The End of the World: The paper that ... Log Out | Topics | Search
Moderators | Edit Profile

RAMSEY CAMPBELL » Discussion » The End of the World: The paper that died of shame.... « Previous Next »

Author Message
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

Allybird (Allybird)
Username: Allybird

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 27.252.113.137
Posted on Friday, July 08, 2011 - 09:20 am:   

In my little town in the middle of nowhere I came across something outside the shop that sells wine...'The News of the World might have gone out of business but we haven't.'

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/2011/07/08/the-end-of-the-world-the-paper-that-died -of-shame-86908-23256025/
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

Simon Bestwick (Simon_b)
Username: Simon_b

Registered: 10-2008
Posted From: 86.24.209.217
Posted on Friday, July 08, 2011 - 10:22 am:   

The News of the World is gone... to be replaced by the Scum on Sunday, another product of the Rupert Murdoch Lie Machine. They registered the domain names before announcing the NOTW's closure. And you can bet the vile Rebekah Brooks won't serve goal time, though god knows she ought to be fed feet-first through an industrial wood-chipper for the shit she's pulled. Although they'd just find another creature like her, devoid of even an atom of conscience or basic human decency, to replace her. And as for that malignant old iguana, Murdoch... he remains untouchable, telling millions of people what to think each day and buying and selling our politicians.

We could close the bastard down, but it would take a lot more than it's taken to achieve this 'victory'. But most people will think enough's been done, and be fooled, and it'll be business as usual.

A lot of journos have lost their jobs, which in the current economic climate is not good for anyone. Not something to celebrate... then again, said journos were part of an organisation that hacked the phones of murdered children, soldiers' widows, the families of the 7/7 victims... that led braying hate campaigns against asylum seekers and immigrants... that spewed out propaganda about how free-market capitalism was the only way even as it dragged us into this recession. All of which has caused a lot of misery and suffering. So fuck them in the ear. In which case, perhaps a tiny amount of justice has been served. But nowhere near enough.
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

Simon Bestwick (Simon_b)
Username: Simon_b

Registered: 10-2008
Posted From: 86.24.209.217
Posted on Friday, July 08, 2011 - 10:23 am:   

Er, 'gaol time', that should have been... *headdesk*
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

Zed (Gary_mc)
Username: Gary_mc

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.156.210.82
Posted on Friday, July 08, 2011 - 10:27 am:   

Just say jail; it's less pretentious and easier to spell.
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

Simon Bestwick (Simon_b)
Username: Simon_b

Registered: 10-2008
Posted From: 86.24.209.217
Posted on Friday, July 08, 2011 - 10:29 am:   

Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

Rhysaurus (Rhysaurus)
Username: Rhysaurus

Registered: 01-2010
Posted From: 212.219.233.223
Posted on Friday, July 08, 2011 - 11:55 am:   

Sure, the whole thing is a tactical manouevre (and an effective one), but it's good news anyway because it might fire up some people who have been languishing in apathy for years. Even the illusion of a victory can do good things; but like Simon says, the fight will be a long one: it'll probably last longer than our lifespans.

That's the best case scenario. The worst case scenario is that the hatred against Murdoch might dissipate to the point where everything returns to normal. But it's up to us to do what we can (if anything) to prevent that.

> A lot of journos have lost their jobs, which in the current economic climate is not good for anyone. Not something to celebrate... So fuck them in the ear.

Absolutely. Now is not the time for maturity wanking! If you do an unethical job and lose it, you don't deserve any sympathy. NoW staff can starve in the gutter for all I care; in fact I'll prefer it if they do... And if any maturity wankers now want to tell me that those journalists are "real people too", I'll just have to reply, "No, they're not." And even if they are so what? Real people die all the time. But here's an idea: every time a NoW employee dies, let's hack the fucker's phone!
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

Ramsey Campbell (Ramsey)
Username: Ramsey

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 92.8.20.0
Posted on Friday, July 08, 2011 - 12:26 pm:   

A pity this didn't happen before they printed their lies about Max Mosley.
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

Mbfg (Mbfg)
Username: Mbfg

Registered: 09-2010
Posted From: 212.219.63.204
Posted on Friday, July 08, 2011 - 12:58 pm:   

A lot of journos have lost their jobs...

What a job! Stirring shit and wrecking people's lives. Okay, they may not be part of the vile tricks pulled by previous creators of this roll of toilet paper but they still wallow around in people's pain and weaknesses and print fascist crap so I will weep no tears for them.

Cheeers
Terry
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

Carolinec (Carolinec)
Username: Carolinec

Registered: 06-2009
Posted From: 92.232.199.129
Posted on Friday, July 08, 2011 - 01:08 pm:   

Well, I'm afraid I do feel sorry for the people who've lost their jobs. The chances are that most of them probably had nothing to do with the phone hacking - unless it's still going on, of course. And it's not just the journalists. It's the production operatives who produce the paper, the maintenance people, etc, etc. All sacrificed, when the main culprits get clean away with it. Not a good thing IMO.

