Rupe Pays Out Millions AGAIN

Once again, a major news story - as in actual news, not recycled Government press releases, Royal family cheerleading, covering yet more Tory arses, kicking migrants or otherwise demonising hate figures - has not made it to today’s front pages, demonstrating once again that the power of the press is not just in what it chooses to print, but what it chooses not to print.

Chris Huhne - hacked ...

That story concerns the Murdoch mafiosi, and so the rest of those who scrabble around the dunghill that is Grubstreet instinctively know to fall in line: if it affects the Murdoch press, and the Murdoch press says nothing, then the rest must also say nothing. Creepy Uncle Rupe may be 92, but no-one doubts that he and his family are still strong. Best follow the herd.

What our free and fearless press is not telling you is that, as Press Gazette has reported, “A group of celebrities have received ‘substantial damages’ and public apologies from News Group Newspapers (NGN), publisher of The Sun and previously News of the World, over unlawful information-gathering practices. Among the claimants are Spice Girl Melanie C, comedians Catherine Tate and Keith Allen and radio presenter Chris Moyles”.

There was more. “The publisher also paid damages to a victim of the London terror attacks on 7 July 2005, Davinia Douglass. She claimed that the publisher gathered information about her by deception, blagging and voicemail interception”. That last is most interesting - here’s why.

Ms Douglass was “The woman in the gauze mask”; she suffered burns in one of the July 7th 2005 London attacks. One of those helping her, first responder Paul Dadge, gave the press his mobile number, but instead of calling him to clarify the story, some hacks, or someone on their behalf, hacked it instead. Dadge, as campaigning group Hacked Off reported, “received undisclosed damages from News Group Newspapers … [in 2011]”.

Moreover, there was one more payout yesterday: “Former Lib Dem cabinet minister Chris Huhne was also reported to have received a substantial six-figure sum for damages and legal costs. Huhne was jailed in 2013 after swapping speeding points with his wife and lying about it”.

... but not by the Sun, honest

Hacked Off are on the case here, too: “He accused the publisher of unlawfully targeting him in a bid to intimidate him into silence over his calls for the publisher to be investigated over the hacking scandal”. You can read Chris Huhne’s statement HERE. If they all got six-figure payouts, those, together with the legal fees, will have been well into the millions of pounds.

As Huhne put it, “Searching for political kompromat, spying on government ministers for commercial gain, and knowingly telling repeated lies to maintain sales and ratings should all be utterly unacceptable in any responsible media organisation, yet are the stock in trade of the two Murdoch media companies”.

Also, as Professor Brian Cathcart has told in an article for Byline Times, “[Huhne’s] case is significant in several respects besides the questions it raises about the role of managers. It is the first of three brought by senior Lib Dem politicians (Sir Vince Cable and Sir Norman Lamb will follow) alleging hacking and other illegal information gathering that was driven by political rather than journalistic motives”. Two more big payouts on the way, then.

“Huhne presented evidence … of an intensive campaign against him that continued when he was a Cabinet minister in the Cameron Coalition Government, and sitting on ministerial committees such as the National Security Committee. He presented evidence that these activities continued at least until 2011 - five years after the company … claimed it had been halted”.

His claim alleged illegal information gathering on behalf of the Sun. The Murdoch mafiosi denies that paper indulged in such practices, but has paid out one heck of a lot of money to prevent cases coming to court. As former Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger put it, “Yet another insight into the media empire Rupert Murdoch presided over. Criminal behaviour, intrusion, lies and intimidation were part of the operating system”. Management by fear.

Enough for the rest of the press to leave well alone. Real Mafia behaviour.

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