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07/24/2011

Thus Spake David (MadDogMessiah) Freedlander: Sid Harth

Devil-may-care: Sid Harth

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Thus Spake David (MadDogMessiah) Freedlander: Sid Harth

 

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  2. News, Views and Reviews: Sid Harth | Everything you always wanted ...

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  3. Cogito Ergo Sum: The Death of a Statesman: Sid Harth

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    Jun 4, 2011 – The Death of a Statesman: Sid Harth. June 4th, 2011 ... from President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, to two of ...
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  4. India's Superpower Euphoria: Sid Harth

    www.allvoices.com/.../9016966-indias-superpower-euphoria-sid-har... - Cached
    May 9, 2011 – Sid Harth (Washington, DC). Yousuf Raza GilaniRaza Gilani's office: “Ring, Ring. ... I am Barack Obama,…” Before any further words to be spoken by Barack ... WSJ: ISLAMABAD—Secretary of State Hillary Clinton beseeched ...
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  5. India's Superpower Euphoria: Sid Harth

    www.allvoices.com/.../9005691-indias-superpower-euphoria-sid-har... - Cached
    May 7, 2011 – ...and I am Sid Harth Dushyant Banker (Junction City, Kansas ...
     

  6. Of Muddle, Puddle and Gates in the Middle: Sid Harth - aus ...

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    Cabinet of President Barack Obama (since 2009). Cabinet. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton (since 2009). Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner ...

  7. cogito ergo sum: Barack Obama - Sid Harth

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    News, Views and Reviews: Sid Harth | Everything you always wanted . ...... from President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, ...

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  8. It's the Economy, Stupid: Sid Harth - soc.culture.usa | Google Groups

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    Barack Obama to "fail." It was later reported that Carville had voiced ... As an advisor to Hillary Rodham Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign, ...

  9. Taliban Trailed: Sid Harth - soc.culture.pakistan | مجموعات Google

    groups.google.com.sa/group/soc.culture.pakistan/.../19292b9293e4a857
    Dec 2, 2009 – President Barack Obama has ordered to Afghanistan, ... Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Defense Secretary Robert M. ...

  10. Holy Hindu Cow! What Now?: Sid Harth - cogito ergo sum

    bakulaji.typepad.com/.../holy-hindu-cow-what-now-sid-harth-2.htm... - Cached
    May 9, 2011 – What Now: Sid Harth Holy Hindu Cow! What Now: Sid Harth May... ... Hilary Rodham Clinton in a very well modulated, firm but tender voice. ..... WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama telephoned Prime Minister Manmohan ...
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  11. Of promise and Compromise: Sid Harth - .soc.culture.british

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Too Soon? Cuomo, Clinton Top 2016 Poll

By David Freedlander 7/19 5:43pm
The first in the nation New Hampshire presidential primary is only 53 months away, which of course means that pollsters are already taking the temperature of the electorate in the Granite State.
And, from this vantage point, New Hampshirites in 2011 want to see more of Andrew Cuomo and Hillary Clinton in five years time.

According to Public Policy Polling, in a 2016 field that includes Joe Biden, Cory Booker, Hillary Clinton, Andrew Cuomo, Russ Feingold, Deval Patrick, Brian Schweitzer, and Mark Warner, the Secretary of State would cruise to victory with 50 percent of the vote. Biden comes next, followed by Cuomo, who grabs 9 percent.
In a field without Biden or Clinton, both of whom will be in their 70′s by 2016 and who have indicated that they are not interested in running for president, Cuomo cruises, grabbing 30 percent. Only “someone else/undecided” does better.
So with the 2016 race all but decided, anybody know who is looking at 2020?
Full poll results here.

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Add New Comment

Showing 3 comments

  • David, my Buddy, what are you smoking? Appears to me that it must be very illegal, oops, legally permitted but morally wrong. Yes, I said it. Morally wrong to hatch a plot.

    This may be a trial balloon. Maybe, a philosophical musing, oops, messing, oops, massaging of the ego. Not yours, silly-boy. Very big ego of Andrew Cuomo, oops, leggo, leggo dream team's Perry Cuomo, oops, Andrew Cuomo and Hillary Rodham Clinton leggo.

    Don't you ever drop names, oops, name names of constipaters, oops, consummated professional politickers. It ain't fittin. It also ain't PC, oops, Politically Correct.

    Barack Obama, oops, Barack Husein Obama ain't not ded, yet. Is he?

    The next president is gonna be... Connect the dot and see for yosself. I ain't gonna do it for you. Since, BHO can't run for the third time, maybe, he shall have to go for the constitutional amendment.

    I bet my silver dollar that he is willing, wanting and wantonly hunting for the next vice presidential candidate. Hillary Rodham Clinton is too old, too tired running around like a chick, oops, chicken without head, heading for countries that you have not noticed on the map, trying to put off fires. She is also too fat and too ugly to be a a second term vice president.

    How does that bite your ass? People wanna know. I wanna know. Tell me Oh, Nostradamus. Please, pretty please. Just do it.

    ...and I am Sid Harth@mysistereileen.com
  • VJMachiavelli
    What a waste of time

    Before there was the "Oracle at Delphi" there was Count Vampire J. Machiavelli

    VJ Machiavelli
    The Legislative Budget is Too Damn High
  • that poll is bull crap.

    first of all clinton is out, warner is a blue dog and was only attractive in 2007 because he was a potential vp for any candidate in 2008 and the dems have already won the white house back, also after kaine wins in 2012, he will be the hot southern commodity not warner.

    also, the montana gov. won't run because he doesn't appeal to the dems most powerful base the black voters, which vote in droves for their candidates and of whom the pols can cozy up to without being theatened by the center unlike gay voters who are hard to recognize or appeal to.

    cuomo is out because of his so open support of gay marriage could scare away some indys in a general election and black voters in he primaries, trust me we won;t come around on gay marriage. also cuomo will most like other ny pols lately face some sort of scandal before then.

