Murdoch folds "News of the Screws"

Good God...Rupert is axing the legendary News of the World...

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2011/07/07/news-of-the-world-last-ed_n_892241.html

(I thought this deserved a thread of its own in the news section. Moddy, feel free to move it to JTO).

 

The Jam weeps...

 

Hopefully The Sun goes down too.

 

Once this story built traction, Rupe learned he didn't have the British PM in his pocket as he once thought. Closing it doesn't end the story, it only buys him time to spin.

I don't think anyone would be shocked if his minions have used similar tactics here in the states. Unlike the British government, there's no chance in hell you'd see this government fire with the backlash we saw in the UK. A story that would have once received major attention barely registered a blip here, and I'm sure a small part of it has to do with how much of a vise grip NewsCorp has in this nation's media, and that's a sad thing.

 

http://www.sportsjournalists.com/forum/threads/84747/

 

No. No. No. No. No.

I like The Sun.

Is the NOTW deal directly related to the hacking thing?

(Yep, just found my own answer.) I don't have all the details, but why shut down the entire paper instead of clearing out those involved?

 

Oh, they have. I know for a fact.

http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/gangsters_outlaws/cops_others/anthony_pellicano/1_index.html

BTW, I think this decision by Murdoch should send a cold chill down the back of print reporters. He quickly pulled the plug on a 168-year-old newspaper just to help protect his bid to merge NewsCorp and SKY...in other words, to protect his TV interests.

 

Awesome...

http://twitpic.com/5mo92s

 

Those involved are pretty much long gone anyway. The issue was becoming that the advertisers were jumping like rats off the Titanic. It was getting to the point that anyone who hadn't outright pulled their advertising contract was being threatened with boycotts.

Faced with that, it was going to be difficult to keep going. That said, the Sun has survived much worse (the post-Hillsborough stuff, for starters), so I'm not sure the NotW couldn't have as well.

But I'm sure that within three months, the "Sunday Sun" or some such will debut.

 

Love it!

 

The advertisers need to slam a full-throttle boycott on any media outlet with Murdoch's fingers in it. Teevee, print, movies, anything.

Put the motherfucker's throat in a vise.

 

The Hillsborough stuff with the Sun was pre-Internet, so I'd say it was easier to recover than it is today without all the tweets, blogs, camera phones and protesters, etc.