I can’t believe this has become so partisan. Why not just call a crook a crook?

Some at News International did bad. They often do bad, they occasionally do good. But what has football got to do with it?

Next best bit:

Given that Coulson has behaved impeccably since becoming a key adviser to the Tory leader, we can only assume that the attack on him is politically motivated.

Yeah, that’s the only logical conclusion. Nothing to do with crime, or double standards. For crissakes, he’s an ex Tabloid editor, of course he’s scum.

English football was pretty rubbish BM (Before Murdoch).

Just that one World Cup……..

Just those 4 European Cups for Liverpool…….

2 for Forest……..

1 for Villa…………………

1 for Man U……………..

Also you’ve gotta love how TM makes a big thing of News International’s fearless opposition to the cruel totalitarian regime of Saddam Hussein. Shame about Murdoch’s stance on the cruel totalitarian regime in China but hey, can’t have everything.

LeftOutside – when a politico Tory tells you they’re not partisan and only believe in fairness – just don’t believe them. They usually only say that when someone from the other side is in trouble. I did point out during the McBride affair how all these outraged Tories who were getting high and mighty about standards in public would never apply the same standards to themselves.

This is by far the most hilariously bad defence of Coulson and Murdoch.

Given that Coulson has behaved impeccably since becoming a key adviser to the Tory leader

“Impeccably” is a very objective concept.

Cameron called for a “new politics” and said I’m fed up with the Punch and Judy politics of Westminster, the name calling, backbiting, point scoring, finger pointing in his victory speech after winning the Conservative leadership.

This went by the wayside when Coulson was hired – he’s good at his job and knows the value of smearing political opponents. Cameron and the Conservatives fortunes turned when Coulson came on board.

And how was this achieved?

With things like the the personal attack smear document Gordon Brown Annual Report prepared by Coulson and circulated via Paul Staines’ smear-site (chapters include ‘Brown the failure’, ‘Brown the incompetent’, ‘Brown the ditherer’, ‘Brown the hypocrite’, ‘Gordon Brown: a year of gaffes, tragedy and farce’, ‘Jonah Brown’), which contains a variety of hear-say gossip-based smear of the type that McBride was sacked for.

Smears such as this have got the “Brown is a Weirdo” message deep within the public consciousness. Is this “impeccable behaviour”?

It would be interesting to get hold of private e-mail and phone correspondence between Coulson/CCHQ and Paul Staines to test just how far links between the official Conservative Party spin-machine and the darker parts of the right-wing machine go – a job for the News of the World perhaps?

Oh yeah, well disregarding the fact that ticket prices for people who actually go to football matches have soared to cover the cost of Sky’s commercialisation of football and the fact the Sun and other News International titles spread lies, fear and celeberity-obsession, Murdoch’s done a sterling job of keeping the politicians in his back pocket.

“This is by far the most hilariously bad defence of Coulson and Murdoch.”

Agreed. “The Daily Mail is shit” hardly means Murdoch is a great man…

Funny, I remember something to do with the Murdoch press and a football match where people died, but that’s probably because I’m a bitter whinger who refuses to move on & recognise all the good they’ve done, like… Soccer AM.

Besides, pies are more expensive these days, but the quality hasn’t improved. If we have to praise Murdoch for saving British football, we should be able to blame him for the piss-poor pre-match pies.

As for Coulson, I’ve gotta say that my problem isn’t with Cameron employing him, but the public paying him. Assuming the Tories get into government, he’ll probably be squatting in Downing Street at our expense, and I’m not too happy seeing someone linked to a large phonetapping scandal anywhere near the apparatus of government.

Even after Labour, we can still have standards, right?

As I have said before Tim Montgomerie is an idiot who does not have an original idea in his head. He is just a Neocon spouting tool. The idea that he and Dale are taken seriously by the Main stream media just shows how stupid the media is.

Why would Murdoch’s New Intl spy on Taylor? If everything was hunky-dory with football…well, we do have to ask.

The Tories will defend their own until the death – that includes Thatcher and Tebbitt – Dave is just another extension of right-wing madness. But, by the looks of things, he could well win the next election – what will be hard is the one after that.

