Martin Bashir on NBC’s ‘Today’: Rupert Murdoch ‘A Combination of Jack Abramoff and James ‘Whitey’ Bulger’
July 14, 2011 No Comment
Appearing on Thursday's NBC Today, MSNBC host Martin Bashir shared his thoughts on the tabloid phone hacking scandal in Britain and proclaimed that News Corporation owner Rupert Murdoch was “…a combination of Jack Abramoff, the lobbyist, and someone like James 'Whitey' Bulger, the mobster.” [ Audio available here ] Despite Bashir's outrageous comparison – Abramoff was convicted on corruption charges and Bulger is accused of 19 murders during his time as the head of the Irish mob in Boston – co-host Matt Lauer offered no objection to the claim. View video after the jump In fact, Lauer began the discussion by praising Bashir's insight into news stories: “Sometimes when I have you, I like to just ask the simplest question first because I like your take.” Lauer then asked: “So as you've watched this story unfold over the last month or so, what jumps out at you?” In addition to describing Murdoch as a crime boss, Bashir declared: “It's the power of Rupert Murdoch. It's hard to imagine the power that he exerted on politicians….And what he had was the power to reward and to punish….Coercion by humiliation.” Lauer followed up by attacking the close relationship between many British politicians and Murdoch: “Look at what's happened over the last week or so. These politicians who used to have a very close, some would say incestuous relationship with Murdoch are now running from him as fast as they can run from him. Which, by the way, is typical of politics, but how much of a problem is it for Rupert Murdoch?” Bashir replied: “It's a massive problem.” Here is a full transcript of the July 14 discussion: 7:13AM ET MATT LAUER: Martin Bashir is the host of the Martin Bashir Show on MSNBC. Martin, it's good to have you here. BASHIR: Thank you, Matt. LAUER: Sometimes when I have you, I like to just ask the simplest question first because I like your take, you spent a lot of time as a journalist in the UK and here in the United States. MARTIN BASHIR: I worked for the Sunday Times between 1984 and 1985. [ON-SCREEN HEADLINE: Murdoch Under Fire; How Will Phone Hacking Scandal Impact Media Empire?] LAUER: Exactly. So as you've watched this story unfold over the last month or so, what jumps out at you? BASHIR: It's the power of Rupert Murdoch. It's hard to imagine the power that he exerted on politicians. Imagine a combination of Jack Abramoff, the lobbyist, and someone like James 'Whitey' Bulger, the mobster. And what he had was the power to reward and to punish. So for example, in 2004, when an MP stood up and said she thought having semi-naked women on page three of The Sun newspaper was now something we shouldn't do anymore, they sent 20 semi-naked people to her constituency office and called her 'fat, frumpy and dumpy.' Coercion by humiliation. LAUER: So – but look at what's happened over the last week or so. These politicians who used to have a very close, some would say incestuous relationship with Murdoch… BASHIR: Absolutely. Indeed. LAUER: …are now running from him as fast as they can run from him. Which, by the way, is typical of politics, but how much of a problem is it for Rupert Murdoch? BASHIR: It's a massive problem. Remember, The Sun and the News of the World were the only two newspapers that made him any money. The Times loses money in London. But the thing he desperately wanted BSkyB Broadcasting, because it's the television arm that makes the billions of pounds and now he's had to withdraw because he knows the politicians were not going to support that. LAUER: Well, but also, not only the politicians wouldn't support it, but does he also – do you think that deal is now dead because the people in Murdoch's organization understand that there is probably more damaging evidence about to come out? BASHIR: When they did the inquiry in 2007, they said there was one rogue reporter and about eight people had been hacked. Yesterday I spoke to a senior officer at the Metropolitan Police who said 4,800 people's phones had been hacked and they haven't even started to get to the bottom of the things that have been done. LAUER: This has pulled back a curtain, if you will, and exposed a very dark side of tabloid journalism. I guess the question a lot of people here in the States want to know, and let's face it, you could almost hear this story being pulled across the Atlantic… BASHIR: No doubt. LAUER: …yesterday, with these Senators writing letters to Eric Holder and a congressman writing to Mr. Mueller at the FBI. How much further does this go? Do you think this is a standard practice for tabloid newspaper and scandal magazines here in the U.S.? BASHIR: It's hard to know, but imagine, they said one reporter, but now it was clearly widespread in the News of the World news room. Are you telling me that people who work in that organization in this country have never ever used the same tactics? They may not have, but at the end of the day, the pressure to deliver the kind of stories, the kind of access – remember, we're talk about the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom's disabled son's medical records. He stands up in the House of Commons yesterday and he says the Sunday Times newspaper paid a criminal to procure those records. Now, we can't confirm whether that's true. But that's the level of interest that people had. And when stories kept appearing in tabloid papers, you had to ask yourself, 'How did they get that story?' After I interviewed Princess Diana in 1995, we had our third child in '96, Eliza, and she was incubated after birth because she was – she had problems with her lungs. Within two day, two journalists attempted to get into the ward, both of them working for The Sun newspaper. How did they know, when nobody else knew, that our daughter, who was just two days old, was unwell? LAUER: Clearly someone had access they shouldn't have had. BASHIR: Somebody had access. LAUER: Martin Bashir. Martin, always good to have you here. BASHIR: Great to be here. LAUER: Thanks very much. 17 after the hour. You can catch Martin's show weekdays at 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time on MSNBC.
