Detectives to examine every case involving attacks on children since 2001 in response to Milly Dowler phone hacking Police officers investigating phone hacking by the News of the World are turning their attention to examine every high-profile case involving the murder, abduction or attack on any child since 2001 in response to the revelation that journalists from the tabloid newspaper hacked into the voicemail messages of the murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler. The move is a direct response to the Guardian’s exclusive story on Monday that a private investigator working for the News International tabloid, Glenn Mulcaire, caused her parents to wrongly believe she was still alive – and interfered with police inquiries into her disappearance – by hacking into the teenager’s mobile phone and deleting messages. The case of Madeleine McCann is expected to be one of the first to be re-examined by detectives from Scotland Yard’s new inquiry into the phone hacking, Operation Weeting. Other cases likely to be re-examined include 15-year-old Danielle Jones, who was abducted and murdered in East Tilbury, Essex, in 2001 by her uncle, Stuart Campbell. Officers from Operation Weeting have already told the parents of the girls killed in Soham in 2002 by Ian Huntley that their mobiles had been hacked. Documents seized by the Metropolitan police in a 2006 raid on Mulcaire’s home show he targeted Leslie Chapman, the father of Jessica Chapman. It is understood the name “Greg” appeared in the corner of notes taken by Mulcaire – believed to be a reference to the News of the World’s former assistant editor (news) Greg Miskiw. It is thought that parents of the other murdered girl, Holly Wells, were also targeted. Police officers will trawl through their collection of 11,000 pages of notes kept by Mulcaire, and seized from him in 2006, when he and the News of the World’s royal editor, Clive Goodman, were jailed for hacking into mobile phones belonging to aides to Prince William and Harry and other members of the royal household. Mulcaire issued a public apology on Tuesday to all those hurt or upset by his activities, saying that after the developments of the past 24 hours he had to “break his silence”. He said: “I want to apologise to anybody who was hurt or upset by what I have done. I’ve been to court. I’ve pleaded guilty. And I’ve gone to prison and been punished. I still face the possibility of further criminal prosecution. “Working for the News of the World was never easy. There was relentless pressure. There was a constant demand for results. I knew what we did pushed the limits ethically. But, at the time, I didn’t understand that I had broken the law at all.” News of the impending police action capped a dramatic day of developments in the News of the World phone-hacking scandal. Throughout the day pressure intensified on the Rupert Murdoch-owned newspaper and, in particular, its former editor and now News International chief executive, Rebekah Brooks – who insisted she knew nothing of the Dowler hacking allegations. She was the editor of the News of the World at the time the hacking of Milly Dowler’s phone messages took place. The media regulator, Ofcom, is understood to be ready to examine whether News Corporation directors would be “fit and proper persons” to own BSkyB – if any senior employees at News Corporation or its UK arm, News International, were charged with hacking-related offences. Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation is closing in on winning regulatory approval for its proposed £8bn-plus takeover of the 61% of BSkyB it does not own. Sources close to the culture secretary Jeremy Hunt, who will decide on the issue, insisted he could not take phone hacking into account in a decision that is focused on “media plurality”. Meanwhile a string of high-profile companies – including Ford, npower, Halifax, T-Mobile and Orange – said they would be reviewing or withdrawing their advertising in the News of the World. These five brands are estimated to account for more than £2m worth of advertising in the tabloid in the past year. T-Mobile and Orange are thought to have spent an estimated £1.5m between them. Ford said it would be using “alternative media within and outside News International Group instead of placing Ford advertising in the News of the World” while it awaited the outcome of an internal investigation. The company added: “Ford is a company which cares about the standards of behaviour of its own people and those it deals with externally.” Halifax said it was “considering our options” about advertising in the News of the World, adding: “We are sensitive to the views of our customers and will take them into account.” Calls for boycotts of the News of the World appeared on Twitter and Facebook , and companies came under sustained pressure to pull their advertising from it . Those wishing to direct their fury at the firms who advertise through the News of the World were provided with a one-stop page where they could automatically tweet their concerns to companies such as the Co-operative, easyJet, Butlins and Renault. Others went further, calling for direct boycotts of the firms unless they took their advertising money elsewhere . John Bercow, the speaker of Commons, granted a rare emergency debate – which will happen on Wednesday – into calls for a public inquiry into phone hacking by News International