    that only leaves deval patrick and cory booker only if he wins either the governorship in '13 or senate in 14. unless someone else gets in a booker v. patrick fight would be epic and could turn out to be a very interesting ticket either way, i would like a booker for pres and patrick for vp.

    obama '12

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Posted at 03:12 AM in Books, Current Affairs, Film, Food and Drink, Games, Music, Religion, Science, Sports, Television, Travel, Web/Tech, Weblogs | | Comments (0)

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07/21/2011

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Loch, Oops, Mur-Doch Nest, oops, Messed-up Monster: Sid Harth

  1. My Sister Eileen: Sid Harth | Everything you always wanted to know ...

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    Everything you always wanted to know about my sister Eileen and more. ... Balanced Budget Amendment: Sid Harth · Rupert Murdoch Attacked: Sid Harth ...
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  2. C'est Merde, Oops, Rupert Murdoch's Demise: Sid ... - My Sister Eileen

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  3. Rupert Murdoch's Requiem: Sid Harth | My Sister Eileen: Sid Harth

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    Jul 13, 2011 – Jun 29, 2011 – Starred results for @mysistereileen.com #wsj ...

  4. The Devil and a Dingbat: Sid Harth | My Sister Eileen: Sid Harth

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    Jun 27, 2011 – Everything you always wanted to know about my sister Eileen ...
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  5. News, Views and Reviews: Sid Harth | Everything you always wanted ...

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  6. Murdoch's My Fair Lady, Oops, Melody, Oops, Malady - The Wall Shit ...

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    Jul 15, 2011 – Posted in Deaths | 11 Replies …. …and I am Sid Harth@mysistereileen.com … ..... Rupert Murdoch's News Corp did not get a $4.8 billion tax ...

  7. Free Press SNAFU, Thanks Argh, Argh Nurdoch - The Wall Shit ...

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    Jul 15, 2011 – Jul 10, 2011 – The Wall Shit Journal and I: Sid Harth – My Sister Eileen ... paper and threatens further damage to Rupert Murdoch's media ...

  8. Thus Spake Zarathustra, Oops, Murdochustra | Cogito Ergo Sum World

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    Jul 18, 2011 – Jul 13, 2011 – Jun 29, 2011 – Starred results for @mysistereileen.com #wsj.com …. million News Corp. had hoped and the Rupert Murdoch-owned ...

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  10. The Wall Shit Journal and I: Sid Harth | USA: News, Views and Reviews

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17 July 2011 Last updated at 12:12 ET

Rebekah Brooks' arrest is huge blow for Murdochs

Rupert Murdoch and Rebekah Brooks A relationship nearly as close as a father and a daughter, friends say
Today's arrest of Rebekah Brooks, who was until Friday the chief executive of News International, represents perhaps the greatest failure to date in the Murdoch-controlled group's campaign for rehabilitating itself.
Because ever since News International and its parent company News Corporation were seriously damaged 13 days ago by the allegation that the phone of the murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler was hacked at the instigation of the News of the World, News International has been on an explicit mission to demonstrate that Mrs Brooks was innocent of all wrongdoing.
Although Mrs Brooks was editor of the News of the World at the time of the alleged hacking, she has denied all knowledge of it. And she has denied she was aware of other alleged instances of phone hacking or of bribes allegedly paid to the police.
So the thrust of News International's message to the world was that Mrs Brooks was as shocked as everyone else by disclosures that appear to show that there was a culture at the News of the World of systematically breaching proprieties in the pursuit of stories.
Lightning rod? If she was guilty of anything, said her colleagues, it was of not knowing what her subordinates were doing.
That ignorance while in positions of authority at News International was ultimately enough to persuade her to resign from the company on Friday - many days after there had been widespread calls, including a demand from her friend, the prime minister, for her to go.
But News International was still insisting she had done nothing fundamentally wrong. She was leaving only because she had become a lightning rod for criticism of the company which made it harder for any kind of equilibrium to be restored in the business. Or so her friends insisted.
To put it another way, the company's version of what happened at the News of the World and who was to blame has been implicitly challenged in a fundamental way by the decision of the Metropolitan Police to arrest her on suspicion of alleged involvement in phone hacking and corruption.
As a company executive said to me, "we just don't know what's going to happen next".
Rupert and Rebekah Now there are two reasons why News Corporation and News International were so keen to protect Rebekah Brooks.
First is that there is probably no one involved in the business, whose surname isn't Murdoch, who is as close to Rupert Murdoch, News Corp's chairman, as is Rebekah Brooks.
When they are together, he displays a conspicuous affection for her. "Some would say he is almost as close to Rebekah as he is to his children" said one of their colleagues.
And then there is a second reason why her arrest will be a blow both to Rupert Murdoch and to his son, James Murdoch, her immediate boss as head of News Corp's European operations.
Ignorance does not protect Her ignorance of what happened at the News of the World reinforced their claims that they too had no knowledge of the alleged scale of abuses by the Sunday tabloid, which was closed down only a week ago.
The importance of today's events is that her claimed ignorance did not prevent her being arrested.
The other point about her arrest is that it is something of a shock to the political establishment, since she was on unusually good and friendly terms with three successive prime ministers, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and the current tenant of 10 Downing Street, David Cameron.
If, as seems likely, her arrest prevents her from giving public evidence on Tuesday to MPs on the culture, media and sport Commons committee, her many friends in high places may be slightly relieved.
In the current climate of criticism of News International, there will be quite a few powerful people who would be pleased if the brightest possible media light isn't shone on their close and personal relationship with Mrs Brooks.
Robert Peston Article written by Robert Peston Robert Peston Business editor

Why NewsCorp didn't let Harbottle talk

18:03 UK time, Wednesday, 20 July 2011
Why News Corp did not let Harbottle & Lewis talk about a 2007 letter saying illegal hacking was confined to one rogue reporter.
Read full article

More on This Story

Phone-hacking scandal

News and analysis

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  • Rate this comment positivelyRate this comment negatively
    +76

    Comment number 1.

    skewiff1
    17th July 2011 - 17:26
    Nice picture of you in the Daily Heil today Pesto, drinking champers with Rebekah and the rest of the Chipping Norton set.
  • Rate this comment positivelyRate this comment negatively
    +100

    Comment number 2.

