News of the World - do we need it?!

[James159sw]

I can admit that over the years I have very occasionally bought NOTW but not for the last 10 years.

Surely there is now a good case to close it down all together!

We are a country that seems to obsessed with scandal and celebrity trash news.
However when stories start emerging about them accessing mobile voice mails and deleting messages that are to do with serious crime - in this case the murder of Milly Dowler then surely the Government & New Scotland Yard should step in and close them down

What do you guys reckon?

[CobolMan]

I suspect the NoTW have far too much dirt on politicians (of all parties) and senior policeman for that ever to happen.

Nothing to do with dirt.

It's all about power and money.

Murdoch offers both to all who kowtow to his desires.

[alfapud]

do we need wasps?

[Padders]

News Corp needs it's wings clipping.

It's been wielding far too much power for far too long and become utterly morally corrupt.

[996]

Burn it down I say Hopefully when all the scumbags are in a meeting of how they're
gonna wriggle out of this latest disgrace

Normally we can expect the scumbag press to start a witchhunt
and huge screaming public outcry against anyone accused of
such vileness.

However when it's themselves involved we can only expect them
to tamp it down and hope it all blows over.

[Morgan166]

Personally, I don't see a need for a paper like the NoTW.

People who need a Sunday paper should learn to read and buy a proper one.

[Gibbo]

I don't have time to read a Sunday newspaper so you can
scrap the lot as far as I'm concerned.

[CobolMan]

I wonder who the Elliot Carver character was based on. From what I've read about a certain Australian 'businessman' I would never give money to any of his enterprises.

[Padders]

Originally Posted by Nev

... when it's themselves involved we can only expect them
to tamp it down and hope it all blows over.

I thought it amusing during Newsnight last night when Paxman pointed out that all the "broadsheets" were carrying the story on the front page and the tabloids were silent ('cos they've all been at it no doubt).

[VO2Max]

On Sky News this morning, it was 5th story in.

Elsewhere, main story.

No surprise, really.

[VO2Max]

The News of the World and The Sun (and to be fair, many other tabloids) massage their readers' egos by telling them how clever they are to buy the paper, show them a nice topless/scantily-clad teenage tease who looks out of the page endearingly, has lots of sport, lots of gossip, carry a lot of feelgood factor by exposing drug and vice barons as well as norty vicars - and lots of News International political opinion.

It's called subliminal advertising.

And although there isn't a lot to choose between any of them these days, I blame News International for dragging them all down the slippery slope of the lowest common denominator in the 1st place.

You can't really 'ban' the NotW, it'd just reappear under a different guise, with the same stuff in. To a large extent they invented a market and they satisfy it.

My dad still gets it after decades because he thinks they do a lot of good work 'exposing things'

[In_The_Pass]

People make money from selling data.

I knew someone that featured in the tabloids in the 90s. The weren't famous but filled 3-4 pages and got a few jolly nice freebies out of it. I guess they were Z-list before the term was coined. Anyway someone equally as unfamous decided that was their opportunity to cash in and contacted the paper with some tittle tattle on them.

It's all down to money? Even some of our friends and colleagues would be approaching the media if it was found out one of us had won the lottery or been bedding Jordan?


I must admit the Max Mosley fancy dress party and tea drinking afternoon still makes me smile. There was far more meat to that tale than Alonso blocking Massa during Q3 at Monza in 2006. Who needs a pension when you get five nice young ladies like that offering to keep you entertained of an afternoon and make you cups of tea?

The moral of the story is whether you're the dodgy boss of a global 'sport', an elected leader, a priest, a pneumatic bimbette or a sportsman, do wrong and you'll get found out?

Doing wrong is OK. Just don't get caught.

The politicians, the press and the 'authorities' all seem much of a muchness to me. How much state generated PR is recycled as news?

[VO2Max]

Taking Max Mosley as an example, what ever you think about how bloated and stinking rich he is, however badly he may have managed F1, what a t0sser he is, however much you might dislike him and enjoy taking the pee,

a) is it genuinely in the public interest to print a story like this? What public interest has been served?

b) is it anyone else's business?

c) Has his personal liberty been infringed? I think yes.

[pally83]

It's one thing to 'pap' celebrities as they fall out of clubs, but to listen to personal and private messages for nothing more than a cheap story? Too much. As for deleting the messages of a murdered child, making parents think she's alive... there aren't words.

NoTW and the like are just not needed (and never have been, really). Give me proper reporting anyday.

Sent from my HTC Wildfire using Tapatalk

[Joss]

Trash rags such as this are a flipping joke. I hope the paper gets closed downa and every reporter who was involved gets their record tarnished forever at least if not a bit of jail time. I feel sorry for anyone who works there who is not involved as they will get labled as well and as for rupert and rebecca. Time to give them what they deserve

+ YouTube Video

[James159sw]

The plot thickens and is gathering momentum now.

Milly Dowler, Soham murders, 7/7 bombings etc. As Hugh Grant said on 10 o'clock news last night no one cares about the celebrities due to their wealth and it does sell papers but when it is death, deceit and cover ups then that gets under the skin of 99% of the general public.

NoTW will only collapse if their advertising revenue is knackered, Ford have pulled (which is major cahoots with News Corp) so the it won't be long before other major sources of advertising revenue act in the same way

RIP Milly, Soham girls, 7/7 victims etc - NoTW have used your harrowing death as a means to sell papers and at any cost

[WTFH]

Actual/factual reporting is dead - all that we get now is trash and spin.
Bad news sells better than good, so the headlines in a variety of papers will be about the latest thing to give us cancer/drive down house prices/show wastes of money/etc.

One of the headlines recently on the Beeb was that it was disgraceful that 15,000 people didn't get Olympic tickets. They went on and on, repeating the 15,000 number. What they didn't mention too often was that figure represented 10% of the people who applied. So, the actual "story" was that 90% of people who applied got tickets. 90%? That's a very high percentage. But that won't sell the story. Neither woul 10% not getting them.
But 15,000 sounds like a BIG FIGURE, so that can get everyone worked up and angry.

What the media needs to do is to move away from the American model. Sack anyone called Jeremy (Kyle/Vine/Clarkson) and employ professionals who report on facts, not make up stories.
Then get rid of 24 hour news channels. They only survive by "finding" - i.e. inventing - stories to fill the 23 hours of dead air they would have if they actually researched their info.


Grrrr. Don't get me started.

[Ralf S.]

Yes.. We have too much "news".

Just 3 broadsheets and 3 tabloids is plenty.. and the news should only be on at 6pm and 9pm.


On the other hand.. do we want papers that only do what everyone tells them?

For sure this time NotW got it wrong.. but they either broke the law (fine them, jail them.. instead of just whinging) or they didn't. If they're just "in bad taste" then people will shun their papers.. Equilibrium is always maintained.

Ralf S.

[lodgey77]

I worked as a press Photographer In london for 10 yrs. NOW isn't called the screws for no reason. I have been out of the game for a few years but their blunts do not have the highest moral grounding. Please don't tar all journalists with the same brush, they're not all bad imo.

[i.w.t]

Sunday sport for me i find its factual reporting very educational

[Alfamack]

BUS FOUND ON THE MOON!! Love it.

[SpiderMonkey]

Complete Guff