journalists, and whether there was a potential cover-up by its senior executives. Ministers in the Commons opposed the emergency debate but, in what will be seen as another show of force by Bercow, he accepted arguments in favour put by the Labour MP Chris Bryant. The Labour leader, Ed Miliband, said Brooks needed to “examine her conscience” and that he was sure that she would because “this happened on her watch”. Although his words were Labour’s strongest intervention so far on the phone-hacking crisis, the party is still undecided about whether to put forward a substantive motion calling for a public inquiry that could be subject to a vote or amendment. In the first sign of potential coalition tension of the Conservative Hunt’s planned approval of the Murdoch BSkyB deal, Tim Farron, the president of the Liberal Democrats, told BBC Radio 4′s World at Oneon Tuesday: “I ask myself, is Rupert Murdoch a fit and proper person to own any more of the media market? Well, certainly not.” The Milly Dowler revelations were the “tip of the iceberg”, he added. Channel 4 News reported that Brooks was confronted by the Met in 2002 about the fact a senior detective investigating the murder of a private investigator, Daniel Morgan, was targeted by Mulcaire on behalf of the News of the World. The main suspect in the case, which was being led by Detective Superintendent David Cook, was a man with close links to the News of the World. Cook and his wife, Jackie Haines, were told by Scotland Yard in April this year their mobile phone numbers and payroll details had been found in Mulcaire’s notebook. News International said it could not confirm or deny whether Brooks had ever attended such a meeting. Lady Buscombe, the chairman of the Press Complaints Commission, said she was lied to by the News of the World over phone hacking. “There’s only so much we can do when people are lying to us. We know now that I was not being given the truth by the News of the World,” she told the BBC’s Daily Politics. Brooks emailed employees at News International to insist she knew nothing about phone hacking: “It is inconceivable that I knew or worse, sanctioned these appalling allegations. I am aware of the speculation about my position. “Therefore it is important you all know that as chief executive, I am determined to lead the company to ensure we do the right thing and resolve these serious issues.” Phone hacking Newspapers & magazines National newspapers Glenn Mulcaire News of the World Newspapers Rebekah Brooks Milly Dowler Soham murders Crime Metropolitan police Police BSkyB BSkyB Amelia Hill James Robinson Sam Jones Dan Sabbagh Nick Davies guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …David Brooks is amazed that Republicans aren’t taking all the tax cuts the Obama administration has given up in the debt-ceiling kabuki negotiations and going so far as calling them a “Not Normal” party. The Democrats have agreed to tie budget cuts to the debt ceiling bill. They have agreed not to raise tax rates. They have agreed to a roughly 3-to-1 rate of spending cuts to revenue increases, an astonishing concession. Moreover, many important Democrats are open to a truly large budget deal. President Obama has a strong incentive to reach a deal so he can campaign in 2012 as a moderate. The Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, has talked about supporting a debt reduction measure of $3 trillion or even $4 trillion if the Republicans meet him part way. There are Democrats in the White House and elsewhere who would be willing to accept Medicare cuts if the Republicans would be willing to increase revenues. If the Republican Party were a normal party, it would take advantage of this amazing moment. It is being offered the deal of the century: trillions of dollars in spending cuts in exchange for a few hundred million dollars of revenue increases. A normal Republican Party would seize the opportunity to put a long-term limit on the growth of government. It would seize the opportunity to put the country on a sound fiscal footing. It would seize the opportunity to do these things without putting any real crimp in economic growth. The party is not being asked to raise marginal tax rates in a way that might pervert incentives. On the contrary, Republicans are merely being asked to close loopholes and eliminate tax expenditures that are themselves distortionary. This, as I say, is the mother of all no-brainers. But we can have no confidence that the Republicans will seize this opportunity. That’s because the Republican Party may no longer be a normal party. Over the past few years, it has been infected by a faction that is more of a psychological protest than a practical, governing alternative. The members of this movement do not accept the logic of compromise, no matter how sweet the terms. If you ask them to raise taxes by an inch in order to cut government by a foot, they will say no. If you ask them to raise taxes by an inch to cut government by a yard, they will still say no. The members of this movement do not accept the legitimacy of scholars and intellectual authorities. A thousand impartial experts may tell them that a default on the debt would have calamitous effects, far worse than raising tax revenues a bit. But the members of this movement refuse to believe it. It’s not shocking to us. They haven’t been a normal party for a long time and the Obama administration has allowed