News of the World phone hacking scandal

[vimothy]

Yes, Coogan initially seemed a bit taken aback by McMullan's use of the classic Chewbacca defence: "Ladies and gentlemen, this is Chewbacca. Chewbacca is a Wookiee from the planet Kashyyyk. But Chewbacca lives on the planet Endor. Now think about it; that does not make sense!"

Coogan: [Spluttering] Ah, I mean... wait a sec...

McMullan: [Sensing victory] Fairies will die if we can't tap the phones of abducted children and the families of dead soldiers, Mr Coogan. Do you want fairies to die, Mr Coogan? Do you?

Dyke: [With great mirth] I'm 82, you know!​

Happily, he then went on to master the manoeuvre, incorporating a modified variant of the defence in his own case, adding that News of the World is "an asylum seeker-hating newspaper".

 

[luka]

coogan looks like a cunt because he is a cunt. he is a good writere and performer of comedy and a cunt. NotW was a brillaint paper in many respects. utterly brillaint. no one came close. toxic, wicked and depraved, a force for evil which i wish had nevere existed and im glad its gone but so so good in so many ways. fake sheikh, thats brillaint.... whats sacha baron cohen got on the fake sheikh?

 

[crackerjack]

Have to say I think Coogan comes across badly here. If he is taking the same cash as is being earned by these methods (and he doesn't deny it), and so calling someone else 'morally bankrupt' is a bit rich.

He takes money from Fox Movies to make movies for Fox and they're certainly not subsidised by NI (the other way round, if anything). He's clear it's UK tabs he objects to, not Murdoch. It's pretty weak to demand he either boycott the whole empire or be labelled a hypocrite.

 

[alex]

Have to say I think Coogan comes across badly here. If he is taking the same cash as is being earned by these methods (and he doesn't deny it), and so calling someone else 'morally bankrupt' is a bit rich. Obv the other guy is morally bankrupt, but still!

not really, steve coogan isn't the one who needlessly hacked those victims phones. They have written enough shit and ruined enough fucking lives. And the way NI are always quick to have a pop at the BBC it's good to see dyke putting the fucking boot in, good on him.

 

[crackerjack]

I've been wondering about all these comments from NI hinting that this was gonna get worse. Here's how...

 

[Sectionfive]

Just about to post it. Bad news for NI. Same with the Omagh bombings apparently.

Everything event in the last 15 years will probably be dragged up by the end of the summer.

 

[crackerjack]

9/11 is the big one though, right? Not only does it internationalise it – to the very city where NI is based – it's trampling on the "sacred ground" of 3,000 dead.

And I believe the Americans are really down on hacking.

 

[Sectionfive]

Definitely. The same people that have got so much traction from 9/11 are ones in his pocket too.
Should be interesting.


Also, don't know how recent this is Murdoch looks a lot better then he does London but it was uploaded today.

 

[hucks]

9/11 is the big one though, right? Not only does it internationalise it – to the very city where NI is based – it's trampling on the "sacred ground" of 3,000 dead.

And I believe the Americans are really down on hacking.

Yeah, taking it international is going to fuck them so bad. But reading the story, they didn't actually do it. They tried, and were turned down. So I think it will be easy fo them to deny.

And on Coogan, he was a bit too angry for his own good, but the idea that he can't hate the NoTW and do films for Fox is crap. There are clearly degrees of culpability, and the idea that if you write for the Times, or appear on Gilette Soccer Saturday (best tv programme ever), or make a film with Fox you are involved in this just gives weight to the excuse that everyone is as bad as each other. Which is bollocks.

 

[crackerjack]

Yeah, taking it international is going to fuck them so bad. But reading the story, they didn't actually do it. They tried, and were turned down. So I think it will be easy fo them to deny.

Yeah, sadly the tweet was a lot more exciting than the story, once I finally saw it. Also, I doubt anyone's gonna take the unsubstantiated word of a PI on anything right now. Notable that absolutely no one is running with this outside the Mirror.

 

[droid]

"Hitler was nice to dogs..." Total Partridge moment there.

 

[baboon2004]

Yeah, taking it international is going to fuck them so bad. But reading the story, they didn't actually do it. They tried, and were turned down. So I think it will be easy fo them to deny.

And on Coogan, he was a bit too angry for his own good, but the idea that he can't hate the NoTW and do films for Fox is crap. There are clearly degrees of culpability, and the idea that if you write for the Times, or appear on Gilette Soccer Saturday (best tv programme ever), or make a film with Fox you are involved in this just gives weight to the excuse that everyone is as bad as each other. Which is bollocks.

Sure there are degrees of culpability, which I completely agree with. In criticising Coogan for his sanctimony, it obv doesn't follow that everyone is as bad as each other, just that he comes across as a bit of a self-serving twat, that's all, and isn't the best person to have on there to criticise the notw guy (particualrly as it qucikly transpires he's more concerned about notw hacks bugging him than anything to do with the Dowler family etc)

Besides, at the other end of the scale is the all-too-familiar argument that who you work for and where you take money from doesn't matter all that much. And it does.

