Murdoch Minion arrested-Piers Morgan is in the hot Hot HOT seat-Today's hacking headlines

[Snoutport]

Y'all ready to catch up on the Hacking Scandal? Rec it if you like it. As long as people want these updates, I'll keep doing them.

The end of last week saw some terrible news when it was revealed that Rebekah Brooks, Murdoch's favored employee, was giving phones to the mums and families of abducted children with the promise of help and support from News Corp. But, the phone given to Sara Payne's mum, it appears, was set up so that it would be easy for Murdoch's employee's to hack her messages and to get the contact numbers of everyone who called in or were called on the phone. This is a new low even for a Murdoch Minion.

Piers Morgan is in the hotseat. He has been screaming bloody murder that he never was involved in phone hacking while he worked in the London Press. He swears he knows nothing about it...but, in an interview years ago he discussed a message Paul McCartney had left for Heather Mills--he even knew what song Paul sang to her. He said he listened to a tape of the message. A message that Mills say was hacked.

I would bet money that if Piers Morgan lived in the UK right now the police would be booking him. Especially since BBC just broke a story that Morgan's newspaper was invoiced 230 times in two years by one of the investigators known to have been hacking.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14386696

Phone hacking: Piers Morgan has questions to answer, says Harman
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/aug/04/phone-hacking-piers-morgan-harman

Heather Mills claims Mirror Group journalist admitted hacking her phone
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/aug/03/heather-mills-phone-hacking

Big Story here: Murdoch's long-time managing editor (this guy knows every skeleton in every closet)was arrested. Many uppity-ups left NewsCorp since this story started getting out of control in the past two years. This guy had quit his job but it is still a big blow to Murdoch. Almost all of his most trusted employees have been arrested.

Former managing editor and one-time public face of the News of the World taken into custody
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/aug/02/phone-hacking-stuart-kuttner-arrested
also: Latest Arrest Highlights a Tabloid’s Cash Payments
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/03/world/europe/03hacking.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=tabloid&st=cse

BBC is also reporting that the head of the Scottish govt. and Murdoch were on a first name basis and met repeatedly. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-14406348 (don't forget, Murdoch's paper was doing the same things in Scotland (were Andy Coulson swore in court there was no hacking--he'll go to jail for that probably).
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-14406348

[Snoutport]

1. BREAKING STORIES--Post them under this thread

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14402659

BBC report on Morgan.

[Snoutport]

14. BREAKING: John Whittingdale calls for Piers Morgan to return to UK

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/phone-hacking/8681863/Phone-hacking-John-Whittingdale-calls-for-Piers-Morgan-to-return-to-UK.html

Uh oh...Piers Morgan must be shaking in his boots.

CNN, however, is not showing much concern for clean journalism by keeping him on the air. I would think, since he is mired in a journalistic ethics scandal, that CNN would show their professionalism.

I've wondered though if CNN hasn't been hiring these news casters who have fatal flaws. The hacking scandal is not new--Morgan has publicly admitted to hearing tapes of stolen messages--and yet CNN hires him. Spitzer was similar...I thought he was a good news caster but he was a liar and a cheater--any guy who is slipping away from the wife and kids to see hookers--has fatal flaws in his character. Is it a corporate media way to keep from giving the right any cheerleaders who are highly respected?

[Snoutport]

28. breaking: Piers Morgan may have to face MPs over phone hacking

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/phone-hacking/8681379/Harriet-Harman-Piers-Morgan-may-have-to-face-MPs-over-phone-hacking.html

[Snoutport]

31. News International ordered mass deletion of emails nine times (in case you missed it)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/aug/01/news-international-ordered-email-mass-deletions

[trueblue2007]

33. GOOD !!!! HE IS LOUSY JUDGE ON .... America's Got Talent

[Snoutport]

35. Pity we can't send back Morgan and the Murdochs...in shackles.

[DesertDiamond]

79. I agree. He's such a sour note and doesn't know talent when he sees it.

[Liberal_in_LA]

40. wow.