them to control the narrative anyway. Of course they are going to push and push and push for more and more and more. Does anybody believe that Republicans will eventually not raise the debt ceiling with what they are already getting? I heard from Andrea Mitchell today that the date is around July 22nd in which the CBO needs to get the information from Congress to score so they can have it ready before the August 2nd deadline. Is this the big hope for Team Obama? They agree to off-the-chart spending cuts hoping to get a nominal increase in revenue somewhere — which, in the scope of the negotiations, is meaningless — and then hope Rand Paul or somebody else refuses even a deal that David Brooks can’t believe happened, and then they win the Beltway Villagers over to their side? The debt ceiling was always raised with no muss or no fuss because the American economy is not the same as my personal bank account. Tremendous amounts of monies flow through the world and this country and not raising it would be catastrophic. Since Brooks is so connected to the grand poobahs of the GOP, you have to wonder if some of them worried that the Tea Party element actually won’t allow them to raise the debt ceiling unless they get 100% of what they want, and so they sent him out to do some dirty work. Or is it a ploy to start singing kumbaya for all the spending cuts they’ve gotten already from the Dems once the ceiling is raised? Richard Cohen even joins in the fray on our side for a change and calls the GOP ‘a cult’ — but what of it? Where were Brooks and Cohen when they were really needed? Steve Benen wonders if the GOP has pushed the Villagers too far this time: In general, this political establishment is “wired” in Republicans’ favor. It’s GOP ideas that get attention; it’s GOP talking points that get internalized; it’s GOP voices that get aired. But when it comes to the debt ceiling and debt-reduction talks, and the fact that Democrats are the only ones willing to compromise, I can’t help but wonder if the tide of elite opinion is starting to turn against Republicans. If so, it’s pretty late in the game — Brooks and Cohen should have picked up on this months, if not years, ago — but here’s hoping the circumstances and radical tactics have left Villagers with no other choice. I seriously doubt it. I’m so sick of this debt ceiling discussion that I started reading the Game of Thrones series of books. I enjoyed the HBO series so I just finished book two over the holiday weekend.
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American who exiled himself from his country of birth was seen by many as an heir to abstract expressionist Jackson Pollock Cy Twombly, the US artist whose graffiti-style paintings on large canvases established him in the eyes of many as the heir to Jackson Pollock, has died in hospital in Rome at the age of 83. After emerging from the New York art scene of the 1950s, he was to cultivate and be inspired by a life-long association with Europe’s history and culture, and is regarded as a key figure among a generation of artists who strived to evolve beyond abstract expressionism. Born Edwin Parker Twombly Jr in Lexington, Virginia, in 1928, he took on his father’s nickname, Cy. A student of a number of US art colleges, he travelled extensively in Europe and was to be influenced in later years by his service as a cryptologist in the US military. After spending much of the 1950s in New York, where friends included Jasper Johns and Robert Rauschenberg, Twombly left for Italy. His work was shown at the Venice Biennale in 1964 before he began drifting away from expressionism and embarking on the abstract sculptures that were to become closely associated with him. The artist, who had been living in Italy, was hospitalised in Rome last week, according to Eric Mezil, the director of the Lambert collection in Avignon. An exposition of Twombly’s photographs opened last month at the Lambert collection. An exhibition of his work and that of Nicolas Poussin, whom he admired, started last week at the Dulwich Picture Gallery in south London. One of the most important exhibitions of his work in decades took place at Tate Modern in 2008. It included his Quattro Stagioni (Four Seasons), A Painting in Four Parts (1993-94). “Ah, it goes, is lost,” Twombly had scrawled in pencil on one of the four tall canvases, in a reflection of some of the themes to which he often returned: time, love and doomed desire. Cy Twombly Painting Venice Biennale Nicolas Poussin Tate Modern Art Ben Quinn guardian.co.uk
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Newspaper and five of its journalists face lawsuit amid spate of leaks about alleged sexual attack The hotel maid at the centre of the attempted rape case against the former head of the IMF, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, is suing the New York Post for libel after the newspaper accused her of working as a prostitute. The lawsuit was filed against the Post and five of its journalists after a stream of articles over the weekend that claimed she had engaged in sex work both in the Sofitel hotel where Strauss-Kahn had been staying at the time of the alleged assault and afterwards when the maid was under the protective care of New York police. The legal action, reported by Reuters, says that “all of these statements are false, have subjected the plaintiff to humiliation, scorn and ridicule