2011 there were also more than 60 meetings between ministers and either Rupert Murdoch, his son James, the then News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks or James Harding, the editor of the Times. That averages around one a week. We know there were more, but not all were logged as such by Downing Street. ...
Two things make this a matter of import as well as intrigue. The first is the lie it gives to the insistence on meritocracy at a time of acute economic crisis when benefits are slashed, the poor hammered. ... The issue here is not class envy but class entrenchment. The fact that they were born rich is irrelevant. They had no choice in the matter. But the fact that they appear to want to give even more to those who already have a great deal while denying much to those who have little is unforgiveable.
Surrey police report released by MPs reveals reporters interfered with investigation as well as hacking missing girl's phone
Today in the High Court, News Group Newpapers, the News Corp subsidiary responsible for the defunct News of the World and The Sun, is settling dozens of hacking and surveillance claims in an attempt to avoid a high court case on Feb 13th which could result in punitive damages.
There are over 60 hacking victims with ongoing cases, and at least another 800 confirmed and subject to litigation. Financially, this could be very costly for News International. But in terms of the hacking saga, it could be devastating for the Murdochs...
In terms of the legal statements now being made in court, perhaps the most important is the admission of corporate cover-up.
...where does this leave the FBI investigation? The DOJ is still looking at violations Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and potential RICO violations. But this is a clear cut admission of intercepting wireless telephony on US soil.
During two and a half hours of forensic, skeptical and even rude questioning from a parliamentary panel on Thursday, Mr. Murdoch, the 38-year-old deputy chief operating officer of News Corporation, never wavered from his original account ...
He said he had never misled the committee in earlier testimony in July. And he all but accused two former underlings, whose accounts directly contradicted his, of lying about it.
[Article does not actually use the word intersectionality, but it would have been germane. Also, article trots out the canonical example of Chinese railroad workers as the "first" Asians in the U.S. Two problems with that: 1) only a Eurocentric conception of American history would count the railroad laborers as "first", given that the continent was previously settled by travelers from Asia, and 2) recently I learned of the 18th century Filipino sailors who came over via Spanish merchant ships and became part of the Louisiana cajun culture, which begs the question, who else was left out of the history books? -L]
[Can we take away the lesson that centers of concentrated power are potentially quite dangerous, whether those centers are called "business", "labor", or "government"? Please? -L]
...Working in a News Corp Newsroom...
'“We were regularly encouraged to refer to women with misogynistic names like ‘tarts,’ ‘slappers’ or ‘hookers’ in our copy if there was conceivably any question mark over their sexual proclivities,” he said.'
Since news broke that reporters at Rupert Murdoch's British tabloid News of the World routinely paid police sources for information and hacked into people's cellphones, the media have covered the story nonstop. That is, except for Fox News.
The Pew Research Center's Project For Excellence in Journalism just surveyed reportage of the story in two time frames: July 6-8 and July 11-15. In that period, according to Pew, CNN devoted almost 170 minutes to the story, and MSNBC about 145. Fox? About 30 minutes. ...
...might actually be the work of the same News Corp henchman who helped to feed insider information from a Scotland Yard police investigation directly to Murdoch's News Corp.
Neil Wallis, one of the key figures in the hacking...was essentially a double agent working by day as Executive Director of News of the World, and simultaneously as a public relations consultant during the police investigation into the scandal.
While Murdoch's henchmen were getting the skinny on the police investigation, the police were convincing other news organizations not to cover the story.
After the...hacking of the computer server at the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia, the victimized climate science unit sought public relations guidance to help fight back against allegations of scientific misconduct.
Guess who they hired - Neil Wallis and his PR firm Outside Organisation. ...
While the media played yesterday’s appearance by Murdoch pere et fils as a rousing success, it looks like James Murdoch perjured himself and that two witnesses just turned. ...
Once News International people start ratting each other out, who knows where it all ends?
..poll showing about 3/4 of Americans are following the scandal at least somewhat and that a similar number [thinks] the FBI should investigate News Corp. activity in the United States.
If you were wondering whether the sleazy and contemptuous culture at Murdoch's tabloids extended to his '"decent" newspapers, today's editorial cartoon in The Times should clear that up for you.
Just last week, RoadMAP was complaining that the News of the World scandal was being overlooked by U.S. media; now we’re on overload. If you are going to read one more story about the whole mess, this would be a good one. Michael Hoyt of the Columbia Journalism Review uses the circumstances to remind us that newspapers continue to wield enormous political power. Print may be on the decline, but if it is, it is a slow decline. It may even be a dinosaur, but dinosaurs ruled the world for 160 million years.
LulzSec claimed responsibility today for hacking the website of The Sun, another Murdoch newspaper and the sister publication to recently-deceased News of the World. Though the defacement--a fake story reporting Murdoch's death--is gone, the website currently redirects to LulzSec's twitter feed.
Murdoch, 80, was not hurt and no doctor was required. Murdoch's wife Wendi Deng, who was sitting behind him in the committee room, slapped the assailant and police rushed to arrest him. ...
[Partial transcript]
[The organization Free Speech for People opposes corporate personhood.]
Death of Sean Hoare – who was first named journalist to allege Andy Coulson knew of hacking – not being treated as suspicious
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