The BBC are generally cunts on a political level too, so Dyke can't say much. Refusing to televise adverts for a humanitarian crisis in Palestine etc etc (not sure if this coincided with his being there, but can't be arsed to check)... Who are they to stick it to the NotW? (this bit in ref to Alex's post btw)

 

[baboon2004]

He takes money from Fox Movies to make movies for Fox and they're certainly not subsidised by NI (the other way round, if anything). He's clear it's UK tabs he objects to, not Murdoch. It's pretty weak to demand he either boycott the whole empire or be labelled a hypocrite.

It's pretty clear from the clip shown that all Steve Coogan cares about is Steve Coogan.

I guess more broadly than talking about SC, the point i'm eager to uphold here is that this whole story is more complicated than 'NotW does terrible things and ruins lives'. Sure it does, and what's come out is despicable, but some of those criticising are quite happy to overlook some of their own failings and stick the boot in to look good. Why? Because it's easy.

It's not a relative thing, person B doesnt' stop being a twat/ethically dubious because organisation A has done something worse. In my view, anyways. And it seems SO easy for person B types to profit from such circumstances by turning their suddenly wonderful moral compasses on As, and emerging as 'the good guys'. Bollocks to that.

 

[crackerjack]

The BBC are generally cunts on a political level too, so Dyke can't say much. Refusing to televise adverts for a humanitarian crisis in Palestine etc etc (not sure if this coincided with his being there, but can't be arsed to check)... Who are they to stick it to the NotW? (this bit in ref to Alex's post btw)

He wasn't, and again, you must know that this is an absurd comparison.

 

[baboon2004]

He wasn't, and again, you must know that this is an absurd comparison.

Why's it absurd? The BBC may be a more 'serious' less sensationalist news organ than the NotW, blah blah but hell, it's just as happy to take liberties witht he truth when it suits it. And no, it didn't perform the terrible phone hacking that the NotW did, but it took an indefensible political position on a humanitarian crisis (just as the first example that pops to mind), and ...er, who's to say which is worse (in the sense tht o compare is impossible, but they're both utterly morally repugnant)?

i don't buy this line that there's a serious news media and a 'gutter' news media and never the twain shall meet.

 

[crackerjack]

Why's it absurd?

Because the BBC were intimidated out of it by the ton of shit that falls on the head of anyone doing anything that could be construed as taking a stance on I/P.

NI are (probably) guilty of proactive and systematic criminality, corruption and political bullying. It's not the same thing at all. It's not even on the same planet, let alone ballpark.

There's a logical conclusion to this train of thought, which basically says unless you live on hill subsisting off rain water and wild berries, you can shut the fuck up having a political opinion on anything.

 

[baboon2004]

Because the BBC were intimidated out of it by the ton of shit that falls on the head of anyone doing anything that could be construed as taking a stance on I/P.

NI are (probably) guilty of proactive and systematic criminality, corruption and political bullying. It's not the same thing at all. It's not even on the same planet, let alone ballpark.

There's a logical conclusion to this train of thought, which basically says unless you live on hill subsisting off rain water and wild berries, you can shut the fuck up having a political opinion on anything.

So sentence 1, you're saying that they're spineless cowards who would rather avoid the unspecified 'ton of shit' (whatever such shit consists in) than make a straightforward and human moral decision to broadcast a humanitrain appeal. If so, I agree.

Para 2 - So the BBC don't engage in political bullying? You did WATCH their coverage of the recent spate of political protest in this country, I take it? Shamelessly gutless, and a clear illustration that (I know this is obvious, but bears repeating) it is fundamentally a governmental news organisation/stooge, and in no way an independent one. And the use of 'criminality' here is silly - whether it's against the law or not is irrelevant; what is important is whether it's ethically justifiable, and in both cases given, it wasn't.

Para 3 - oh,. come on, that's ridiculous. And it's the same desperate argument used by loads of people to justify not thinking about anything in a remotely political way...fro example, the eternal pretension that basic decisions such as where you work etc etc are not remotely political choices. Which is of course utter horseshit. "Oh, I can't be morally perfect therefore I won't even try, as long as i don't do something that people can obviously criticise (eg work for the NotW)"

Over and out, I'm back to work...

btw I agreed with what you said a few pages back about the fact that hammering/stigmatising everyone at the News of the World was a bit much, but perhaps from a different viewpoint - that why should these people get fucked/stigmatised, when loads of people work for equally horrible organisations and don't get stigmatised/shafted in the least?

 

[alex]

Murdoch & Co are always bashing the BBC???

Personally I think that gives them every right to go at NI? Their political stance on things doesn’t come into it imo?

RE: The person B & Organisation A points, I don’t see which person B is going to profit from this? And if person B has been caught doing Cocaine or whatever the hell person B got caught doing, it doesn’t really measure up against hacking a missing girls phone for an exclusive on a tabloid newspaper.

 

[Slothrop]

Para 2 - So the BBC don't engage in political bullying? You did WATCH their coverage of the recent spate of political protest in this country, I take it? Shamelessly gutless, and a clear illustration that (I know this is obvious, but bears repeating) it is fundamentally a governmental news organisation/stooge, and in no way an independent one.

Although given that the Murdoch press tends to characterise the BBC as being somewhere to the left of Lenin, where does this leave the Murdoch press?

 

[hucks]

So sentence 1, you're saying that they're spineless cowards who would rather avoid the unspecified 'ton of shit' (whatever such shit consists in) than make a straightforward and human moral decision to broadcast a humanitrain appeal. If so, I agree.

The ton of shit would have come from, among others, News International. That's worth noting.