All Posts Tagged With: "James Murdoch"
What the MPs should have asked James Murdoch …..
Mr Murdoch, you have conceded that Gordon Taylor had to be paid because his phone had been hacked by Muclaire on behalf of the News of the World.
Your executives Myler, Crone, Kuttner, Coulson, Hinton all told the CMS committee in 2009 that there had only been one rogue reporter, Clive Goodman – the Royal editor – and continued asserting this, as did you, right up until 2010.
Are you telling us that you and your executives believed that the extensive phone hacking of Gordon Taylor and his assistants by Mulcaire was ordered by Clive Goodman, the one rogue reporter?
And did they (and you) believe that Goodman also instructed Mulcaire to hack into the phones of Skylet Andrew (a footballers’ agent), Simon Hughes, and Max Clifford, all of whom were named as victims of Mulcaire’s hacking when he was convicted in January 2007?
If they didn’t believe this (and they could not possibly have believed it), they all lied to Parliament when they re-asserted their claim that Goodman was the only guilty reporter.
The obfuscation, the hesitation, the avoidance of direct answers, the high pitched protesting whine, as well as the inconsistency of fact when James Murdoch appeared before the committee on Tuesday were all convincing indicators that he too has now lied to parliament.
Popularity: 2% [?]
Sackings and Hackings at Wapping
The list of Screws hacks and editors apparently involved in illegal telephonic practices is growing. Along with Clive Goodman (sacked and jailed, but paid off), Glenn Mulcaire (jailed and sacked, but paid off), Ian Edmondson (sacked and – who knows? – maybe paid off), Ross Hall (sent packing), Neville “Onan the Barbarian” Thurlbeck (STILL AT WAPPING), Greg Miskiw (moved with assistance), Dan Evans (sacked), the list should include Stuart Kuttner, managing former editor, ringmaster and arch-fixer (sacked by James Murdoch – the day before the Guardian revealed, in July 2009, that Gordon Taylor had been thrown a big fat purse of hush money by Rupert Rumplechops’ son – and and left to graze in rich East London pastures).
To this list must also be added the name of the Cock of the Wapping dung heap, the Sunday Arse-Wiper’s most notorious liberty-taker and rule-bender, Mazher Mahmood (STILL THERE).
Proud holder of the sobriquet, Fake Sheikh, Mahmood’s primary journalistic aim is to see his by-line on the front page of the paper as often as possible – though not so often these days.
Mahmood is also to be named in two claims against the paper for phone-hacking – by George Galloway, when Mahmood tried set up a sting to bribe him and failed, and by the former champion jockey, Kieren Fallon, once again the subject of a sting that went so wrong the resulting Old Bailey case collapsed through the paucity of evidence presented by the Fake Sheikh (and the City of London Police, this time, by the way) after which Fallon successfully sued the paper for libel and won £100,000+ in damages and costs.
Fallon has only recently – and reluctantly – been informed by the Met that Glenn Mulcaire had listed more than one of his mobile phone numbers, and evidence given by Mahmood and his team in court five years ago suggested that the journalists acquired some information in concocting their story by listening to messages left by Fallon on a friend’s voicemail.
Mahmood has for many years jealously guarded his own ‘investigations’ team (somewhat depleted these days) and most of the IT and technical stuff is carried out by Conrad Brown, son of the late Screws super hack, Gerry Brown. The simple task of voice-mail hacking would be well within his scope.
What odds would you offer on ‘Onan’ and Mazher being ushered to the Wapping exit (with a sack of hush-dosh over their shoulders) before the summer Solstice?
Popularity: 3% [?]
Fake Sheikh Hits New Low
There was a time when the News of the World’s much-heralded “investigations editor”, Mazher Mahmood was creating stories that made the front page of the paper every few weeks. But over the last half dozen years, as his antics have begun to cost the paper, and the country, more and more in wasted police time, legal expenses and libel pay-outs, his name has been seen less and less and further back in the paper.
The former glory with which editors and management, like the disgraced Stuart Kuttner and Andy Coulson, tried to endow him has been replaced by a well-earned reputation for dishonest and inaccurate reporting, incitement to crime, illegally using his employer’s funds (with their connivance) to buy class A drugs, phone hacking, invasion of privacy by the use of covert video camera, entrapment and defamation.
But just to show he’s not quite a spent force (and because management can’t get rid of him as long has he knows where so many bodies are buried in Wapping), this week on, page 20 of the illustrious paper, he reveals the stunning news that a former employee of the later Michael Jackson is in a position to sell a tiny piece of pleated black satin that was, he assures the tireless Fake Sheikh, one of the innumerable face-masks that the late tweeny popster liked to wear to avoid direct contact with the pervasive aroma of LaLa Land and uptown LA where he was conducting rehearsals for the O2 Show that was never to be.
