http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14070733

I'm sure the brits here will have heard all about this and I'm slightly curious as to the extent it has spread internationally.

To cut a long story short, for about the last 10 years (no one knows for sure) the News of the World has been employing private investigators to hack into people's phone to listen to their voicemail, read texts and basically get whatever info they can get off the phone.

Originally this was thought to be just politicians and other "news-worthy" people but it has since come to light that over 4000 people had their phones hacked into, ranging from survivors of the July 7/7 bombings in London, to widows of soldiers killed in Iraq/Afghanistan, this coming from a paper who “champions” our soldiers no less...

What makes this even a bigger deal is that there was an investigation setup a few years back (after a few politicians found out) where the News of the World management said on record that the current cases of phone hacking were isolated and that there weren't any more. One of these said managers went on to be the "media relations" person for our current PM during the election campaign and the other became chief executive of News International.

Now with News Corp. closing the paper (which was one of the oldest and most read in the country, not by me I should add, it’s tabloid bull****) and being in the midst of trying to buy a controlling stake in BSkyB (which they were forced to sell a few years back because of competition interests), the question is being raised as to whether News Corp. are a fit and proper company to run ~60% of the news broadcasting in Britain, in my mind they aren't.

I'm curious what other people think of News Corp. and the way Rupert Murdoch and his son have had such a large voice in getting who they like at the time into political office.

So how high does this issue go up? I heard your PM Cameron is involved too, but is that just Murdoch's support for his party?

More Cameron's buddying up to Murdoch than the other way round. Murdoch is in the pocket of whoever is power because of the weight of his media influence - see "it's The Sun wot won it" :: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It's_The_Sun_Wot_Won_It

The issue goes up to (as far the public is mainly concerned) to Rebekah Brookes (née Wade) who was Editor of the paper at the time of some of the most offensive intrusions (Tapping into the voicemail of a murdered school girl) BUT she's still hanging onto a role in the parent organisation despite 200 to 500 people (I've heard both numbers) losing their jobs in the scuttling of the NotW.

It's pretty ****ing disgusting all in all.

It's not closing really, they're just going to rebrand it as Sunday Sun

Good ****ing riddance.

I'll leave the rest of this to the more eloquent britassians.

Yeah, we've been hearing a little about it over here.

-From the sound of it, your media is even worse than ours.

A few years ago, when Max Mosley successfully sued the News of the World for invasion of his privacy, Newscorp used their other outlets to attack him and the judge. It is painfully obvious that Newscorp - or any other organization affiliated with Rupert Murdoch - is not fit to run even 1% of the news broadcasting anywhere in the world.

The Murdochs are bad people. They are criminals, all of them. I am deeply gratified that 'normal' people are finally beginning to realize this fact, and I sincerely hope this incident leads to well-deserved irreparable harm to the Murdochs' properties and persons.

I listened to Cameron's speech this morning and thought it was interesting how he actually took some of the blame for political buddying up with the media in looking the other way for these scandals.

I also watched some of Cameron's speech and a few other political bits over the past few days, basically every PM since good-ole Maggy Thatcher has been getting friendly with the media, not just News Corp. (although beens they own so much of the media, they get even friendly than most), but all the media outlets.

I'm glad there will be an end to the practise, or at the very least a decrease in the partisan reporting that goes on.

I have been trying to explain to my misses how much control News Corp. has over the general population, coming from our backgrounds in Physics and getting our news from neutral sources she doesn't seem to grasp how much weight a lot of the populous in the UK puts in news coming from News Corp. companies. I like to think my friends we are pretty clued up on finding neutral sources, heck it's our job to research stuff so we all look around, but I know for a fact that in my family (of which I'm the only one to go to University) they place so much of their trust in stuff they read in the papers from this company it's just downright scary.

Just the thought of the Murdoch's owning more of the media (and stuff like Formula 1) makes me very worried for a free press.

News corp = teh evil, but if they can remove the poison dwarf, then I'm all for them. (bonus marks for jonsee if he can make the anglo-saxon connection).

meh, sounds like they are getting what was coming to them. and if this serves to weaking the bonds of "buddy buddy-ness" between the media and politicians then i am all for it!

Oh my, things seem much more heated up from I've heard. Scotland Yard resignations. That creepy woman arrested. How's it going over there, across the pond?

Swimmingly. Looks like James Murdoch's reputation for being the golden boy has gone down the ****ter.

And the whistle-blower who exposed it all has just turned up dead.

But the police have decided that the death is not suspicious, JM!

Huh? Yes, the police are also under investigation for taking bribes from Newscorp. Why do you ask?

Why the hell is Congress asking Murdoch to testify? He did **** in Britain. This is not Britain.

Hey wait, Congress isn't a judicial body. How can they demand anyone testify to them? Murdoch can go to hell, but **** congress.

So you missed the part about 9/11 victim hacks (IIRC)?

(Also News Corp. is a US company)

(Also, lol, you think congress gives a **** about rules)

I haven't seen anything about this.

News Corp. is an American company, but News International are British.

Sir Paul Stephenson being grilled by MPs and he's just ****ing squirming. Murdochs get it later on.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-14193124

So what's the story on Sean Hoare's death?

Murdochs being questioned just now.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-14193124

Haha, James Murdoch is a terrible liar.

Haha, the flash player volume control goes up to 11.

What the ****?

Tony: MY THOUGHTS EXACTLY!

What the hell just happened?!

Did someone try to attack or something?

Whoa, what happened? I was just listening.

That's... what it looks like. It was off camera, and then sudden interruption.

Has he got paint on his face?

BBC reports:

"Rupert Murdoch's wife Wendi stood up and appeared to strike somebody in defence of her husband."

Edit: It looks to me like they tried to throw a pie/shaving cream/something white at Rupert, haha.

Hahaha, someone tried to pie him.

Huh. Pity it wasn't something more damaging.

Who would want to harm the savior of the world. Murdoch, as he says, is just trying to make the world a better place. Like in Singapore.

Labour MP Tom Harris tweets: "And once again a Gap Year Anarchist succeeds in his lifetime's ambition: to get all the attention. Well done. *slow hand clap*"

And once again a corrupt baby boomer ****face misses the point.

I would just like to say that Rupert looks like someone drew a turtle's face on a scrotum.

Ahah. He's about as trustworthy as a reptile, anyway. I think most of this is a facade.

Im glad that protests in the UK tend to involve pie.

*Shaving cream

I bet that kid spends more time in prison than anybody with the last name "Murdoch."

basically the same thing

Don't take this bet, it is rigged