throughout the world by falsely portraying her as a prostitute or as a woman who trades her body for money and they constitute defamation and libel per se.” The prosecution case against Strauss-Kahn is in deep crisis after the admission made last week by the Manhattan district attorney’s office that there were “major holes” in the woman’s account of events. The prosecutors agreed to release Strauss-Kahn from house arrest but said they continue to investigate the allegations of a forcible sexual attack. Prosecutors said last week they believe the alleged victim, a refugee from Guinea, lied over claims she was gang raped when she submitted a claim for political asylum in the US. She has also lied about her taxes and investigators found deposits made into her bank account of $100,000 (£60,000) over the past two years, some of which came from a drug dealer. But as the main case flounders, it has been joined by a flurry of legal action on the sides. A French writer, Tristane Banon, has now filed a criminal complaint in the French courts that alleges Strauss-Kahn tried to rape her in 2003 while she was conducting an interview with him. Banon told L’Express that “I can’t take it anymore hearing that I must be lying because I haven’t filed suit”. Strauss-Kahn has dismissed her claim as “imaginary”. The maid’s libel action suggests that the New York Post had published defamatory articles “in an apparent desperate attempt to bolster its rapidly plunging sales”. In one weekend report, the paper accused the 32-year-old of demanding payment from Strauss-Kahn after having sex with him in his hotel room. A separate report alleges that she continued to work as a prostitute in a hotel in Brooklyn while under the safekeeping of the district attorney’s office. The lawsuit says that the reports were published by the Post even though the newspaper knew they were false or should have known that they were false. The unravelling of the Strauss-Kahn prosecution has been accompanied by an extraordinary spate of leaks to the New York media. In the latest, the New York Times revealed details of the account given by the maid to staff at St Luke’s Roosevelt Crime Victim Treatment Center just hours after the alleged attack. According to paper , the maid said that as soon as she entered his room Strauss Kahn had pushed her on to the bed and began to assault her. She freed herself only to be attacked again. A director of the rape crisis centre that drew up the report has expressed intense unhappiness about the leaks. Susan Xenarios, a director, said they were “outrageous.” “We have been in operation for 35 years and this has never happened before. Everything is leaking it seems,” she said. “There are days when I feel psychotic about this.” Xenarios said she was fearful of the impact all these leaks would have on other victims. “I am very concerned that it will have wider ramifications.” She said Strauss-Kahn was a person of “extreme international power. I don’t know how that factors in. The whole thing is very disturbing”. In France, the possible return of Strauss-Kahn to the French presidential race has plunged the Socialist party into a fresh round of infighting. The latest poll showed that even if all charges are dropped against Strauss-Kahn, a majority of French people neither want him to stand nor think he will stand. Dominique Strauss-Kahn New York Post US press and publishing Newspapers Newspapers & magazines New York United States France Europe Dominic Rushe Ed Pilkington Angelique Chrisafis guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Someone Needs to Tell Fox’s Mike Emanuel What the Definition of ‘Class Warfare’ Is
July 5, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media While discussing how things are going on the “negotiations” with raising the debt ceiling Neil Cavuto fill-in Chris Cotter brought in someone who I assume is supposed to be one of Fox’s “news reporters”, Mike Emanuel, and not someone they would admit is an opinion commentator, and it seems he’s got a pretty messed idea about just what “class warfare” entails. Apparently in his world, it’s daring to call out a party for participating in it. COTTER: I have to tell you Mike, from cool to cold, right over your shoulder there at the White House, they’ve toughened their language in recent days haven’t they? What are they saying about this August 2nd deadline in the negotiations on both sides? EMANUEL: Well we heard it from President Obama last Wednesday when he did a news conference and may have lectured or scolded some members of Congress to get their work done. Then the Vice President’s been out a couple of times speaking to friendly audiences. Just yesterday in Chicago talking to the National Education Association and again did a little class warfare in terms of saying the Republicans are only out to help the rich. Here’s more from the Vice President. Note to Emanuel, pointing out someone engaging in class warfare is not waging class warfare. There’s a difference. Apparently he’s hoping that the viewers of their network don’t have enough sense to recognize this and sadly if you watch them for any other reason than to debunk or mock what goes on their airways, he and the producers of this show who put him on the air in the first place to spout this nonsense are probably right with that assumption. There is class warfare going on in America right now and it’s the rich who are winning it.
