Hey, I’m almost a member of the Chipping Norton Set.
Sunday, July 17, 2011 at 5:28PM I've lived in the Cotswolds for 20 years, it’s a quiet corner of England’s rolling West country which has long been the weekend playground of Britain’s rich, powerful and influential.
And yes, I’ve been to dinner at Liz Murdoch and Matthew Freud’s 20 bedroom Priory in the picturesque Oxfordshire town of Burford. This might sound confusing, you thought this was about the Chipping Norton set and I’m talking about Burford.
Well Burford and Chipping Norton are about 15 miles apart, but either side the road that links them, the A361, is where pretty much all the people currently involved in the sordid collapse of a global ultra conservative news empire live. Clarkson, Cameron, Brooks, Murdoch and many, many minor hangers on.
Not me by the way, I live in the proper Cotswolds, we look down on those nouveau-riche Oxfordshire chavs. I live in Gloucestershire darling, proper Cotswolds.
Anyway, Liz and Matt were both charming and gracious hosts, the food was lovely, the staff discreet and attentive and the scattering of guests represented some of the most influential figures in British media, oh yeah, and me and my Mrs.
We were there to see a film in their very nice private cinema, I won’t say what the film was, I wasn’t in it, nothing like that, I’m trying to be discreet about my friends.
That’s what’s really uncomfortable about this whole episode. I have friends who work in and around these people, the position they’re currently in must be, to say the least, a little awkward.
I’m now so grateful I’ve never worked for News International or Sky or any of the other organizations old man Murdoch controls, after posting this I’m fairly certain I never will.
But in the past few weeks we have seen a barrage of revelations, each one stepping lower into the sewer of relationships between the press, the political elite and the law enforcement organizations in this deeply corrupt little island.
However, disengage smug mode, the arrest of Rebekah Brooks is I believe, not all that it seems.
The flame haired one was due to go in front of a parliamentary committee on Tuesday. A parliamentary committee investigating the tangled web of intrigue, blackmail, hacking and sordid bribery which has brought the Metropolitan police, most of our politicians and even the Prime Minister into deep, sticky and immovable disrepute.
Now she’s been (cough) ‘arrested’ by walking into a police station at a mutually agreed time and location convenient to her, which means of course that she will not be able to give evidence to that parliamentary committee because she may be prejudicing her upcoming court case.
However murky, sordid and utterly unscrupulous some semi ignorant fool like me might try and portray these powerful, influential people, they always trump me. They are much, much more evil and vicious than even I dared imagine, and I imagined a lot.
They are also gobsmackingly rich, they stick close to each other, they always defend each other but this is getting so out of hand now the cracks are finally beginning to show.
The fallout will be dirty, the back stabbing, smug fuelled revenge of the many people the Murdoch empire have attacked in the last 20 years will be spectacular. It would be easy to portray this story as a load of media luvvies having a mutual jizz fest, but the influence and corruption goes way beyond mere dinner party whispers.
I’m saying this because although I’m not in the least involved in any of it thank goodness, I’ve knocked around in the media world for 25 years, I’ve seen some shit go down.
True, the NOTW did run a story about me many years back when they didn’t have a ‘Princess Di has Ladder in her Tights!’ revelation and needed something to paste between adverts for porn. It was about how my previous girlfriend had once thrown kitchenware at me during a row. ‘Kryten’s Fear of Flying Saucers.’
Good headline, although to be honest, the story was a bit of a non starter. It was true by the way, she did throw stuff at me, but I had thrown a toaster at her first. I was young, we were crazy in love, shit happens.
But I never thought the ‘News of the World’ was ‘just entertainment,’ it’s very cleverly constructed agit prop, it steers public attention away from serious issues and points a spotlight at a girls crotch as she gets out of a car. This would be the typical story on the day a British arms manufacturer closed a deal with a Saudi Prince for ‘crowd control equipment’ as an example.
I stopped buying the Times the minute old Rupe got his claws on it. I have been a hostile critic of News Corps activities for years before all this happened. I am so grateful I haven’t met, and even worse ‘got on with’ Rebekah Brooks at some nob heavy Cotswold dinner party. As Alexi Sayle once said ‘I try not to meet people I despise in case I find out they’re not that bad after all.’
As we hear the excuses, denial and lies pouring out of these people as the edifice they have created comes tumbling down, don’t be fooled. They ALL lied, they all knew about it, they all made money from it which is why they did it, they all tried to cover it up.
They will twist the facts in any way they can to make it seem okay.
Jeremy Clarkson recently wrote a eulogy to Rebekah Brooks in the Sun, just want to remind you, this crowd are all mates. Jezza refuses to believe Beks knew about phone hacking and anyway, says jolly Mr C “if Woodward and Bernstein had been able to hack President Nixon’s phone during the Watergate investigations, d’you think they’d have not done it because it was ‘unethical?’”
Oh really, that’s the best you can do Jezza.
Fox News (owned by Murdoch) in the USA did much better.
On their absurd news channel, and if you haven’t seen it, believe me no matter how absurd I try and make it sound, it’s way madder, they reported on the recent revelations. They grouped the Pentagon, the White House and the 9/11 families together with the News of the World as VICTIMS of phone hacking.
Yes, you read that right, they managed to twist it, with the aid of a ‘specialist’ to make it sound to the duped American public that the NOTW and News Corp was a victim of this epidemic, not the main culprit. What is more depressing is that people will believe that, Fox News have no scruples, they will twist anything any way they like.
They, like the Sun, the News of the World, Sky News and all the other Murdoch outlets push a very right wing, ultra conservative agenda who’s sole intention is to keep the powerful in power, while diddling a stick around the pond of celebrity to keep things fresh and entertaining.
