The Murdoch Sun is in post-Christmas panic mode today, bringing forth an extra editorial telling readers “FIGHT FOR OUR FREE PRESS Help fight new law that would silence investigative journalism and stop you reading vital stories like these … MPs’ expenses scandal, naming the killers of teenager Stephen Lawrence, and Fifa corruption could all have been scuppered by Section 40”. Note use of the word “could”.
Because this is all victimhood playing, another attempt to see off not only Section 40 of the Crime And Courts Act - which would not trouble the press if they joined a truly independent press regulator, rather than the sham that is IPSO - but also Part 2 of the Leveson Inquiry, which for the Murdoch goons may be the most worrying. The late George Michael left us rather a lot of clues as to why that might be the case.
Leveson 2 would examine the relationship between the Murdoch press and the Police: it would look at the murder of private detective Daniel Morgan, and the interference of the now-defunct Screws in at least one investigation into the killing. It would also look at the way in which bent journalist Mazher Mahmood co-opted the Police into many of his sting operations. And it would look at some of Michael’s experiences.
Those did not extend just to the homophobic campaign waged by the Sun and Screws against the singer: as he related on Twitter back in 2011, “Rebekah Brooks sat two feet from me in my own home and told me that it was never the public that came to them with information … on celebrities, and that the Police always got there first”. Note the way he worded that “came to them … the Police always got there first”.
One example of this was the case of Amanda Watts, a former officer at a Category C prison where Michael served part of a sentence. She passed information to the Sun, was paid £2,100 for her trouble, and would have thought no more about it until the paper’s management shopped her to the cops. She was jailed for 12 months last December.
Daniel Morgan
And there is potentially a lot worse for the Murdoch goons in George Michael’s Twitter back catalogue: Liberal Conspiracy put together a Storify featuring several of these, in which he reprises the assertions about Police running to the press, and also names one Jonathan Rees, who was Daniel Morgan’s business partner at Southern Investigations. Michael claims Rees benefited to the tune of hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Jonathan Rees
Not only does Rees stand accused of receiving a six-figure sum from the Murdoch empire, he is also named as a computer hacker. Michael reminded his followers that Rees had done a stretch in prison before Andy Coulson re-hired him to work for the Screws. Rees was one of two men arrested in 2012 under Operation Kalmyk, which was an investigation into journalism related computer hacking. The year after Michael made his claims.
And that, folks, explains why the Sun is churning out more panicked editorials. The Murdoch mafiosi do not want Leveson 2 to happen, not because of what it might cost the taxpayer, but because of what it might cost them. And their bosses.
Ignore the Sun’s pleading - respond to the Government’s consultation by following the guidance from campaigning group Hacked Off. And let your MP know that Leveson 2 must go ahead. George Michael was right. The Murdoch press must now be held to account.
It's safe to say Murdoch and his neoNazi employees are shitting themselves that Leveson2 could dig up even more dirt......After all, it wouldn't be hard.
ReplyDeleteThing is, though, how hard will it dig? And would there be any follow-up worth the term?
Leveson1 (might have) got a few patsies jailed while the main corrupters got clear away and are still peddling their lies and far right propaganda.
The truth is, given even the "minor" evidence thus far, the overall establishment response has been minimal. There's no reason whatever to think that's going to change - You need see only the tory refusal to instigate an official inquiry into police corruption and politicising of the Orgreave horror. This despite clear evidence of police actions exactly parallel to their criminality during the Hillsborough cover-up. And to that you can add the ongoing erosion of the child-abuse inquiry.
Parliament and its corrupt MPs are especially guilty of deserting their public duty in this. There has never been a more craven gang of cowards and mountebanks than even that corrupt, falling-down, decrepit assembly has birthed.
It's likely Leveson1 merely lifted a small corner of the curtain which conceals establishment evil. Hillsborough, for instance, has never gone much beyond the hapless Duckinfield and Bettison - though that might, just might, change if the criminal investigation turns out to be free of corruption - when it is perfectly obvious the evidence of cover up leads all the way to Ingham, Thatcher and the rest of the motley crew. The same applies to Orgreave and Kincora.
The question then becomes what kind of organisation is there behind it all? Which individuals and groups could manage and direct this disgusting poisoning of society? How else could it be so deeply rooted and resistant if it wasn't controlled by powerful self interests?
Which is why, when Murdoch and his goons talk of a "free press," they mean exactly the kind of "freedom" sought by slave owners during the American Civil War. The "freedom" to superimpose control and direction of others.
Murdoch, Rothermere, their jobsworths, and their equivalents elsewhere in the West, wouldn't know genuine investigative journalism if they tripped over it while they came out of the nearest wine bar.
Leveson2?......Don't hold your breath before, during or after. It'll be the usual whitewash.