And am I just being cynical or do you reckon this phone hacking and underhanded behaviour goes on in most papers - it's simply that NOTW is the only one which has so far been found out?
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

Joel (Joel)
Username: Joel

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.37.199.45
Posted on Friday, July 08, 2011 - 01:51 pm:   

As an RCMB member commented to me earlier today, this may be just a cover for the destruction of incriminating files. If you're not sure which files are incriminating, the best solution is to destroy everything!

Simon, it's hard to find any newspaper that doesn't now follow the Con-Dem party line of blaming the global recession on our previous "thirteen years of socialism". Even the Guardian and the Independent are too allied to LibDem politics to take a strong line against that drivel. And when you factor in the fact that New Labour supports 90% of the ConDem public service cuts, we have a manufactured consensus of all mainstream politicians in favour of the same lies and the same destruction.

Ed Milliband lost his party over a million trade unionist votes last week by attacking the public sector strike. A new workers' party – which is what the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition is trying to become – would get more votes than the three major parties put together if it weren't for the total media blackout it faces. And its labelling as 'extremist'. As David Edgar said thirty years ago, when one side says 2 and 2 is 4 and another side says 2 and 2 is 10, the balanced and moderate view – avoiding extremism – is that 2 and 2 is 7.
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

Nathaniel Tapley (Natt)
Username: Natt

Registered: 11-2009
Posted From: 92.21.89.217
Posted on Friday, July 08, 2011 - 01:56 pm:   

Sir Ian Bowler made a statement about this late yesterday (actually the announcement of the closure of the News Of The World happened as it was uploading, which was slightly annoying...)

For those who are interested, it's here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3Vr1R1HWao
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

Zed (Gary_mc)
Username: Gary_mc

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.156.210.82
Posted on Friday, July 08, 2011 - 02:08 pm:   

I feel more sorry for the admin staff, secretaries, cleaners, delivery drivers, etc, who've lost their jobs. Good riddance to a fuckwit trash paper, but, as always, it's those at the bottom, trying to feed their families, that'll suffer.

The whole thing's a massive PR stunt/cost cutting exercise by Murdoch.
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

Simon Bestwick (Simon_b)
Username: Simon_b

Registered: 10-2008
Posted From: 86.24.209.217
Posted on Friday, July 08, 2011 - 02:09 pm:   

Joel- true nuff about the manufactured consensus, and don't even get me started on the spineless wonders of the Labour Party right now. Murdoch's toilet rolls are just the biggest, loudest and worst offenders of the lot, the only rag viler I can think of being the Daily Wail.

Good luck to TUSK- I'm not (Rhys may faint with shock) a doctrinaire Marxist-Leninist, but I think that it'd be a step in the right direction as far as the current parliamentary system is concerned. Better than folk voting BNP if they get disillusioned with the main parties certainly.

Murdoch's dangerous because of the massive power he holds. Monopolies are a bad thing generally- the whole point of competition between businesses is that it should be the healthy kind. Murdoch is seen as a power broker because more than any single figure in the media, he can unleash a huge wave of propaganda for or against any public figure he chooses. The myth of 'it was the Sun wot won it' is a big one... but he also makes sure he's not backing a loser- as in 2005 when his papers switched from backing the Tories to Labour again, having clocked that nasty stories about gypsies, immigrants and asylum seekers weren't much use on an electorate whose principal gripe with NuLabour was the Iraq War. Plus which, it would take a fucking miracle to get most people voting for Michael Howard...

What we need is a government with the cojones to break up Murdoch's monopoly on the news, and to impose and enforce safeguards that prevent too much power being concentrated in a single pair of hands. As with so much else that would make things better, it's doable, but no-one with the power to do it is likely to, and no-one willing to do it is likely to get into a position where they can make it happen. Short of a revolution it's hard to see how to get out of that particular Mobius loop. And how likely is a revolution? Preferably one that doesn't re-enact 'The Killing Fields'?

I would like to be optimistic- we've got it in our power to change things for the better, but it seems so unlikely to happen right now. I sometimes think that'll be the epitaph for the human race as a whole- 'could have done so much better... but didn't.'
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

Joel (Joel)
Username: Joel

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.37.199.45
Posted on Friday, July 08, 2011 - 02:16 pm:   

Simon, get talking to your union about supporting a one-day public sector general strike in October. A revolution doesn't come from nowhere – it's too often seen as a sudden leap into the unknown, when really (as in Egypt) it's more like a pot coming to the boil, the inevitable heat and pressure of mass anger reaching the surface. Get stirring!
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

Simon Bestwick (Simon_b)
Username: Simon_b

Registered: 10-2008
Posted From: 86.24.209.217
Posted on Friday, July 08, 2011 - 02:17 pm:   

Time to stock up on wooden spoons, methinks...
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

Joel (Joel)
Username: Joel

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 217.37.199.45
Posted on Friday, July 08, 2011 - 02:25 pm:   

One of the most heartening sights of last week was Unison and Unite members refusing to cross NUT and PCS picket lines. Solidarity is not a fading memory any more than the working class are a mass of thieving, apathetic losers. The fightback is taking place everywhere and every day – though for obvious reasons you won't see much of it online, where social isolation and reality-dodging are obligatory.

