Predictably, the Twitter has exploded. Left, right and centre are apoplectic with rage. Calls for Rebekah Brooks's head, Andy Coulson's head, Rupert Murdoch's head, Jeremy Hunt's head and the death of the monarchy have all crossed my timeline.
And The News of the Screws was bang out of line. Whoever was in charge at the time (I really don't give a flying fuck who it was) should grow a set and take responsibility.
But I do wonder about the rage. Milly Dowler clearly doesn't give a fuck. And really, I don't think the largely left-wing clitterati aren't normally unduly vexed about the government doing things like this, or about the papers doing this sort of thing to other people.
Nobody's complaining about the Police being implicated in helping and / or covering up journalists doing this.
And I'm amused to see that other papers are generally not being too savage in their reporting of this, I can only assume they don't want to crow too loud lest it wake skeletons in their own closets.
I also don't recall this fulminating lefty hatred for Murdoch when he was in Tony Blair's camp.
Let's face it, this was disgusting and shameful. But I bet it's no more disgusting or shameful than stuff all the papers get up to every single day. They're all at it. The government keeps equally invasive tabs on us. The police do it to suspected criminals and if those suspects are exonerated, fuck all gets said about that.
And the idea that Rupert Murdoch personally knew about it and approved it is laughable.
Nah, fuck it. This is just a convenient excuse for some moral outrage, the lefties are using it as a hook to beat up a media mogul because he's not on their side any more.
Everyone else who is outraged seems to think it was because a dead girl it's somehow worse than hacking a live sleb or listening in to John Prescott's pie orders.
It's a load of shit. It doesn't matter any more or any less than any of the other hacking or any of the other manufactured bullshit of manufactured personalities devoured avidly by vacuous tits who can't think beyond the latest issue of Heat magazine.
All of the people frothing at the mouth are exactly the same low-life twats who are so obsessed with Peter Andre and Katie Price and Ryan Gigg's sex lives that they drive this kind of demand for salacious titbits.
We get the government we deserve. We also get the media we deserve.
21 comments:
I thought you denied the existence or relevance of the terms left wing right wing. Can you explain why you use these in your piece?
So you can't clarify that major inconsistancy in your thinking, then? Ok, glad we cleared that up
"I also don't recall this fulminating lefty hatred for Murdoch when he was in Tony Blair's camp."
Then you weren't paying enough attention. Just now Labour are out of power there's been an influx of tourist faux anger lefties making it more obvious.
"According to one source, this had a devastating effect: when her friends and family called again and discovered that her voicemail had been cleared, they concluded that this must have been done by Milly herself and, therefore, that she must still be alive. But she was not. The interference created false hope and extra agony for those who were misled by it."
That's the clincher for most people. The deletion of messages and subsequent torment of family and friends makes this a much bigger deal than some celebrity knobhead non-story
I've got to agree with Pete's comment- ransacking a dead girl's phone account is despicable even by the sleazy standards of journalism.
Obo
You used to deny the existence of the left - right paradigm. Now you happily use these terms as evident in your piece.
What has changed, and do you believe there are such things as left vs right?
Which would you choose to ally yourself with and why?
John - why are you using a standard Righteous method?
1. Deny this thing.
2. (four minutes later) You have not denied this therefore you accept it.
3. You are one or the other. Decide. You no longer have the option of in-between.
I had thought better of you, you know. This technique has been around the internet since Compuserve, and a lot longer in the real world.
And another thing. Why do the word verifications get harder in relation to alcohol consumption? That doesn't seem fair.
What's the government got to do with this?
There's a difference between spying on a footballer and destroying evidence relating to a missing minor and presumably hindering an ongoing Police investigation.
I don't usually give a damn about the celebrity drivel that passes for news - but what apparently happened here is a step beyond that - and nobody at NI appears to be acknowledging the problem, let alone accepting any form of responsibility.
We can choose to buy a paper or not. Unfortunately we often get a government not of our own personal choice.
"Nobody's complaining about the Police being implicated in helping and / or covering up journalists doing this."
Oh I think they are. But I doubt that anything will come of it.
What a shocker, the host too busy talking shite on Twitter to spend time answering my questions on here. Lazy.
This has to do with the obstruction, deliberate or otherwise, of a police investigation into the disappearance, or as we now know, the murder of a young girl.
Do grow some balls Obo..or preferably a brain.
Cato: I deplore what they did. But they do this kind of shit all the time. Why are people getting exercised *just* because it's a kid? Why aren't they getting exercised all the time?
I take note that the Beeb is all in a lather about it...is enjoying it far too much...will go on milking it for all its worth...
Must be something to do with Rupert Murdock then?
Sorry mate but you're well wrong on this...
"Cato: I deplore what they did. But they do this kind of shit all the time. Why are people getting exercised *just* because it's a kid? Why aren't they getting exercised all the time?"
There is a world of difference between 'hacking' the voicemail of some halfwit footballer who never changed his default voicemail pin code, and DELETING the fucking messages from a dead girls phone to enable people to leave more messages. That's fucking way beyond the fucking pale. Frankly on the former I did not give a shit and I continue to not give a shit, and I will continue to not give a shit.
But the Dowler thing, someone's head needs to roll for this, frankly I'm shocked at Murdock's lack of vision here, can he not see she needs to go? The buck stops there I'm afraid and this will not go away until she goes away, and maybe not even then. Does Rebecca have something on Rupert?
_Not_ a lefty.
Z.
The Dowler issue was known back before the election. Whay did Labour say and do fuck all and now they're in a tizzy...
Becuase they kissed Murdoch's arse before the election, now its expedient to make a fuss...
Poor Milly's dead - but that doesn't stop Tom Watson et all raking through her ashes for political gain, the utter scumbags...
I hear the NOW is shutting its doors and advertisers have already left en masse.
Never bought the rag so....meh
In the 14 years that Labour were in power they did fuck all to stop this.
I totally agree with Obo, 'The little children' weep weep, what about the fucking rest of us.
Hacking is something we allow our government to do on a daily basis, and the police and government have shown all too often how much they can be trusted.
Spot on Obo
methinks John Demetriou is taking things a little too seriously.
who else would challenge a clown on being inconsistent??
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