The rest of us should really make an effort to remember all these shenanigans and not let this self important, ultra conservative elite off the hook. We should all boycott all their products and services, we are not wrong to stand up and say, ‘You are scum, we don’t want to know what you think.’
Link to a Wiki list of all the media interests in the News Corp - Fox Nexus. Pretty comprehensive.
And this is worth watching, thanks Little Richard
Reader Comments (29)
Surprised and saddened at Jezza's response. I really thought he was better than that.
Which is why it is deeply hypocritical that the press now keep telling us how important a free press is to keep the rich and powerful in check, when what the hacking scandal shows is not just how little the press actually performs this kind of journalism, but also how the press are part of the rich, powerful and corrupt elite.
The press keep screaming about the MPs expenses scandal but always seem to gloss over the fact this story was leaked and indeed sold to the press. It didn't break after the free press used any dark arts, they save these for pointless celebrity stories or deeply intrusive tragedy porn.
Hear hear! In our democracy, every pound one spends each day is at least as (if not more) powerful than a vote one casts every 5 years.
My only concern with all the "open season" articles and comments on the NOTW crowd is that if they get off scot-free (and who would bet against it), they'll be using libel writs on all their detractors.
"But I never thought the ‘News of the World’ was ‘just entertainment,’ it’s very cleverly constructed agit prop"
It was a vital part of the project to promte Junk, in the Junkfood sense, before the real thing. To commodify, adulterate and market every aspect of our lives, then sell it back to us at so called 'added-value' prices, with all the accompanying cultural and psychological damage.
The 'cancer' as Dennis Potter called it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnVrK38xI-A&feature=player_embedded
Very true. It's always difficult when neighbours turn out to be hard to stomach. I have long said Murdoch and his cronies were evil and that working under any of his organs was tantamount to endorsing his brand of evil. The key will be when his nearest and dearest start having to distance themselves, or have their careers shot down.
Fox News are just Murdoch's paid puppets. They give journalism a bad name and drag TV News down to a new low.
Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=n9gOSsvLIO4#at=156
Brilliant!
The above link as a link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=n9gOSsvLIO4#at=156
All about Fox News: OUTFOXED : Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism
http://themurdochempireanditsnestofvipers.blogspot.com/2011/07/hackgatethe-murdochs-are-more-evil-than.html
I am not going to say anything but am hoping the truth will come out of the involvement with the British Goverment /Murdoch and the massive cover-up. I hope you will leave this link for others to realize just what has been going on and when you know the right people you ARE above the law. Many thanks for your article and insight I would imagine you know what has been going on and I hope and pray it will soon stop with justice for Madeleine.
Well said, Robert. I think the real issue isn't 'hackgate' at all.
Private Eye, among others, have been shedding light on Murdoch forever, so I would expect him to have done all the things he's alleged to have done. The sad thing is that we want to believe that our police and government are honest, as they should be, but its looking very otherwise.
With any luck, and with the likes of the Guardian, Ed Milliband and people in the public eye like yourself demanding answers to perfectly reasonable questions, we'll see some progress.
One more thing. Is there a reason why the police give two days notice of arrest?
One other thing bothering me is who will keep the Mail and Telegraph in check? They are lurching more to the right every day and that's where Murdoch's readers will end up. Both are on an anti green tech agenda at the moment for example, what or who is driving that?
I agree wholeheartedly with the sentimemts expressed. I also have refused to buy the Times since The Digger bought it.
However, before we tar the whole media with the same brush, let us not forget it was The Grauniad that doggedly persisted with this story for years and exposed the "scum". It was also The Torygraph that blew the whistle on MP's expenses. We should take a few very deep breaths before we react otherwise the powers that be might use this scandal to introduce regulations that better protect themselves.
"One other thing bothering me is who will keep the Mail and Telegraph in check? "
Who muscled the advertising off the pages of the NOW? Editors will have to work to convince us that their reports are clean in future. Now we know what to look for. And the Mail thinks it can get away with perverting the course of history as Murdoch did, they haven't been paying attention to Wapping Gate.
The balance of Information Power is tipping. And the corporate dinosaurs are falling off the edge. In a way, we are the editors now. The Press Will Print What We Tell It To Print.
How about that?
Great piece, but I have to correct an error. It's easy to label these people 'very right wing' and 'ultra conservative', but neither of these is a major concern for them, particularly the former. Their goal is to maintain and expand their riches, and they've correctly identified a powerful (but controllable) government as useful in that. Strong and extensive government is, pretty much by definition, not very right wing.
It never occurred to me before that the celeb focus was orchestrated to draw 'our' attention away from political issues. It's so obvious now *facepalm*
Stewart Fergus Heartily agree with you. Yes, strangely both Torygraph and Gruaniad come out of this rather well, but then they do actually employ journalists who do weird things like check facts, or even investigate actual stories.
Sadly the political and financial elite will continue to behave this way. They have the money and power to do pretty much anything they want and get away with it. This NOTW thing will be no different. A few individuals will be sacrificed to the general public but by and large within six months everyone will have forgotten about this.
I wouldnt be surprised if in the next little bit some other "breaking story" surfaces to occupy the publics attention and draw attention away from this sordid affair.
Couldn't agree with you more possum....but I can still go and see Harry Potter right? Just not X-Men or Mr Popper's Penguins....right...I can live with that.....
"One other thing bothering me is who will keep the Mail and Telegraph in check? "
Lovely. I could say the same for the Graun and the Indy and their anti-Western, Bolshevik agendas, but then I remember the Beano has a higher circulation (and better content) and they're going bankrupt in a few years anyway so I don't care that much.