Category Archives: media

links to where my stories are published

Crosby Textor reaction: You’re just a two bit blog

Posted on by
managing director and business partner of Lynton Crosby

managing director and business partner of Lynton Crosby

Swift  and arrogant reaction to a rather critical piece today on Lynton Crosby’s  forthcoming libel action in Australia against Labor defence material minister, Mike Kelly.

A splendid exchange between Tom Watson and Mark Textor on Twitter followed publication.

  2. .@tom_watson pity about gross factual errors herein. Quoting 2 bit blogs now Tom? Poor old thing. Nite!

    3:04 PM – 21 Jul 13 ·

  3. @markatextor Oh, and if you don’t know the author of the blog, he’s @davidhencke. He’s very well known in the UK. Have a nice day now.

  4. @tom_watson @davidhencke couldn’t even get the name right. Lolz!

     3:11 PM – 21 Jul 13 ·
    Tweet text

  5. @markatextor I’ll let you get some sleep. It sounds like you need it.

Evidently Mark Textor’s sole objection to the piece was an error I made – which I am happy to apologise and have already corrected – mispelling his name –  substituting an e for an o.

The managing director modestly describes himself on the Crosby Textor website “As Australia ‘s most successful pollster and campaign strategist, Mark Textor is acknowledged as the most astute judge of public sentiment in Australia today.”

Indeed he may well be but I hope his clients who pay him millions get better advice than he gives himself. All I would say is beware of two bit blogs they sometimes can bite.

Murdoch eats humble pie over private comments at the Sun

Posted on by

Rupert Murdoch yesterday rowed back from his private comments seen and heard by Exaro News and on this site  condemning the police, the judiciary and his admission that he knew all along about payments to police and officials.

In two letters to John Whittingdale, Tory chair of the culture, media and sport committee, and Keith Vaz, Labour chair of the home affairs committee, his strident comments became strangely muted.

The full quotes are in an updated piece on the Exaro News website and Channel Four News.

No doubt the media mogul, advised by his lawyer,realised that the leaking of his comments to arrested journalists had attracted too much attention, particularly after  the Met Police Operation Elveden  asked Exaro for a tape with his views.

Now he does not doubt the police’s professionalism and says any interpretation on his words that he knew about bribing official is ” wholly false”. This is after he called the police operation totally incompetent and said the Met Police inquiry was about ” next to nothing.”

Really. He was obviously not wanting to row back too much from the words he gave to his journalists – still complaining the investigation had taken too long and was ” disproportionate ” and admitting to raw emotion at the meeting.

But will this be  enough to get him off the hook. Will people really believe him?  It was definitely a repentant Rupe, but I suspect the humbling was only skin deep and I am not sure that it will get him entirely off the hook from the Met.

More seriously how will people in the US and Australia take this explanation. I think there is more to come.

Murdoch: I am hurt and betrayed by the leak at The Sun

Posted on by
Rupert Murdoch: crying into his American beer

Rupert Murdoch: crying into his American beer

Rupert Murdoch has told  David Dinsmore the new editor of the Sun, that he has been hurt and betrayed by the leaking of his private comments to arrested journos at The Sun.

A report today on  Exaro News reveals that the man is devastated by the disclosures that he knew about the payments to officials which have now led to a string of his reporters and executives being arrested under the Met police Operation Elveden investigation.

Probably more devastating is the fact the disclosure of the audio recording has now led to the American media mogul being summoned to appear before Parliament and the police being sent the tape of his words by Exaro News. And pressure is expected in his adopted homeland the United States as the new liberated Tom Watson gets going again.

One is tempted as a fellow pensioner Rupert Murdoch to feel sympathy for the disclosure of one’s private thoughts when you reach the ripe old age of 82 and you can’t have any privacy at all.

But then one thinks of all the  distress faced by the Dowler family  after the hacking into Milly’s phone or  the feeling politicians and other celebs had when their private phones and e-mails were tapped. Perhaps the angst you are going through now might just give you a glimmer of what it is like for other people who have found themselves in this situation. There is still time to repent, Rupe!

Murdoch: The Full Monty

Posted on by
Rupert Murdoch: has he broken the law?

Rupert Murdoch: has he broken the law?

Exaro News have put up the last six minutes of the audio of Rupert Murdoch talking at the  meeting with arrested Sun journalists – bringing to 24 minutes the audio of the  private comments of  the News UK owner.

You can listen here – http://www.exaronews.com/articles/5033/audio-rupert-murdoch-fumes-rails-and-bangs-meeting-table .

It comes as officers from Operation Elveden  have requested Exaro News for the audio recording. Operation Elveden say they want the recording because ” We believe this meeting  may contain evidence of conspiring to commit misconduct in public office and we need to secure the best evidence.”

Exaro have said they are happy to supply these audio clips but they are now publicly available and the police can listen to them on Exaro’s website.

News UK the successor to News Corporation have denied these recordings reveal that Murdoch knew about the payments before the police investigation.

You can judge that for yourself.