The revolution will not be online, brother, the revolution will be live.
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

Stevie Walsh (Stephenw)
Username: Stephenw

Registered: 03-2009
Posted From: 82.4.19.77
Posted on Friday, July 08, 2011 - 03:30 pm:   

Amen to that, comrade!!

And good riddance to bad quality toilet paper... I much prefer a thicker, more absorbent sheet.
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

Greg James (Greg_james)
Username: Greg_james

Registered: 04-2011
Posted From: 193.109.254.21
Posted on Friday, July 08, 2011 - 05:42 pm:   

The argument that we had thirteen years of socialism under New Labour does make me laugh. I missed those completely.
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

Weber (Weber_gregston)
Username: Weber_gregston

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.181.143.126
Posted on Friday, July 08, 2011 - 11:25 pm:   

The editors claim they knew nothing of what was going on - surely that's like a butcher holding up a leg of lamb and saying "What? you mean they killed an ickle sheep to make this?"
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

Mick Curtis (Mick)
Username: Mick

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 195.59.115.60
Posted on Saturday, July 09, 2011 - 12:18 am:   

Exactly. However, I can easily see Murdoch claiming that by sacking all the staff he's got rid of the 'bad element', as if this sort of freewheeling attitude wasn't rife elsewhere within his domain.
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

David_m (David_m)
Username: David_m

Registered: 07-2011
Posted From: 95.147.193.155
Posted on Saturday, July 09, 2011 - 10:03 am:   

Hello, I've met quite a few of you through Twisted Tales and conventions. I'm really heartened to see that people feel so passionately about the Murdoch stranglehold on our media.

Murdoch's decision to close down the News of the World should be seen as nothing other than an attempt to pave the way to completely controlling Sky, thus increasing his influence and power at a time when his companies are being investigated by the Metropolitan Police.

There are mass calls to boycott his products but, when speaking to friends and family, they expressed concerns about cancelling their Sky subscriptions as it would prevent them from watching their favourite football teams play on TV. This shows how much of a monopoly Murdoch has on Britain's national sport. On their behalf, I have uploaded a campaign suggestion that demands that football rights be opened up to non-Murdoch companies...

http://38degrees.uservoice.com/forums/78585-campaign-suggestions/suggestions/201 3923-the-right-to-watch-football-without-giving-money-t?ref=title

To vote, you need to click on Sign In (top right), enter a username and email address (if you want to password protect it, open the confirmation email and click on the link to verify your account, then add one). Then click on the vote button to the top left of the campaign text and (if you want) award it the maximum number of votes (3).

I'd appreciate it if you could send this link to friends and family who you think may be interested. We have a real opportunity to clean up the UK media scene- let's not waste it.
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

David_m (David_m)
Username: David_m

Registered: 07-2011
Posted From: 95.147.193.155
Posted on Monday, July 11, 2011 - 10:20 am:   

There will be a vote in the Commons on Wednesday as to whether Murdoch's BSkyB bid should be allowed to proceed before the police investigations have been completed...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14097275

Write to your MP to tell them to stand up to Murdoch...

http://www.38degrees.org.uk/page/speakout/time-to-stand-up-to-murdoch
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

Protodroid (Protodroid)
Username: Protodroid

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 78.152.212.43
Posted on Monday, July 11, 2011 - 12:28 pm:   

I'm glad this is happening, but I do wish it was based on principles (i.e., phone hacking is wrong) rather than emotions (i.e., phone hacking of murder victims is wrong). I suppose that's the legacy of the tabloid press, though.
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.141.208.185
Posted on Monday, July 11, 2011 - 12:34 pm:   

+POSSIBLE SPOILER+
I watched the film Night flier last week and was shocked to find the story of the NOTW in it. A reporter is so determined to chase story he becomes the villain he is pursuing, and ends up as both victim and monster on the cover of his own paper.
Top of pagePrevious messageNext messageBottom of page Link to this message

Tony (Tony)
Username: Tony

Registered: 03-2008
Posted From: 86.141.208.185
Posted on Monday, July 11, 2011 - 12:35 pm:   

I have to say, we had sky for a while and ended up just flicking channels looking for something good. :-(

Add Your Message Here
Post:
Bold text Italics Underline Create a hyperlink Insert a clipart image

Username: Posting Information:
This is a private posting area. Only registered users and moderators may post messages here.
Password:
Options: Enable HTML code in message
Automatically activate URLs in message
Action:

Topics | Last Day | Last Week | Tree View | Search | Help/Instructions | Program Credits Administration