How Sez Sees It

Twitter seems to have named the events Hackgate and it seems like a good name to me so I will borrow it when talking about the events in future. Not only was Rebekah Brooks arrested as part of a pre-arranged arrest yesterday but Sir Paul Stephenson stepped down as head of the Met Police.  If the Met thought that the arrest of Brooks would take the focus off of Sir Paul then they are mistaken.  Wherever you look today the newspapers and television shows are full of the news of his resignation and connections with Neil Wallis at NOTW.  Of course this is also a test for Cameron.  He is stuck between losing the loyalty of his friends as he is forced to cut ties with them and finding himself in the first situation he has been in where he has no real power and has to watch events play out.  Not only this but Ed Miliband has come out of this looking better than him and Cameron has to hope that Miliband doesn't know what to do with his new power. Whateve...

Today Rebekah Brooks has been arrested.  This is a good thing as if it is proved that she was responsible for allowing and enabling the hacking by News International papers then she does need to be held to account. There is one issue that is not really an issue though.  Thoughts being bandied around at the moment suggest that she was pre-warned by the police that she was going to be arrested and this gave her a chance to resign.  I am not so sure about that.  It was a pre-arranged arrest so it is hard to tell what she knew. As far as I can see the only problem is that over the next week she is due to stand before the select committee and this may effect two things.  The first is that she may not be able to appear now as she has to give information to the police over the committee.  If she does appear then the second problem is that she may be restricted over what she can say to the committee because anything she says could go for or against her in the p...

It is with regret that Rebekah Brooks has tendered her resignation as head of News International.  Let me get this straight though.  Last Sunday the News of the World closed down and made around 500 members of staff unemployed and yet there was no apology from Brooks.  Then she resigns herself now and there is still no apology. The ghastly thing is that Brooks and the Murdochs keep denying any wrong doing.  It just feels like Brooks was in the firing line as the public face of the scandal and so she had to be seen to go.  The Murdochs appear to be hiding behind this woman.  When are we likely to hear that James Murdoch is to go as well?  I doubt very much that we will see that happen. If the Murdochs think that by sacrificing Brooks the baying for blood will quell they are much mistaken.  It transpires that today the FBI are looking to investigate the possibility that families of victims who died 11/09/2001 were hacked by News Corporation owne...

So Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller has called for an investigation into whether News Corp (owned by Rupert Murdoch) is guilty of breaching US law.  This is the first time the US Senate has looked at something like this. Apparently there are concerns over how News Intl gained information in the UK around the hacking of murder victims' families and the information gained about Gordon Brown's son.  The Senate wants to find out if the same thing has happened in the US, specifically surrounding the families who lost loved ones in the attacks on the World Trade Centre 11/09/2001.  If it is discovered that hacking has taken place or any other illegal activity then News Corp will be held accountable and this is not something that is taken lightly in the US.  Their journalism does not cover the sort of in depth investigation that ours does and the people and other news companies will simply not stand for it.  This could be the beginning of the end ...

Today we learn another sickening side of what News Intl is capable of.  Yesterday we learned that The Times had got hold of Gordon Brown's bank details, etc. and today we learn The Sun got hold of his baby son's medical details.  The worst part of that is that Brooks warned the Brown's that The Sun had this information and when the Browns tried to put out a pre-emptive statement Brooks was not happy. Honestly, who would want to search through the records of a new born child?  It doesn't matter who the parents are, you simply do not go down that route!  The other thing that got to me are the accusations of a former journalist for NOTW.  This journalist claims that on 11/09/2001 Brooks said she wanted said journalist to dress up as Harry Potter for a press conference.  After the attacks on the World Trade Centre began, said journalist called the offices and asked if the Harry Potter thing was still going ahead in light of the horrific events unfolding....

According to a news report today ( http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/jul/11/nhs-health ) the government is suggesting that failing schools and health care units be shut down in a move that essentially would let the public pick and choose their public services with little or no intervention from central governement.  This sounds almost Victorian in nature it is such a step back and is just coming across as another way to tear apart public services. Still it is nice that there is a certain scandal around to detract from the reports that have been leaked isn't it?  The coalition must be hoping that people will be too pre-occupied to notice...

This week we found out just what News of the World have been up to.  Ironically the paper that used to pride itself in reporting scandal has become embroiled in scandal of its own.  Sadly it is some of the most disturbing stories that I have ever heard. Firstly it was the tapping of the phones belonging to Milly Dowler's family, then the families of the Soham girls and then the families of service personnel killed in action.  It just got more and more sickening as the revelations came out.  According to Rebekah Brooks and NOTW staff there is worse to come.  I dread to think that there may be worse and cannot begin to imagine what that may be.  In fact I am not sure I want to know. Brooks claims that she was unaware of the phone hacking taking place under her watch as editor of NOTW.  If anyone believes that then there are serious problems.  How this woman has been allowed to keep her position at News International is beyond me, it is not enoug...