In August 2009 James Murdoch spoke at the Edinburgh International Television Festival saying:
"In this all-media marketplace, the expansion of state-sponsored journalism is a threat to the plurality and independence of news provision, which are so important for our democracy," and "As Orwell foretold, to let the state enjoy a near-monopoly of information is to guarantee manipulation and distortion"
From about this point in time the 'phone hacking' issue has become harder and harder to keep in the long grass.
My reading is James Murdoch does not have the blessing enjoyed by his father. He is having his wings clipped. He is being chastised.
And there are useful messages that can be transmitted from this unfolding series of events, such as: there is a difference between a mogul and a maverick.
On the 29 March 2004 the Guardian ran a 'joky' item revealing Evelyn de Rothschild was at the Department of Culture, Media and Sport on the day candidates were being interviewed for the post of BBC chairman.
The BBC is blessed by the real ruling oligarchy, whoever that may be. The BBC is one of the most effective tools in the elaborate mechanisms of control. Trust in the BBC is paramount, both domestic and international, its credibility must never be brought into question; especially by one of such news-media standing. Calling the BBC "state-sponsored journalism" and casting its lack of "independence" to be a threat to "plurality and democracy" is a sin. And worse; using the 'Orwell' word in connection to the BBC, highlighting its 'near-monopoly of information' as being a 'guarantee' of 'manipulation and distortion' could not be allowed to remain unpunished.
Far from the BBC having the monopoly on information, it is the Maxwell organisations that has the international spread and keeping them under check is important to the elite too. Too much power in any pair of hands is not to be allowed. No invitations to the high table are granted.
This is a trial of strength. That does not mean the Maxwells (oops I mean Murdoch) will spend the rest of their days breaking rocks in Dartmoor. They will, though, be broken, whipped, pilloried and left to the scavengers as an example to whoever else thinks they hold a whip hand, who are careless with their granted powers and wealth or who think they can trample upon the
labyrinthine and win.
Of cause, I do not doubt such a news empire has cupboards full of skeletons which many, on the rungs of power and authority, know of and fear revelation. It patently looks that this is why two UK governments, and their police, have strived to bury and minimise the affair. They are all implemented, deeply I have no doubt, and if the case expands to its full potential its destructive force will be unprecedented. In comparison Watergate will look like a washout.
The press will lose its confidence and power for any meaningful investigation and will instead just publish simple reiteration of the news agencies output.
From time to time, our glorious masters believe, the pack must be shuffled. Predicting the exact order of play is hard but, if they do not like the hands against which they play, they can keep causing a shuffle, again and again.
The outcome of this shuffle may include the end of the UK as it is absorbed into the EU as a series of regions, its economy shattered, the credibility of its government and law enforcement irrevocably discredited. Indirect collateral damage may be unintentional but it is also inconsequential. More likely it is also included in the plans or even is at the core of the plan.
Just one of these fat worms is hinted at with a story in The Sunday Times: ‘Apps spy on phone messages’ (which you cannot access without a subscription).
But the gist of it below is at this link : http://www.theweek.co.uk/daily-briefing/45566/ten-things-you-need-know-today-sunday-26-feb-2012
3. PHONE APPS SPY ON MESSAGES
Companies, including Facebook, are using smartphone apps to spy on users’ phone messages and gather information about their lives. A Sunday Times investigation also found that some apps can access users’ internet history which is transmitted to third party advertisers, while other apps can remotely control a phone’s camera.
My reading of the publication of this item is to set the ground for if and when it comes out that Screws Indigestible has been doing a lot more than just hacking mobile answer-phones or even computer e-mail. It is to say ‘look folks; everybody’s doing this stuff, its not really so bad and scary. It's the new normal’.
See here an idea of what else is possible when actually 'hacking' mobiles: http://eubrainwashing.blogspot.com/2011/07/more-to-phone-hacking-than-accessing.html
But the effect of such revelation still has the potential to be devastating for NI and the Mudoiks.
The can chock full of juicy worms could well go deeper still. That would be who helped, who allowed powers reserved for the highest levels of police investigation and state security to be usurped for ‘third-party’ surveillance. Surveillance not only of a meaningless celebrity’s toilet habits but such that could compromise national security and those in positions of real power and authority. And yet deeper; is it only the news rooms of NI that benefited from such knowledge and leverage that may have resulted or could this spying network have a darker beneficiary than just pennies on a news-stand.
Trust that such would not occur, just because it should not occur, is misplaced.