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Monday

Alex Massie

Cameron's Problem is Propriety Not Illegality

Tim Montgomerie suggests that we all at least try and keep the News of the World scandal in some degree of perspective. This is a worthy thought but not one that’s likely to fly very far given the febrile mood at Westminster. Moreover, Tim’s reasons for calling for calm are not, perhaps, quite as persuasive as they might be. For instance, pointing out that all these abuses occurred while Labour was in power is, while true, not terribly relevant. Ed Miliband may have been a member of that government but he wasn’t involved in courting News International. Besides, it’s the Tories who are in power now and, reasonably enough, their

Alex Massie

Fox Discovers the Real Victims

I rather like Fox News, partly because it’s so blessedly shameless (and, lord knows, it’s more fun to watch than CNN America). Even so, one can’t avoid the impression that there are times when its hosts and guests don’t quite know very much about the stories they are supposed to be “covering”. This is terrific, albeit in the way one imagines the Pyongyang Bugle must be magnificent. 

Sunday

James Forsyth

Rebekah Brooks arrested

There is a growing controversy about the timing of the arrest of Rebekah Brooks. Having now been arrested, Brooks may well not appear before the select committee on Tuesday. This will enrage parliamentarians who feel that parliament has been misled several times during this scandal and want answers. (The Murdochs, though, are still scheduled to appear). The next source of controversy is that the arrest occurs at a time when the police were beginning to take centre stage in the scandal. There will be those who suspect that this is not just a coincidence. Then, there is the fact she has been arrested just two days after resigning from News

Alex Massie

Conveniently, Rebekah Brooks has been arrested...

Rebekah Brooks has been arrested on grounds of conspiring to intercept communications and, more generally, corrupting public life and so on. Since this story is no place for the naive, an appropriate measure of cynicism demands one ask why Brooks has been arrested today? At the very least this development is likely to make a mockery of her appearance before the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee on Tuesday. One imagines Brooks’ lawyers will suggest she come armed with one answer to any and all questions: “I’m sorry but these are matters currently being investigated by the police and I would not want to jeopardise or otherwise prejudice those enquiries.

Friday

David Blackburn

From the archives: When Gordon loved Rupert

Gordon Brown graced the political stage with a rare cameo this week – if half an hour of deluded invective masquerading as reasoned piety qualifies as a cameo. Brown would have you believe that he had nothing to do with Rupert Murdoch. This following piece by Peter Oborne says otherwise.   The murderous intent of Gordon Brown, Peter Oborne, 20 April 2002 This Friday a triumphant Gordon Brown flies to New York for a business conference. The Chancellor and his colleagues perhaps see the trip as a well-earned break.   In No.10 Downing Street there is a temptation to take a more jaundiced view, and interpret it as a quick

David Blackburn

At the PM’s pleasure…

Here is the list that James referred to earlier in full: Guests to Chequers from May 2010 to present Government guests and senior media guests: Danny Alexander MP and Rebecca Alexander Lord Ashdown Tony Baldry MP Greg Barker MP and George Prassus Lord Terry Burns and Lady Ann Elizabeth Burns Rebekah Brooks (June 2010 and August 2010) Brigadier Ed Butler and Sophie Butler Ian Cheshire and Kate Cheshire Ken Clarke MP and Gillian Clarke Nick Clegg MP Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles Brigadier James Cowan Air Chief Marshall Sir Stephen Dalton Alan Duncan MP and James Dundeath James Fergusson Stanley Fink and Barbara Fink Daniel Finkelstein and Nicky Finkelstein Liam Fox MP

James Forsyth

Cameron comes clean

Later on today, Downing Street will reveal all of David Cameron’s meetings with newspaper / media proprietors and editors since the election. This is a welcome move, transparency is the best disinfectant and by getting the information out there it will end speculation about precisely how close he was to various people in News International. But one detail has already leaked out and will cause controversy: Andy Coulson was a guest at Chequers several months after he quit the government. In some ways this is no great shock, Coulson — as Cameron said at last Friday’s press conference — is a friend of the Prime Minister and someone whose advice

David Blackburn

Murdoch atones

Sky News reports that Rupert Murdoch is set to apologise for the activities of the News of the World in a newspaper advert to be run tomorrow. It will read: ‘We are sorry. The News of the World was in the business of holding others to account. It failed when it came to itself. We are sorry for the serious wrongdoing that occurred. We are deeply sorry for the hurt suffered by the individuals affected. We regret not acting faster to sort things out. I realise that simply apologising is not enough. Our business was founded on the idea that a free and open press should be a positive force

Alex Massie

Sympathy for the Devil

There are few organisations that persuade one to root for Rupert Murdoch but the US Department of Justice is probably one. Then there’s Eliot Spitzer, just the kind of creep and hypocrite* who is supposed to be treated roughly by the newspapers. Spitzer, yet another example that Scott Fitzgerald’s silly suggestion “There are no second acts in American lives” is useful only because it’s not at all true, wrote a typically vindictive piece for Slate this week arguing that News Corp be investigated by the American authorities. He argued that: [T]he facts already pretty well established in Britain indicate violations of American law, in particular a law called the Foreign

Thursday

Alex Massie

Murdoch Loses His Grip on Reality

Not the least astonishing aspect of the News of the World affair is the useless manner in which the Murdoch family has responded to the crisis. There appears to have been no plan, no attempt to get a grip on the situation; they have instead lurched from one miscalculation to another. Not that Rupert sees it that way. Apparently the company has made only “minor mistakes” and the crisis has been handled “extremely well in every way possible”. Which is one way of looking at it.  The initial decision to simply shutter the News of the World took everyone by surprise. Perhaps the Murdochs assumed this would put an end

