Time for cowardly Cameron to ditch Murdoch?

[Gromit]

Gullible Dave firstly invited the man bunging cash payments to police officers to be his PR guru despite all the warnings, then continues to follow Murdoch's tune today.
Is it time for Cameron to spurn Murdoch? Or is he already too tainted by his closeness to the dirty digger?

[DTCwordfan]

and if two thirds the god-damn Labour Part wasnt already tainted or in fear of the Digger and his Turds, Gromit. Get real.

[DTCwordfan]

Party...

[Hopkirk]

It may take some time, but Cameron could end up being the biggest casualty of this farce.

[DTCwordfan]

could do - hopkirk but then when it is seen how complicit Brown and his Snags were.....could be damage over there. What I wonder is what the not-so-gorgeous, pouting Bekka means by "wait to this really goes up" (or words to that effect.)

[LazyGun]

Labour have their own problems with all of this, in that some of the worst excesses happened when they were in charge. They could have done more, and it impossible to conclude anything other than that they were scared of pushing it any more - what it all serves to highlight is that for 2 decades, successive governments and MPs of every stripe have been like rabbits in the headlights, paralysed by fear over what the Murdoch press might do if they step out of line.

That having been said, it does seem really strange to me that Cameron took Coulson on as his Chief Press Officer - he keeps going on about "giving a chap a second chance", as if the government press office is some sort of charity - but this was bringing someone into the heart of government, giving them top clearance to access any and all info that came in. This, despite, apparently, warnings from Rusbridger, the editor at the Guardian, from Prescott at Labour , from Ashdown and from Clegg - All these warnings, some quite substantive, and Cameron still elects to take this on? Elements from within his own party also warned him but they were ignored too.

Given all this, what was he thinking? It points to a few unpalatable alternatives. Either those around him ignored the warnings, in which case he has shown poor judgement in picking his own team, or they did inform him, and he ignored them, appointing Coulson anyway, and that is either a desire to keep close to the Murdoch machine or really poor judgement.

[Gromit]

Brown is gone. Any damage would be minimal. And stories of the NotW skulking throught his ill child's medical records will if anything get him sympathy.

Cameron needs to move fast to put a great deal of distance between himself and Murdoch/NI. The next few days will be interesting.

[jno]

Blair hired his PR boss from the Mirror, Cameron tried to go one better. Massive fail, alas.

[jno]

looks like they may have been hacking the cops who were investigating them

http://www.nytimes.co...=tw-nytimes&seid=auto

Is there anyone they weren't hacking? Me, hopefully, otherwise the full truth about the vicar, the goat and the cheeseburger might come out.

[jno]

when Brown was targeted, it did go to court, but a judge threw it out as a waste of money.

http://www.guardian.c...a-checks-gordon-brown

Bad decision, but I don't see how you could blame Brown for it.

[Ankou]

still you have to wonder jno, why after all this was done - and knowingly by rebecca brooks etc - since brown had met her to stop the cystic fibrosis story being published before he made a public statement - why did he still go to her wedding afterwards ?

this media organisation controls politics and politicians, and politics needs this media machine to control and manipulate public perception. and now all has come out they are all wetting themselves about the hipocracy of using murdochs news for their own ends and it being declared publicly. we all know it went on, but now its 'out there'.

[jno]

I think your second paragraph answers your first, Ankou. But I wouldn't have gone.

[Ankou]

well no of course. i was busy that do too.

[modeller]

Is this yet another example of too many people taking on responsible jobs without any experience of the real world and basic common sense.
School , university , politics , teaching, with nothing in between .
You can not run a country or controll a class if you have no experience outside your narrow little world . In the case of DC for school read Eton which is even more divorced from reality.
We are surrounded by 'professionals ' telling us what to do and their knowledge is largely based on what they have read from books which were written by other professionals.

[sp1814]

I had a feeling this story wouldn't end with the News Of The World.

God only knows where it'll stop. I'm thinking of all the major news stories over the past ten years (murders, rape trials, MPs expenses, 7/7, Maddie McCann, Iraq etc) - if the papers have hacked the phones of Holly, Jessica and Milly - what would stop them hacking away to get the inside scoop on all these other stories?

[jno]

well, they're now making allegations against the Sun (editor: Rebekah Brooks) and the Sunday Times. Both are Murdoch papers. I don't know whether other groups' papers would be involved. The most competitive generally is the Mail, even though it's got nothing much to compete against; but I don't think hacking voicemails is quite its style.

I stand to be proven wrong, of course.

[rojash]

The fact that there are now indications of similar activities by the Sun and the Sunday Times, I think, goes to demonstrate something that many people already suspected: namely that the attitude that they are above not only the ordinary law of the land, but above democratically elected governments is endemic throughout Murdoch's empire.

We hear that the "Freedom of the Press", is an essential safeguard for democracy, but it seems that at News International, it's seen as a freedom to undermine democracy, and force sovereign nations to adjust themselves to the political aims of an unelected dictator, Rupert Murdoch.

[argorstran]

I don't think Cameron or any of the three party leaders will ditch Murdoch or vice-versa . They're all part of the system , joined at the hip . Next week , when this is all forgotten and the next big headline rolls in ( mid. east , earthquake , terrorist attack , footballer affair , strikes or whatever ) operation big cover-up will come into play brushing the whole lot under the carpet . I offer this prediction : Murdoch WILL gain full control of B sky B .

[Gromit]

I think you are wrong argorstran. The Conservatives are supporting Millibands call for Murdoch to sling his hook. And Murdoch is set for a grilling by the Select Committee next week.

[Psybbo]

Just remember - the big society - we're all in it together!