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Month: July 2011

Is this the start of the Murdoch fight-back?

Is this the start of the Murdoch fight-back?

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Can other attackers expect the same treatment? After a week and half of News International being battered over the hacking allegations the Sun responds furiously this morning to the claims by the former PM, Gordon Brown, that the medical records of his son, Fraser had been hacked into. It writes:“THE Sun today exposes the allegation that we hacked into Gordon Brown’s family medical records as FALSE and a smear. We discovered the ex-PM’s four-year-old son Fraser had cystic fibrosis months…

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Who could have predicted this 9 days ago?

Who could have predicted this 9 days ago?

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Guardian Is there now cross-party consensus on hacking? Events in the hacking scandal have moved at a breath-taking pace and this evening the three main party leaders, Cameron/Clegg/Miliband, are meeting to start to hammer out to discuss the terms of reference of the two inquiries into the multiplying scandals. Tomorrow’s debate will be on a Labour motion that “The house believes that it is in the public interest for Rupert Murdoch and News Corporation to withdraw their bid for BSky.”…

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Will the scandal impact on public views of the press?

Will the scandal impact on public views of the press?

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Mark Gill puts it in an international perspective The phone hacking scandal is unlikely to make a huge difference to the public’s view of the press. The chart below shows the proportion of people who “tend not to” trust the press, from across a range of European countries. This survey was conducted in November 2010 and clearly shows that well before the present media scandal, the UK public stood out for being by far the most sceptical about their newspapers….

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Comres: 2 in 3 say Dave showed poor judgement on Coulson

Comres: 2 in 3 say Dave showed poor judgement on Coulson

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And just 4% think Rebekah should NOT resign Overnight there was a ComRes poll for ITV news on the hacking scandal and like other surveys the sample was pretty unequivocal in its views. Fieldwork took place from Friday until Sunday with most respondents answering after Andy Coulson arrest and subsequent bailing. As well as the main figures what is interesting is the relatively small proportion of those polled who had no view on the hacking related questions. That suggests that…

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Could the Murdoch press be no more?

Could the Murdoch press be no more?

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What are we to make of tonight’s rumours? There’s a mass of rumours going the rounds tonight about “something major” involving Rupert Murdoch’s main remaining UK newspaper titles – the Sun, Sunday Times and the Times. One version has it that the three papers will be put on sale with Murdoch effectively getting out of the UK newspaper business. The effect, of course, would be to deal at one stroke with what was the main objection to the BSkyB take-over…

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Will Rupert ever be as powerful again?

Will Rupert ever be as powerful again?

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Are we seeing the end of media and political era? It seems that there are two camps developing following the events of the past days: there those who think that Murdoch will re-group and will soon return to their  former position of colossal media power and political influence and there are those who believe that we are watching the end of an era. In many ways this is self-fulfilling. The very fact that some pundits are suggesting that Murdoch’s power…

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Is Cameron gambling with the Tories’ key demographic?

Is Cameron gambling with the Tories’ key demographic?

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Why are oldies much more severe about hacking? As has been observed many times here before the older voters are the more likely  it is that they are on the electoral register and to vote. Also they are much more likely than the electorate as a whole to support the Conservatives. In 2010 the split amongst over 65s was CON 44: LAB 31: LD 16 compared with the overall GB figures of CON 37: LAB 29.7: LD 23.6. The over 65s…

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