Wednesday, 6 July 2011
Why I set about hitting the News of the World where it hurts – its advertising
Like many people, I've learned to live with a generalised, low-level irritation about the content of some of the tabloids. The sexism, the xenophobia, the hypocrisy: you wish you could change these things but, for the most part, you accept them as the price you pay for a free press.
But on Monday night, years of irritation were transformed into rage for me by the suggestion that one tabloid, the News of the World, had paid a private investigator who hacked into the mobile phone of a missing 13-year-old girl, Milly Dowler. Worse, it is alleged that he deleted messages from her voicemail, giving her parents false hope that she might be alive – with the tabloid all the while running interviews with those parents in which they spoke about their hope.
There is only one sane reaction to this: utter revulsion. I knew that hundreds – maybe thousands – of people would be feeling the same way, and I also knew that this time it wouldn't only be the lefties, the liberals and the hand-wringers who would want something to change, who would be looking for something they could do. It would be all of us.
That evening I began tweeting (@the_z_factor), knocking around a few ideas with friends: egging NewsCorp's offices? Going to the shops on Sunday and turning over all the copies of the paper? It didn't seem enough. The only way to show the company how people really felt was by hitting them where it hurts: their wallets. And while I didn't think I could reach their regular readers to ask them not to buy the paper, I realised who I could influence, with a following wind and enough people behind me: their advertisers.
I went on to the News of the World's website. There were a couple of advertisers there, but most were behind the paywall. I tweeted them anyway. Immediately, my tweets were retweeted. And again. I roped in Andy Dawson (@profanityswan) – he was angry too, I knew, and more importantly he has a big following on Twitter. He researched more advertisers for me, and we began sending out tweets, telling people to send their own messages rather than retweeting ours for maximum effect. I made a Word document, stored it online and started sending out links to it. The activity was building; I was transfixed by my computer screen, and the dog didn't get an evening walk.
Tony Kennick (@thegreatgonzo) got involved. He had an idea: we could build a web page with "tweet me" buttons, to make things even easier for people. By Tuesday morning it was up and running, and by 11am Roy Greenslade had linked to it on his blog.
That's when things really started to take off. Messages of support began flooding in, as well as offers of help; @EroticPuffin looked up email addresses for executives at the companies and supplied an Excel file ready for mail merge, and various people sent new advertisers for us to add to the list and new ways for people to make a difference.
It's times like this when Twitter really comes into its own. As a truly democratic forum, everyone can get involved and have their say, and it's easy to share information and ideas. And because it's all so public, it's very hard for companies to ignore public pressure or hide behind rhetoric. For every 5,000 tweets with a funny cat photo there's a moment like this, when Twitter remembers what it can really do.
It was truly astonishing to see how angry all sorts of people were with the behaviour of the News of the World, and how eager they were to do something about it. To the Republic of Twitter, now finding its voice on this subject, it clearly wasn't an ethical minefield, or a thorny legal issue, but a simple case of right and wrong. Morals, as they used to be called. The depths Rupert Murdoch's paper has sunk to – and questions are now being asked about other police investigations, including that into the murder of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman – is extraordinary.
Democracy, if it is to function properly, requires a free press. A free press holds the government, the judiciary and other public figures to account. The "tax", if you like, for having a free press is the tabloids. And as a concept, they're fine; they're not for me, but then neither is quiche, and I don't need to ban it. But is what's going on here an expression of democracy in action? No, it isn't. Sections of the press now have a far greater influence on government policy than we voters do, and if the hacking revelations are anything to go by they may well have enjoyed a great deal of influence over the police, too. Is that OK by you? What I discovered on Monday night is that it really, really isn't OK by me.
There's a facile argument that says: "The tabloids only behave as they do because people want to read the stuff they print" – as if, in a way, it's our fault. But every business in the land responds to demand from its market; every business in the land needs to make a profit. Most of them, though, manage to stay within the law.
Melissa Harrison @'The Guardian'
dalekcat dalekcat
RT @PCHell147 When lining your litter tray with newspaper be careful or you might accidentally get some 'news of the world' on the cat shit.
Robert Smith - Small Hours (BBC 6 Music)
Robert Smith's cover of John Martyn's 'Small Hours', from the 'Johnny Boy Would Love This' tribute album which is out Aug. 15th in the UK and much of Europe and Aug. 16th in the US. If you like this track, please buy it, or the full album, when it's released.
Thanks to Lauren Laverne for playing this on her BBC 6 Music show on July 5th, 2011 and to Aaron Law for recording it and sending the file in.
Via
The News of the World news that Murdoch’s OZ papers forgot
New P.I.L. album soon...
