F@#$ing apostrophe
Possession. Is it so hard? Was it the "hackers' phones" or the "hacker's phone"?
It is shameful that "editors" fail to grasp primary-school standard English.
How about you lot f@#$ off to France.
Police have discovered the existence of a mobile phone known as "the Hub" which was used by News of The World journalists to hack over 1,000 voicemails between 2004 and 2006, according to The Independent. The phone sat on the news desk of the now-defunct newspaper and was used to illegally access 1,150 numbers between 2004 and …
More shameful that you didn't actually check what was pluralised yourself before going off on a rant.
And, as a little side-note, I was in an Italian class the other day and the under-40's English students were put to shame by the foreigners and over-40's because (according to the teacher who also taught English) we just don't learn grammar any more. I happen to agree with her - there were vast tracts of grammar that I had no knowledge of even if I could understand them within a few seconds and I swear I'd never been taught any of it. There is literally a divide in nationality / age that is visible enough in any class of adult learners that the teachers have to change their teaching to take account of it.
But if your biggest achievement is to yell at editors for mistakes that don't exist, you really need to find another hobby.
(Now you CAN complain about the apostrophe on "40's" if you so wish, but it's accepted usage and I find it infinitely more comfortable to read and write than any other variation).
I really don't think it's anything to do with age. In my experience, middle aged people are by far the worst when it comes to even basic spelling let alone the use of the apostrophe.
It is actually a very recent development that the majority of people are as literate as they are. The only reason we see more bad spelling and grammar these days is that communication is so easy that even the peasants can do it. Which I suppose is actually a good thing.
> The phone was registered to News International
given the ease of anonymously acquiring a phone and SIM card in this country just how stupid do you need to be to use a phone registered to your own address?
Even bank robbers know not to use their own car and registration number
I suspect that the real point is that the NOTW didn't really believe that they were doing anything wrong and/or that since they had been doing it for so long that it was OK - or something.
It's a bit like a goose that lays golden eggs - after a while of looking at golden eggs you forget that the goose was stolen.
I guess that their collective moral compass had been diverted for so long that it just became second nature.
It could also be that given the Murdochs inherent lack of morals they were just toeing the corporate line.
Sad really, until it starts interferring with police investigations - then it becomes unconscionable behaviour.
ttfn
That's what I thought at first. Then I thought a little harder and decided that maybe they were taking a leaf out of Blair's book.
Good old Tone seemed to be able to get away with anything by saying he was doing it "in good faith". Taking the nation into an illegal war on the say so of a single unreliable informant whose evidence you suspect to be false? That's fine so long as you do it in good faith.
So could it be that NI are about to spring the Blair defence? Ah but look, we did it on a phone registered to us and openly in the news room in front of witnesses. Would we have done that had we not believed what we were doing was legal and above board? IOW we did what we did in good faith so that's all OK.
The issue with a COLLECTIVELY used phone is that it's never going to be easy to prove who the actual user was - it's only ever going to be hearsay. With a bleed-as-you-pay you would run the continuous risk of petty cash, expenses or credit card payments matching up with top ups on the phone which more directly points to one individual.
It isn't as stupid as it looks. What IS stupid is leaving call logs (well, and the phone).
I must admit that the title made me think they had found a phone used to intercept SMS, because the cheap way to intercept SMS *is* indeed re-coding a Motorola phone.. But that would be like *real* hacking instead of a game of "guess the PIN code"..
I hope they catch the actual operator and jail him for a looooong time.
an old Jonathan Creek episode was on and the woman (Maddie?) was just openly explaining how journalists commonly dialled into people's voicemail to get stories.
So not only was it well known about, but even TV dramas had the exact methodology down years ago... yeah, "lone rogue reporter" doesn't sound too realistic now does it?
Oh, wait- it never did!
Absolutely correct. That episode was transmitted in 1997. Maddie explains to her boyfriend (Alex McGowen?) the procedure to break into the most popular BT answering machine of the time.
Anyone who says this form of "hacking" has not been going on since at least the mid 90's is an idiot.
If the hacking was as has been widely reported by setting the caller ID to be the mobile you wanted to hack and dialling the voicemail access number, then I doubt this is a mobile, but most likely a phone on its own ISDN or similar set up to allow it to specify caller ID...
10 years "regular" would be OK, although 1 year in a prison with the shower soap dispensers mounted a foot off the floor might offer more of a deter(r/g)ent ..
I know journalists need information, but I think it must be made crystal clear that breaking the law is not an acceptable route for it. In addition, the only way to ensure editors don't casually look the other way is to make management joint responsible. That way they are at least forced to check how the information came into the possession of the journalist instead of following the nod nod, wink wink routine.
Just my two cents.
Note to grammar nazis - wasn't sure it was joined or joint, so don't get your nose out of joined (yes, I'm evil).
To get the juicy stories, the ones you win Pulitzers for, you HAVE to break the law, because leaking state secrets is ALWAYS against the law. So they invent a superior morality position that negates the illegality of breaking the law because of a "right to know." Once you've engaged in that kind of thinking for long enough there no longer IS any law. Of course, that also means occasionally you have to turn on one of your own. Just to keep up appearances you understand.
Everybody, you reckon?
Well, close.
Perhaps everybody except ACPO Ltd and Metropolitan Police senior anti-terrorism officer Andy Hayman, previouslyinvestigating officer in the phone hacking scandal, now News International employee, and recent star of the pantomime kind at the Home Affairs Select Committe on 13 July this year:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xd6VfFtC_MM (see 2min 20 in)