Continue reading …Arts and Cultural Organizations Trending Toward Using Online Marketing to Fill Empty Seats, New Online Marketing …
July 14, 2011 No CommentTV commercials and radio ad buys used to be strong ways for symphonies, ballets, and theatres to get the word out, but now many groups are struggling to learn to market themselves online. “Social Media Audit,” a new online diagnostic tool, aims to help them bridge the gap.Sunnyvale, CA (PRWEB) July 14, 2011 Many local community theatre actors are peeking out of the corner of their eye and seeing …
Continue reading …Dick Morris: Bachmann and Palin are an Existential Threat to the Democratic Party
July 14, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media I don’t know what Dick Morris was smoking before he came on Bill O’Reilly’s show this Wednesday, but maybe he should be sharing it. After being asked about some poll numbers for the GOP primary race and Bill-O asking him to conduct one next week where he asks who’s responsible for “the giant debt America has”, as though O’Reilly doens’t already know if was George W. Bush and Republicans that busted our budget after Bill Clinton left surpluses, Morris decides to chime in with some of his infinite wisdom on Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin. MORRIS: They are an existential threat to the Democratic Party, because the Democratic Party is essentially based on women; women and minorities. And therefore when they meet a conservative Republican woman, that threatens them in a way that a man never can. And that’s why they are so vitriolic against both of them. O’REILLY: Yeah, you’ve got the gender politics going on in there. Yeah, that’s the ticket Dick. Palin and Bachmann are about as much of “an existential threat to the Democratic Party” because they are women as Herman Cain is because he’s black. Dick Morris apparently thinks that Democratic female voters have brains the size of peas if they’d vote for either of those know-nothings just because they’re women. Granted you may always get a few outliers out there that would vote for them because they’re women, but if he thinks it would be some kind of serious threat that Democratic women would leave in vast numbers because a couple of women, one of whom is not even a nominee yet, are running (or maybe not) for president, he’s deluding himself, or more likely, just trying to delude the people who watch O’Reilly’s show and take it seriously. And they’re not being treated in a “vitriolic” manner because they’re women. They’re being treated in a “vitriolic” manner because they’re both unqualified to be president. But that won’t stop Dick Morris from playing the victim card for both of them.
