back to article Murdoch 'sorry' he didn't shut News of the World years ago

Media tycoon Rupert Murdoch wished he had closed down the News of the World that has been at the centre of the phone-hacking storm that has gripped his corporation "years ago". Murdoch at the Leveson Inquiry this morning. The News Corp boss made the comment during a fascinating exchange at the Leveson Inquiry into press …

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  1. Jediben
    Devil

    Woulda, coulda, shoulda...

    And if my aunt had balls she'd be my uncle, Rupert. We know your whole outfit is corrupt and no amount of hand-wringing after the fact should change that.

    Sadly, it probably will because what the press and politicians report today will be the benchmark for how much they can be seen to get away with again in future.

  2. DJV Silver badge
    FAIL

    If only...

    If only he would shut the Sun down retrospectively as well.

    1. ItsNotMe
      Thumb Up

      Re: If only...

      Maybe...but he has hundreds of millions of reasons ($$) NOT to shut either down.

  3. rjmx
    Pirate

    Oh, really?

    "this whole business of News of the World is a serious blot on my reputation".

    That reputation was already so tattered that it would have been hard to find anywhere to put the blot in the first place.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Liar

    He's the one who sanctioned the whole culture of spying and blackmail. SO much so that our Prime Ministers have to pay obeisance to him/his staff and editors evertime there's an election. He appears so smug in the powers he has, holier than thou attitude and arrogance.

    Hate his demeanour even more.

    And to know that success of election campaigns rest on readers of SUn makes me shiver as to the quality of our electorate, too.

    As is said, a country/people gets a government it deserves. How many bankers have I seen going to work and reading................ the SUN!

    Shame.

  5. Jeebus

    It's a shame he's lived three decades longer than his welcome.

    1. Dozer

      I think you will find he is older than 30.

      1. moonface

        Dennis Potter

        I will always remember the Dennis Potter interview.

        "I call my cancer Rupert," he told Bragg. "Because that man Murdoch is the one who, if I had the time (I've got too much writing to do)... I would shoot the bugger if I could."

        Lets face it 'Cold Lazarus' was pretty poor, he could have spent his time more wisely.

  6. Citizen Kaned

    what i dont get...

    if i commit a crime and break a law,even one i dont know existed, i am still to blame.

    yet, he owns several companies with a culture of breaking the law, yet he denies he knows.

    i bet fuck all will happen to him. i say stop him trading in this country. close down all his interests and ban him.

    isnt he in shit in the USA too?

    1. Jeebus

      Re: what i dont get...

      He has a massive stake in Fox News so obviously he's shit in the USA, given that FN are the news equivalent of bowel cancer for deception, lying and attacking America.

      1. Citizen Kaned

        Re: what i dont get...

        in shit... meaning in trouble. i hear his lot has been hacking in the USA too. hopefully they wont be as pussified as our lot will be. im sure he still has plenty on them.

        1. asdf
          FAIL

          Re: what i dont get...

          >hopefully they wont be as pussified as our lot will be

          Wow you have never been to the United State of Corporate Whores have you? Our culture has made a deal with the devil where corporations are the ones with the rights and us people get thrown scraps for advancing their interests. Murdoch is safer here than even in the UK which is why he picked my homeland for his citizenship. I love my country for every reason but our laws and government.

  7. PhilipN Silver badge

    Old point, new presentation

    I admit having seen the NoW once in around 1970 and it was a nasty little rag already back then.

    But a lot of this foaming at the mouth is, frankly, stupid. The NoW was the UK's largest circulation Sunday newspaper. There were lots of others which people could have read if they chose to. Millions chose to read the NoW.

    CHOSE. Not like Pravda in the Soviet era. Not because they were short of toilet tissue. And not because Grandaddy Rupe forced them to.

    It was because they wanted to read the bleeding thing.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Old point, new presentation

      Because unfortunatly most people are brain dead morons who take anything that is spoon fed to them.

      If you recommend trying something like al jazeera to them, they will think you are a hoodie wearing, east european peadophile terrorist that agrees with bi-weekly bin collections (the latter being the worst of all crimes)

    2. handle
      Holmes

      Re: Old point, new presentation

      Quite a few of them would feel at home on this site, with its innuendo-laden headlines and populist baseless rants about matters such as climate change.

      1. Sam Liddicott

        Re: Old point, new presentation

        I've just finished my 3 month boycott of el Reg after frustration at it's downright lewdifying of normal stories and utter lack of sensitivity to anything that was once considered decent. Truly biting the hands that feeds it.

        In my absence I found: techcrunch, techradar and politicalbetting among others.

