Heartland

markfiend wrote: If it can be shown that Murdoch did know of the phone hacking, particularly phones of government ministers, given that he is a foreign national, I think it would be legitimate to charge him with espionage.

Ah, but he's an American citizen now, and that extradition treaty Blair bent over and spread 'em for only allows for extradition of British subjects to the States on no real evidence, not vice versa. And people complain about the European Arrest Warrant being open to abuse!
I think people in politics, and the politically-minded have been over-estimating his influence for years. The only people I know who buy, or have ever bought The Sun did so largely for the boobs and the sport section. The Times ceased to be taken seriously as a broadsheet some time ago. So the idea his titles could swing elections based on their editorial content seems a bit of a stretch. To me he's a convenient bogeyman bought up whenever anyone starts suggesting forcing people to pay £150 a year to fund the BBC is a bit wrong.

DeWinter wrote: I think people in politics, and the politically-minded have been over-estimating his influence for years.

The very people who shouldn't be acknowledging him, let alone having concepts of how far his influence goes. I think there is more to Murdoch's power than just the rags he touts. I'm all for dismembering News International - and anyone who played fast and loose with the law.

I'm not convinced, really. Britain's biggest newspapers are all right-leaning, the ones outside the Murdoch stable even more so. The left-leaning papers like the Guardian and Indy are nearly kaput. Surely that would indicate that Murdoch merely keeps his finger on the pulse, rather than makes public opinion himself via his editorials?
I'll be concerned about Rupe when he sends me a threatening letter about watching SKY without paying or hired goons try and intimidate me into buying SKY or The Sun on my doorstep!

The politicos use the media barons too. If a few favours weren't called in for the absolute media kicking Gordon Brown received I'll be very surprised. The newspapers and the British political scene have always been very cosy. Before Murdoch it was Beaverbrook.

wonder how long ryanair keep this image on their homepage:

http://www.ryanair.com/

The news over the past fortnight has felt like an implausible political thriller written by a p*ss-poor novelist.

And now, as I write that, I hear that Lulzsec have hacked the NotW/Sun email servers and have access to their archive of emails.

Edit: the Sun's website has definitely been hacked - http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/ redirects to fake death notice of Murdoch after 5 secs

Edit 2: Looks like the Sun's IT team have closed down the domain that it redirected to (http://www.new-times.co.uk/sun), but haven't managed to remove the redirect header injected into http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/

Someone (on Twitter) commented that (whether Lulzsec hold the NOTW e-mails or not) this could force the Met, NOTW or Tories to play their hand tomorrow.

Edit 3: Lulzsec have responded by redirecting the Sun website to the LulzSec Twitter feed. I suspect the NI sysadmins will be crying now.

One for Cheap Trick fans

Apparently, they were actually onstage playing when it happened

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-14233114

its official. jock's are as think as s**t

nah, we jist want ye's tae think that IsleBoi

Kunming

I like that word

Proof that you can't hope to legislate against a psycho.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14262237

But boy could she sing.......

oxygen thief

Waste of a perfectly serviceable skin

Until she got hold of it anyway

they should flay her and display her skin as a warning in tattoo parlours

James Blast wrote:they should flay her and display her skin as a warning in tattoo parlours

If it stays in one piece

amazing journalism

http://is.gd/Umek7l

Pupils devastated after dog called Burt Reynolds which teaches sign language disappears while out walking

A DISABLED dog called Burt Reynolds who helps teach sign language to pupils at a special school in Northampton has gone missing and the pupils are appealing for his return.

Burt, a two-year-old Shih Tzu, is a regular visitor at Billing Brook Special School in Lumbertubs to help the pupils learn to look after a pet, and he also responds to sign language commands so deaf children can talk to him.

But the children have been devastated to learn that Burt went missing last month during a walk in Bletchley with his owner, Claire-Louise Nixon.

The school is now asking that anyone with information about his whereabouts should come forward to lift the gloom that has been hanging over their classrooms since his disappearance.

wtf

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-14324385

I live by the river

http://talkaboutequality.wordpress.com/ ... ly-happen/

Not seen this mentioned anywhere in the UK media..

When Sooty attacks.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picture ... ident.html

Pista wrote:When Sooty attacks.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picture ... ident.html

I think the news that is worthy was at the related news in Sooty's...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstop ... c-Sea.html

Beware trekkies

New Yorker article on the Bin Laden operation.
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011 ... ntPage=all

A fantastic piece of journalism.

The Mad Sweedlanders strike again

The Grauniad wrote:Handl kept a blog about his experiments, describing how he created a small meltdown on his stove.

Flowing water on Mars.

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/ameri ... 32856.html

Crazy British rowing team pretend to make a Madness video

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympi ... rport.html