Here’s something you will virtually never see in Australia. A mainstream newspaper (in this case, the London Observer) taking on the Murdoch empire, front and centre, calling it out for its smears and lack of rigorous ethics (to put it mildly): Rupert Murdoch‘s News International (NI) is drawing up plans to sponsor an academy school…
Showing all posts tagged Britain
When a media mogul has more power than government
Oh my. Democracy is so threatened that some have become fearful of a former Australian media man who trades smears for a living: Senior parliamentarians declined to give evidence in court against a News of the World journalist for fear of upsetting News International, the deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats said today. Simon Hughes,…
Spluttering gasps of Murdoch’s British power
New Statesman examines the worsening problems for David Cameron’s spin doctor, Andy Coulson, former editor of Murdoch’s News of the World: I ask another former Met commander if the New York Times allegations of a “long-term” relationship between News International and Scotland Yard are true. “I couldn’t possibly comment,” he tells me with a chuckle,…
Murdoch mantra; whatever it takes
This just gets better and better and proves once again the essential need for a vibrant, non-Murdoch press. Such illegality rather neatly matches Rupert’s belief in illegally bombing and occupying nations. That’s his legacy: A former senior News of the World journalist has gone public to corroborate claims that phone-hacking and other illegal reporting techniques…
Keeping children in prison to manage our fears
So-called civilised nations, such as Britain, imprison children in immigration detention and the psychological scars are massive. Australia is no different.
Decency to the stranger hasn’t gone out of fashion
On the one hand, many of us are compassionate: A third of the world’s population has given money to charity in the past month, the largest study ever carried out into global social conscience reveals today. The “World Giving Index” used Gallup surveys of 195,000 people in 153 nations and asked people whether they had…
Come bow down to the Murdoch King
Who ya Daddy? They are unlikely to lay on a private jet to whisk him to the Med, but David Miliband has been given the seal of approval by the Murdoch empire after being invited to dinner next week by the media baron’s son James. Rebekah Brooks, chief executive of News International, is also due…
Standing up to Murdoch’s dodgy tactics
Who’s afraid of the Murdoch press? Most political leaders in the West seem incapable and unwilling to take on the old man’s institution, a collection of bigotry, contradictions and pro-war sentiment. Such nobility in great wealth. Every day brings new gory details in the News of the World scandal: The Home Office abandoned plans to…
Just how many in government are in the pocket of Murdoch?
Thank God for the non-Murdoch press because without them we would never have known about the ongoing scandal at the News of the World. Ethics at News Limited? Somewhere in the offices of the Crown Prosecution Service, there is a file that will be of great interest to any independent inquiry that attempts to tell…