I quite liked the Wikileaks ediitorial on the topic.

“The Guardian’s coverage is disproportionate. It is moral opportunism. It is the worst kind of snobbery. It is an excuse to mention tabloid stories in a broadsheet. And it is dangerous. The result be will a publishing climate and probably legislation aimed at keeping the British public in the dark. The implicit lionization of nanny journalism by the Guardian is shameful.”

Hope you’ve got your oxygen mask on Sunny – that’s a very high horse you’re riding.

Any nice chats with Tom Watson recently?

http://wikileaks.org/wiki/UK_phone_hacking_scandal:_The_News_of_the_World_didn%27t_go_far_enough

@cjcjc

The wikileaks editorial has already been shredded on its own comments page. It is also a gigantically stupid point-missing exercise from someone who doesn’t seem to have actually read what really went on and who was targetted (Gwyneth Paltrow is hardly the UK political elite now, is she?)

Can people like you not get into your head that this is not actually a partisan issue? It’s between people who hate the amount of influence Murdoch has over UK public life, and think it unhealthy for the country, and people who think it’s fine, usually because they’re hoping to get him to ‘help’ them.

And I struggle to think of a stupider piece *ever* than Montgomery’s. He knows literally nothing worth knowing about football for a start.

7- not to mention the fact that you can hardly ever get strong drink in a ground.

I am often dragged to matches on family occasions, despite not giving a toss about football, & really could do with a drop to help me pretend I’m somewhere else

Can people like you not get into your head that this is not actually a partisan issue?

It is to laugh.

Another Labour insider said that senior party figures had been thrashing out a strategy to target Coulson since the news emerged yesterday. The source said the aim was have Coulson ‘wounded, but still there’.

This is certainly being used as a partisan issue, as in Sunny’s ‘Tories caught in compromising positions’ above. I thought we’d established (read Jackie Ashley today for example) that Coulson is a non-ideological professional, brought in to do a job for the Tories. What he did or didn’t know before he joined the Conservative team is of no consequence to the Tory party. As Sunny himself ought to think if he has any consistency in his opinions.

>>”Rupert Murdoch has been an overwhelming force for good in this country’s life and politics”

Wow. I… wow.

Or could it be the Tories are playing the long game, Murdock and his media empire have a very powerfull role to play in UK politics whether we like it or not. But basically attacking Murdock himself the left is placing it in a position where the entire machinery could be swung to favour the Tories. That would add quite a few extra % points to their elections gains.

“Murdoch has been an overwhelming force for good in this country’s life and politics. ”

This arse-kissing piece of utter nonsense was written because Tory Home blog is desperate for that endorsement of its wholly decrepit Party from the Sun newspaper.

Absolutely desperate.

Murdoch will end up supporting the Tories, but only because he wants to have supported the winners.
If Brown (incredibly) bounces back he might well continue to support Labour.
Newspapers do/say what they believe their readers want.

This shouldn’t be a partisan issue. Its akin to the issue of policing the G20 protests in that whether you are left or right, if you accept certain principles of political decency you should condemn what the power-holders are doing.

I’d take the analogy further. In both cases, the issue is arbitrary power – the ability of people in high places to treat you as they think fit rather than according to appropriate rules. The police (wrongly) took the decision in the legal case of Austin to indicate that they can impose kettles on protestors as and when they like. This led directly to the disastrous policing of the G20 protests. When Tories try to defend NI over the phone-tapping saga they are, in effect, saying : ‘Leave the arbitrary power of surveillance wielded by my political allies alone.’

Arbitrary power is an evil whoever wields it – financial elites, parliamentarians, police officers, or News International.

When Tories try to defend NI over the phone-tapping saga they are, in effect, saying : ‘Leave the arbitrary power of surveillance wielded by my political allies alone.’

I think it’s a wider story than phone-tapping. The NOTW broke the law in pursuit of a good story (or a series of good stories, defined in tabloid terms). When is this acceptable? If the answer is never, then the expense claims, Jonathan Aitken’s perjury, and, ironically, the Guardian’s own expose of the NOTW should never have been published.