    James Atkins
    17th July 2011 - 17:27
    It's so obviously a ploy to protect powerful people from embarrassment on Tuesday. It only further undermines faith in these people.
  • Rate this comment positivelyRate this comment negatively
    +2

    Comment number 3.

    BMT
    17th July 2011 - 17:32
    If she's unable to give evidence on Tues it'll only delay the inevitable IF she's charged and IF it goes to court.It just means she gives evidence in court under oath.Thats the same for all arrested who may be charged.Thats when any further serious revelations will happen as well as the public enquiry after any such trial.You can bet defence counsel will make hay when/if it goes to court.
  • Rate this comment positivelyRate this comment negatively
    +119

    Comment number 4.

    Bournemouth '84
    17th July 2011 - 17:33
    Can't help but marvel at the coincidental arrest by police, which is likely to stimey the imminent public questioning about alleged police corruption...
  • Rate this comment positivelyRate this comment negatively
    +13

    Comment number 5.

    RJ__02
    17th July 2011 - 17:30
    "In the current climate of criticism of News International, there will be quite a few powerful people who would be pleased if the brightest possible media light isn't shone on their close and personal relationship with Mrs Brooks."

    Yes, i think there will be quite a few of those so called people trying to step back into the shadow, and falling flat on their bottoms.
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Posted at 01:24 PM in Books, Current Affairs, Film, Food and Drink, Games, Music, Religion, Science, Sports, Television, Travel, Web/Tech, Weblogs | | Comments (0)

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07/20/2011

Devil-may-care: Sid Harth

County Fair
    1.   World's Baked Billionaires: Sid harth - soc.culture.indian | Google Groups - groups.google.com/.../42a9c3eca9882e8...
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    3.   Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize: Sid Harth - Page 49 - .soc.culture.china - www.freak-search.com/en/.../49

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  2. News, Views and Reviews: Sid Harth | Everything you always wanted ...

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    the Wall Shit Journal and I: Sid Harth ... Rupert Murdoch, 80 is dead. Science & Technology News Informative Report Home « Terrafugia Transition flying car ...

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  3. My Sister Eileen: Sid Harth | Everything you always wanted to know ...

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    Rupert Murdoch Attacked: Sid Harth · The Wall Shit Journal and I: Sid Harth · With Friends Like LinkedIn, who Needs Enemies?: Sid Harth · The Wall Shit ...

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  4. Rupert Murdoch's Requiem: Sid Harth « Wassup? Doc!: Sid Harth

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    Jul 13, 2011 – Jul 8, 2011 – My Sister Eileen: Sid Harth » The Devil and a Dingbat: Sid Harth … .... (Reuters) – Rupert Murdoch will shut down Britain's ...

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  5. Views and Reviews: Sid Harth | Sid Harth Sid Harth

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    My Sister Eileen: Sid Harth: Everything you always wanted to know … mysistereileen.com/ – Cached. News Corporation chief Rupert Murdoch will jet into London ...

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  6. News of Rupert Murdoch's World, Oops, Death: Sid Harth | USA: News ...

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    Jul 11, 2011 – Global Village: Sid Harth Just another WordPress site Search Main menu Skip to primary content Skip to secondary content Hom...

  7. Rupert Murdoch Attacked: Sid Harth | USA: News, Views and Reviews

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    Jul 20, 2011 – Rupert Murdoch Attacked: Sid Harth The Wall Shit Journal ...

  8. The Wall Shit Journal and I: Sid Harth: Current Affairs

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    Jul 8, 2011 – Jun 2, 2011 – My Sister Eileen: Sid Harth Everything you always wanted to know about my sister ... Judy Miller, and Rupert Murdoch are lined ...

  9. Cogito Ergo Sum World | The World is my Oyster

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    Rupert Murdoch Attacked: Sid Harth The Wall Shit Journal and I: Sid Harth Tuesday, July 19, 2011 Rupert Murdoch Attacked: Sid Harth Starred results. ...

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  10. C'est Merde, Oops, Rupert Murdoch's Demise: Sid Harth | Global ...

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    Jul 10, 2011 – Cogito Ergo Sum World The World is my Oyster Search Main menu Skip to primary content Skip to secondary content Home Bookle+:Sid Harth ...

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  11. The Wall Shit Journal and I: Sid Harth: Media Emperor, in the News ...

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    Jul 8, 2011 – My Sister Eileen: Sid Harth » The Devil and a Dingbat: Sid Harth . .... (Reuters) - Rupert Murdoch will shut down Britain's biggest selling ...

Wall Street Journal Writers Have "Total Editorial Freedom" To Defend Murdoch

July 20, 2011 1:15 pm ET by Eric Boehlert

News Corp.'s phone-hacking fiasco continues to do lasting damage to Rupert Murdoch's reputation, as well as the reputation of the media properties he owns. Feeling an especial sting is the Wall Street Journal, the crown of Murdoch's print news enterprise in America.

The once-mighty daily has been dragged into the tale of sleazy Fleet Street practices because Murdoch in 2007 appointed his longtime confidant Les Hinton to become publisher the Journal. The problem? Hinton turns out to have been a key player in the hacking scandal and oversaw a completely inept internal investigation for News Corp. which failed to uncover the rampant criminality that appears to have taken place under his watch. (Hinton was forced to resign last week.)

So yes, the Journal's a player in the story. (Albeit one it tried its best to keep quiet about.) But the good news is, Wall Street Journal columnists and its opinion writers have "total editorial freedom" to write whatever they want regarding the epic controversy.

It's true. Journal columnist Bret Stephens stressed that point during an interview with wsj.com.  He wrote about the hacking story this week and in no way feared any negative, internal "consequence." (Murdoch, after all, is hands-on at the Journal.) Yep, the team has total editorial freedom to address the topic. Yet amazingly not one WSJ print columnist has demanded Murdoch step down because of the hacking scandal, or that News Corp. leadership has disgraced itself with its incompetent attempt at fact-finding.