The Murdoch Tapes: Fleet Street, Hypocrisy and the Police

Posted on by

Are the Met Police on Operation Elveden interested in Rupert Murdoch’s comments? This seems to be the point of this blog which is highlighting that the audio ( there is no actual tape) has re-opened the whole issue of payments to police officers and public officials By Fleet Street for stories. I have also put this up as a summary of all the latest development and links to blogs and articles for those keen to follow events.

INFORRM's avatarInforrm's Blog

MurdochLast month, Private Eye reported that Sun journalists had taped a meeting with Rupert Murdoch in March 2013.   The Executive Chairman of News Corporation was quoted as taking a supportive view of the position of arrested journalists.  This story was not followed up at the time.  It broke again this week when the investigative journalism website, Exaro and Channel 4 News claimed an exclusive on the story and released a transcript of the recording.

View original post 574 more words

How Rupert Murdoch’s practices bought a Sun executive to tears

Posted on by
Rupert Murdoch: Did he look that at the end of the Sun meeting

Rupert Murdoch: Did he look that at the end of the Sun meeting

Exaro have today released the final section of the 45 minute audio of Rupert Murdoch’s meeting with arrested Sun journalists. It is a very poignant moment when Deidre  Sanders, the Sun’s agony aunt, reads out a  damning letter from the wife of a senior executive.

You can hear it at http://www.exaronews.com/articles/5035/audio-dear-deidre-rupert-murdoch-betrayed-us-the-sun . The feeling among Sun journalists that they have been betrayed  by a decision of the Management and Standards Committee to hand over mountains of material  to the Met Police and face a life with criminal convictions could not be more emphasised.

The meeting closes with a former Sun executive sobbing as Rupert Murdoch promises to stuff the letter down a lawyer’s throat. It makes awful listening. A tale of betrayal for people who have been loyal to the company for years while the Murdoch employee who sanctioned the release of the information and gave evidence to Leveson has been promoted to ” some fancy job ”  in the United States.

The audio recording serves as a warning to Murdoch staffers world wide, in Australia, the United States as  well as Britain. If he allows people on his beloved Sun to be treated like this, what chance will you have if anything goes  badly wrong  on your paper, radio or TV station in your country.

The real Rupert Murdoch addresses The Sun: 13 minute recording of his words

Posted on by

Extracts from the full digital recording of Rupert Murdoch’s astonishing views on  the police investigation Operation Eleveden is now available on Exaro’s website. The link is http://www.exaronews.com/articles/5032/audio-rupert-murdoch-was-aware-of-payments-to-officials. For those who have never heard Rupert  in private you will notice the huge  difference between ” This is the humblest day of my life” approach to MPs in 2011  and his  aggressive and angry response to the ” total incompetence” of the police this year. There is also a contrast between this and his appearance before Lord Leveson.

Exclusive: Gotcha! Shocker Sun Tape Reveals the Real Rupe

Posted on by
rupert murdoch picture courtesy of The Guardian

rupert murdoch picture courtesy of The Guardian

Today  I have  read a transcript and heard a rather sensational tape of Rupert Murdoch facing the music  for 45 minutes from his embattled Sun staffers and executives as his organisation hands over loads of information to the Met Police in the current hacking and bribery investigations.

Full amazing story is on Exaro at: http://www.exaronews.com/articles/5025/rupert-murdoch-secretly-admits-i-knew-about-bribing-officials

Exaro provided extracts of the audio to Channel Four News for a special report tonight and a  full transcript – suitably redacted to protect people for legal reasons – is on the Exaro website: http://www.exaronews.com/articles/5026/transcript-rupert-murdoch-recorded-at-meeting-with-sun-staff. Tomorrow you can hear 13 minutes of  the great man, sometimes angry, sometimes put out as a grown man sob about his plight at a private meeting inside  the mighty News International (now News UK) London  HQ. All will be revealed on the Exaro website.

In a series of extraordinary revelations the media mogul reveals:

He knew the practice of paying public officials had been going on for years at The Sun and the News of the World

He attacks Britain ‘s judges ( Lord Leveson watch out)  for being biased against News International and put his faith in juries to acquit them all.

He describes the Met Police and other police forces as ” totally incompetent ” in their investigations into News International. He cites the way police turned up to arrest Rebekah Brooks as a particularly crass example. Another staffer reveals the police pulled up his floorboards in searching his home.

He says the police inquiry into the Sun is about “next to nothing.” This contradicts what he said to Parliament.

Hints that he may give the arrested journos their jobs back – ” even though I am not supposed to say this.”

Names checks Lord Puttnam and people close to Gordon Brown ( Tom Watson Mp?) for wanting to get at the Sun for years.

Claims the Management Standards Committee set up by Murdoch is refusing to hand over stuff now to the police after journos complain about a decade of expenses and authorised payments being turned over to the Met.

Also  the recording reveals that the Sun’s  agony aunt,Deidre Sanders, read out a letter to Murdoch from one of the wives of the newspaper’s executives. The letter is so poignant that the executive bursts into tears , interrupting Murdoch’s  angry reaction.