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Frustrated climate alarmists, who have failed to match global temperature trends to their dramatic global warming predictions for years, have come up with a counterintuitive study to explain the lack of global warming since 1998: China's excessive burning of coal during its rapid growth had a cooling effect on the earth's temperature. The new study, based on Fox News global warming skepticism, contradicts much of the anti-coal sentiments held by environmentalists. While it explains that burning coal does emit heat-trapping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, it also releases heat-reflecting sulfur into the atmosphere, and the two work to cancel each other's effects out. This study comes after global warming skeptics questioned lead researcher Robert Kaufmann about the lack of global warming over the past decade. As Kaufmann explained to BBC News : Two years ago, I gave a talk to a general audience in New Jersey about climate change. And an older gentleman asked me 'why should I believe in this climate change – I was watching Fox News and they said the earth's temperature hasn't changed in 10 years and has actually gone down.' At that stage I wasn't paying much attention to climate change – I'd returned to working on oil markets – so I went back and checked the data and found that was just about right. As it turns out, China, which climate alarmists have long blamed as a major and unregulated contributor to global warming, may surprisingly be responsible for keeping the earth at cooler temperatures over the last decade due to its emission of sulfur into the atmosphere. Because of other indications that sulfur emissions are bad for the environment, though (it is a major contributor to acid rain), environmentalists pressured China to enact regulations to scrub sulfur from coal-fired boilers to prevent its release into the atmosphere. Without the counterweight of sulfur, the unbalanced release of carbon dioxide may indeed have the exact effect environmentalists seek to prevent. There have been similar periods of global temperature plateaus in the past during times of industrialization. Piers Forster, a climate professor at Leeds University in England, explained the phenomenon to BBC. The masking of CO2-induced global warming by short term sulfur emissions is well known – it's believed that the flattening off of global mean temperatures in the 1950s was due to European and US coal burning, and just such a mechanism could be operating today from Chinese coal. Environmentalists like Forster argue that as soon as the sulfur emission masks are removed, warming continues in an upwards direction. Ironically, just two weeks ago, global warming fear monger Al Gore praised the idea of population control, most famously used in China, as a means to curb pollution. Now it looks like Gore can praise China for a different reason: their coal-powered industrial growth preventing global warming since 1998.
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Florida jury acquits mother of killing 2-year-old toddler who went missing in 2008 and was found dead six months later A Florida jury has cleared a young mother, Casey Anthony, of murdering her two-year-old daughter, rejecting the prosecution’s portrayal of her as “a lying, no-good slut” who would rather go nightclubbing than rear her child. The jury unanimously found Anthony, 25, not guilty on murder, manslaughter and child abuse charges in a case that has gripped US talkshows and cable news television. She was, however, convicted on charges of lying to the police after claiming that her daughter, Caylee, had been abducted by a nanny when Anthony was driving around with the body of her child in the boot of her car. Anthony would have faced a possible death sentence had she been convicted of first-degree murder but will serve no more than four years in prison when she is sentenced on Thursday. Prosecutors had alleged that Anthony murdered Caylee because she stood in the way of her party lifestyle and interest in men. Prosecutors told the jury that Anthony killed her daughter with chloroform in 2008 and then buried her body in woods near the family home in Orlando several weeks later. Caylee’s corpse was found with three strips of duct tape over her mouth and nose. Anthony’s father, George, told the court that his daughter left home in June 2008, taking Caylee with her, and did not return for a month. Anthony’s parents asked repeatedly to see the child but their daughter told them she was too busy with work. Anthony also claimed that Caylee was being looked after by a nanny. It was later established that the nanny did not exist. Anthony maintained that claim until her parents received a notice that their daughter’s car had been towed. When they went to pick it up, George Anthony said he noticed a strong odour from the boot that he and a worker in the tow yard told the court smelled like a decomposing body. Anthony’s mother, Cindy, then called the police and reported Caylee missing. “There is something wrong. I found my daughter’s car today and it smells like there’s been a dead body in the damn car,” she told the emergency operator. The prosecution homed in on Anthony’s failure to report her daughter missing during those 31 days. “Responses to grief are as varied as the day is long, but responses to guilt are oh so predictable,” the lead prosecutor, Linda Drane Burdick, said. “What do guilty people do? They lie. They avoid. They run. They mislead, not just to their family, but the police. They divert attention away from themselves and they act like nothing is wrong. That’s why you heard about what happened in those 31 days.” The defence said Caylee had accidentally drowned in the family swimming pool and that her mother then panicked. It claimed that Anthony’s father knew about the accident and helped his daughter dispose of the