What a coincidence! Journal opinion writers have total editorial freedom to address the phone hacking scandal, it's just that there's little interest in being harshly critical of Murdoch. And what a coincidence! Journal opinion writers have total editorial freedom, and lots of them have used it to rush in and defend Murdoch, obfuscate the story, or lash out at his critics.

Funny how "total editorial freedom" works sometimes.

Tags: Wall Street Journal, Rupert Murdoch, NewsCorp News, Les Hinton

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    •  
      • Author by David2011 (July 20, 2011 1:40 pm ET)
        3
        What has happened to the WSJ the last few years has been very, very sad to watch. That's not Schadenfreude, it's just the truth.
        Reply Report Abuse

    •  
      • Author by Imbecile (July 20, 2011 2:00 pm ET)
        5
        I consider myself to be fairly amoral when it comes to most things. In fact, I'm fairly hedonistic in my approach to right and wrong. My only rules in life are: don't hurt another person in what you do, either physically or emotionally.That being said, I could never, ever, ever bring myself to defend something like this. Ever. And if I were asked to, I'd quit in protest before allowing myself to defend something so incredibly vile.

        To engage in a practice that knowingly, callously, and cynically gives false hope to a desperate family searching for a missing child just so one can have a great story for the newspaper violates that rule I described above, and does so intentionally. To then defend it, not directly, because that would actually take a certain level of bravado to do so, but instead to engage in the defense of the accused by trying to identify the accused as the victim would require me to debase myself to the point that I would sacrifice the only ethic to which I adhere would be something I could never do.

        Yet, somehow, I'm often the one considered unethical and immoral because of what I believe. Sure, I believe things that most people do not agree with, but I would NEVER do something like that.

        Reply Report Abuse

    •  
      • Author by MiddleAmerica (July 20, 2011 2:07 pm ET)
          8
        So they don't have editorial freedom unless they ask Murdoch to step down? How foolish.
        Reply Report Abuse

        •  
          • Author by highlyunlikely (July 20, 2011 2:47 pm ET)
            6
            Boulderhippy doesn't realize that his conclusion is based on a ridiculous supposition. Being an adult, I can understand him completely missing the point of this post; he's barely aware when he's being mocked.
            Reply Report Abuse

            • Author by MiddleAmerica (July 20, 2011 3:28 pm ET)
                3
              I was adressing this quote - "Yep, the team has total editorial freedom to address the topic. Yet amazingly not one WSJ print columnist has demanded Murdoch step down"
              Reply Report Abuse

              •  
                • Author by mjlilgui (July 20, 2011 3:42 pm ET)
                  3
                  What a coincidence! Journal opinion writers have total editorial freedom to address the phone hacking scandal, it's just that there's little interest in being harshly critical of Murdoch. And what a coincidence! Journal opinion writers have total editorial freedom, and lots of them have used it to rush in and defend Murdoch, obfuscate the story, or lash out at his critics.You really are adorable. Seriously, what do you get out acting this obtuse?
                  Reply Report Abuse

              •  
                • Author by Old_Benjamin (July 20, 2011 3:48 pm ET)
                  2

                  "Yep, the team has total editorial freedom to address the topic. Yet amazingly not one WSJ print columnist has demanded Murdoch step down

                  "

                  "Quote"? What quote? You posted a portion (with a spelling error to boot) of a quote. Why would you lie like that? We can see the full post just a quick scroll up and see...

                  Yet amazingly not one WSJ print columnist has demanded Murdoch step down because of the hacking scandal, or that News Corp. leadership has disgraced itself with its incompetent attempt at fact-finding.

                  You lying POS a-hole.

                  Reply Report Abuse

              • Author by highlyunlikely (July 20, 2011 5:25 pm ET)
                1
                Boulderhippy missed the implication. It's not about a cause-and-effect relationship but the hypocrisy of the convenient coincidence.Which is all the substance you're getting from me, bh.
                Reply Report Abuse

        • Author by mattcable250650 (July 20, 2011 3:27 pm ET)
          5
          Heh! No, no, no, the WSJ writers are completely free! They're free to defend their glorious leader Rupert Murdoch and to attack his enemies. Don'cha see how marvelously that works out?
          Reply Report Abuse

    •  
      • Author by sluggo (July 20, 2011 2:58 pm ET)
        4
        As an investor looking to the WSJ for reliable and unbiased information, I would be disturbed by this editorial. Can I trust the "regular" news coverage? Are the WSJ stories about a Murdoch company accurate? About a company competing with Murdoch?If I cannot trust the business information in the WSJ why would I read it as a basis for making investment decisions?
        Reply Report Abuse

        • Author by steeve (July 20, 2011 6:28 pm ET)
          1
          "As an investor looking to the WSJ for reliable and unbiased information"You mean, "as an investor looking at the WSJ for the very first time". Otherwise, the hypothetical investor is already proven too stupid to be disturbed.
          Reply Report Abuse

    •  
      • Author by Old_Benjamin (July 20, 2011 3:51 pm ET)

        total editorial freedom

        But do they have this kind of freedom?

        We want to be free
        We want to be free to, to do what we want to do
        We want to be free to ride, and
        We want to be free to ride our machines without being hassled by the man
        And we want to get loaded

        Reply Report Abuse

    • Author by Deluded (July 20, 2011 8:03 pm ET)
      1
      Total Editorial Freedom.I guess that also includes the freedom (or I'd put it as "right") to lie and distort, something Fox has already won in court....
      Reply Report Abuse

...and I am Sid Harth @mysistereileen.com

Posted at 09:29 PM in Books, Current Affairs, Web/Tech, Weblogs | | Comments (0)

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07/19/2011

With Friends Like LinkedIn, who Needs Enemies: Sid Harth

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Posted at 10:37 PM in Books, Current Affairs, Web/Tech, Weblogs | | Comments (0)

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Devil-may-care: Sid Harth

'WSJ' Editorials Point Fingers at the Competition

Further News Corp. defense from its U.S. paper By Emma Bazilian

Following on the heels of yesterday’s not-so-well-received Wall Street Journal op-ed piece defending News Corp. (and skewering its critics), the newspaper has published three more opinion pieces attempting to tear down the competition's credibility.