Then and Now
Word reaches the Quietus this Friday afternoon (from an official source) that John Lydon and PiL are currently working on new songs together. We've seen some terrific gigs from the reunited Public Image Limited over the past year or so, most recently at Primavera. But we are anti-nostalgists, and generally hope that returning groups either vanish again, or knuckle down to writing new material. Glad tidings, then, that PiL's John Lydon, Lu Edmonds (guitarist), Bruce Smith (drummer), and Scott Firth (bass) are in a studio in a location that Lydon describes as being "in the outskirts of knowhere". Lydon has previously written with Edmonds and Smith for later PiL albums Happy and 9' so both have played and worked John throughout the late 80s.Lydon has long insisted that the PiL reunion was not solely about nostalgia, saying that the gigs were being done in part to fund studio time: "We've got no backing - no record company, no sponsors, nothing like that. The only way we can make money is the touring, and then we can make a new album," he told Billboard in 2010. "It's sort of like the old days of PiL, when the Pistols went kaput; I had to scrimp and scrape out of my own pocket. Not much has changed."
Asked back then if he had songs ready, Lydon said, "Yeah, I've got piles. I never stop writing. Most of my influences have never really come from a musical act. It tends to be things like the poetic beat of a newscast. There's a rhythm to the way it's laid out. Movies can do that. Shakespeare and good poetry does that, and a bloody good book does that, or just a long walk." More on new material from PiL on The Quietus later this summer.
Via
Wu Ming - Manituana
The novels of Wu Ming (Chinese for "anonymous" or "five people") might be the best ever written by a gang. Most efforts of this sort have been intent on producing bad novels – Naked Came the Stranger? The horror, the horror! Wu Ming, on the other hand, squeeze every potential for incisive, rabid adventure they can out of the popular novel. Their books sizzle with a kind of lefty jazz: they're linguistically and culturally hip, historically astute, with a heart worn challengingly on the sleeve.
54, set in postwar Italy, was filled with rollicking, stupefying conflations of fact and fiction. Manituana, on the surface, is a straighter story: that of educated, enigmatic Joseph Brant, leader of the Mohawks during the American revolution; of his sister Molly, who "dreams with great strength"; and crucially, the loss, for humanity, of the confederation of the Six Nations. After the French and Indian wars, there was a time of cooperation between native Americans and the English – William Johnson, head of the Indian Department, hoped there was "room for everybody" in the beautiful Mohawk Valley. Wu think of this time and place as "Iroquireland" – an all too brief shading of tribes from the old and new worlds. They tell this sad, salient story as that of the violent dismemberment of one polyglot society by another.
"Manituana" means the Thousand Islands of the St Lawrence river, in legend a paradise, the birthplace of the Mohawk tongue. Wu's narrative is particularly concerned with language: Mohawk, the Dutch and German of old New York, the talk of Cockneys and of the Court of St James. Shaun Whiteside's brilliant translation of the many voices and ventriloquisms of this novel is slick and savvy (despite one's doubt that a woodpecker, though an omniscient Mohawk spirit, knows the word fo'c'sle). Wu deftly explore the collision of Indian and European languages: "In the language of the Empire, every cause was followed by a consequence . . . on the contrary, the language of the Mohawk was full of details, run through with doubts refined by constant adjustments. Each word stretched and expanded to capture every possible meaning." These are arresting pictures of how Joseph and Molly Brant's minds must have worked – rich in Mohawk images and energy, shrewd with western ideas. Along with languages, superstitions collide: what, after all, is "civilisation" but the superstitions that make you comfortable?
Manituana unspools mesmerisingly like an old Hollywood movie, ducking the common mishaps of the historical novel – there is not a single longueur. The descriptions of American abundance are worthy of Washington Irving, with a fall chill punchy as a stanza of Longfellow or a Remington painting of woods. The story is governed by the Indian sense of time, always returning to the reckoning of autumn. But events develop and are communicated at surprising speed: messengers are hunted bloodthirstily through forests, and in Molly Brant's powerful, ornate telepathies Brant and his comrade Lacroix learn the fate of their people before it occurs, although Brant refuses to accept it.
As in 54, violence (and it's appalling) is a natural but also a supernatural force. Lacroix's prowess with a tomahawk is described with the flavour of an antique children's book, but to this Wu add the unthinkable mayhem of a computer game: "The shot cleanly detached his head and sent it flying . . . panic stopped him shooting straight and he found his guts between his feet, his hands groping to try and keep them in . . . When the tomahawk broke his arm with a dry sound he froze, staring at the limb that dangled from his shoulder . . ."
Brant was complicated, a Freemason and a slave-owner (facts soft-pedalled by Wu for their own purposes, but then who remains a hero until his dying day?). By the time the war turned in favour of the colonists, he'd become "ubiquitous", in Wu's word, intent on fulfilling, against his will, a hero's destiny. On the warpath against Europeans he'd previously counted as neighbours, he'd become "the most hated Indian since the days of Pontiac". General Washington ordered that the people of the Six Nations be captured, their villages and crops destroyed.