body. It said George Anthony, a former police office, placed the tape over the dead girl’s face to make it look like murder in an attempt to cover up the failure to report the death. The man denied his daughter’s account. The defence also claimed that Casey Anthony had been sexually abused by her father and brother and that was a factor in her erratic behaviour. Anthony’s lawyer, Jose Baez, said the prosecution had attempted to portray his client as “a lying, no-good slut” who murdered her daughter in order to go nightclubbing when in fact Caylee’s death was “an accident that snowballed out of control”. Another prosecutor, Jeff Ashton, said the defence failed to present any real evidence to back any of its claims and, in closing arguments, said the claim that George Anthony staged a murder to cover up a lesser crime made no sense. “That’s absurd. Nothing has been presented to you to make that any less absurd,” he said. But the jury was not persuaded that Anthony killed her daughter either deliberately or by accident. After the verdict, one of Anthony’s lawyers, Cheney Mason, condemned the “media assassination” of his client since her arrest, including by other lawyers who appeared on television talkshows to pronounce her guilty before the trial was over. United States Florida Chris McGreal guardian.co.uk
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Channel 4 says News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks was challenged by police in 2002 over claims that News of the World had a senior Metropolitan police detective under surveillance. 8.37pm: More on advertisers reviewing their links to the News of the World. My colleagues Sam Jones and Mark Sweney report that mobile phone firms Orange and T-Mobile are joining Ford, nPower and Halifax in considering their position. A spokesman for T-Mobile said: “We’re currently reviewing our advertising position with News of the World, following the recent allegations, and await the outcome of the ongoing police investigation.” Orange put out a similar statement, saying: “We’re currently reviewing our advertising position with News of the World, following the recent allegations, and await the outcome of the ongoing police investigation.” The latest advertising boycotts came as companies including Co-operative, WH Smith, EasyJet, Butlins and Renault came under heavy pressure from internet campaigners to sever their links with the Sunday tabloid. A one-stop page has been set up to allow people to automatically tweet their concerns. 8.15pm: More details from the Channel 4 News website on claims that Met detective Dave Cook was placed under surveillance by News of the World. The report quotes Alistair Morgan, brother of Daniel Morgan, whose murder Cook had been investigating at the time of the alleged surveillance. “Dave told me about it, he told me about it then but I didn’t realise who the newspaper was at that point. … “Dave told me that he was out walking his dog, he was taking his dog for a walk one evening when he noticed a van in an odd location. I think he said behind some trees near his house. The following morning he noticed he was being followed.” 8.04pm: Back to the Milly Dowler Case. Press Association reports Labour MP Keith Vaz, chairman of the Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, has written to Brooks and Scotland Yard acting commissioner John Yates asking what prior knowledge there had been of hacking in the Milly Dowler case. This is what Vaz says on the matter: These allegations are extremely shocking. It is now essential that any parties involved criminally are prosecuted and that we uncover who knew what at which point in time at both the Metropolitan Police and at the News of the World. The committee will be raising this issue with police officers involved in the current and previous investigations. We will also seek to clarify why a significant variance of action was taken by mobile phone companies in the aftermath of the phone hacking revelations. 7.44pm: Channel 4 News has made claims about how the News of the World placed senior Metropolitan police detective under surveillance at a time he was investigating the murder of a private eye with links to individuals who worked for the paper. Here’s an outline of its report : It said a Detective Chief Superintendent Dave Cook, a senior police officer who appeared on Crimewatch, claimed he was told by colleagues that he was under surveillance by News of the World when he was investigating the 1987 murder of Daniel Morgan, a private investigator. The C4 report said police discovered that vans leased to News of the World had been witnessed tailing Cook. It said NoW was investigating whether Cook was having an affair with Jackie Haynes, a Crimewatch presenter who was in fact his wife. C4 says the timing of the NoW surveillance was disturbing because suspects in a case being investigated by Cook were private investigators with close links to NoW. C4 added that Brooks was challenged by police over this at a meeting in 2002. News International was quoted saying it was not aware of the claims but would investigate. It said it could not confirm or deny Brooks’ meeting with police. It said Cook and Haynes were informed two months ago about documentation of surveillance found among notes seized from Glenn Mulcaire. It said they were both considering legal action. 7.14pm: News International’s Simon Greenberg said he is confident the company can come through the phone hacking scandal. Speaking on Sky News he said: “We’ve found some new information that helps us get closer to the facts of the case about who is involved.” He added: “I’m not going to be naming individuals. We’re liaising with the police. We met with the police this morning… It was a routine meeting… It is going to get us closer to establishing the facts.” Greenberg said he was not aware of any claims of phone hacking in the case of Sarah Payne. “We’ve not shied away from the fact that when the allegations were made, Rebekah (Brooks) was editor of the NoW… and she’s going to lead us through this investigation.” He said: “There are things in the past that are highly regretful,” and described the Milly Dowler incident as an “appalling shocking case”. He said during his time at the News of the World he had no idea where the phone-hacked stories were coming from. 7.00pm: Simon Greenberg, News International’s director of corporate affairs, is appearing on Sky News to talk about phone hacking. 