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Killing of eight-year-old Leiby Kletzky has shocked Orthodox Jewish community in New York An eight-year-old boy who got lost while walking home alone was killed and dismembered by a stranger he had asked for directions. His remains were found stuffed in a rubbish bin and the man’s refrigerator, police said on Wednesday. The gruesome killing of Leiby Kletzky has shocked the Jewish community in Borough Park, Brooklyn, in part because it is one of the safest sections of New York and because the man under arrest is an Orthodox Jew. A day-and-a-half search for the boy ended with the discovery of his severed feet inside a freezer at the home of a man who had been spotted with the child on a surveillance video, police said. The rest of the remains were in bins in another neighbourhood. “It is every parent’s worst nightmare,” said police commissioner Raymond Kelly. The 35-year-old suspect, Levi Aron, had implicated himself in the killing, he said. Police said there was no evidence the boy was sexually assaulted, but they would not otherwise shed any light on a motive except to say Aron told them he “panicked” when he saw photos of the missing boy on fliers distributed in the neighbourhood. Police are looking into whether Aron has a history of mental illness. Aron was arrested on a charge of second-degree murder. The medical examiner’s office said it was still investigating how the boy was killed. Meanwhile, thousands gathered around a Borough synagogue for the boy’s funeral service, with speakers broadcasting over a loudspeaker. They spoke and chanted in Yiddish and Hebrew, stressing the community’s resilience and unity after what one called an unnatural death. Many of the mothers who gathered outside the Kletzky family home on Wednesday said the streets were normally safe enough for a child to walk home alone. Adel Erps, like other neighbours, expressed shock the suspect was Jewish. “It hurts so much more,” she said. Aron’s family was Orthodox but not Hasidic. When detectives arrived at his apartment at about 2.40am local time, they asked him where the boy was, and he nodded toward the kitchen, Kelly said. Detectives saw blood on the freezer door and opened it to discover the feet inside, wrapped in plastic bags. A cutting board and three bloody carving knives were in the refrigerator and a plastic rubbish sack with bloody towels was found nearby. Aron told police where to find the rest of the body. It was in pieces, wrapped in plastic bags, inside a red suitcase that had been placed into a rubbish bin in another part of Brooklyn, Kelly said. Police and volunteers had been looking since late Monday afternoon for Leiby, who disappeared while on his way to meet his mother on a street corner seven blocks from his day camp. It was the first time he was allowed to walk the route alone. His parents had taken him on a practice run on Friday. The break in the case came when investigators watched a grainy video that showed the boy, wearing his backpack, getting into a car with a man outside a dentist’s office. Leiby was last seen wearing dark pants and a short-sleeved shirt and yarmulke. Police said the boy had evidently missed a turn and got lost. Detectives tracked the dentist down to his home in New Jersey, and he remembered someone coming to pay a bill. Police identified Aron using records from the office, and 40 minutes later he was arrested. Kelly said it was “totally random” that Aron grabbed the boy and, aside from a summons for urinating in public, he had no criminal record. He had lived in New York most of his life and worked as a clerk at a hardware supply store around the corner from his home, authorities said. New York United States guardian.co.uk
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Police investigate reports of illegal vodka distilling after Lincolnshire blast kills five men Police are investigating whether an industrial unit where five men were killed in an explosion in Lincolnshire was being used to brew illegal alcohol. Firefighters found five men at the property after an explosion shortly before 7.30pm on Wednesday in the Broadfield Lane estate in Boston, a sixth man was taken to hospital suffering from severe burns. Local reports suggested the industrial unit was being made to produce alcohol, but police said was only one line of inquiry. Investigators were keeping an “open mind and following up all relevant lines of inquiry”, said a police spokeswoman. “There has been all sorts of rumours along those lines,” she said. “It is far too early for us to speculate.” Inquiries were ongoing and would involved a “full forensic examination of the unit” and finger-tip searches of the cordoned-off unit to establish what was inside, she added. Following the explosion on the industrial estate, including a collection of light industrial outlets including a mechanic’s workshop and a vehicle wrecking yard, firefighters had to cut their way into the small unit after intense heat from the explosion had melted the doors. A car outside the unit was also incinerated. The bodies of the five dead men were discovered inside the industrial unit. The sixth man was taken to Boston Pilgrim hospital with serious injuries, before being transferred to the Queen’s medical centre in Nottingham. Steve Moore, area manager from Lincolnshire fire and rescue service, described the incident as one of the