Missing Milly Dowler's voicemail "hacked by News of the World"
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butchersapron
Bring back hanging
Hey, we might get an apology to parliament out of this!
agricola
a genuine importer of owls
I have only scan-read full report but this "not a fit and proper person to run an international company" bit is somewhat curious; its as if the Committee is deliberately framing a conclusion that it knows it has no way of enforcing.
After all, they appear to have not called for an OFCOM review into whether broadcasting licences should be granted to Murdoch-ran firms (where there actually is a fit and proper persons test of sorts), nor have they called for legislation requiring proprietors of media outlets to have a limited number of outlets.
Ted Striker
Foot's on the other hand
I think/hope the biggest impact will be shareholder support. After all, Monty's not done too bad with his lot, and steered the ship reasonably well through the current shitcreek so may run with the loyalty he's built up, but no board will approve Smithers being allowed near any media company ever again.
butchersapron
Bring back hanging
Well the share price is rising.
agricola
a genuine importer of owls
Of course it is, they (the Committee) have just loudly threatened to do nothing to NI and the Murdochs.
butchersapron
Bring back hanging
You must have missed the big news, there's a possibility that people who testified and who may have misled the committee may be called to apologise to parliament!
London_Calling
Pleasant and unpatronising
They've pretty much wrapped a turd up in a copy of The Sun, put it on the doorstep of Murdoch Mansions, lit it and run away.
Which is more than most hoped, I suppose.
Which is more than most hoped, I suppose.
ymu
Niall Ferguson's deep-cover sock-puppet
The basis for it seems to be the cover-up:
On media plurality, I don't think the committee is in a position to comment directly - they've not looked at it AFAIK, but Leveson is. The trail leads straight back to Thatcher's fudge when she facilitated The Times takeover, which involved Murdoch making various undertakings to protect editorial independence. That was always a sick joke, and it's one of the lines Jay was clearly pursuing with Murdoch last week.
London_Calling
Pleasant and unpatronising
Really, you think.
gosub
~#
Checked the Sun website, sadly headlines are england manager, man u v man city, bloke got erection from a motorbike, Posh Spice once forgot her kids ...... move along nothing to see here
Fingers crossed for this.
claphamboy
The wheels on the bus go round and round....
OFCOM didn't need them to go as far as declaring Murdoch not 'fit & proper', there's no love lost between OFCOM and Murdoch, if anything this could make things harder for OFCOM, as they could now be accused of rolling over to political pressure if they come with the right conclusion themselves.
agricola
a genuine importer of owls
The thing is though that they arent really in a position to comment on whether Rupert is a fit and proper person to run an international business either, and yet they have chosen to do so; indeed that conclusion has emerged as the headline statement of this committee report. My query is to wonder why they have chosen to do that, when there was a conclusion - asking OFCOM to revoke licences (or at least asking them to look at it whilst mentioning that in their opinion he and his firm werent fit and proper) - that would be more relevant (given that they have admitted getting Sky News to break the law), more effective (given the potential cost to the Murdochs of losing licences) and more reasonable based on all the evidence.
agricola
a genuine importer of owls
If OFCOM even looked like they are considering taking licences off of Murdoch-controlled businesses then they will need all the help that they can get.
(edited for a couple of typos)
butchersapron
Bring back hanging
This committees task was simply to decide if the previous committee had been misled by news international. That's all. A number of people are assuming it was conducting some wider sort of investigation or that it had some wider remit or powers.
ymu
Niall Ferguson's deep-cover sock-puppet
Yeah, I think this is just unknown territory, really. People getting used to the idea that Murdoch is not invincible. Whatever Ofcom officials might privately prefer, finding Murdoch unfit to own broadcasters and newspapers would have been unthinkable a couple of years ago.
There are shades of Watson over-reaching himself, but it was 7-4 with one Tory siding with the majority, so I'd think there was a bit more to it than the committee grand-standing (although that is undoubtedly part of it). Should be interesting watching the fallout.
claphamboy
The wheels on the bus go round and round....
OFCOM has called News Int' to account on several occasions, not least making them reduce their share in ITV and forcing Sky to sell rights to their channels to other platforms at a reduced cost, these cases & others have seriously pissed-off the Murdochs over the years, hence their hatred of OFCOM.
There was enough evidence & pressure on OFCOM anyway, they didn't need this report to go as far as it has, this could actually back-fire.
agricola
a genuine importer of owls
It would be if they had come to that conclusion, instead they have come up with something considerably more nebulous and which they have no way of actually enforcing (or even influencing).
butchersapron
Bring back hanging
It's very odd - it's even buried away in the section on Graham Taylor - it's not even in the conclusions. I suppose that would have been overstepping the remit far too clearly and Watson would have been far too easy a target then.
gosub
~#
Glad that was screen grabbed when it was, headline now "MP's split over "Murdoch unfit" verdict. If they had kept the original headline I might have bought a copy tommorrow
London_Calling
Pleasant and unpatronising
London_Calling
Pleasant and unpatronising
The Committee was split on one sentence only - on the expression of an opinion beyond its remit. That's also the sentence that's grabbing all the headlines.
It was agreed on absolutely everything else in the 86 (?) pages.
butchersapron
Bring back hanging
No, that's not true - the formal minutes (p.100 onwards) show many such divisions.
London_Calling
Pleasant and unpatronising
butchersapron
Bring back hanging
Have you even actually looked at the report?
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