6.52pm: Cathy Newman of Channel 4 News tweets: Did News of the World team up with Sara Payne to campaign for Sarah’s Law – and then have her phone hacked? Watch C4News at 7 6.28pm: Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator at the centre of the scandal, has issued a public apology to those upset by his activity . The statement, released exclusively to the Guardian, makes no reference to hacking Milly Dowler’s phone, but says he never intended to interfere with police inquiries. He said he had been operating under a “constant demand for results”. I want to apologise to anybody who was hurt or upset by what I have done. Much has been published in the media about me. Up to now, I have not responded publicly in any way to all the stories but in the light of the publicity over the last 24 hours, I feel I must break my silence. I want to apologise to anybody who was hurt or upset by what I have done. I’ve been to court. I’ve pleaded guilty. And I’ve gone to prison and been punished. I still face the possibility of further criminal prosecution. Working for the News of the World was never easy. There was relentless pressure. There was a constant demand for results. I knew what we did pushed the limits ethically. But, at the time, I didn’t understand that I had broken the law at all. A lot of information I obtained was simply tittle-tattle, of no great importance to anyone, but sometimes what I did was for what I thought was the greater good, to carry out investigative journalism. I never had any intention of interfering with any police inquiry into any crime. I know I have brought the vilification I am experiencing upon myself, but I do ask the media to leave my family and my children, who are all blameless, alone. 6.21pm: Some companies say they will continue advertising with the News of the World pending police investigations into the voicemail hacking. Tesco, responding to customers on Facebook and Twitter, said: “We know that you have a lot of questions surrounding recent News of the World allegations. “These latest allegations will cause huge distress to a family which has suffered enough. “It’s now a matter for the police. Like everyone, we await the outcome of their investigation.” A Virgin Media spokeswoman said: “We’re not taking any action at this point. We’re just waiting for the outcome of any investigation and then we will look into what to do.” 6.00pm: Good evening and welcome to our live blog on the latest developments and fallout from the Guardian’s revelations about how the News of the World illegally targeted the missing schoolgirl Milly Dowler and her family in March 2002, interfering with police inquiries into her disappearance. • The stakes have been dramatically upped in the last number of hours after the Labour leader, Ed Miliband, suggested that Rebekah Brooks, the News International chief executive, should resign . • Labour are also demanding an public inquiry into illegality in the newspaper industry, while John Bercow, the Commons Speaker, has approved an emergency three-hour debate on phone hacking in the Commons tomorrow. David Cameron has meanwhile criticised the News of the World – “this is a truly dreadful act”, he said. • Brooks has told employees it is “inconceivable” she knew that the News of the World hacked into Milly Dowler’s mobile phone. The News International chief executive said she was “sickened” by the events, but insisted she was “determined to lead the company” – despite calls for her to resign. • Press Complaints Commission chairman Baroness Buscombe has meanwhile said that she was lied to by the News of the World over phone hacking. She said she did not know the extent of the scandal when she came on board the PCC in 2009, but admitted she had been “misled by the News of the World” – after she had previously concluded just the opposite. • Separately from the political fallout, Cambridgeshire police have said that the parents of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, the two children murdered by Ian Huntley, were contacted by Scotland Yard detectives investigating phone hacking at the News of the World. • Ford has pulled ads, reports the BBC, and the energy firm Npower said it is “reviewing” its advertising in the News of the World following the Milly Dowler revelations. According to Sky News, Halifax are also considering withdrawing advertising from the paper. Phone hacking News of the World News International Rebekah Brooks Newspapers & magazines Barry Neild guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Jake Tapper Concedes Media’s Bias on Obama Medal of Honor Gaffe, Double Standard on Bachmann
