News of the world - hacking gate continued!

I know a lot of this is on the BBST but this just popped up (Maybe someone want to split some of that here?)

Andy Coulson, the former editor of the News of the World who has been arrested on suspicion of involvement in phone hacking and bribing the police, received several hundred thousand pounds from News International after starting work as the Conservative Party's Director of Communications in July 2007.

I am told that Mr Coulson also continued to receive his News International work benefits, such as healthcare, for three years, and he kept his company car.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14624167

The more this goes on the worse it seems to get!

"Maybe someone want to split some of that here?" -Kafria

My bad! I have been meaning to sort the BBST out for a while but got so much on {{blame Orwell- he is so demanding, and ungrateful, demanding, ungrateful and impatient}} I will get round to it when there is a happy combination of time and me being a**ed.

As to the hacking it does seem to go from bad to worse. Cameron is up to his eyeballs in this and it may yet bring him down.

Well it is to be hoped it may open up the eyes of many of the paper reading general public as to how the link between the media and politicians seems to work and how papers get their stories, the ethical values of some of them!

Obviously this severance package was agreed between Coulson and NOTW, of course the figures that he ended up getting are scandolous (he got paid more than the PM by the Tories!) but I'm not sure if this story is really all that newsworthy, I don't think anything illegal has actually happened with this payment??

I agree that it probably isn't in itself.

However it raises questions of conflict of interest beyond simply having your old mates call you and try to get a bit of info out of you, when they are still paying you in some way three years into yout new job!

The fact that his new employers were unaware raises questions of the standards we expect of those employed on the countries behalf.

And we are supposed to believe that this man (who in the enquiry suggested that payments were made to the police and other dubious things, before being rained in with 'within th boundaries of the law') didn't know about hacking at his paper when he was editor, didn't authorise shady payments to the police for info and didn't create a climate in which this was accetable. Or that the fact that he was still cosy with his old employer didn't play on his mind and influence the guidance he gave whilst advising Cameron? (whether concious or not - the reason MPs are suppose to declare their interests so they can be kept away from things that they may be influenced on)

Oh I am shocked -
Yes, MORE than surprised! -
A pack of Media Moguls,
Telling Fat Lies?

"The Secret Media File." Location hidden unknown.

Wisey Banks

I was thinking about this and according to reports on the BBC the Conservative Party are claiming they knew nothing about these payments and Mr Coulson did not disclose them. So did he tell the tax man? For a period of time he was basically in receipt of two incomes from two different jobs. Now if I get a second job I have to tell the tax man so did he?

Little cheats, big cheats, they all make it harder for the rest of us. This underlines why I don't get too political about things in Forumshire very often, isms mean little in reality, for, no matter how heartfelt their creation, corruption wins the game in the end, and honesty, of course, loses. Ideologues, mind, are just as bad in their own way because whatever the relative worth of their ism, they usually start up with corruptive practices once they gain power. (Luckilly, I have Forumshire to find shelter in from the cold! ).

Pettytyrant101 wrote:I was thinking about this and according to reports on the BBC the Conservative Party are claiming they knew nothing about these payments and Mr Coulson did not disclose them. So did he tell the tax man? For a period of time he was basically in receipt of two incomes from two different jobs. Now if I get a second job I have to tell the tax man so did he?

I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't report the income since he doesn't seem like a person with a lot of integrity. I think it's possible that the Conservative Party didn't actually know about the second stream of income, though it's also possibly that they (or certain members of the party) did. I'm trying not to pass judgement on everyone. That said, the more that comes to light the more disgusting this whole affair seems.

The Media is almost always disgusting.

Except Page 3.

My mistake.

True.

More murky revelations emerge.

'The News of the World hired a former police officer early last year to carry out surveillance on two prominent lawyers representing victims of phone hacking, BBC Newsnight has learned.
Derek Webb, who ran a private investigations firm called Silent Shadow, covertly followed lawyers Mark Lewis and Charlotte Harris.
Mr Webb also filmed members of Mr Lewis' family on a shopping trip.
Both lawyers have been involved in cases against News International.
The surveillance was part of an attempt by the now-closed newspaper The News of the World, which was owned by News International, to demonstrate that Mr Lewis was having a relationship with Ms Harris and was sharing confidential information with her - a false allegation.'- BBC News

UK journalists must need a lot of showers to get the dirt off them. Surely normal folks would just feel grubby doing this sort of work?

This is a tangent, I know, but Rupert Murdoch's Dad, Sir Keith, was a slimebag too. Dirty tricks, wealth, no morals, and power - a heady mix!

Well it didnt take too long. Murdoch has announced the creation of- ta-da- The Sun on Sunday- or the News of the World in everything but name and legal liabilities.

Until he has to close the Sun for bribing ploice officers for info

This hacking thing gets murkier and murkier- today the enquiry head from the police commisioner charged with investigating it, she said;

'evidence suggested a "culture of illegal payments" at the Sun newspaper.'
The payments being investigated were not ones that "just involve the odd drink or meal," she said. They were "regular, frequent and sometimes significant sums of money to public officials".
Payments by journalists to public officials were identified in the "police, military, health and government", she said.
Over a number of years, £80,000 was paid to one individual, she said, while one journalist received £150,000 from the paper to pay sources.
"Emails indicate that payments to sources were openly referred to at the Sun," DAC Akers said.

Now there has long being an argument for journalist using such methods to get at truths which are in the public interest, however according to the Commissioner,

'the vast majority of stories stemming from such payments appeared to have constituted "salacious gossip" rather than being in the public interest.'

So that would seem to kiolll that defense stone dead!

And Murdoch's response to this?

"the practices were ones of the past, and no longer exist at the Sun".

Well thats ok then- I mean its not like he said that before and it turned out to be a pack of bull, oh wait, hold on...

Things are finally begining to come to and end, or more likely to quote Churchill 'its the begining of the end.'
Revbecca Brooks, editor of the sun at the time of the hacking, and her husband have been charged by police (the same police theywere bribing all this time!) with conspiracy to pervert the course of justice, by removing, concealing or otherwise preventing the investigation from access to crucial documents.


'Three of Mrs Brooks's staff, and News International security head Mark Hanna, are also charged with the offence.
They will appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court on 13 June charged with offences including concealing documents and computers from police.
Mr Brooks said his wife was the victim of a "witch-hunt".
The ex-News of the World editor herself said she was "baffled" by the decision.
She described the investigation as an "expensive sideshow" and a "waste of public money".
She added: "I can't express strongly enough my anger that those close to me have been dragged into this."
"We deplore this weak and unjust decision," the couple said in a statement.
They accused the CPS of "unprecedented posturing" and said they would provide a further response later "after our return from the police station".
She is charged with conspiring with her 49-year-old husband, personal assistant Cheryl Carter, chauffeur Paul Edwards, security man Daryl Jorsling, and News International head of security Mr Hanna to "conceal material" from police between 6 and 19 July.
In a second charge Mrs Brooks and Ms Carter are accused of conspiring to remove seven boxes of material from the News International archive between 6 and 9 July.
In a third charge, Mr and Mrs Brooks, Mr Hanna, Mr Edwards and Mr Jorsling are accused of conspiring to conceal documents, computers and other electronic equipment from police officers between 15 and 19 July.
Scotland Yard is conducting three investigations relating to phone-hacking.
Operation Weeting is looking into allegations of hacking by the NoW into private voicemails, Operation Elveden is examining allegations that journalists from News International made "inappropriate" payments to police, and Operation Tuleta is investigating computer hacking.'- BBC