        I'm sure I wasn't missed, but I'm back to see if it's worth staying.

        Right now I still have to remember to check, the habit of staying away is well formed.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Old point, new presentation

          "I've just finished my 3 month boycott of el Reg", Sam Liddicott

          I too grow weary of inflammatory, erroneous headlines, biased opinion and advertising masquerading as technical news.

          "In my absence I found: techcrunch, techradar and politicalbetting among others", Sam Liddicott

          Well, with headlines like this, I don't see much of a difference :)

          "Apple security ten years behind Microsoft"

          http://www.techradar.com/news/computing/apple/apple-security-ten-years-behind-microsoft-says-kapersky-boss-1077840

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Old point, new presentation

          yeah, Sam?

          B'bye...

      2. ItsNotMe
        FAIL

        @handle

        "...and populist baseless rants about matters such as climate change."

        You mean just like YOU are doing?

        1. handle

          Re: @handle

          'Fraid not, ItsNotMe - by accepting rather than rejecting the overwhelming scientific concensus on the uncomfortable theory of man-made climate change I am being by definition exactly the opposite of both baseless and populist. Although I must say I am flattered that you seem to consider my single sentence on the subject to be on a par in the rantiness stakes with the scores of articles on this site to which I am referring.

    3. Graham Marsden

      Re: Old point, new presentation

      You can make a lot of money pandering to the lowest common denominator, especially when you feed them a diet of salacious tittle-tattle and carefully spun stories that appeal to their prurient interests.

      Truth? That's another matter entirely...

  8. Senior Ugli

    why do people buy the sun after what this monster has done???

    1. DF118
      Holmes

      Um, because Sun readers are morons?

    2. Piro Silver badge

      The guy above me..

      Couldn't have put it better, or more simply. People who read The Sun don't actually care about current affairs, which is funny, because they're buying a paper.

    3. Not That Andrew

      They buy it for the sports section and page 3 girls.

      1. Audrey S. Thackeray

        "They buy it for the sports section and page 3 girls."

        It's pretty rubbish for sports even but it does have the best tits of any daily newspaper.

      2. gujiguju

        Circulation would go down 50% tomorrow if they ended Page 3 girls.

    4. kain preacher

      Same reason why folks watch Fox news here .

      1. Jeebus

        "Same reason why folks watch Fox news here ."

        Because they're racist and are annoyed that intelligent society has largely progressed beyond such things so instead cling onto the idea of Political Correctness instead?

    5. oldredlion

      the same reason some people buy the Grauniad

      1. DF118

        @oldredlion

        There are many tits in the Graun but sadly none of the bulgarian airbag variety.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    is he really the problem?

    We seem to have become a nation of unquestioning idiots who accept what the media have to say. Be it anything from softcore titillation (actress wears bikini - shock!) meets xenophobia style Daily Mail drivel at one extreme, through to the incessant smug BBC PCness meets soft-left indoctrination at the other.

    Few facts, lots of superficial opinion and sleaze.

    At the end of the day, the punters decide they want this stuff, and half of them are of below average IQ.

  10. Crisp

    100 Years ago a newspaper owner like Murdoch would have done the decent thing.

    He'd have gone into his office with a revolver and a bottle of whiskey.

    1. Not That Andrew

      Re: 100 Years ago a newspaper owner like Murdoch would have done the decent thing.

      You're joking, right? Compared to Hearst, Murdoch is a promising amateur.

    2. kain preacher

      Re: 100 Years ago a newspaper owner like Murdoch would have done the decent thing.

      Lets see back then they would of sent thugs after , printed viscous lies about , and have politician and the police change your mind. This was an era when the shot striking works and the papers would white wash it

  11. Graham Marsden
    Devil

    Murdoch "Sorry"...

    ... he and his got caught.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Murdoch 'sorry' he didn't shut News of the World years ago

    Not half as sorry as the rest of us.

  13. min

    Mr. Murdoch...

    ...the seat to the right hand of Satan awaits you, old bean. do the decent thing by the horned one - and humanity - and die. after suffering, of course.

  14. peter 45
    Paris Hilton

    Yeh right!

    "Murdoch had said earlier that it was "grossly unfair" to his flagship redtop, The Sun, to be "lumped together" with the NotW."

    You mean the Sun is a well respected, independent newspaper with a proud record of in-depth investigative reporting by journalists of impeccable character who gathered the news entirely within the law, and does not suffer from the celebrity led, gossiping, hyped –up, hysterical half truths normally associated with the gutter press……….and they don't have pictures of ladies with their tits out.

