British Tabloid Sought Phone Data of Investigators "Shortly after Scotland Yard began its initial criminal inquiry of phone hacking by The News of the World in 2006, five senior police investigators discovered that their own cellphone messages had been targeted by the tabloid and had most likely been listened to. "The disclosure, based on interviews with current and former officials, raises the question of whether senior investigators feared that if they aggressively investigated, The News of the World would punish them with splashy articles about their private lives. Some of their secrets, tabloid-ready, eventually emerged in other news outlets. "Those damaging allegations, about two of the senior officers’ private lives, involved charges that one had padded his expense reports and was involved in extramarital affairs and that the other used frequent flier miles accrued on the job for personal vacations ... " NYT  11 July 2011

The market 'footprint' of News International in the British media, Cameron's appointment of Andy Coulson as his press officer, and the links between News International and the Metropolitan police, confirm the folly of Margaret Thatcher's decision to wave competition, er, 'problems' when Murdoch bought The Times and the Sunday Times back in the 1980s.    [NYT]     [BBC]

Murdoch's political stance, and his 'bread and circuses' style, were just what Thatcher needed to support her programme of destroying the social state.

Here was a man who was 'one of us', who could be guaranteed to keep the plebs entertained while she dragged Britain into the neoliberal utopian experiment.

Her methods might have fallen somewhat short of Pinochet's 'shock doctrine' in Chile, though victims of the Miners' Strike might well disagree.

The famous headline - "It's the Sun wot won it!" - after John Major's victory in the 1992 election, confirmed to Blair's 'New' Labour that only by getting Murdoch onside could the 1997 election be won.    [WKP]

(Blair is still banging the same drum, btw. Gdn)

Blair and his acolytes - like Peter Mandelson - were entirely comfortable with Thatcherite globalisation, though they were assiduous in hiding from the voters the exact nature of the revolution that was taking place.    [Gdn]

No one campaigned on the slogan: "Vote for the Washington Consensus - You Know it Makes Sense!"

Instead voters were offered waffle about the 'third way', which came to fruition with Gordon Brown's belief that it was possible to have deregulated markets, and a social state. (And look where that got us!)

The role played by News International in getting tacit acceptance of the new global order cannot be over-emphasised.

Murdoch's minions were - are - also far too astute to campaign for the Washington Consensus.

The alternative - the "bread and circuses" strategy - was a master stroke.

Already libertarianised - infantilised - by the sixties/seventies pop culture, Murdoch was ploughing fertile soil.

Corporate consumerism, plus an infantilised media, was to be the modern equivalent of bread and games.

Interest in - obsession with - the goings-on among the glitterati was cultivated, creating a thirst for any old tittle-tattle about who was wearing what, who was falling out with their partner, how stunning the new partner looked ... the torrent of trivia - and vulgarity - became the news.

Politics was boring. Economics unbelievably boring. Knowledge itself became boring; education was ruthlessly dumbed-down to create the impression of a successful school system, when the reverse was the case.
[BBC]     [PISA 2009]

Worst of all, critical thinking - crap detection - previously a hallmark of the educated, vanished off the radar, both in schools and in the media.    [Crap Detection 101]

Winning consent, or at least acceptance, of the new world order was all that mattered, and Rupert Murdoch was the key player.

In the absence of checks and balances hubris has a nasty habit of turning into nemesis, and the revelations of just what a vicious and corrupt organisation News International had become has opened a window of opportunity to challenge the basis of the current consensus, just as the euro crisis has offered the opportunity to challenge the grip of finance-capitalism on politics.

For not only were the political parties in his pocket, News International had developed an equally cosy relationship with the police:

Top officers told the Guardian its stories were exaggerated without revealing they had hired former NoW deputy editor ... [Gdn]

More Met - NotW Links:     [VF]    [Ind]    [Ind]    [Gdn]

In the absence of any serious initial investigation by the police, the celebrities News International had targetted took matters into their own hands; the polititians lost control of events, and the rest is history.

However briefly, News International is now public enemy number one.

News International's systemic 'fuck you buddy' business methods also merge with greed - aka bankers' bonuses - to expose the darkness at the heart of the neoliberal new world order.    [Ind]

The unemployed, the elderly in squalid corporate 'care' homes, the sick, and the disabled, are just as much victims of Murdoch's barren landscape as Milly Dowler's parents.

Met police put pressure on Guardian

Cameron's 26 meetings in 15 months with Murdoch chiefs

Murdoch attacks Gordon Brown

Rupert Murdoch claims 'minor mistakes' have been made

Investors tell Murdoch to quit as Sky chairman

Three police officers cannot persuade MPs that they investigated the hacking scandal with proper zeal

John Yates evidence on phone hacking mocked by MPs

Government backs Labour call for Murdoch to ditch BSkyB bid

Rupert Murdoch accused as News Corp investors sue in US

Police chiefs to tell MPs that it was a cock-up not a conspiracy

News Corp investors attack Murdoch

MET Statement

Shareholders sue News Corp

Cameron prepares to delay Sky bid as Lib Dems threaten to back Labour

Hunt sends BSkyB takeover back to Ofcom

Why I had to leave The Times

So what dare we hope for from Ofcom?

Bullies and cowards who have killed a newspaper ...

I warned No 10 over Coulson appointment, says Ashdown

Met and CPS criticised for 'rubber stamping' first phone-hacking inquiry

David Cameron's self-serving attack on press freedom

David Cameron is not out of the sewer yet

James Murdoch could face criminal charges

'Fit and proper' test thrusts Ofcom into the spotlight

Ofcom monitors hacking developments

Police probe suspected deletion of emails by NI executive

Cameron Orders Two Inquiries ...

An acquisition that must not proceed

Big questions for News International

British Tories Squirm as They Feel the Heat in Murdoch’s Embrace

Coulson arrested

News Corp bid for BSkyB may be scuppered by 'fit and proper' owner test

Panic in No 10 as the decision day for BSkyB takeover bid looms

Public opinion and time are against Rupert Murdoch's News Corp

The Murdoch Style, Under Pressure

The police are also in the dock

This grubby scandal takes on a dark new significance

This is all part of the Murdoch masterplan

Murdoch's malign influence demeans British politics

Private investigator cleared of murder was on Coulson pay-roll

Jonathan Rees