worst he had seen in his 28-year career. “When the first crews attended they were faced with a really serious fire and a casualty who was outside the building suffering from burns,” he said. “Their initial reaction was to treat the casualty. The incoming crew then started to fight the fire.” He added: “It was a really hot, intense fire. As far as the crews I have spoken to, its the single greatest loss of life in fire in their experience.” Ian Nuttall, 42, who lives 200 yards from the scene, said he noticed a commotion and smoke coming from the “lock-up” at about 7.30pm. “There was a rumour going round that it was some Polish nationals who have been brewing their own vodka which is a bit of a problem around here at the moment,” he said. Earlier this year, raids by HM Revenue and Customs, police and Lincolnshire trading standards seized goods including fake vodka from six international stores in the town. HMRC said forensic testing of the counterfeit alcohol, seized in March, showed it contained chemicals unsafe for public consumption. At least one store has lost its alcohol licence, while another has been suspended from selling alcohol. Boston East councillor Mike Gilbert said: “I’m very anxious to find out exactly what’s happened. It’s a lot of people dead and a great tragedy.” Alexandra Topping guardian.co.uk
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British Crime Survey reports increase in domestic burglaries in England and Wales There has been a 14% rise in domestic burglaries and a 6% rise in violent crime in the past year, according to the annual crime figures for 2010/11 . However, overall crime levels have remained flat or continued on a downward trend, with police crime figures showing a 4% fall and the more authoritative British Crime Survey indicating a 1% rise in overall crime levels. The Home Office said they indicate the remarkable reduction in the crime rate in England and Wales recorded in recent years is slowing down. But Home Office statisticians said that despite predictions of crime rises linked to the recession and rising unemployment, there was no consistent evidence of “upward pressure” on crimes involving property as a result of the difficult economic conditions. They said, however, that a 4% rise in the theft of unattended mobile phones and purses in the “other theft” category could be an early sign that larger increases were on the way. The official statisticians also said the 14% rise in domestic burglaries reported by the British Crime Survey over 2010/11 was out of line with the trend for the past five years. They said it should be seen in the context of the burglary rate for the previous year, 2009/10, being the lowest for nearly 30 years. Police crime figures reported a 3% fall in burglaries across England and Wales. The rest of the crime figures, published on Thursday, show continuing falls across other crime categories, including a remarkable 9% fall in vandalism as measured by the BCS and a 13% fall in criminal damage and 9% drop in car crime on the police figures. The murder rate in England and Wales rose from 618 to 642 homicides in 2010/11, which included the 12 victims of the Cumbria shootings in June 2010. Sexual offences as recorded by the police rose by 1%. Overall, the BCS estimated there were 9.6m crimes in 2010/11 compared with 9.5m the year before. Police recorded 4.2m offences, a 4% fall compared with 4.3m the previous year and its lowest level since 2002. The police detection rate – meaning that a suspect has been identified and interviewed and there is sufficient evidence to bring a charge – remained at 28%. Crime Alan Travis guardian.co.uk
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Chuetas recognised by rabbi after centuries of persecution dating back to before the Spanish Inquisition Almost six centuries after most of them converted to Christianity, a rabbinical court has declared that descendants of a “lost tribe” from the Spanish island of Mallorca can once more be considered Jews. A decision by the ultra-orthodox rabbi Nissim Karelitz recognises that the Chuetas of Mallorca, who were persecuted by the Spanish Inquisition and remained a distinct group within Mallorcan society until the 1970s, had the right to call themselves Jews. Today’s Chuetas are descendants of Jews who are considered to have been forcibly converted in the early 15th century, decades before Spain formally expelled its Jews in 1492. “Since it has become clear this it is accepted among them that throughout the generations, most of them married among themselves, then all of those who are related to the former generations are Jews,” the rabbi’s decisions said, according to the Arutz Sheva website. The ruling does not affect the descendants of other Jews who remained in Spain rather than joining the Sephardic communities formed in other countries after the expulsion. Some of the Chuetas continued to practise Judaism in secret and at great personal risk. They became a target for the Inquisition, which condemned hundreds to death. Members of the community were persecuted in the 15th and 17th centuries. Today there are 15 popular surnames on the island that originate from the Chueta community. Around 18,000 people, including some of the island’s wealthier families, bear the surnames. Genetic studies have shown the tendency to intermarry that continued until the 1970s had produced a degree of “genetic