Slashdot Mirror
Voicemail Hack Scandal Leads To Closure of UK Tabloid
Some Bitch writes "Britain's biggest selling Sunday tabloid will close after this Sunday's issue. The tabloid has been embroiled in a voicemail hacking controversy for some time now and the news that they compromised the voicemail of a murdered schoolgirl and paid bribes to Metropolitan police officers for stories kicked off a renewed assault on the paper. The News Corp daily counterpart to Sunday's News of the World is the Sun; the domain sunonsunday.co.uk was registered two days ago."
Send that fuck a bill for Iraq while you're at it.
If the intolerable hyping and biasing of the Casey Anthony trial in complete disregard of the defendant's right to due process isn't enough, there's that whole ordering people to tell lies about science to bias legislation thing.
so they close down one tabloid and move all the employees to another?
ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI!?
...here's the new name, complete with domain registration: http://webwhois.nic.uk/cgi-bin/whois.cgi?query=thesunonsunday.co.uk
I for one cheered when I heard this. A horrid, awful, sensationalist piece of crap 'news'paper. Excellent! Good riddance to bad rubbish!
What I love about this is how the media (guardian news broke the story and chased it for years) has turned on other media outlets (murdoch press, news of the world), may the blood letting begin.
This is the press equivalent of amputating a gangrenous limb to try and stop the spread of the infection, without even acknowledging that the rest of the body is already riddled with disease...
Apparently they are just renaming it to "The Sun on Sunday".
sunonsunday.co.uk
www.123-reg.co.uk
Let's crowdsource the security questions...
Its also the fist time I've seen the media as the focus of the story. These guys should be shut down, they bribed the medical establishment (hugh grant medical records, as well as others) the phone companies (how did they get everyones numbers) the police (the man charged with leading the mets investigation into phone hacking now works for the Times (another Murdoch paper).
The innocent employees are being punished for the wrongs of their predecessors, and the executive, who was editor at the time is getting off free. Apparently, Murdoch had plans to close the paper anyway. He registered the domain for replacing weekend "News of the World" with "The Sun" (one of his other dailies) two years ago.
Can we please stop calling this 'hacking'? All they did was guess the victim's voicemail PIN, which in many cases had not been changed from the default 0000, 1234 or whatever. No code exploits or special knowledge of the cell-phone network were involved.
The same paper has done it to celebrities as well. Apparently people didn't care as much when it was celebrities. In the newest revelations, it just wasn't a schoolgirl; it is alleged that the paper also illegally accessed the voicemail of the families of soldiers killed in combat.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
One weekly newspaper is almost small potatoes compared with Murdoch's other holdings. The scandal threatens to scupper a couple of impending 'big deals' so ... throw the paper under the bus.
We should not take this to mean that Rupert Murdoch has had any kind of change of heart. He's still the same big hearted wonderful guy he always was.
The Wall Street Journal is another Murdoch paper.
Can't imagine what they get up to in order to get decent stories on a street that does nothing without cash changing hands.
The recent scandal has cast doubts over Ruperts News Corp's suitability to purchase BSKYB (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Sky_Broadcasting).
Clearly demonstrating his high morals will allow his supporter (and UK PM) David Cameron, to allow the move to go ahead.
Ruperts failings in new media (myspace, aol) spilling over to the traditional side of the house.
He is a kingmaker, especially in UK and will maintain his position with BSKYB. No doubt, there will be a replacement to News of the World as the ink dries.
James Murdoch as a Director of NI, potentially broke the law in the UK based on statements made to Parliament over 5 years ago.
It make very little difference to Murdoch. Most of his money now comes from american interests: TV and this clears an obstacle in his quest for taking over even more satellite TV in the UK. He also knows that newspapers as a medium are dying so this is no great loss - for him or anyone else, except the people who worked there. Ironically, the current staff, who lose their jobs were probably the least guilty of all the spying/hacking accusations, since most of the ones that have come to light so far are from 5, 10, 15 years ago. Very few of the current staff have been there that long.
politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
Hugh Grant just called the Murdoch Empire a protection racket live on Question Time.
