DIRTY DIGGER IS WATCHING YOU! Wapping-Gate Scandal Predicted.

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The Cancer of Rupert Murdoch
'There is no one person more responsible for the pollution of the British press.."
If we had a constitution, Murdoch would be the greatest threat to it. Or as Orwell might have put it: If you want a vision of the future, imagine News Corp snooping on the family of a murdered teenager, for money. Dirty Digger Is Watching You!
The question rightly being asked is: what on earth is wrong with our society when we have politicians and police queuing up to grovel to a disgusting peddler of hypocrisy and sleaze like Murdoch? The answer is simple.
Don Murdoch made the politicians an offer they couldn't refuse: 15% in the polls for the universal right to sell junk in their neighbourhoods, and 100% of the biggest broadcaster in the country, and the eventual destruction of the BBC. A genuine partnership with a government which knows how to encourage business.
The story is not about the petty corruption of journalists, no more than Lehmann Brothers was the story of individual greed. It's not personal, it's strictly business. It is bigger than the crimes of a few weak and frightened public school bedwetters. Flogging them in front of the common room fire wouldn't change anything. Hanging them from London Bridge would not be a deterrent in the face of the massive rewards for being Don Murdoch's friend. It's not about the scumbags, it's about the money.. Again. Like Lehmann Brothers. So watch out for those building bonfires and sharpening stakes, they will be trying to divert attention from the real problem of the political and commercial power of a brand new technology, and its ability to pervert truth itself, in the wrong hands. And the hands at the moment could not be wronger.

But even last night we had the usual morons proclaiming that 'We Get The Press We Deserve'. It's our fault. We're to blame. So we mustn't ever do anything about Murdoch's plan to own all the information in the world but first we must Heal Ourselves. All of us. This simple solution has the benefit of obstructing any progress almost indefinitely. Perfect.

And then there are the Storm in A Teacup Brigade. Belittling the entire war as political correctness gone made and counter-attacking with accusations 'piousness' and (much worse) unprofitability, against the responsible journalists who saw through News International decades ago. Wapping Gate is just sour grapes - if they knew how to run a paper like the News of the World which made a profit they wouldn't bitch. And as Richard Littlejohn would say: the trouble with the parents of murdered teenagers and dead soldiers is that they've got absolutely no sense of humour. All this fuss about a bit of eavesdropping, which we've all done down the supermarket - admit it. It's Political Correctness Gone Mad!
Then there is the theory that newspapers merely follow and even 'champion' popular needs. The masses have to have junk. The fact is that the tabloids don't 'champion' anything except feral individualism, which they do on a military scale. The more debased the culture becomes as a result, the more junk people need to comfort themselves from it, and those who profit from junk become more powerful. And the culture of pathological binge consumption is reinforced. In the competitiveness of their business, there is no room for morality. The morals are dictated by the money.

Now we know why the News of the World can sell cheaper than the rest and has the biggest single-day English language circulation in the world, and we know the real cost to real people, and to the newspaper market, at the expense of anything approaching quality journalism. Sleaze journalism is illegally subsidised by its victims, bereaved families especially, but ultimately by the entire culture. As Denis Potter predicted. Murdoch is a cancer. But now it looks as if surgery might be an option after all. A challenge to the Murdoch empire as serious as the Arab Spring has emerged overnight, triggered by the Milly Dowler outrage. There is a definite lack of fear, even from MP's, who almost threw themselves into today's emergency debate. The Media Spring is finally beginning to occupying the square. 2011. What a year!

News is that champagne corks are popping at the Mirror Group, but I'd like to think they're starting to think about dancing on tables at Fortress Wapping, too. And beyond, because surely, if bugging is despicable when newspapers do it, it is despicable when any business does it. And they do. The techniques used to exploit the family of Milly Dowler were perfected in the credit-search industry. Which is just as vibrant now as ever.
The media are the most visible culprits, by nature. But the culture of the NOW newsroom extends across Boardroom land. Why shouldn't it? Or are we merely dismissing Rupert Murdoch as just a Rotten-Apple proprietor, but in a big barrel? The culture which created Wapping-Gate is not confined to News International. How the forthcoming public enquiries choose to conceal that fact will be the most interesting revelation of all. Is this how the banking crisis will get replayed? And the depth of global corporate depravity remains concealed? By blaming Murdoch for the economic system he was was the master of?
Meanwhile The Sun fearlessly continues to wield the sword of Free Speech!

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Posts related to Wapping-Gate are promptly removed. Again.
But what's The News of the World to The Sun anyway? I thought they were meant to be totally separate organisations with no links at all and therefore no guilt by association thank you! So why are they so protective of an organisation and a culture which they should, if only for legal reasons, be distancing themselves from? Very mysterious. And very shaky from a monolith like NewsCorp.

But the most mysterious thing of all is that Coulson and Brooks have blatantly admitted to breaking the law by paying the police. Why aren't they in jail?