homogeneity”, according to researchers at the university of the Balearic Islands. The term Chueta is thought to come from the Catalan word for pig. Rabbis will now start teaching any who are interested in embracing Judaism. Only a handful, however, are reported to have started to attend a synagogue in the Mallorcan capital of Palma. The decision to recognise their descendants comes as another step in the hunt to recover what have been called the “lost” or “hidden” Jews. Shivei Isreal, an organisation dedicated to finding them, has welcomed the decision. “Their ancestors were kidnapped from us and taken against their will six centuries ago,” the group’s founder, Michael Freund, told the Jerusalem Post. “The Inquisition sought to quash their Jewish identity down through the ages and we are coming here today to say that the Inquisition did not succeed. “Although there is no actual discrimination any longer against Chuetas, on a societal level many feel ostracised and to a certain extent outsiders.” “Acceptance of the Chuetas over the past 40 years has grown, which is positive, but brings with it a greater danger of assimilation.” Spain Judaism Religion Giles Tremlett guardian.co.uk
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New cancer statistics show that four in 10 Britons will get the disease in their lifetime, as incidence of cancers rise, says charity It was one of the starkest statistics about the nation’s health – that one in three of us would get cancer. Sadly, the figures have just got worse. Cancer experts now believe 42% of Britons will get the disease. Macmillan Cancer Support has revised the figure after its researchers analysed official data covering diagnosis of cancer, death from the disease and overall mortality. Of the 585,000 people who died in the UK in 2008, 246,000 of them – 42% – had been diagnosed with cancer at some point. The one in three figure has been used by cancer experts, campaigners and ministers for a decade. It is based on the fact that research into every death in the UK in 1999 showed that 220,000 people – some 35% of the 630,000 total deaths – had previously been found to have the disease. The new figures tally with recent research that the incidence of cancer is rising, mainly due to the UK’s ageing population. “It is alarming that the number of people who will get cancer is now well past one in three, and that there are so many more people with cancer today than even 10 years ago,” said Ciaran Devane, Macmillan’s chief executive. “These figures highlight the increasing impact that cancer can have on so many of our lives,” said Dr Clare Gerada, chair of the Royal College of GPs. About 310,000 people were diagnosed with cancer in 2008, and 157,000 died from it. The number of people developing the disease is estimated to be rising by 3.2% a year because of ageing and other factors such as increasing obesity and some cancers emerging later in people’s lives, after they have spent many years smoking. The figure for the number of Britons alive who have or have had cancer at some point has recently been increased from 1.5 million to 2 million. But Devane warned that this, too, is set to rise sharply. “There are currently 2 million people living with cancer in the UK and that number is doubling to 4 million over the next 20 years. Yet no one thinks the country can afford to double its spending on cancer,” Devane said. More positively, improvements in diagnosis and treatment mean survival from some cancers is increasing, too. “Survival rates have doubled over the last 40 years, and this is one of the success stories of modern medicine,” said Henry Scowcroft, Cancer Research UK’s science information manager. Gerada said: “Thanks to clinical advances and brilliant research, we are now more likely to know people living with cancer, rather than dying from it. If diagnosed early enough, cancers such as breast, skin and colon cancers are treatable, and many patients will go on to live long and healthy lives. Early diagnosis is vital, and this depends largely on patients presenting to their GPs as early as possible, and GPs having greater access to diagnostics.” GPs are working hard to improve their early diagnosis of cancer, added Gerada. Failings on that have been blamed for Britain’s poor survival rates compared with other European and western countries. Cancer Health Denis Campbell guardian.co.uk
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New cancer statistics show that four in 10 Britons will get the disease in their lifetime, as incidence of cancers rise, says charity It was one of the starkest statistics about the nation’s health – that one in three of us would get cancer. Sadly, the figures have just got worse. Cancer experts now believe 42% of Britons will get the disease. Macmillan Cancer Support has revised the figure after its researchers analysed official data covering diagnosis of cancer, death from the disease and overall mortality. Of the 585,000 people who died in the UK in 2008, 246,000 of them – 42% – had been diagnosed with cancer at some point. The one in three figure has been used by cancer experts, campaigners and ministers for a decade. It is based on the fact that research into every death in the UK in 1999 showed that 220,000 people – some 35% of the 630,000 total deaths – had previously been found to have the disease. The new figures tally with recent research that the