He almost certainly broke the law. The regulation of investigatory powers act makes it an offence for a corporate body to engage in this kind of behaviour and holds directors personally responsible for connivance and neglect.
If James Murdoch let things happen on a nod and a wink he's guilty of connivance. Even if he didn't have that level of knowledge, failing to do a full internal investigation based on the allegations from five years ago is a clear sign of neglect.
Nick
Can we somehow convince all of Rupert Murdoch's other properties to hack someone's voicemail too?
I'll be honest, we're throwing science against the wall to see what sticks. -Cave Johnson
Dozens or hundreds more to go.
I'm not sure why exactly they're quoting him (as opposed to any other famous Brit), but the BBC reports actor Hugh Grant saying "I think this is a cynical management manoeuvre".
Bingo.
http://alternatives.rzero.com/
What is with brits and his fucking fowl mouthes? Ca'nt they go to a dentalist like normal villagers go? I for always say HALT!
<deep breath>Let's keep this /. related while I try to calm down from the state of induced rage I've been in from hearing the constant use of the work "Hack" in the UK media the past week when talking about using the default pin code for a mobile networks voicemail system. THAT'S NOT A %£^%£"%" HACK!!!! </deep breath>
Okay, I feel better for getting that off my chest.
Frederick Greenwood, editor of the Pall Mall Gazette, met in his club one day Lord Riddell, who died a few years ago, and in the course of conversation Riddell said to him, `You know, I own a paper.' `Oh, do you?' said Greenwood, 'what is it?' `It's called the News of the Worldâ"I'll send you a copy,' replied Riddell, and in due course did so. Next time they met Riddell said, 'Well Greenwood, what do you think of my paper?' 'I looked at it,' replied Greenwood, 'and then I put it in the waste-paper basket. And then I thought, "If I leave it there the cook may read it" â"so I burned it!' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/News_of_the_World#History
You thought you could break the laws of physics without paying the PRICE?
not a closure
the brand got torpedoed (in terms of goodwill)
so keep calm and carry on under a new name.
There's nothing new under the Sun.
Where are we going and why are we in a handbasket?
Hugh Grant just called the Murdoch Empire a protection racket live on Question Time.
Strangely enough Hugh Grant, someone I previously disliked for his films has actually shown considerable stones in this whole debacle.
problem with NOTW is they actually did do some good Journalism at times, and did expose some important scandal's, but morally you don't delete the voice-mail of a murdered girl, you do not listen in on British War widows, and that's why the NOTW had to die, don't care about the celebrity hacking , but kudos to Hugh Grant , secretly taping them.
He used social engineering to figure out the code, thus circumventing the security and getting access to something he wasn't supposed to have. You're saying it wasn't a hack just because it was easy to do? Plenty of "real" hackers have broken into systems because the companies running them never changed the default password.
If big corporations want hacking systems and circumventing security to be a crime for us then it ought to be a crime for them as well, regardless of how hard or easy it was to circumvent that security.
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
You mean the press is doing *investigative* journalism? Viva la revolucion!
Man who leaps off cliff jumps to conclusion.
Coincidentally, he just announced he is soon launching a brand new paper: Wews of the Norld. Appearances are everything.
The Cloud - because you don't care if your apps and data are up in the air.
on the political side of thing's i[m more right then left, but i am so glad this delusional , incompetent Rubert Murdoch is finally being exposed as a sad old man with very little future ahead of him, think Myspace, how much did you lose on that RM , this is the thing why do people, politicians fear News International , their idiot's, they have no influence, and yes there idiots.
Wait.. they are going to arrest editors in Britain?
I must say that I'm quite surprised that no-one technically minded has yet managed to raid Mr Murdoch and Mrs Brooks voicemails and publish them on YouTube. I'm sure there must have been some juicy irate messages left and would be a most apt thing to do.
Hang on, didn't them crafty LulzSec buggers have a request-line...?! Anyone got the number?