It’s a feeble, easily garnered story by any standards, which, brought in by a less luminary hack, would merit no more than 100 words, with, of course, a mug shot of the late Wacko. Perhaps, one day soon, common sense, and Young Master James will prevail, when the Fake Sheikh, his sycophantic entourage of One, and all his works and pomps will be cast into the fiery furnace where they belong. And the Cats of Kensington will see justice done.
Popularity: 1% [?]
THE END OF THE AFFAIR – DO THE MURDOCHS STILL LOVE THE SCREWS?
It would be surprising if Rupert ‘Rumplechops’ Murdoch did not have a soft spot for the News of the World; after all, the old tart gave him his first big break in international newspaper publishing, which he now dominates from the offices of the Wall Street Journal – a very long way from the seedy Bouverie Street newsroom he took over back in 1969. Nevertheless, when he first made her acquaintance, buying the notorious ShagRag from under Robert Maxwell’s acquisitive hooter, she was, at least, an honest old tart, with great earning potential.
The tales of rapacious vicars, strippers at policemen’s balls and philandering politicians were more or less true. But over the last 25 years, under the evil influence of men like Stuart Kuttner, recently sacked managing editor, backed up by truth-hating hacks like Trevor Kempson, Mazher Mahmood and Neville Thurlbeck, the paper has utterly abandoned the principles expressed in its 1843 founding mission statement – “Our motto is the truth; our practice is the fearless advocacy of the truth,” perhaps to be replaced by a quote from former news editor, Greg Miskiw: “This is what we do; we go out and destroy other people’s lives.”
Now the culture of lying and fabrication which is endemic in the newsroom is beginning to alienate a better educated public and lose sales. And it’s costing enough in damages and legal fees to make a big dent in the paper’s formerly impressive earnings.
Tom Crone, head legal honcho at Fort Wapping must be getting nervous, sharpening his pencils and checking the emergency exits in preparation for a long campaign in the trenches. Will his new boss, Rebekah TestaRossa come and hold his sweaty hand? Or will she, along with her boss, Master James, be glad to see the back of the liability and steaming pile of ordure that the tacky little ShagRag has become?
In the last year or so, the paper’s had a lot of big bills to pay for damages and legal fees. The Max Mosley fiasco cost them somewhere between £500k and £1m. They settled getting on for £1m with Gordon Taylor and two of his colleagues at the Professional Footballers’ Association for hacking into their voicemails. A writ from Max Clifford and Sky Andrew for more phone hacking and invasion of pivacy is hovering. In Paris a judge d’instruction is preparing a prosecution against the paper, its editor, Colin Myler, the reporter, Neville “Onan the Barbarian” Thurlbeck, and their lawyers, Farrers for publishing and sending copies of the paper containing details of Max Mosley’s private life to the FIA in Paris, which is a criminal offence in France.
The paper is a source of a great embarrassment to James Murdoch, who must feel that the corporation which publishes the WSJ and wants to be taken seriously shouldn’t be messing about in the gutter with an organ at least as disreputable as the National Enquirer in the US.
Kuttner has had his marching orders; Mazher Mahmood’s by-line is a rare sight these days; even Thurlbeck’s not getting the space he used to. Following the paper’s admission that they had paid off Gordon Taylor (with a far bigger sum than Max Mosley was awarded in the High Court), the extraordinary display of dissembling put on by Crone, Myler, Kuttner and former editor Andy Coulson for the Commons Culture, Media, Sport Committee must have shoved the Screws public image even deeper into the Wapping mud.
Don’t be surprised to see more changes; young Murdoch won’t want to live with his father’s old flame for ever.
Popularity: 2% [?]
ANOTHER ROYAL SCOOP FOR THE SCREWS
The Screws royal editor hit the jackpot last weekend. Busy Robert “Bob-a” Jobson revealed the astonishing news that a charitable foundation set up by the late Princess Diana had dropped in value, from c£1.4m to c£1.08m over the last year.
This “25%” decrease was due, apparently, to the global stock market crash. To discover this, one can only surmise that his investigative skills took him as far as perusing the charities’ records open to anyone who cares to see them, as advised by the Charity Commission on their website. The money was left by Diana to her sons to “give to good causes”.
This fatuous, insignificant non-story (for there can barely be any charitable foundation or indeed invest portfolio of any sort that hasn’t taken a hammering in the last year), was his only visible contribution to the great purveyor of truth – “Our motto is the truth; our practice is the fearless advocacy of the truth” – since September 17th. This isn’t much for a week’s wage – maybe half an hour’s work, and another half an hour to churn out less than 100 words.
No wonder the old paper’s profits have dwindled to bugger all. Added to that, the evil and highly mendacious Mazher Mahmood is still on the pay role – and he’s not bringing in much these days, due no doubt to Master James’ intention to see the tacky rag heave itself out of the quagmire of ridiculous grimy fantasies in which it has got immersed. The involuntary departure of Machiavellian Managing Editor, Stuart Kuttner in July (after Gordon Taylor was paid £700,000 out of court) may be the first clear indication of the changes young Murdoch wants to see.
