Murdoch Apologises For Scarfe Cartoon Of Netanyahu. No Surprises There Then.

Lord Murdemort has swiftly apologised for the Gerald Scarfe cartoon of Netanyahu published last weekend  in the Sunday Times.

 

The artist behind a Sunday Times cartoon criticised as “anti-semitic” has apologised for the “very unfortunate timing” of the sketch, which was published on Holocaust Memorial Day.

Gerald Scarfe, who has drawn for the newspaper for 46 years, insisted, though, that he is not anti-semitic and did not intend to insult Jewish people.

The cartoon, published on Sunday 27 January, created an uproar this week, prompting a complaint to the Press Complaints Commission and a “major apology” from Rupert Murdoch.

He tweeted last night: “Gerald Scarfe has never reflected the opinions of the Sunday Times.

“Nevertheless, we owe major apology for grotesque, offensive cartoon.”

Scarfe told Press Gazette today: “Firstly of all I am not, and never have been, anti-semitic.

“The Sunday Times has given me the freedom of speech over the last 46 years to criticize world leaders for what I see as their wrong-doings.

“This drawing was a criticism of Netanhayu, and not of the Jewish people: there was no slight whatsoever intended against him.

“I was, however, stupidly completely unaware that it would be printed on Holocaust day, and I apologise for the very unfortunate timing.”

Earlier today, Scarfe received support from the Dr Tim Benson, president of the Political Cartoon Society (himself Jewish), who described the media uproar surrounding the cartoon as a “storm in a teacup”. Read More

It’s interesting to note how fast Murdemort grovelled to Netanyahu. What is that expression about “pipers and tunes”

Anyway, here is the cartoon.

And a few more from Scarfe. I wonder if he apologised to Thatcher.

 

Piers Morgan Shows True Globalist Colors On CNN Following Connecticut Massacre

Piers Morgan, sacked editor of the UK Daily Mirror, after publishing alleged fake photos of British servicemen abusing Iraqi prisoners, loses his temper in the aftermath of the horrific Connecticut massacre.

Enjoy this gift from your cousins in the UK, if you watch CNN, you deserve him.

By the way, he is also a former Murdoch man.

Cameron Not Convinced By Leveson Inquiry He Ordered.

David “call me Dave” Cameron ordered the Leveson inquiry last year, with an estimated overall cost of £5.6m.

Now then, call us very simplistic here at Piereport-News.com, but why the hell waste all of that TAX PAYERS money on such a lengthly,  in depth inquiry only to stand up in the commons today and declare that he was not convinced.

Maybe he doesn’t want to get his fingers burnt by biting  the hand that feeds him! After all, it would be difficult texting Rebekah with burnt fingers. Just a thought!

David Cameron’s Friends Andy Coulson and Rebekah Brooks charged in Operation Elveden

Ex-Downing Street communications chief Andy Coulson and ex-News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks, both close friends of British Prime Minister David Cameron,  have been charged over payments to police and public officials.

Journalists Clive Goodman and John Kay and MoD employee Bettina Jordan-Barber also face charges, the CPS says.

Mr Coulson, who was editor of the News of the World before moving to Downing Street, says he denies the allegations.

Operation Elveden is the Met Police investigation into corrupt payments.

Mr Coulson has been charged with two conspiracies relating to the request and authorisation of alleged payments to public officials in exchange for information – including a royal phone directory known as the “Green Book”.

It is said to have contained contact details for the Royal Family and members of the household.

Mr Goodman, a former royal correspondent at the now-defunct News of the World, is to face the same charges, the CPS says.

These two counts of conspiracy to commit misconduct in a public office involve one between 31 August 2002 and 31 January 2003 and another between 31 January and 3 June 2005.

Read More

George Osborne’s secret meeting with Murdoch clan at country estate

Chancellor entertained Rebekah Brooks at official residence in Buckinghamshire as BSkyB bid was planned.

Toby Helm, political editor
guardian.co.uk, Saturday 12 May 2012 22.53 BST

Chancellor George Osborne was dragged deeper into the furore over the Murdoch empire’s links to government as it emerged that he entertained Rebekah Brooks for a weekend at his country residence as Rupert Murdoch was planning to take over BSkyB.

Also present for the weekend at Dorneywood, the chancellor’s grace and favour residence in Buckinghamshire, was Brooks’s friend, Andy Coulson, the former News of the World editor, who at the time was working as David Cameron’s director of communications inside No 10.

Labour said that the gathering, at a time when the government was evaluating how to react to News Corp’s £8bn bid for the whole of BSkyB – the biggest in UK media history – raised fundamental questions about Osborne’s judgment.

News of the weekend gathering will also increase pressure for Osborne to appear in person at the Leveson inquiry, in addition to David Cameron, culture secretary Jeremy Hunt, education secretary Michael Gove and other senior political figures, to answer questions about their links with the Murdoch team.

So far Osborne has been asked only to give written evidence, although his aides said he would now be happy to appear if asked.