Anyone believing that the News of the World is not the Sunday Sun is completely deluded. To deny this would be like claiming that "The Sunday Times" is not "The Times" published on Sunday. If Murdoch is allowed to simply open the Sunday Sun then nothing will have changed.
Murdoch has closed the paper not least because the advertisers were leaving the paper like rats leaving a sinking ship. The BBC claims that "Leading brands, including Sainsbury's, Ford and O2, pulled their newspaper advertising and shares in BSkyB fell on fears that the scandal could hinder parent company News Corp's bid for the broadcaster."
What we need now is a concerted campaign to persuade people and equally importantly advertisers that the News of the World is indeed the Sunday Sun and if the NotW should be boycotted, so should the Sun.
Of course there is one group of people who have known before this scandal broke that the Sun and the Sunday Sun are evil papers and have been campaigning against them for many years. They are of course the Hillsbrough Justice Campaign. After the evil things the Sun printed after the Hillsbrough Tragedy in 1989 there has been a boycott of the Sun and it's sister paper on Merseyside and amongst Liverpool supporters ever since. If you're unfamiliar with the boycott you can find out more at http://www.contrast.org/hillsborough/history/media.shtm In summary, if you live in the UK, boycott the Sun. Don't buy the paper and don't read the paper. Tell your friends not to buy the paper or visit their website. Pick up a couple of broadsheets in your local newsagent or supermarket and put them on top of the pile of Sun newspapers so that they don't get seen or bought. Contact companies such as Sainsbury's, Ford, O2 and their competitors too and ask them to drop their advertising in the Sun as well in response to the vile actions of the Murdoch press. Do not let the Murdoch Press maintain the illusion that the Sun was not complicit in these actions. Do not let The Sun off the hook. Instead, reel them in, gut them, top and tail them and barbecue them.
A company commits a crime, they should be gone, and anyone directly responsible have their professional reputation smeared for life.
No different than if a person commits a crime, the go to jail.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
He has the advantage that we already know his private life isn't whiter than white and has in any case semi-retired from acting. There isn't much you could really threaten him with.
The broadsheets are fairly happy to attack other papers. Its the tabloids which generally avoid attacking each other.
This case perfectly showcases the difference between regular people and those at the top. Let's be honest, here is what would happen if some random Joe broke into that girl's voicemail and deleted messages:
Obviously I'm exaggerting slightly, but we could easily see more jail time (at least in theory) for this phone "hacking" than for the actual murderer. Obviously what's been done here is awful, but this is a time to revise sentencing (for all people) to better reflect the actual harm done rather than just yelling "HACKER!!!" and committing these people to decades of hard time. Of course, given how disgusting this was, we'll probably keep pushing sentences the other way.
Except in this case (and many others with revolving door CEOs) the true criminals have moved on leaving others to take the blame.
What we are seeing instead of any sort of justice is a shrewd move by that evil old bastard Rupert who gets to clear his name by sacrificing a tiny piece of his huge media empire that barely brings in any money. He'll fill the gap with another part of Newscorp before any competition gets a chance to move in, and he'll do it with less staff than News of the World had.
Hopefully some mud will stick to James Murdoch, Brooks, etc but I doubt there will be much in the way of any sort of consequences for them.
Yeah. That does sound rather funny:
call to Hugh: We will threaten you with exposing your private life if you reveal anything on us.
-some muttering can be heard in background-
Call to Hugh: sorry, seems like we already did that. Is there anything else you would like us to threaten you with?
Hugh: not really
-more muttering in background-
Call to Hugh: turns out you are retired and we kinda draw the line at death threats at the moment (new company policy and all), and we're pretty much fucked anyhow. Continue as you were.
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
I appreciate your sentiment but you're quite wrong. This is a big story for a number of reasons but an awful lot of newspapers aren't making as big a deal about the phone hacking as they might if they had, say, clear consciences. The story has run for years with virtually no major coverage from the big newspapers. NoTW is currently in the crosshairs but it won't be the last.