But in 1775, Brant still believed the English would save the Indians. He travelled to London for an audience with George III. This part of the novel heaves with historical observation and play: like a crazy scene in a Gillray, theatregoers at Drury Lane are astonished to hear Lacroix supply a missing line in Romeo and Juliet. The backstabbing of the court is brutally anatomised; Wu's favourite evil businessmen are described in the most hackle-raising way. Their lickspittle tabloid journo is also nauseatingly up-to-date. An enterprising band of thuggish East End "Mohocks" send a letter to Brant movingly describing the anguish and oppression of the London poor in terms similar to his own, and ask to be recognised as the Seventh Nation of the Iroquois. And at a lavish party in Brant's honour, some waggish Italian pyrotechnicians grab a chance to make fun of the English: a Georgian "mansion" bursts into flames, and from it emerges a stark, Masonic pyramid, chilling sign of the whispery capitalists and their plan for America – the plan that won, of course.
Wandering around London, which disgusts him now he has seen the whole of it, Brant comes upon a poor family so weak with hunger that they cannot bury their little dead son. The Mohawk chieftain lends his strong back to dig the grave, only to be roundly abused by this bunch of ingrates for being a Catholic. Wu have now out-Dickensed Dickens, and when you read this novel, you will become aware of a faint buzzing noise. That will be James Fenimore Cooper, spinning in his grave.
Todd McEwen @'The Guardian' 
MOBI, 5.9 mb
The Zionist Story
The Zionist Story, an independent film by Ronen Berelovich, is the story of ethnic cleansing, colonialism and apartheid to produce a demographically Jewish State.
Ronen successfully combines archival footage with commentary from himself and others such as Ilan Pappe, Terry Boullata, Alan Hart and Jeff Halper.
"I have recently finished an independent documentary, The Zionist Story, in which I aim to present not just the history of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, but also the core reason for it: the Zionist ideology, its goals (past and present) and its firm grip not only on Israeli society, but also, increasingly, on the perception of Middle East issues in Western democracies.
These concepts have already been demonstrated in the excellent 'Occupation 101′ documentary made by Abdallah Omeish and Sufyan Omeish, but in my documentary I approach the subject from the perspective of an Israeli, ex-reserve soldier and someone who has spent his entire life in the shadow of Zionism.
I hope you can find a moment to watch The Zionist Story and, if you like it, please feel free to share it with others. (As both the documentary and the archived footage used are for educational purposes only, the film can be freely distributed).
I have made this documentary entirely by myself, with virtually no budget, although doing my best to achieve high professional standard, and I hope that this 'home-spun' production will be of interest to viewers." - Ronen Berelovich.
Re-Uploaded from Dobronironechka's Channel:
http://www.youtube.com/Dobronironechka
Links:
http://pulsemedia.org/2009/03/09/the-zionist-story
http://australiansforpalestine.com/17370
http://warincontext.org/the-zionist-story
http://kanan48.wordpress.com/2011/02/03/the-zionist-story
Related Videos:
Israeli Myths & Propaganda:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIWvcBzbqVc
http://blip.tv/file/4403235
Occupation 101:
http://vimeo.com/14327996
Imperial Geography:
http://blip.tv/file/1674292
Memory of the Cactus:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQ_LjknRHVA
Canada "Park" in Palestine:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHRbR7nMxN4
The History of Palestine:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t88I7Ibb1fw
Palestine 1896:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hjEvqUmdth8
1936 Warning of a British and Zionist Colonization of Palestine:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfwaLExx1e8
Note 1: This is an improved copy of the documentary, due to synchronization issues with the first copy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wA1lDow-0rk
Note 2: I made this documentary available on this channel for educational and non-commercial use only and as the creator of the documentary mentioned please feel free to share it with others.
The Documentary is also available for download on blip tv: http://kanan48.blip.tv/file/4768208/
Creative Commons: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/
Hugh Grant and ex-NOTW journalist on phone hacking
Actor Hugh Grant attacks the News Of The World over the Milly Dowler phone hacking allegations. He's joined by former journalist Paul McMullen, who he had previously recorded talking about the paper's widespread use of hacking.
Via
Via
Milly Dowler phone hacking: the full text of Rebekah Brooks's email
Rebekah Brooks has told News International staff that it is 'inconceivable' she knew about phone hacking in the Milly Dowler case. Photograph: Indigo/Getty Images
Dear All,When I wrote to you last week updating you on a number of business issues I did not anticipate having to do so again so soon.
However, I wanted to address the company as a matter of urgency in light of the new claims against the News of the World.
We were all appalled and shocked when we heard about these allegations yesterday.
I have to tell you that I am sickened that these events are alleged to have happened.
Not just because I was editor of the News of the World at the time, but if the accusations are true, the devastating effect on Milly Dowler's family is unforgivable.