Details of the Dorneywood sojourn are contained in a lengthy written statement to the Leveson inquiry submitted by Coulson, who appeared before it on Thursday. Listing his meetings with Brooks during his time working for Cameron, Coulson said: “My family and I also spent a weekend at Dorneywood in 2010 as a guest of George Osborne and his wife. Rebekah and her husband were also guests.”

Osborne has made public four meetings with Brooks during 2010, three of them definitely after the May general election. A spokesman for Osborne said he believed the Dorneywood meeting was one declared by Osborne as having taken place with Brooks in September 2010. The location was not specified, and it was listed by the chancellor as having been a merely “social” event.

News of the Murdoch plan to take full control of BSkyB first broke in June 2010, with News Corp informing the European commission in early November of its intention to buy the shares it did not already own.

Giving evidence to the inquiry on Friday, Brooks said that, after briefly discussing the BSkyB bid with Cameron at a dinner in December 2010, she had a more substantial conversation with Osborne at a restaurant that month.

The next day she emailed News Corp lobbyist Frédéric Michel saying that Osborne had expressed “total bafflement” at Ofcom’s latest response to the bid. But she was not asked, when in the witness box, about the weekend at Dorneywood or what was discussed there.

Harriet Harman, Labour’s deputy leader, said the revelation raised serious questions. “When senior members of a government are looking at a bid such as the BSkyB one they have not only to make sure they act impartially but that they are seen to be acting impartially.

“Spending a weekend together with a senior executive of the company seeking approval for a bid such as this is not acting in a way that will be seen to be impartial.” Osborne’s aides said no discussions of the BSkyB bid took place.

But Labour MP Chris Bryant, a prominent critic of News International over phone hacking, said: “After all these revelations it feels like there were two halves of a single clan: in the political wing were Osborne, Cameron, Michael Gove and Jeremy Hunt, and in the media wing were Rebekah Brooks, James Murdoch and Andy Coulson. They seem to have been completely blind to the ethical considerations and to have forgotten that in government they are there for the whole country and not just for the clan.”

Labour also plans to raise questions about whether the home secretary, Theresa May, sent a message to commiserate with Brooks after she resigned. In a speech to the Blairite pressure group Progress, Labour leader Ed Miliband renewed calls for the culture secretary to resign over suggestions he operated a secret back channel to News Corp.

Miliband said: “One of the reasons so many people hate politics so much right now is that they think politicians stand up for the wrong people, not the right people. This is a clear example of that – Jeremy Hunt was standing up for Rupert Murdoch, not for the public interest.”

Rupert Murdoch ‘Not A Fit Person’ To Run Major Company, Phone Hacking Report Says

 

Jack MirkinsonMirkinson@huffingtonpost.com

A parliamentary committee has judged that Rupert Murdoch is “not a fit person” to run a major international company such as News Corp. due to his handling of the phone hacking scandal.

The verdict, from the Culture, Media and Sport committee in the House of Commons, is an unexpectedly damning one. Committee members made clear on Tuesday that it was not a unanimous one, setting up a political fight when the entire House votes on some of its findings.

The committee wrote that Murdoch “turned a blind eye and exhibited willful blindness to what was going on in his companies and publications,” and concluded that he “is not a fit person to exercise the stewardship of a major international company.”

The report is the culmination of years of investigation since the phone hacking crisis first broke in 2009. Since then, the scandal has caught everyone from journalists to police to politicians in its net, and cost Murdoch hundreds of millions of dollars.

Read the rest of this report here

Anyone surprised?, we doubt it. The Tories have of course stayed on the fence. If you saw sycophantic way Louise Mensch grovelled around questioning Murdoch on the day of the foam pie, it’s no more than you would expect. What astonishes us is that the report uses the words “not a fit person” to run a major international company. Don’t they know the rules?

None of these people are fit to run international companies, that’s why they get away with it. They are all so arrogant they think they are above the law, and as their friends create and control the law, they are correct.

Will this affect Murdoch, probably not, I doubt if the verdict from the Culture, Media and Sport committee, (a bunch of MP’s low enough down the food chain to not really understand how the system operates) will have much impact in the US.

I just find it hilarious that Murdoch & Sons claim they were unaware of the unethical way their journalists where operating. Maybe Murdoch hasn’t had much news room experience,after all, it’s not his fault he was born into a family who owned the Adelaide News.

Murdoch Goes. Maybe the Stakes Went Sky High.

The Guardian reports that at 14.46:

We have spoken to Chris Bryant, the Labour MP and alleged phone-hacking victim who has been critical of News International and the Murdochs.

He said: “[The resignation] is inevitable and he should have gone a long time ago. James Murdoch’s only defence against allegations of involvement in a cover-up at News International was that he was so incompetent he couldn’t be bothered to read his emails.”

Starring

James Murdoch as Jimmy Murdoch

Rebekah Mary Brooks as Herwayonly Granger

Featuring

Andy Coulson as Tory Weasley

Special Guest Appearance From

He Who Shall Not Be Blamed as  The Dark Lord Murdemort