The Guardian, however, IS a great newspaper and online presence if a little left-leaning for me, but with Charlie Brooker and David Mitchell writing for them who cares? They and I think possibly the Daily Telegraph were the few reporting on this on a regular basis - um, citation needed but this is from memory.
Why bother making people type another 8 characters when News International already own sunday.co.uk, which currently redirects to
the News of the World anyway.
The real issue is not the lack of morals in the tabloid press... We've always known that they never had any.
No, the real issue is how easy it was for some low-life private investigator to 'hack' voicemails all over the place. Most systems appear to use just 4-digit PINs and have no limits to how many times you can try your luck, as well as no logs (or nobody looking at the logs), so it's not surprising it is possible, but why haven't anything been done?! - This have been going on for 5 years or more, as we know from the early scandals involving this newspaper, and thus despite public knowledge nothing has been done?
Now that's the real scandal!
"For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong." -- H.L. Mencken (1880-1956) --
Murdoch is a CUNT
Hugh Grant just called the Murdoch Empire a protection racket live on Question Time.
Strangely enough Hugh Grant, someone I previously disliked for his films has actually shown considerable stones in this whole debacle.
Andy Gray was sacked in January after being criticised for saying something in January but what he was sacked for was an incident that took place the previous December.
Beware of the UK press when they get themselves into a state of high dudgeon as Hugh Grant was pilloried in the Mirror's 3am column whose reporters have an interesting means of obtaining their stories. (But when they do it it is all right as their employees are not the employees of the News of the World.)
Apparently, once a company is shut down for liquidation, all the documents and records can be destroyed. That's the real reason for the shutdown. And as corrupt as the Cameronites are, they will allow this and probably help speed things up as they are just as guilty as News Corp.
The Sun On Sunday Limited, UK company number 07698029, was created on Fri 8 Jul 2011.
To me the obvious question is, Did any other Murdoch news outlets use this technique? Any in the United States?
Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a difficult battle. - Plato
. . .that the Beatles will need to change the lyrics to Polythene Pam?
You are not the customer.
We need more scandals.
Voicemail was only ever invented to boost call revenue, so security wasnt a major issue. You will probably walk straight into the voice box if you spoof called ID, which is easily done with your average VoIP setup..
The simplicity of this system also gets in the way of decent forensics, so the police can only prove access through call records. I suspect it's not that easy to secure a conviction.
But that's not the whole story. When this scandal broke, the then government was scared to upset the press, so they didn't press for the measures that would make such an offensive attract a jail sentence. Guess who is now making all the noise now the government has changed? Yup, the same hypocrites.
Insert
So most of the employees will move to the new company, the old shell will die, and another level of legal insulation for the parent company will be in place.
Who the fuck is Kerry Katona, anyway? According to Wiki : "TV presenter, writer, columnist and former pop singer". Third-ark for her then. Big floppy plastic tits too. Third ark, third class.
Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
Very, very likely that they did have moles in phone companies (note both plurals), but most celebrities - most people in business of any sort - have to pass their phone numbers out to quite a few people. Bog-standard journalistic techniques (e.g. plying a celebrity-hair-dresser's sweeper-upper with drink and getting an evening with the appointments book) will yield numbers, and you do this leg-work in advance. You've got hundreds of numbers in your little red book. You'll get the price of that drink back time and again.
Right answer ; inadequate reason.
For the non-celebrities ... that's more difficult. But again standard journalism techniques will yield answers, though maybe not fast enough. School girl missing? Interview the worried parents and the police Family Liaison Officer will probably stop them from giving you the number. But Uncle Bert? Or the missing girl's hairdresser's sweeper-upper (who's in the same year at school, and partial to an under-age drink too) can get the number for you. There is a fine line in journalism between reasonable investigation and unreasonable prying, and that line is often crossed in what you do with the information after you've got it. Which is why my journalist friend used to spend considerable time teaching his student journalists about the ethics of their business as well as the techniques.
But having a mole in the phone company may well be quicker than doing the legwork.
Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"