Andy Coulson - Cameron's Alastair Campbell?

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stockhausen said:
As to Andy Colon's reluctance to visit Sue, Grabbit & Run, I agree with your and RDM's analysis that it might well all go horribly wrong for him and he, Cameron, Murdoch (Cameron's boss) and the News of the Screws are hoping that media self-preservation will allow all these most unfortunate claims to be swept quietly back under the carpet ;)
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I do sometimes wonder why you hold the News of the World and the like in such contempt when you are pretty much a candidate for their reporting team judging by your posts. Is it because they get paid for spreading rumour and innuendo while you have to do it for nothing?

If he is guilty, he has nothing to gain from taking them to court and lots to lose. If he is innocent he has little to gain from taking them to court and lots to lose. The sensible thing would be to not take them to court. Seems like common sense but maybe it just isn't that common...
 
More than a dozen reporters and editors formerly with The News of the World, interviewed for The [New York] Times article said their employer had fostered a culture of recklessness in which reporters were encouraged to use any means to get exclusive stories.

The article also quoted senior Metropolitan Police officials saying that the police had failed to fully investigate The News of the World’s phone hacking in part because of Scotland Yard’s close ties to editors at the paper and executives at its parent company, News International.
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Bill Keller, the executive editor of The [New York] Times, said, “Scotland Yard has declined our repeated requests for interviews and refused to release information we requested months ago under the British freedom of information law. After our story was published, Scotland Yard expressed renewed interest in the case and asked us to provide interview materials and notes; we declined, as we would with any such request from police. Our story speaks for itself and makes clear that the police already have evidence that they have chosen not to pursue.” (New York Times on-line)
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Surely the Met wouldn't be avoiding a potentially embarrassing investigation . . . just because of fear of Murdoch & Co.?

It is almost as if the News of the Screws have some sort of a hold over senior police officers :eek:


@ RDM - sorry, I can't share your unquestioning admiration for the News of the Screws or any of Murdoch's pervasive media empire :(
 
stockhausen said:
Surely the Met wouldn't be avoiding a potentially embarrassing investigation . . . just because of fear of Murdoch & Co.?

It is almost as if the News of the Screws have some sort of a hold over senior police officers :eek:
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You genuinely believe that Murdoch and Co have managed to make the policy, CPS, Judiciary and Commons' MPs turn a blind eye to this?
 
Hatter The Mad said:
You genuinely believe that Murdoch and Co have managed to make the policy (sic), CPS, Judiciary and Commons' MPs turn a blind eye to this?
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The New York Times and others - including some MPs - certainly seem to feel that it might be the case that the police have not pursued this enquiry as vigorously as they might. I believe that it is alleged that the News of the Screws may have accessed the voice-mail of some senior police officers, including Brian Paddick, Sir Ian Blair & Michael Fuller (the first black Chief Constable in the UK).

I'm not sure that the CPS can act on information mislaid by or held by the police but not presented and I certainly can't see how the judiciary would be involved as yet.
 
I have just heard Andy Hayman (Former Assistant Commissioner of the Met) on the BBC R4 PM programme - he seemed to have remarkably little recollection of the events surrounding the investigation into bugging by the News of the Screws and claimed not really to have been much involved at the time despite allegedly heading up Specialist Operations, the part of the Yard that investigated the nine-month inquiry.

Mr Hayman did manage to recall enough in July last year to write an exculpatory article for the News of the Screws.

According to the Guardian:
Some police sources admit privately that they failed to fully investigate the case, that decisions may have been distorted by a fear of upsetting Rupert Murdoch's newspapers, and that it was "unfortunate" that the officer in charge of the inquiry, assistant commissioner Andy Hayman, subsequently left the police to work for News International as a columnist.
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Cameron's propaganda chief Andy Colon is a long-term ex-employee of News International (proprietor Rupert Murdoch) ;)
 
There is no use posting anecdotes and speculating, stockhausen - you're on no better level than the deskchair 9/11 investigators we have here.

When there is evidence and it gets investigated by the police and considered by the CPS, I'll change my tune. Until then, please, no kids' stories.
 
What I find amusing is when he uses the Guardian to support his case he doesn't change their name to an insult.

What an odd coincidence. :rolleyes:
 
stockhausen said:
@ RDM - sorry, I can't share your unquestioning admiration for the News of the Screws or any of Murdoch's pervasive media empire :(
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It seems that despite your sometimes pedantic attitude to spelling you don't seem to be able to understand English as nowhere have I ever shown any admiration for Murdoch's media empire.
 