Fraser Nelson

A blow to an already struggling industry

  British newspapers are haemorrhaging readers and influence, and next Sunday we will see just how much this process has accelerated. That day’s newspapers will — I’m sure — all be making some kind of pitch to orphaned News of the World readers. When Today closed, there was a similar scramble (“Welcome to your place in The Sun,” screamed its main rival), but this time they could be in for a shock. American experience suggests that when newspapers close, their readers just disappear — they liked their former paper, saw it as an old friend and didn’t feel compelled to find a new one. Preliminary research, picked up by my

Alex Massie

Department of the Free Press

I think Liberal Conspiracy should drop the “liberal” bit if they keep publishing tommyrot of this sort: I’ve never understood why we allow our print media to support a particular political viewpoint. Why is it that just before an election, our media line up in their separate camps and decide to tell us who to vote for? If there is a point of law I’m unaware of, perhaps someone will enlighten me, but just how is it in the public interest to seek to influence the outcome of general elections? Why do we need them to tell us what to do? Mark my words, we’ll be hearing more of this

Alex Massie

Ed's Very Big Week

Fairness demands one acknowledge this has been Ed Miliband’s best week since he became Labour leader. James’s piece in this week’s edition of the magazine explains why in typically fine fashion. He concludes: There’s undoubtedly something different about Miliband now: more swagger, more conviction. His adept handling of this crisis and his successful parliamentary gamble have shaken the confidence of the Tories. Being the first party leader to take on Murdoch and threaten to win is no mean feat. But can he keep it up? He wonders if this current drama will turn out to be just ‘a couple of weeks when the world looks like it has turned upside

James Forsyth

Ed Miliband: Murdoch's spell has been broken

I have an interview with Ed Miliband in the latest issue of The Spectator, conducted the evening before yesterday’s Parliamentary debate on News Corp and BSkyB. Here’s the whole thing for CoffeeHousers: Rupert Murdoch’s hold on British politics has finally been broken. The politicians who competed to court him are now scrapping to see who can distance themselves fastest. As the Labour leader, Ed Miliband, says when we meet in his Commons office on Tuesday afternoon, ‘The spell has been broken this week and clearly it will never be the same again.’ Miliband and his staff have just heard that the government will support their motion calling for Murdoch to

Wednesday

Alex Massie

Cameron Cuts Himself Free

If memory serves, Gore Vidal liked to stress the point that he was always the bugger, never the buggered. Something similar might be said of Rupert Murdoch’s approach to his business dealings. The Dirty Digger – and bugger, for that matter – is not accustomed to failure. And yet, inside just seven days, he has lost the News of the World and his bid to purchase the 61% of BSkyB he does not already own. Cue astonishing scenes and muppetry from the likes of George Monbiot who tweeted, I kid you not, “This is our Berlin Wall moment”. And yet something has changed on this remarkable day. Credit is due

James Forsyth

Cameron on the back foot

This has been another difficult morning for David Cameron. He’s now taking flak for having said he would take part in the BSkyB debate this afternoon and then deciding not to. But what should, perhaps, worry the Prime Minister more than this criticism is the evidence that the Liberal Democrats are siding with Labour to portray Cameron as being behind the curve on this issue. The FT, the Lib Dems’ paper of choice, reports that Clegg and Miliband pushed Cameron for a wide-ranging public inquiry. The paper details how Clegg is demanding an end to the practice of politicians, and particularly Prime Ministers, meeting newspaper proprietors but keeping the meeting

Tuesday

Peter Hoskin

The war between Brown and Murdoch heats up

Gordon may have come carrying dynamite, but News International has some explosives of its own. In a pair of statements this afternoon, the Sun and the Sunday Times have set about undermining, or just plain denying, our former Prime Minister’s testimony. By the Sun’s account, not only did they get the story about his son’s medical condition from a “member of the public [who] came to The Sun with this information voluntarily because he wanted to highlight the cause of those afflicted by [cystic fibrosis],” but Brown’s colleagues also “provided quotes” to be used in the final article. By the Sunday Times’s, their investigation into Brown’s property transactions was pursued

James Forsyth

Attention turns to the police

Today, the spotlight in the phone hacking scandal is shifting onto the police — who have an awful lot of questions to answer. Indeed, I suspect at the end of this the reputation of the police will have been hugely damaged. The evidence from senior Met officials — some retired, some serving — has not convinced the Home Affairs committee today. It is a sign of how poor relations are between the police and MPs that a Tory MP has asked the current and former assistant commissioners of the Met if he they have ever taken a bribe from a journalist. Both John Yates and Andy Hayman reacted indignantly to

Peter Hoskin

Brown speaks out

We’ll try to post the video of Gordon Brown’s interview with the Beeb soon. But, for now, here’s the transcript of his remarks about News International and his son’s medical records: Gordon Brown: [The Sun] told me they had this story about Fraser’s medical condition, and that they  were going to run this story. Interviewer: How did that affect you, as a father? GB: In tears. Your son is now going to be broadcast across the media. Sarah and I are incredibly upset about it. We’re thinking about his long-term future. We’re thinking about our family. But there’s nothing that you can do about it. You’re in public life, and