In an opinion piece titled “The Murdoch Empire: An Inside View,” features editor Robert Pollock confronts the many people—including Adweek’s Michael Wolff—who believe that News Corp. has swayed the WSJ’s political coverage.

But according to Pollock, the only influence that Rupert Murdoch has attempted to exert over the newspaper is the

About the Author

Emma Bazilian is a staff reporter at Adweek. Follow Emma Bazilian at @adweekemma.

@adweekemma

RT @gbeltrone: MPs "wtf" faces are pretty priceless RT @jcoopernyc: http://twitpic.com/5sk38w

#NewsCorp

shortformernie The best pie chart we'll post today. http://tumblr.com/xhj3l73snf #newscorp #murdoch

CommentatorIntl After today's debacle for the BBC/Guardian/Left axis over Murdoch, well worth revisiting this: http://cmntr.tc/qmjpqC #newscorp #hackgate

#WSJ

Misterwinoe RT @SaberAWR: ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀░░░░░░░ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀░░░░░░░ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀░░░░░░░ @FoxNews #BS #wsj #Hacking

_Rodolfo_D RT @SaberAWR: ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀░░░░░░░ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀░░░░░░░ ▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀░░░░░░░ @FoxNews #BS #wsj #Hacking

occasional suggestion concerning article length—much less political tone. “If Rupert Murdoch has a thought-out plan to influence politics and the op-ed editor of The Wall Street Journaldoesn't know about it,” Pollock writes, “it must be a very subtle plan indeed.”

In fact, says Pollock, other outlets' publishers are well-known for meddling in editorial affairs, unlike Murdoch. “Everyone knows the Sulzbergers interfere in The New York Times,” he says. “The Grahams are not hands-off owners of the Washington Post. Wall Street Journal editors and writers had been by far the freest at a major American newspaper. That freedom continued under Mr. Murdoch."

In another opinion piece, columnist Bret Stephens claims that the News Corp. phone hacking scandal and the Julian Assange-led WikiLeaks spill at The New York Times and the Guardian are “largely the same story.”

“In both cases, secret information, initially obtained by illegal means, was disseminated publicly by news organizations that believed the value of the information superseded the letter of the law, as well as the personal interests of those whom it would most directly affect,” Stephens writes, comparing the News of the World’s giving Milly Dowler's parents false hope after deleting her voicemails with Afghan citizens’ fear of reprisals after being exposed as informants by WikiLeaks. “The damage caused by WikiLeaks almost certainly exceeded what was done by News of the World,” Stephens says, “precisely because Mr. Assange and his media enablers were targeting bigger—if often more vulnerable—game.”

Stephens goes on to criticize the continued portrayal of Murdoch as a “media Sauron”—despite his attempts to make right by apologizing to the Dowlers, shutting down the tabloid, and accepting the resignations of his top executives. “But as someone noted recently in connection to L'Affaire DSK,” he says, “few things are as unstoppable—or as prone to error—as a stupid media narrative.”

In a third article by James Taranto, New York Times columnist Joe Nocera is blown apart for claiming that “The Wall Street Journal has been Fox-ified.” According to Taranto, Nocera’s defense hinges on the sole fact that the WSJ has used “democrat” as a noun—“and his case is even weaker than it looks.”

Taranto goes on to dissect the meaning and usage of the word “democrat,” rounding up its appearances in the WSJ—all of which were either used in quotes from other sources or as space-saving devices in headlines, and none showing any conservative leaning in the newspaper—as well as on Fox News, with similar results. Taranto also lists the other media outlets that he feels have been improperly using the word “democrat,” including The New York Times, the Guardian, CNN, and CBS, among others.

But a “minor editing lapse” doesn’t necessarily make these outlets—or the WSJ—“Republican propaganda machines” as Nocera claims, says Taranto, and concludes by accusing Nocera of “bad-mouthing the competition” based on “shoddy evidence.”

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News International faces threats over hacked emails

News International faces threats from hackers that they will publish emails taken from servers at The Sun and The News of the World during a cyber attack last night.

'Anonymous' hack The Sun's website
Image 1 of 2
'Anonymous' hack The Sun's website, putting fake story about Rupert Murdoch's suicide

By , Technology Correspondent

11:38AM BST 19 Jul 2011

Comments2 Comments

The threats came after a breach of the embattled newspaper group’s computer network by LulzSec, a hacking group previously known for its attacks on the CIA and SOCA websites, among others.

Sabu, a pseudonymous hacker linked to LulzSec and Anonymous, an allied and more overtly political “hacktivist” group, said on his Twitter account that The Sun and The News of the World had been “owned”.

In hacker jargon “owned” means attackers have full control over target systems.

“We're sitting on their emails,” Sabu said. “Press release tomorrow [Tuesday].”

LulzSec supporters also tweeted a series of email addresses and mobile phone numbers apparently taken from News International servers and encouraged others to call them. The data included an email address and password at The Sun for Rebekah Wade (now Brooks), who resigned as News International chief executive on Friday.

Indeed, much of the information published appeared to be out of date. It included contact details at The Sun for Pete Picton, a former online editor who last year went to work for Mr Murdoch’s iPad-only publication, The Daily, in New York.

Another individual whose details were exposed by LulzSec supporters, Chris Hampartsoumian , an IT worker, responded on Twitter that “I don't work for The Sun or News International or any News Corp company”.

“Thank you for all the kind phone calls and messages,” he said sarcastically.

Claims that LulzSec had accessed News International emails emerged after the group attacked The Sun’s website. It used its control of servers to redirect visitors to the home page to a spoof news story that claimed Rupert Murdoch had taken a fatal dose of palladium “before stumbling into his famous topiary garden late last night”.