Senior Tories start to voice doubts over Andy Colon's future

Crystlemage said:
i didnt understand a word of what all yuo said, can anyone fill me in :)
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To be brutally honest, if you have read all my posts in this thread and followed and read the links, I very much doubt that anyone will be able to help you out :(


. . . meanwhile, from the Grauniad . . .
The Home Office abandoned plans to establish an independent inquiry into the News of the World phone-hacking scandal last year after a senior official warned that the Metropolitan police would "deeply resent" any interference in their investigation, according to a leaked government document.
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  • John Yates, the senior Met officer in charge of investigating the scandal, said he was prepared to interview Sean Hoare, a former News of the World journalist who told the New York Times that Coulson knew about the hacking. Coulson, who denies the allegation, said he would be happy to talk to the police.
  • Alan Johnson questioned the conduct of Scotland Yard after senior officers told him last year that every individual whose phone may have been hacked into would be informed. The former home secretary spoke out after his former government colleague, Chris Bryant, said that police took no action when it became apparent his phone might have been targeted.
  • Bob Quick, a former head of specialist operations, expressed concerns about allegations in the New York Times that the Met might have been reluctant to investigate the claims because of its close relationship with News International. "If officers felt the investigation was being inhibited or suppressed, that must be a source of concern," Quick said.
  • Senior Tories started to voice doubts about whether Coulson will be able to withstand intense media pressure. "This is like a long gunpowder fuse," one said.
(the Grauniad)
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Incidentally, the linked Grauniad article includes a quite delightful photo of Murdoch surrounded by his acolytes and apparently just about to throw up in church
 
It seems that a new witness, Ross Hall, a former employee of the News of the Screws has come forward, allegedly implicating Neville Thurlbeck a "Chief Reptile" at the News of the Screws (Grauniad on-line).

Meanwhile, the Home affairs select committee are to hold to hold a fresh inquiry (Grauniad on-line).


Perhaps this renewed investigation will be a wee bit more rigorous than the last one and people will be more concerned with protecting themselves that Murdoch & Colon :confused:


ps - I don't see much mention of this elsewhere in the papers, what can they have to hide? :eek:

pps - Of course, it is blindingly obvious why the Sun and the Times would steer clear of this story, but why aren't the Torygraph and the Daily Wail jumping up & down in outrage?
 
A senior former News of the World journalist goes public to corroborate claims that phone hacking and other illegal reporting techniques were rife at the tabloid while the prime minister's media adviser, Andy Coulson, was deputy editor and then editor of the paper.

Paul McMullan, a former features executive and then member of the newspaper's investigations team, says that he personally commissioned private investigators to commit several hundred acts which could be regarded as unlawful, that the use of illegal techniques was no secret at the paper and that senior editors, including Coulson, were aware that this was going on.

"How can Coulson possibly say he didn't know what was going on with the private investigators?" he said. (the Grauniad on-line)
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You see that light Andy?

That aint the end of the tunnel buddy, that's a train a commin' :D
 
A YouGov poll found that 52% of those questioned believe Coulson should lose his job. Just 24% believe he should keep it. The poll also showed there is little support for the main News International and Coulson defence: that the NoW's former royal editor, Clive Goodman, was a rogue reporter. Just 6% of those polled believe the Goodman case was an isolated incident. An overwhelming number (80%) believe that other newspapers do the same thing.

The Metropolitan police enjoys little support. Nearly half (47%) believe the police have not fully investigated the allegations; just 14% believe they did. There is strong support (54%) for the police to reopen their investigation. YouGov interviewed 2,089 adults between 6-7 September. (Grauniad on-line])
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The net was tightening round News International last night after the Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, paved the way for parliament's most powerful cross-party committee to investigate the phone-hacking scandal.
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The commons standards and privileges committee, which will decide the terms of its inquiry after a short parliamentary debate today, can impose a range of punishments on anyone who refuses to appear. These include being summoned to appear before all MPs at the bar of the Commons chamber.

Rebekah Brooks, the News International chief executive, last year refused three invitations to give evidence from the less powerful commons culture committee. Les Hinton, the former executive chairman who is now chief executive of Dow Jones and Company, agreed to give evidence by video from New York only after being invited for the second time.
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Let's see how keen MPs are actually to take on Murdoch?

Perhaps they will want to draw other newspapers into this inquiry into illegal practices - e.g. the Daily Torygraph and the Daily Wail :D
 
Labour MP Chris Bryant accuses Sky's Kay Burley of being 'a bit dim'

The Labour MP Chris Bryant accuses Sky's Kay Burley of being 'a bit dim' (LINK)

Chris Bryant was being too kind.

Quite coincidentally, Sky is part of Murdoch's media empire, as of course is the News of the Screws :eek:
 
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