Our first priority must be to establish the full facts behind these claims. I have written to Mr and Mrs Dowler this morning to assure them News International will vigorously pursue the truth and that they will be the first to be informed of the outcome of our investigation.
Our lawyers have also written to their solicitor Mark Lewis to ask him to show us any of the evidence he has so we can swiftly take the appropriate action.
At the moment we only know what we have read.
Since 2006, when the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) seized the documentation from the private investigator Glen [sic] Mulcaire, News International has had no visibility on the evidence available.
The process of discovery is complicated. The MPS first present relevant documents to potential victims. We only see the evidence much later during the legal process.
This morning, in our regular Operation Weeting meeting, we have offered the MPS our full co-operation to establish the veracity of these fresh allegations.
I have also written to the chief constable of Surrey police. Although their nine year investigation is now complete, I want to offer our co-operation should they intend to discuss this matter with us.
I am determined that News International does everything it can to co-operate fully and pro-actively with the MPS, as we have been doing for some time, to verify the facts so we can respond in a robust and proper way.
It is almost too horrific to believe that a professional journalist or even a freelance inquiry agent working on behalf of a member of the News of the World staff could behave in this way.
If the allegations are proved to be true then I can promise the strongest possible action will be taken as this company will not tolerate such disgraceful behaviour.
I hope that you all realise it is inconceivable that I knew or worse, sanctioned these appalling allegations.
I am proud of the many successful newspaper campaigns at the Sun and the News of the World under my editorship.
In particular, the 10-year fight for Sarah's Law is especially personal to me.
The battle for better protection of children from paedophiles and better rights for the families and the victims of these crimes defined my editorships.
Although these difficult times will continue for many months ahead, I want you to know that News International will pursue the facts with vigour and integrity.
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.
We will face up to the mistakes and wrongdoing of the past and we will do our utmost to see that justice is done and those culpable will be punished.
@'The Guardian'
Somehow '...it is inconceivable that I knew' just doesn't sound the same as 'I did not know' does it?
NB: 'Interesting to note she denies knowledge of and sanctioning the allegations rather than denying knowledge of and sanctioning the actions of her journalists. No doubt a very carefully worded statement.' Comment by CaptainP here.
Crisis In The Congo: Uncovering The Truth
Crisis in the Congo: Uncovering The Truth explores the role that the United States and its allies, Rwanda and Uganda, have played in triggering the greatest humanitarian crisis at the dawn of the 21st century. The film is a short version of a feature length production to be released in the near future. It locates the Congo crisis in a historical, social and political context. It unveils analysis and prescriptions by leading experts, practitioners, activists and intellectuals that are not normally available to the general public. The film is a call to conscience and action.
Millions of Congolese have lost their lives in a conflict that the United Nations describes as the deadliest in the world since World War Two. United States allies, Rwanda and Uganda, invaded in 1996 the Congo (then Zaire) and again in 1998, which triggered the enormous loss of lives, systemic sexual violence and rape, and widespread looting of Congo's spectacular natural wealth.
The ongoing conflict, instability, weak institutions, dependency and impoverishment in the Congo are a product of a 125 year tragic experience of enslavement, forced labor, colonial rule, assassinations, dictatorship, wars, external intervention and corrupt rule. Analysts in the film examine whether U.S. corporate and government policies that support strongmen and prioritize profit over the people have contributed to and exacerbated the tragic instability in the heart of Africa.
Via
Millions of Congolese have lost their lives in a conflict that the United Nations describes as the deadliest in the world since World War Two. United States allies, Rwanda and Uganda, invaded in 1996 the Congo (then Zaire) and again in 1998, which triggered the enormous loss of lives, systemic sexual violence and rape, and widespread looting of Congo's spectacular natural wealth.
The ongoing conflict, instability, weak institutions, dependency and impoverishment in the Congo are a product of a 125 year tragic experience of enslavement, forced labor, colonial rule, assassinations, dictatorship, wars, external intervention and corrupt rule. Analysts in the film examine whether U.S. corporate and government policies that support strongmen and prioritize profit over the people have contributed to and exacerbated the tragic instability in the heart of Africa.
Via
Wu Ming
They all called themselves Luther Blissett and started to raise hell in the cultural industry. It was a five year plan.
They worked together to tell the world a great story, create a legend, give birth to a new kind of folk hero.
In January 2000, some of them regrouped as Wu Ming. The latter project, albeit more focused on literature and storytelling in a narrower sense of the word, is no less radical than the old one.
Wu Ming Foundation: Who We Are And What We Do
Downloads
(I highly recommend '54')
Luther Blissett - Enigma (mp3)
Lots of Money Because I am Many: The Luther Blissett Project and the Multiple-Use Name Strategy
Tuesday, 5 July 2011
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