Details of how the security breach occurred the were sketchy this morning, and a News International spokesman declined to provide details, but a picture was beginning to emerge.

Visitors to The Sun websites were redirected using a line of Javascript, a type of software code often used on websites, inserted into its “breaking news” ticker.

The spoof news story was meanwhile posted on www.new-times.co.uk, a defunct website. It appeared to use a page from The Sun’s genuine website as a template, with material dating from 14 July, prompting speculation LulzSec may have first breached the network last week.

As news of the attack spread overnight, it appears News International’s IT staff shut down its websites, including that of The Times. At about midnight LulzSec said it was battling with The Sun website’s administrators, and briefly redirected visitors again, this time to its Twitter account.

Both The Sun and The Times websites were back online this morning. A spokesman said the firm was aware of the attack on its network and declined to comment further.

At the end of June, after a high-profile spree of cyber attacks and arrests, LulzSec claimed it would disband. But last night the group’s spokesman, thought to be a hacker who goes by the name Topiary, said: “I know we quit, but we couldn't sit by with our wine watching this walnut-faced Murdoch clowning around.”

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Could Murdoch Himself Be on the Way Out?

Jul. 18 2011 - 3:01 pm | 2,281 views | 1 recommendation | 7 comments
Rebekah Brooks (R) Chief Executive of News Int...

Rupert Murdoch and Rebekah Brooks. Image by AFP/Getty Images via @daylife

Even before today’s news that a second top Scotland Yard official had resigned in the metastasizing scandal surrounding News Corporation in England, speculation was arising that Rupert Murdoch himself could ultimately lose his job. Bloomberg reported this morning:

Independent directors of New York-based News Corp. have begun questioning the company’s response to the crisis and whether a leadership change is needed, said two people with direct knowledge of the situation who wouldn’t speak publicly. Rebekah Brooks, the former News International chief who Murdoch backed until last week, was arrested yesterday in London.

“The shell of invulnerability that Rupert Murdoch had around him has been cracked,” said James Post, a professor at Boston University’s School of Management who has written about governance and business ethics. “His credibility and the company’s credibility are hemorrhaging.”

Could Murdoch really lose the empire he built? David Carr, in The New York Times, doubts it. “Even as the flames of the scandal begin to edge closer to Mr. Murdoch’s door,” he writes, “anybody betting against his business survival will most likely come away disappointed. He has been in deep trouble before and not only survived, but prospered.” But Carr does think Murdoch might have to sacrifice his son James:

So far, 10 people have been arrested, including, on Sunday, Rebekah Brooks, the head of News International. Les Hinton, who ran News International before her and most recently was the head of Dow Jones, resigned on Friday. Now we are left to wonder whether Mr. Murdoch will be forced to make an Abraham-like sacrifice and abandon his son James, the former heir apparent.

The News Corporation may be hoping that it can get back to business now that some of the responsible parties have been held to account — and that people will see the incident as an aberrant byproduct of the world of British tabloids. But that seems like a stretch. The damage is likely to continue to mount, perhaps because the underlying pathology is hardly restricted to those who have taken the fall.

Carr outlines the extent of that underlying pathology by describing payments of more than $655 million that News Corporation has made “to make embarrassing charges of corporate espionage and anticompetitive behavior go away,” independent of the News of the World scandals.

Andrew Sullivan meanwhile zeros in on how Murdoch himself has been behaving:

Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of the News Corp scandal was Rupert Murdoch’s initial public response to it. Once it became clear that the crisis was of Fukushima proportions, Murdoch’s decision to close down the entire NOTW [News of the World] while retaining the woman who edited it during its worst period struck me as, well, surreal if not creepily contemptuous of basic morality. Since when do the innocent have to do penance for the guilty? Brooks was guilty many times over – either of fantastic negligence or of direct criminality (and she has, of course, since been arrested). But Murdoch thought he could easily keep her in her position and cavorted around London with her beaming at his side, even as dozens of journalists who had done nothing wrong were escorted from their offices, which became a crime scene . . . . In other words, Murdoch’s first instinct was to fight this out. What does that tell you about his sense of his own immunity to the laws and basic morality that apply to everyone else? And what does that tell us about his fitness to run an ethical media company?

Two things seem clear at this point: that the corruption within News Corporation has been so broad and deep that it cannot be held separate from the man at the top, and that the man at the top is as tough and resilient a fighter as lives—even if over the last week or two he doesn’t seem to have been a very smart fighter at all.

(See also Jerry Weissman on Murdoch’s non-apology apology.)

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  1. Yes he is as tough a fighter that lives and has the will to pull it back together.

    That said, do other stakeholders–board members, shareholders, regulators, journalists,readers (consumers) have the will to see him go? Does that collective will out peform his?

    I say this because whether he wiggles away from direct accountability, he was still the captain of the ship and no one (whether right or wrong) believes he didn’t know about the tapping. If he allowed it or became aware of it after the fact and rewarded employees for doing it–even once–he condoned the practice. Period.

    One consistent sentiment is that RM and his absolute power (including his Pavlovian system of staff conditioning) is in need of a push of the refresh button.

    Can he push this button at this stage or should stakeholders insist that an internal revolution take place and fix the culture problem beyond the present rank and file?

    The particular agrument about RM holding back unlocked value of the NC stock is debatable. I am almost willing to differ. I would argue that with all of the unfair play off the field, their game may not peform any better than an average team. If you take away the “special” mechanisms for gathering information and suddenly have to rely on journalistic integrity, the steak may very well not sizzle anymore.

    And RM spend years selling the sizzle at the expense of those people now calling for change.

    The organization is corrupt with an ethical virus. How can any leader who sat during it fit it as well and not be held in contempt by others calling for accountabilty overall?

    We’ll see.

    • collapse

      I agree he has the will to pull it back together, but I doubt that he has the strength – physically and metaphorically.

      RM is old and tired. I don’t think anyone at 80 could take an organization through the trying times that News Corp surely faces.