[Snoutport]

46. Piers Morgan 'should face hacking quiz'

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/piers-morgan-should-face-hacking-quiz-2331814.html

[Snoutport]

47. Just broke on BBC: Paul McCartney to speak to police over phone-hack fear

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14413656

[Snoutport]

49. Mirror admitted they hacked her phone says Mills

http://www.channel4.com/news/mirror-group-journalist-admitted-hacking-my-phone-mills

[marions ghost]

53. see, no shame about phone hacking)

they admit to it freely apparently

[Snoutport]

57. yup...and the writer hugh grant got on tape....he seemed quite proud of the hacking

[PATRICK]

70. Why not?

They are just cynical slease merchants on the low levels who, instead of realizing the grand overplot of world domination, simply bask in the security of the Murdoch empire. Mob soldier audacity, pride and impunity. The real crime is still at the top. Without that these mongrels would be a little quieter and more careful.

The transformation of a news empire into a player is intriguing and a dangerously sloppy beast. The Intel professionals must be laughing at these sometime tools of their own going down for a private enterprise prince of air and darkness.

[SidDithers]

2. K&R...

I love the updates. Keep 'em coming.

Sid

[Ganja Ninja]

3. And yet still nothing from the justice department or the FBI on any hacking here. n/t

[Snoutport]

4. They are working on it. The writer who broke the story in the UK is in the US this week...he will

probably be putting up a story soon about hacking here. There is no way he would leave England right now if he didn't have a really really good story here to break. :0)

[malaise]

5. K & R

Read the Morgan story this morning

[ProfessionalLeftist]

6. Too bad they don't arrest and prosecute corprat criminals in the US

Maybe bringing them down in the UK will be enough.

[Snoutport]

10. IF bribery of UK police is proved (and it has been admitted to already) then the Uppity-Ups of News

Corp can be held liable. Not only that, the company has to pay for the investigation AND, it will be international--it means every News Corp company might go through the same investigation AND the fines are HUGE AND whistleblowers divide up the fine and get to keep it.

There will be an investigation in the US. The question is, will it move the government to stop corporate media monopolies.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

7. Keep 'em coming.

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. Thanks snout, they are really good break from the malaise

of every day. We may still see a really influential person falling and perhaps going to jail. Hey, a girl can dream,

[ClarkUSA]

9. Wow. Your round-up is better than reading the Guardian right now.

I have a friend who's British and very interested but is so busy he can't keep up, so I'm going to send him the link to this OP now.

Thanks for this and all your excellent efforts. If the Murdochs think this is going away, they're mistaken. AG Holder is said to be "seriously" looking into the allegation of the attempt to hack 9/11 families. As long as we keep the Presidency, the investigation will continue.

[October]

11. Yes, this is perfect! The OP needs his own TAB here at DU. :)

[ClarkUSA]

13. I agree! Snoutport deserves one.

:hi:

[Snoutport]

12. Thank you Clark! I get to put in my opinions and stuff..the Guardian can't do that

I also get to say what I THINK is going to happen. That has been the fun part...so far I have been doing pretty well. Most of them have happened (Coulson stepping down, Brooks and the uppity ups getting arrested, Cameron's disgrace at being in bed with Murdoch, implied blackmail against politicians to keep them quiet...

So far though these haven't come true yet:

James Murdoch hasn't been arrested (yet) or done jail time (yet)
Rupert Murdoch hasn't been forced out (yet) (i'm not sure if he'll be arrested or not)
Proof of 9/11 hacking hasn't been found (yet)
International investigation against NewsCorp by the US govt. (yet)
The fall of the U.K.'s conservative Govt. (yet)

But, everyday we get closer to all those things coming true. I would like to see News Corp so damaged they have to sell of much of their holdings around the world. That is the true victory.

[ClarkUSA]

15. True. I must admit that I enjoy reading your opinions as much as the news updates.

As for "Proof of 9/11 hacking" that one retired NYPD private investigator said he refused to do it but that doesn't mean someone else didn't. For AG Holder to take it "seriously" must mean they suspect the latter could have happened. At least, that's the way I interpret it.

<< But, everyday we get closer to all those things coming true. I would like to see News Corp so damaged they have to sell of much of their holdings around the world. That is the true victory. >>

Yes, it will take years for this to be properly investigated. I also hope the Tory government is replaced by Milliband's Labour Party sooner rather than later. That's what The Murdochs' will do anything to avoid, as there is no love lost between them and Ed.

[Snoutport]

17. 2.6 million Murdoch papers don't go out this sunday because of hacking

that in itself was a major win.

Any lessening of his influence.

In Italy Murdoch was so pissed about CurrentTV running Oberman that he pulled the plug on the channel. He couldn't tell them who to hire but he could remove them from the air. These people play dirty and now people are seeing just how dirty they are. Just reward for the damage they've done to humanity.