July 5, 2011 No CommentABC's White House correspondent Jake Tapper appeared on the June 27 edition of Dennis Miller's radio show and conceded to a media blackout of Barack Obama's Medal of Honor gaffe. (The President confused a living recipient with the deceased Jared Monti who died in combat.) Tapper admitted that the President made “a big uncomfortable mistake.” He added, ” And I don't think that that got the same kind of coverage as, you know, when Sarah Palin got Paul Revere's ride. ” Tapper's right. His own network, ABC, as well as CBS and NBC have skipped the Monti story . Tapper was on vacation when the Medal of Honor story broke, but he, thus far, has ignored it (although he did cover it online ). Additionally, while the journalist had generic criticism for “the media,” he certainly didn't take ABC specifically to task. Miller critiqued, “Well, you guys gotta work that out in house. But, I will tell you, you're not- the herd's not fooling anybody out here.” Tapper at one point seemed on the verge of admitting to liberal media bias. He allowed, “But the question is, okay, and removing the ideological bias, and I don't- do not generally disagree that there is-” Unfortunately, Miller interrupted him. The White House correspondent attempted to shift the issue to one of sexism, suggesting that Hillary Clinton dealt with much harsher criticism than Obama. However, Good Morning America, where Tapper frequently appears, fawned over both. On the January 18, 2007 edition of that show, Clare Shipman summed up the Democratic battle as one between Clinton's “hot factor” and Obama's “fluid poetry.” An August 29, 2007, a Media Research Center study found Tapper to be wrong on this larger point of anti-Hillary bias. The MRC's Rich Noyes wrote : The top Democratic candidates received much more favorable coverage than their GOP counterparts, with Senator Clinton cast as “unbeatable” and Illinois Senator Barack Obama tagged as a “rock star.” The most prominent Republican, Arizona Senator John McCain, was portrayed as a loser because of his support for staying the course in Iraq. A transcript of Tapper's June 27 appearance on Dennis Miller can be found below: [Tapper moving off a question about Chris Wallace and the “flake” comment JAKE TAPPER: I do think that there is a question, and we were talking about this in our newsroom earlier today, I think there is a question about whether we are tougher, we meaning the media writ large, the Borg, that we are tougher on women candidates than we are on men, because I have to say, you know, anytime Sarah Palin or Michele Bachmann, you know, misplaces an adjective- DENNIS MILLER: Sure. TAPPER: – we know about it and we cover it in the media. And, you know, this thing that the President did, and, obviously it was a mistake and he didn't mean to, but last week when he misidentified- he's given two Medals of Honor. And he was at the 10th Mountain at Fort Drum and he mistakenly said that he had given one to Sargent First Class Jared Monti when actually Monti was the one of the two Medals of Honor he's given that was given posthumously. Monti died in Gowardesh, northeast Afghanistan in 2006. That's a big, uncomfortable mistake. MILLER: Huge. Yeah, yeah. TAPPER:
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Party hit by infighting and contest for a presidential candidate overshadowed by whether former IMF chief is likely to join race The possible return of Dominique Strauss-Kahn to the French presidential race has plunged the Socialist party into a fresh round of infighting, overshadowing its internal contest for a candidate. Strauss-Kahn, the former head of the IMF, was the Socialist favourite to beat Nicolas Sarkozy and win the 2012 presidential election before he was arrested in New York over the alleged attempted rape of a hotel maid. His political allies hope that charges against him will be dropped this week after doubts were raised over the hotel worker’s credibility. But rifts are emerging between those who want him to return to Socialist politics and party leadership figures who claim he is unlikely to run for president. The Socialists have been thrown into disarray by a lawsuit from the French journalist Tristane Banon who alleges Strauss-Kahn attempted to rape her during an interview in 2003. Banon and her mother, a Socialist councillor, claim François Hollande, the then Socialist party leader, knew full details of the alleged attack. Hollande styles himself as the squeaky clean “ordinary guy” of French politics and is currently the frontrunner in the internal Socialist race for a presidential candidate. But his campaign has been overshadowed by questions about the Banon case, what he knew and whether he should have acted. He denied any in-depth knowledge of the allegations, saying: “I absolutely want to put an end to all these controversies, rumours and hawking.” Strauss-Kahn’s key ally, the Socialist MP Jean-Marie Le Guen, slammed Banon’s legal complaint as “opportunistic”, adding: “Visibly Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s return doesn’t suit some people.” Another Strauss-Kahn supporter, Pierre Moscovici, deemed the Banon case “mysterious” and likened it to a “soap opera”. Martine Aubry, the former Socialist leader who recently launched a bid to be France’s first female president, is now struggling to emerge from the shadow of the man known as DSK. She insisted she would not now pull out of the race in favour of Strauss-Kahn. She also suggested to journalists that Strauss-Kahn told her by phone he wouldn’t come back to run for Socialist presidential candidate. Benoit Hamon, the party spokesman, said a Strauss-Kahn return to the presidential race was “the weakest” of all probabilities. This infuriated DSK allies who think he still has a chance at the Elysée. The latest poll shows that even if all charges are dropped against Strauss-Kahn, a majority of French people neither want him to stand nor think he will stand. The poll for the weekly Le Nouvel Observateur found that 54% of French people do not want him to run in the Socialist primary race and more than 63% do not think he will run. Even though a majority of Socialist sympathisers would like him to run, most of them think he won’t. The most hostile towards him were women voters – who were never among Strauss-Kahn’s biggest supporters. The Socialist party primary vote takes place in October. Candidates must declare by 13 July, although Strauss-Kahn could get around this deadline if he decides to run. Dominique Strauss-Kahn France Europe Nicolas Sarkozy Angelique Chrisafis guardian.co.uk
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