      While the family does retain a stranglehold on power within News Corp, neither RM or News Corp entities retain a fraction of the strength and power they wielded over competitors and politicians. News Corp is, essentially, powerless and friendless.

      In response to another comment. See in context »
  2. collapse

    If there is only one thing that the head of a company should be held accountable for, that one thing must be the culture of the company. There are many moving parts to a large company and the head of the company would necessarily not have a role in every decision that is made. Instead, it is the job of the CEO to set and then guide the manner in which a company does business.

    It has long been obvious that News Corp is a business without a respectable sense of ethics. It did not take the News of the World scandal to make that obvious. This most recent scandal is merely a symptom of the rot at the core of News Corp. That rot is Rupert Murdoch – he created a culture where ethical violations were acceptable. He alone must take the blame for this now. He must go.

  3. collapse

    Rupert will sacrifice anyone to keep his power intact. His board is so weak that he will survive this – even if his lackey Chase Carey replaces him – and he becomes Chairman – does anyone think that he won’t still be in control?

    Please tell me why anyone thinks that Newscrap isn’t guilty and Rupert the guiltiest of all? HE IS THE CEO, he receives a CEO salary, he makes ALL the decisions, he controls policy, he runs a very tight ship. If that’s the case, why would Parliament or Congress think that he didn’t know or agree with what went on.

    Rupert, got caught and he’s not man enough to admit it. He’s going to lie to congress the way he has lied to family and friends before.

    Please, this man cannot continue to run rampant, his company cannot continue to be used as his personal toy….Rupert, either go private or step down. Congress, please stop him – he is irresponsible and yellow journalism is no longer in vogue.

  4. collapse

    Yes, Murdoch created a culture where ethical violations were acceptable.
    And now a new dead body: the phone hacking whistleblower, (Sean Hoare),
    who claimed phone hacking was “endemic” at News of the World. No wonder so many otherwise intelligent people have been so slow to call Murdoch out on his misdeeds.
    While Scotland Yard says the death is “not (yet) under suspicion” one has to really wonder…..It is dark in any case, very dark.

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NYT Opinion: Murdoch’s Made WSJ “Unsophisticated”

Jul. 18 2011 - 3:36 pm | 946 views | 0 recommendations | 2 comments

As news media rivalries go, The New York Times vs The Wall Street Journal is Red Sox vs Yankees; Hatfields vs McCoys. In an op-ed last week, NYT columnist Joe Nocera says Murdoch has ruined the Journal, the one newspaper every brokerage and investment bank in the country has in house.

Last week, New York Times columnist Joe Nocera wrote a scathing op-ed calling into question the quality of the Wall Street Journal’s financial journalism. Nocera, who was actually bullish on the Rupert Murdoch purchase of the paper back in 2007 from the Bancroft family, said in a July 15 piece that under the guidance of his Aussie and Brit managers, Robert Thomson and the recently disgraced Les Hinton, CEO of Dow Jones, the paper is publishing shorter articles, less depth, an increased emphasis on politics and, “weirdly, sometimes surprisingly unsophisticated coverage of business.”

As a proud, former DJer in Sampa (that’s São Paulo) , the often manic Manhattan management at DJ has gone from telling reporters to load stories with sources — new ones every week – to not really caring if market commentary had no comments at all; from long newspaper ready copy (as if the elite WSJ regularly wanted to print DJ wire copy) to the short 400 word text preferred less than a year later.

But that’s just DJ.  If Nocera is right about the mothership at WSJ, then Murdoch’s prize paper has tarnished itself journalistically with its pro-Murdoch storyline on anything Democrat-bashing or — more recently, anything calling into question the wrong doing conducted by News of the World reporters who broke Britian privacy laws. Hinton stepped down last week because of the scandal.

For anyone who cares about the Journal as a bastion of financial news and information, check out Joe Nocera’s op-ed, The Journal Becomes Fox-ified.

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Parsing The Wall Street Journal’s Catastrophic News Corp Defence

Even in the deepest, most gloomy depths of the worst scandal of a lifetime, Rupert Murdoch cannot contain his fundamental not-giving-a-fuck-about-public-opinion nature. It permeates every level of News Corp, the company he made in his image. But it is possible – believe it or not! – for public opinion to overwhelm even the staunchest self-justification.

We say all this as a prelude to, “Hey, how about that fucking WSJ editorial today, eh?” On one hand, a proudly defiant editorial defending something ignoble and privileged is a long-time trademark of the WSJ; on the other hand, everyone kind of expected that the utter destruction of the current scandal would force Rupert Murdoch’s editorial writers to, at minimum, keep their mouths closed this time around. But no! The WSJ’s version of a corporate defence is here, and boy is it a tone-deaf disaster! The intro:

When News Corp. and CEO Rupert Murdoch secured enough shares to buy Dow Jones & Co. four years ago, these columns welcomed our new owner and promised to stand by the same standards and principles we always had. That promise is worth repeating now that politicians and our competitors are using the phone-hacking years ago at a British corner of News Corp. to assail the Journal, and perhaps injure press freedom in general.

From here, you can almost use your imagination to fill in the rest. The poor, poor media underdog – the WSJ – under assault by liberals, competitors and opportunists, merely because of the actions of a few dead-enders across the pond. Hey, it’s not like the WSJ is some robotic corporate mouthpiece, OK?

The British politicians now bemoaning media influence over politics are also the same statesmen who have long coveted media support. The idea that the BBC and the Guardian newspaper aren’t attempting to influence public affairs, and don’t skew their coverage to do so, can’t stand a day’s scrutiny. The overnight turn toward righteous independence recalls an eternal truth: Never trust a politician.

Haha, did Nick Denton ghost write this editorial? This “But someone somewhere else also did something bad” school of defence is not recommended for offences severe enough to get high-level corporate executives arrested. Save it for when accidentally leave the toilet seat up.