[marions ghost]

20. Yep

that's how media domination works...just go around pulling plugs

[Snoutport]

23. I wish Fox would go down...but-if a lot of their top employees got canned

that would be pretty good too.

Every time one of Murdoch's closest employees gets tangled up he loses more influence. He won't have anyone to trust.

And any weakening of his message strengthens democracy.

[marions ghost]

55. Hoping

the pustule breaks open here, too. But that may be hoping too much in Murdoch's Murka.

[Snoutport]

58. I have been paying attention and I think it will

they have no morals and we've seen the same thing seeping into the govt. officials Murdoch has rallied his media around.

[Liberalynn]

56. I keep wishing that this scandal will widen and expose

some of the corrupt politicians who have probably been in Murdoch's back pocket all along too. I just don't know if I have any hope left to muster that they will be held accountable for what I suspect they have done in the U.S. and to the U.S.


Thanks for keeping us up to date and giving us a bright spot. At least maybe Britian might be able to hold them accountable.

[malaise]

74. You will be correct about many of the 'have not come true yet'

:fistbump:

[marions ghost]

16. thanks Snoutport

well that's a big fish on the hook definitely...:thumbsup: Piers Morgan --you can't run, you can't hide

They seem to be trying to argue over in the UK that detectives are necessary to get the news these days. Trying to sell that to the public. Even the BBC does it and it's not illegal. But I guess if you're going to do that, then you can't exactly complain when the detectives know too much--ie. when it shows up your unethical or criminal practices and your hired detectives have to testify...

[Snoutport]

19. well...they did more than investigate, they were stealing

let them go back to trailing and digging through garbage. But they shouldn't be hacking emails systems and phones.

[marions ghost]

22. Hacking--isn't it just the e-version

of digging through garbage? I bet they didn't think twice about it. Not sure how you can stop it tho. Security features don't seem to work. Prosecution might send some messages I guess. But there's no real privacy in phone or emails.

If this can be proven of course I'm all for it screwing up the Murdoch plan for world media domination.

[Snoutport]

24. trojan viruses and deleting a dead girl's messages so they could hear new fresh ones

yeah...if it was simple hacking of just bad people...they might have got away with it...but they have been trying to overthrow democracy by getting their own people elected by tearing down the opposition with stolen information.

They just went too far and that was their undoing.

[marions ghost]

41. "They went too far..."

Did they even know where the line was, or is it a fuzzy line in a world where hacking is not uncommon?

Agree of course that manipulation of ongoing stories by these means is reprehensible. As for overthrowing Democracy, I HOPE this can be proved. Maybe it can in Britain. America is so full of sleeze that I wonder if Americans even recognize what's going on there as a threat to Democracy, much less care if it happened here. When so many people are guilty, you can just view it as business as usual. (Glad I didn't get caught) In other words over here, this is a legal problem, not so much an ethical problem.

Anyway, wondering what their primary defenses will be in the UK.

[Snoutport]

44. ignorance and hopefully "blame the guy above you"

Now that NewsCorp has hinted it might get rid of all the papers--those employees KNOW any protection they had is about to disappear. I'd bet, even as the NewsCorp shredders are shredding away half the evidence, that the NewsCorp copy machines are just as busy making copies of info to implicate other people.

Especially once people see that whistleblowers get a piece of the fine Newscorp will have to pay.

[marions ghost]

51. yes that fine

could be a big incentive. (Do you mean that whistle blowers get a piece of the fine there and here? ) Sudden death syndrome could be a disincentive. But right, those employees should be scrambling overtime to hone their stories and line up their ducks. They've got a lot to lose since they've been officially thrown under the bus.

:popcorn:

[gkhouston]

32. Actually, it isn't. Once you put your can on the curb, you've

sort of abandoned it to the public. Hacking would be like someone breaking into a locked mailbox to read your mail, not like someone digging it out of your trash can. Both are skeevy, but usually only the former is illegal.

[Snoutport]

36. well put houston

[Liberal_in_LA]

18. I love your updates

[Snoutport]

29. Thank you! I follow your posts as well. :0)

[spanone]

21. k&r...the media seems uninterested in the story here in the states...keep kicked

[Snoutport]

30. for a while there-if you googled phone hacking all there was was the guardian and DU

so, it was slow going but it is taking off. New York Times has an article today. (link in OP)

[in_cog_ni_to]

25. K&R!

[oldbanjo]

75. I almost broke my screen trying to kill that bug.

[Uncle Joe]

26. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for your good work, Snoutport.:thumbsup:

[Rex]

27. Never seen so many cockroaches get stomped on at once!

Hope they all end up in prison or homeless. I remember watching Morgan BEG viewers to forget about the Murdoch controversy and just move on. Now we know why - Morgan is scum and cannot be trusted.