The Guardian obtained court papers that had been sealed pursuant to a court order (a Tomlin order). That’s arguably in contempt of court, which carries an unlimited jail term. If it is never acceptable for a newspaper to break the law in pursuit of a story, that applies to worthy stories as much as filth. If you’re arguing that, in effect, it’s OK for newspapers to break the law in pursuit of stories provided they’re against the Tories/Rupert Murdoch, then you’re arguing precisely the point you criticise the Tories for.

This is certainly being used as a partisan issue, as in Sunny’s ‘Tories caught in compromising positions’ above

Ehh yeah, and that story was written based on what, other than the writer’s imagination? Nice try though Tim J.

http://politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2009/07/13/did-you-read-more-into-the-hacking-story-than-was-there/

Mike Smithson (no Tory) seems to think the whole thing was rather overblown.

It certainly doesn’t seem to have taken off in the way some people thought it would.

Ehh yeah, and that story was written based on what, other than the writer’s imagination? Nice try though Tim J.

Eh? I don’t really understand what this is supposed to mean. If you’re referring to Coulson’s involvement in the NOTW scandal, when he was involved with the NOTW he wasn’t employed by the Tories. And, as you said yourself with regard to the McBride scandal, the Tories per se aren’t really implicated in this story. Hence, attempts to make this story about Cameron and the Tories are little more than partisan attacks. To be expected, obviously, but also to be dismissed. If you have an intelligible rebuttal, I’d be interested to read it.

“Mike Smithson (no Tory) seems to think the whole thing was rather overblown. ”

That’s a relief!

We can all stop worrying about serious breaches of privacy by a newspaper (worse than the State) because Mike Smithson (who he?) says it’s all “rather overblown”!

I’ll rest easy tonight, then.

The most absurd defence of Murdoch? I don’t think so.

If only we could get a promising (or even spotty) youth on a work experience gig, we could get them to trawl through Smithson’s blog looking for all the comments praising Fox news as more impartial than the BBC – there must be hundreds…

Tim – my point was that the PRweek piece was a bit of Tory spinning to make this into a partisan issue.

He does sound like a bit of a Tory, this David Singleton

He joined PRWeek in January 2007, having previously worked on the GuardianUnlimited website and the social policy magazines Inside Housing and Children Now.

A keen politico, David started his career at BBC News Online during the 2001 general election

Look at that long list of right wing publications!

There’s plenty of soft tories at the Guardian and especially at the BBC. Hell, there’s even hard Tories like Nick Robinson and nutjobs like Jeremy Clarkson. Need I say more?

Look at Philip Blond also, not to mention those soft red Tory’s in the Workers’ Party of Korea…

David Cameron tries to pretend that he is whiter than white. Never resisting any attempt to grab a microphone and attack anybody with links to the Labour party, who in his opinion has done wrong. Mr Sugar should have his show taken off the BBC because he has links with the labour party according to the Tories.

Yet Cameron has hired as his media expert the man who was supposedly in charge of the journalists committing all this wrong doing.. Does not say much for his judgement, but then we all new that.

Sorry the Tory trolls can’t see the hypocrisy here but then Tories aren’t too consistent on issues of sleaze. The reason this story is going nowhere is because most of the press including the BBC is now completely in the tank for Cameron. In addition most newspapers are up to the same tricks so don’t want to get into a shouting match with Murdoch.

Quite simply, in a democracy no man should have the unaccountable power Murdoch has. It’s time to break up his media empire. Here’s a suggestion: a company should only be able to own one daily and one weekly national newspaper.

Tim Montgomerie is a pilchard.

How many Premiership football clubs balance their budget? English football has become a hollow mess. It’s always been corrupt. Murdoch just made everyone a lot richer, and made football cost a lot more to enjoy.

Sunny – so PR Week, which has specialised in getting stories out of no 10 in the last year – is a Tory front? I suppose the same applies to John Prescott’s letter to David Cameron, and to Charles Clarke saying that the affair proved that Cameron wasn’t fit to be Prime Minister? This is poor, even by your standards.