incidence of cancer is rising, mainly due to the UK’s ageing population. “It is alarming that the number of people who will get cancer is now well past one in three, and that there are so many more people with cancer today than even 10 years ago,” said Ciaran Devane, Macmillan’s chief executive. “These figures highlight the increasing impact that cancer can have on so many of our lives,” said Dr Clare Gerada, chair of the Royal College of GPs. About 310,000 people were diagnosed with cancer in 2008, and 157,000 died from it. The number of people developing the disease is estimated to be rising by 3.2% a year because of ageing and other factors such as increasing obesity and some cancers emerging later in people’s lives, after they have spent many years smoking. The figure for the number of Britons alive who have or have had cancer at some point has recently been increased from 1.5 million to 2 million. But Devane warned that this, too, is set to rise sharply. “There are currently 2 million people living with cancer in the UK and that number is doubling to 4 million over the next 20 years. Yet no one thinks the country can afford to double its spending on cancer,” Devane said. More positively, improvements in diagnosis and treatment mean survival from some cancers is increasing, too. “Survival rates have doubled over the last 40 years, and this is one of the success stories of modern medicine,” said Henry Scowcroft, Cancer Research UK’s science information manager. Gerada said: “Thanks to clinical advances and brilliant research, we are now more likely to know people living with cancer, rather than dying from it. If diagnosed early enough, cancers such as breast, skin and colon cancers are treatable, and many patients will go on to live long and healthy lives. Early diagnosis is vital, and this depends largely on patients presenting to their GPs as early as possible, and GPs having greater access to diagnostics.” GPs are working hard to improve their early diagnosis of cancer, added Gerada. Failings on that have been blamed for Britain’s poor survival rates compared with other European and western countries. Cancer Health Denis Campbell guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …New cancer statistics show that four in 10 Britons will get the disease in their lifetime, as incidence of cancers rise, says charity It was one of the starkest statistics about the nation’s health – that one in three of us would get cancer. Sadly, the figures have just got worse. Cancer experts now believe 42% of Britons will get the disease. Macmillan Cancer Support has revised the figure after its researchers analysed official data covering diagnosis of cancer, death from the disease and overall mortality. Of the 585,000 people who died in the UK in 2008, 246,000 of them – 42% – had been diagnosed with cancer at some point. The one in three figure has been used by cancer experts, campaigners and ministers for a decade. It is based on the fact that research into every death in the UK in 1999 showed that 220,000 people – some 35% of the 630,000 total deaths – had previously been found to have the disease. The new figures tally with recent research that the incidence of cancer is rising, mainly due to the UK’s ageing population. “It is alarming that the number of people who will get cancer is now well past one in three, and that there are so many more people with cancer today than even 10 years ago,” said Ciaran Devane, Macmillan’s chief executive. “These figures highlight the increasing impact that cancer can have on so many of our lives,” said Dr Clare Gerada, chair of the Royal College of GPs. About 310,000 people were diagnosed with cancer in 2008, and 157,000 died from it. The number of people developing the disease is estimated to be rising by 3.2% a year because of ageing and other factors such as increasing obesity and some cancers emerging later in people’s lives, after they have spent many years smoking. The figure for the number of Britons alive who have or have had cancer at some point has recently been increased from 1.5 million to 2 million. But Devane warned that this, too, is set to rise sharply. “There are currently 2 million people living with cancer in the UK and that number is doubling to 4 million over the next 20 years. Yet no one thinks the country can afford to double its spending on cancer,” Devane said. More positively, improvements in diagnosis and treatment mean survival from some cancers is increasing, too. “Survival rates have doubled over the last 40 years, and this is one of the success stories of modern medicine,” said Henry Scowcroft, Cancer Research UK’s science information manager. Gerada said: “Thanks to clinical advances and brilliant research, we are now more likely to know people living with cancer, rather than dying from it. If diagnosed early enough, cancers such as breast, skin and colon cancers are treatable, and many patients will go on to live long and healthy lives. Early diagnosis is vital, and this depends largely on patients presenting to their GPs as early as possible, and GPs having greater access to diagnostics.” GPs are working hard to improve their early diagnosis of cancer, added Gerada. Failings on that have been blamed for Britain’s poor survival rates compared with other European and western countries. Cancer Health Denis Campbell guardian.co.uk
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