[Snoutport]

38. CRUNCH CRUNCH CRUNCH...you win for summing it up great!

So many cockroaches getting squashed at once. I'm amazed at how fast the story is moving now.

[marions ghost]

42. Over here

it's going to be more like uprooting the Aspens. Not easy with their giant root systems...

[Snoutport]

43. yeah...just a battle, not the war, eh?

[marions ghost]

50. if you mean the scenario over here, not unless

there are enough enemies in high places.

Possibly (I hope) we are going to get an interesting contrast of the UK and US ways of dealing with scum at the top of the food chain. I have not much faith in the American way -- it's more like the Mafia. In Britain it's all coming apart at the seams in a Monty Pythonesque way ('whut, they cut off another arm?!). Hard to imagine that happening here. And of course the US media is in collusion and not following the story. In Britain, media competitors are on top of it.

But I agree with you, every notch that Murdoch & minions can be knocked back is a plus for humanity (and that quaint notion, Democracy). This is huge.

[Rex]

67. I would compare them to rats, but they are mammals and it

would insult all mammals imo. :hi:

[oldbanjo]

76. No one in the news media can be trusted, they lie as much as a politician.

[Rex]

80. And they have just as much at stake - a steady paycheck and

wonderful medical coverage! We need to bring back the Fairness Doctrine and put the lash to these liars that are paid to tell us the news!

[snooper2]

34. These are the good threads on DU, Thanks!

:)

[Liberal_in_LA]

39. agreed. Very informative.

[Greybnk48]

37. K&R. I watch for your Murdoch updates Snoutport.

Thanks for the all hard work. I probably wouldn't see 2/3 of this if it wasn't for your posts, AND they make me hopeful! :hi:

[beac]

45. K&R! n/t

[Kingofalldems]

48. Kick and Rec for all the Fox fans stopping in

[Taverner]

52. Let us hope the entire Murdoch Empire goes down

And let me add I hope it starts Raining Men at the FOX World Headquarters...

[marions ghost]

54. No harm in wishing...

go with that vision Taverner.

But over here I think it'll be more like trying to locate swimmers in that green algae sea in China.

[Firebrand Gary]

59. Great thread! Thanks for the update!

[drm604]

60. Holy Crap!

They gave compromised phones to the parents of abducted children. :wow:
I don't even know what to say to that. It's horrible.

Thank you for these threads Snoutport.

[Snoutport]

62. nothing like a heart broken mother to sell papers, i guess.... low of the low, though.

[louslobbs]

61. Please keep up the posting and the great work Snout, your posts are my go to place for info on this

story. Thanks for taking the time to do this.
Lou

[Chimichurri]

63. Wow! just got home and i would never have had the time to collect all this juicy stuff

so thanks for posting it. Much appreciated!

[emsimon33]

64. Great update. Thank you.

[Amonester]

65. K&R. Another awful example of the abject behavior of predatory capitalism

in which the word DECENCY has been trashed and trashed again in the name of making huge profits.

In the end, where do these criminal thugs with zero integrity think such a civilization leads???

Really...



Thanks to you, Snoutport, for all that work in wanting restoration of DECENCY.

[truedelphi]

66. Boy would everyone in this household love it

If Piers gets what should be coming to him.

Slimeball!

[cui bono]

68. He was in the hot seat tonight with Kathy Griffin as a guest.

:rofl:

Sorry... was flipping through channels and stopped when I saw her on there.

[global1]

69. Piers Won't Be Arrested Until America's Got Talent Season Is Over..... nt

[Blue_Tires]

71. kick

[lonestarnot]

72. Good, now maybe they make some real news available since he won't be. :)

[The Wizard]

73. The Murdoch cartel

belongs on a scaffold.

[orbitalman]

77. Yayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy ! n/t

[FourScore]

78. Thank you Snoutport! You're updates are awesome!

:) :party: :toast: :bounce: :beer: :thumbsup: :hi: :kick: :pals: :fistbump: :headbang: :yourock: :woohoo: :popcorn: :patriot:

[H2O Man]

81. "