News UK in a statement to Exaro deny some of this. “The Sun has been and continues to be supportive of its employees. Mr. Murdoch has great empathy for those whose lives have been overturned and continues to believe everyone charged deserves the right to be presumed innocent unless proven otherwise.  It is simply false that Mr. Murdoch knew payments were made to police before News Corporation disclosed that to UK Authorities. The MSC continues to cooperate with those authorities, under the supervision of the court.”

However what is really revealing is how different Murdoch  is at this meeting in comparison with his appearance before the Commons Culture,.Media and Sport. The bumbling elderly media boss who had never heard of Neville Thurbeck and never knew anything because it was only one per cent of his Empire is transformed into a man who says spends an hour every day worrying about his staff and has a great grasp of detail about people who have been hacked.

Perhaps the super rich have a secret stash of regenerative pills- not available on the NHS – so they improve with age. Or perhaps it is all the adrenalin flowing in front of his staff.

Altogether this is an amazing revelation of what the real Rupe is like in private. Just for the record, Rupe,to obtain this story no phone or computer hacking was used and no payments were made by me.  But I must congratulate you  for the way you have trained your staff and executives to make covert recordings. It does you credit when it is in public interest.

No animals or children were hurt in this investigation.Only the rich and powerful.

Libel lawyers plan new way to silence the internet trolls

Posted on by

Britain’s libel lawyer community are extremely excited about a radical judgement by a New Zealand judge which effectively has banned  a troublesome troll for mentioning again the name of the person she attacked on the internet for the rest of her life.

The decision has been highlighted on the Inforrm blog  (see http://inforrm.wordpress.com/2013/06/21/new-zealand-has-the-harassment-act-just-swallowed-the-law-of-defamation-steven-price ) as a radical, cheap way of  avoiding expensive libel actions.

As the Wellington barrister Steven Price puts it: “Why sue for defamation when you can get an injunction by showing that a publisher has harassed and distressed you instead? For one thing, you don’t need to worry about all those pesky defences such as truth and honest opinion.”

As the Inforrm blog says: “The case was brought by lawyer Madeleine Flannagan )who was repeatedly savaged online by Jacqui Sperling, a friend she fell out with. Sperling called her a liar, a perjurer, a prescription drug addict, a vexatious litigant, and a fraudster, and labelled her incompetent, abusive and “bonkers”. She also published private financial and medical details about Flannagan.”

image

Jacqui Sperling

The case was undefended but the judge cited the New Zealand Harassment Act and ordered her to take down over 100 posts to be taken dow “unless and until the court permits reinstatement,”

image

madeline flannagan

It also forbids her from directly or indirectly mentioning Flannagan or her family online for the rest of her life.

These rather drastic measures do effectively curb her  free speech – though they don’t apply to the printed word – she could still distribute leaflets across NZ attacking Ms Flannagan.

British interest is evidently combined by moves recommended by the Law Commission which want new take down orders to be enforced by judges  where false allegations cause considerable harm to an individual.

I must say Ms Sperling’s attacks do sound particularly  nasty. But one has to ask whether such a  harassment ruling could be used say by politicians or people under sustained  investigation for more legitimate reasons to get blogs taken down they don’t like. Or will it bring legal harassment tourism to New Zealand – if the blog happens to be read by people in Auckland or Wellington.

And will  it be effective? It is almost impossible to remove any copy made of a blog by someone else – so some of the damning blogs may still be there despite Judge David Harvey’s ruling. On the other hand it does serve as a warning to some nasty vicious trolls that they can be stopped without going to the libel courts.

Work Programme providers’ plea is an insult to everyone they have mishandled

Posted on by

This is not good news for the BBC, the work programme or the government. If you take in context the scandal involving A4e which provided placements under first programme I did an extra investigation on top of the work done by the Public Accounts Committee exposing failings in A4e internal audit. My investigation revealed in one small town Bridlington A4 e had placed people with as firm going into liquidation, one run by people from a a house in Rotherham that never filed accounts, another with a company not registered at Companies House, and two with a cafe and taxi firm that subsequently went bust. In other places it turned out they had sent one person to a lap dancing club in Liverpool and a person with a criminal record to a firm which didn’t want to employ people with criminal records. See my own blog https://davidhencke.wordpress.com/2012/05/22/exclusive-how-you-got-state-funded-work-experience-in-a-strip-club-with-a4e/

Mike Sivier's avatarMike Sivier's blog

It isn’t very often one can say a news report was shocking – not because of the subject matter, but because of the way it was reported.

That was the situation tonight with the BBC’s item in which Work Programme providers complained that they need more money to “help” the most challenging jobseekers into work.

This group, of course, being benefit claimants in the work-related activity group of Employment and Support Allowance.

This group being the most consistently abused and neglected element of the new underclass created by the Conservative-led Coalition government, demonised and hated by the right-wing press, often attacked in the street (to judge from first-hand accounts), many of whom have been driven to suicide or death caused by their conditions, which have been worsened by the unacceptable (and to most people reading this, inconceivable) amount of stress the DWP, Atos (the private company assessing their fitness…

View original post 938 more words