We also trust that readers can see through the commercial and ideological motives of our competitor-critics. The Schadenfreude is so thick you can’t cut it with a chainsaw. Especially redolent are lectures about journalistic standards from publications that give Julian Assange and WikiLeaks their moral imprimatur. They want their readers to believe, based on no evidence, that the tabloid excesses of one publication somehow tarnish thousands of other News Corp. journalists across the world.

You get the idea. This is standard News Corp newspaper rock-throwing, the type of stuff that – in normal times – can be cute coming from a scrappy tabloid, and is at worst a tolerable annoyance at the WSJ, which has always made up for its idiotic op-ed page with good reporting. But these, of course, are not normal times for News Corp. And while we would *never* imagine that a distinguished news organisation like the WSJ would run an editorial inspired by a simple base desire to defend its own corporate meal ticket, we would suggest that News Corp’s highly paid flacks send a gentle message to all of the company’s editorial pages: “Hey, shut up.”

[WSJ]

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  1. Assange Extradited | DemocracyNow.org

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    Could Wikileaks founder end up in "black hole" of American justice?

News of the World vs. WikiLeaks

Only one placed at risk 'the lives of countless innocent individuals.'

  • By BRET STEPHENS

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How does this year's phone hacking scandal at the now-defunct British tabloid News of the World—owned, I hardly need add, by News Corp., the Journal's parent company—compare with last year's contretemps over the release of classified information by Julian Assange's WikiLeaks and his partners at the New York Times, the Guardian and other newspapers?

At bottom, they're largely the same story.

In both cases, secret information, initially obtained by illegal means, was disseminated publicly by news organizations that believed the value of the information superseded the letter of the law, as well as the personal interests of those whom it would most directly affect. In both cases, fundamental questions about the lengths to which a news organization should go in pursuit of a scoop have been raised. In both cases, a dreadful human toll has been exacted: The British parents of murdered 13-year-old Milly Dowler, led to the false hope that their child might be alive because some of her voice mails were deleted after her abduction; Afghan citizens, fearful of Taliban reprisals after being exposed by WikiLeaks as U.S. informants.

Both, in short, are despicable instances of journalistic malpractice, for which some kind of price ought to be paid. So why is one a scandal, replete with arrests, resignations and parliamentary inquests, while the other is merely a controversy, with Mr. Assange's name mooted in some quarters for a Nobel Peace Prize?

AFP/Getty ImagesCopies of the now-defunct British tabloid News of the World paper

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The easy answer is that the news revealed by WikiLeaks was in the public interest, whereas what was disclosed by News of the World was merely of interest to the public. By this reckoning, if it's a great matter of state, and especially if it's a government secret, it's fair game. Not so if it's just so much tittle-tattle about essentially private affairs.

You can see the attraction of this argument—particularly if, like Mr. Assange, you are trying to fight extradition to Sweden on pending rape charges that you consider unworthy of public notice.

You can also see its attraction to anybody who claims to know what the public interest ought to be and is in a position to do something about it. In June 2006, the New York Times revealed that the Bush administration had a secret—and highly effective—program to monitor thousands of banking transactions in an effort to stop terrorism financing. Several months later, the Times' own public editor argued that the program was entirely legal and that the article should never have been published. The Gray Lady moved on.

But you can also see why the distinction between the Public Interest, loftily defined, and what actually happens to interest the public, not-so-loftily defined, is a piece of rhetorical legerdemain that masks a raw assertion of privilege. Was it in the higher public interest to know, as we learned from WikiLeaks, that Zimbabwe's prime minister and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai was privately urging U.S. diplomats to hold firm on sanctions even as he was saying the opposite in public? No. Did the public want to know about it? No. What did this particular WikiLeak achieve? Nothing, except to put Mr. Tsvangirai at material risk of being charged with treason and hanged.

Seen in this light, the damage caused by WikiLeaks almost certainly exceeded what was done by News of the World, precisely because Mr. Assange and his media enablers were targeting bigger—if often more vulnerable—game. The Obama administration went so far as to insist last year that WikiLeaks "[placed] at risk the lives of countless innocent individuals—from journalists to human rights activists to soldiers." Shouldn't there be some accountability, or at least soul-searching, about this, too?

Don't count on it: It would require too much introspection among people whose primary emotional mode is furious, and perpetual, self-righteousness.

As for News of the World, the media has alighted on one of its convenient little narratives, this one about the all-powerful media mogul, his lidless eyes gazing over every corner, closet and cellar of his empire, his obedient minions debasing everything they touch. That this media Sauron has now begged forgiveness of the Dowler family, shut the offending paper down and accepted the resignations of his top lieutenants hardly seems to have made an impression. But as someone noted recently in connection to L'Affaire DSK, few things are as unstoppable—or as prone to error—as a stupid media narrative.

It's probably inevitable that this column will be read in some quarters as shilling for Rupert Murdoch. Not at all: I have nothing but contempt for the hack journalism practiced by some of the Murdoch titles. But my contempt goes double for the self-appointed media paragons who saw little amiss with Mr. Assange and those who made common cause with him, and who now hypocritically talk about decency and standards. Their day of reckoning is yet to come.

Write to bstephens@wsj.com

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  • Europe's banks are sitting on vast quantities of loans to individuals and businesses in cash-strapped Southern European countries, highlighting another potential risk to the Continent's banking system.

About Bret Stephens

Mr. Stephens writes the Journal's "Global View" column on foreign affairs, which runs every Tuesday in the U.S. and is also published in the European and Asian editions of the paper. He is a deputy editorial page editor, responsible for the editorial pages of the Asian and European editions of the paper, the columnists on foreign affairs, and the Far Eastern Economic Review. He previously worked for the paper as an op-ed editor in New York and as an editorial writer in Brussels for The Wall Street Journal Europe.

From March 2002 to October 2004 Mr. Stephens was editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Post, a position he assumed at age 28. At the Post, he was responsible for the paper's news and editorial divisions. He also wrote a weekly column.

In 2004, Mr. Stephens was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, where he is also a media fellow.

Raised in Mexico City and educated at The University of Chicago and the London School of Economics, Mr. Stephens is married and has three children.

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