    Who knew?

    (talking of ladies with their tits out..)

  15. squilookle
    Pirate

    "Murdoch had said earlier that it was "grossly unfair" to his flagship redtop, The Sun, to be "lumped together" with the NotW."

    No, it's not grossly unfair. They are newspapers in the same style, owned by the same company. I'm not saying any wrongdoing has happened at the Sun aswell (although I personally think it likely) but I think it would be extremely irresponsible not investigate the Sun for the same type of activity.

    1. Not That Andrew

      Especially as key NoTW staff were transferred to the Sun after the NoTW was closed down, and went to form the core of the Sun on Sunday (AKA NoTW v2.0) staff.

    2. MJI Silver badge

      NOTW & Sun

      I always thought NOTW was the Sunday Sun.

      I remember when the term "Sun reader" was an insult.

      1. Citizen Kaned

        Re: NOTW & Sun

        it still is to people with more than a handful of braincells.

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Billy Bragg says it best here:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1P6KUyOhBc

  17. Ben Holmes
    Happy

    I bet...

    ...Murdoch doesn't read The Sun.

  18. ukgnome
    Trollface

    Murdoch

    Crazy Fool!

  19. MJI Silver badge

    Sun paper

    Jasper Carrott had it right

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Sun paper

      Thirty years before the scandal hit even.

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OO687AiGIvU

  20. Stevie

    Bah!

    Call me a cynic but I'm not buying so much as a word here.

  21. Maty

    Look ...

    By all means bash Murdoch - he would be doing the same to anyone else in his situation.

    But I respectfully disagree with most of the criticisms of the Sun. No,it's not preferred reading for techies or Oxbridge dons. It's tailored for mass market reading, and is very popular on building sites.

    I suspect that some who are criticizing the Sun have not actually read the thing to any extent. I've put in my time on building sites and read it regularly. It's a good product, technically speaking. Well produced, with a clear editorial voice and well-above-average proof-reading.

    The point is, many - possibly most - people who read the Sun wouldn't switch to the Times or the Philosophical Review if the red-tops were banned. They'd just stop reading newspapers altogether.

    Personally I prefer what readers here probably consider the lumpen proletariat to get SOME world and political information rather than none. If it takes a delivery vehicle like the Sun to do it, I can live with that.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Seriously

      I looked through it from time to time while working as a security guard to fund my way through university. It was full of people writing things like that politicians were idiots for not realising that things which came from plants never had medicinal properties.

      Seriously, it's bad.

    2. Nev

      Re: Look ...

      "It's tailored for mass market reading, and is very popular on building sites."

      Apart from Merseyside ones.

  22. FunkyEric
    Paris Hilton

    girls with their tits out

    Not only does the Sun have girls with their tits out, it has an iPad app where you can spin them around (the girls not the tits). Not that I would ever pay for the priveledge, (the thought of giving money to that nasty little man is just wrong) I recycle my Suns from the train on the way to work and then share it round the office. Green thinking soft porn, welcome to the 21st century! Oh and the iPad app has a 1 month free trial ;-) Herhehehehehe

  23. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    So what's different?

    It's the same sleeze merchant that owns the SoSunday and the same former NotW journalists' that work at the SoSunday. And the politicians and police scared of really going after Murdoch for fear of what the self same `journalists' might dig up on them.

  24. Toothpick

    The Sun? A Newspaper?

    I think you could get them under the Trade Descriptions Act for that.

  25. Mephistro
    Trollface

    "Murdoch claimed his company had spent "hundreds of millions of dollars" over the past year in investigating the matter to find out how widespread those actions were on the tabloid."

    For that kind of money, I would have found out everything, and told him, and with the remaining $$$ I'd probably have found a cure for malaria. But, on second thought, you can intercept lots of calls , set up lots of blackmails and pay lots of huge bribes with "hundreds of millions of dollars". Perhaps it was well spent money, after all.

  26. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I can tell he's lying

    His cold thin lips moved.

  27. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The man who brought us Fox News

    I think News of the World is on par from a journalistic integrity perspective with his other ventures. I am sure he is sorry they got caught.

  28. Brezhnev's Shadow
    Mushroom

    no worries ocker

    Just get "Mick Hucknall's sister" involved again and given a couple of years if she can avoid the Big House then there won't be anything left anymore - "and I woke up Nursie, and it was all a dweam!"

  29. MJI Silver badge

    NSFW

    Can we have a warning about walnut head as not a nice sight while eating?

    1. auburnman
      Trollface

      NSFL

      Not Safe For Lunch?

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