But the culture of untruth and fabrication is so rife at the News of the World that he’ll have a long, long task cleaning out that Augean Stable.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Sun's new man loses his Big Brother
There is a depressing inevitability about the appointment of another former showbiz hack to the editor’s chair of a paper that possesses what Stephen Brook in the Guardian describes as “the ability to shape the nation’s views on everything from the X-factor to next year’s general election”.
While a lot of people, including me, don’t recognise that degree of influence in the Murdochs’ biggest selling Shag Rag (ol’ Rumplechops is a whizz at divining the zeitgeist rather than driving the mood) there is still a distressingly large proportion of the British public who derive at least some of their views from what they read in this opprobrious arse-wiper, and we should be concerned that the Sun is now going to be edited by a truly light-weight gossip-monger and ex-editor of its tacky little Bizarre page, Dominic Mohan, whose only clear talents lie in brown-nosing those minor celebrities who will have their photograph taken with him and a comprehensive knowledge of Big Brother ‘contestants’. One of his biggest challenges will be in replacing the several million words written about this dreary programme that currently appear each year in the paper, now that Channel 4 have taken the laudable (if pragmatic) decision to ditch it.
And, by the way, where will Andy Coulson go now, when Cameron dumps him?
Popularity: 1% [?]
OUT OF WHOSE ARSE WILL THE SUN SHINE NEXT?
Hackwatchers are busy guessing whose bum will replace Rebekah (Wade) Brooks’ in the editor’s chair at Britain’s leading daily Shag-Rag, the Sun when she slithers a few feet further up the greasy pole that is News International.
Most think deputy Dominic Mohan, but the Murdochs (Rumplechops and Young James) haven’t said. An announcement is due next month when the Testarossa goes upstairs, and there is speculation that Mohan will soon be asked to join his (elder) boss in Miami, to paddle on Palm Beach and be told the great news (as Piers Morgan has said he was).
Luckily for Mohan – former editor of the paper’s pathetic Bizarre showbiz page – journalistic quality matters very little at the Sun these days, as long as you have a hot line to the inmates of the Big Brother house, which seems so far to have provided Mohan’s journalistic vertex, and a lot of inaccurate and trivial twaddle for which anyone with even a small brain wouldn’t give a poodle’s pillock.
He’s hot favourite according to Paddy Power, who offer him at odds on 4/11.
Fifth in the betting, below Victoria Newton (Head of Features), Chris Pharo (Head of News) and Richard Wallace (Editor of the Daily Mirror), is my favourite, ex-Screws editor, Andy Coulson. After his laughably unconvincing display of innocence in front of the Culture Media Sport select committee last month, in the wake of further revelations about the Screws’ phone-hacking, it’s unlikely that even the loyal David Cameron will feel it necessary to retain his services. Now that he’s been seen by millions on TV, dissembling so vigorously and obviously, his credibility is surely too tainted for a serious contender for government to keep him on.
So, Andy will need a job; Rupert likes him – he took the rap by resigning for something about which he says he knew nothing (bit odd?) – and, as his performance in front of the committee showed, he’s quick on his feet and Teflon coated (so far). And he’s always got on well with the Titian Tigress, who would become his immediate boss.
Popularity: 1% [?]
The Wapping Testarossa roars up the greasy pole
SCREWS INTERNATIONAL have just announced that the Wapping Testarossa, Rebekah Wade will become Chief Executive of the Murdochs’ British newspaper operation in two months’ time. This expected upward move will put her in overall control of the Screws, the Sun, the Sunday Times, the Times, and freesheet, the London Paper. It is claimed that these titles (bar the freesheet) represent 40% of the UK market in National newspaper sales.
It is truly amazing to me that as a former editor/deputy editor of the Screws and the Sun who has made so many crass and blatant errors of journalistic judgement, she should be rewarded with this massive job. It says a lot, of course, about Rupert Murdoch’s priorities. But it’s alarming to consider how someone of the Testarossa’s low tastes and preoccupation with trivial bollocks is going to influence the direction of the not entirely worthless Sunday Times.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Rumple-chops unchecked
Rupert Murdoch’s highest ranking underling is off. Peter Chernin, LA-based President and Chief Operating Officer of News Corp apparently knows when he’s not wanted, is quitting while he’s ahead and won’t be staying on when his current contract expires in April – leaving the field open for a little internecine scrapping among the young Ruperts, while old Rumple-chops himself steps in to fill the gap temporarily, and pursue his own current hare, the New York Times.
And this isn’t just a matter of gossip. News Corp becomes increasingly dominant among the world’s news/influence peddlers every day. Even people who read the Sun and the NY Post have a vote.
Popularity: 4% [?]
Hello Peter
Listening to you at the Leveson Inquiry today, I thought you might be interested to have a look at ...
@Fleur,
I suspect he still has a job because he knows where the bodies are buried. 
Not much to write home about Neville? 
hi peter,great website. i bought your book news of the world and managed to get hold of CAMERA ASSASSIN 2 ...
they finally caught the little toad if he can lie at a small tribunal he certainly can rely on ...