This week, as I was in London for the launch of HuffPost UK, Britain's phone hacking scandal mushroomed from journalistic black-eye to a crisis engulfing the UK's most powerful institutions. You know a scandal has reached critical mass when people start asking of those at the top: "What did you know and when did you know it?" So far, Rupert Murdoch is standing by right-hand gal Rebekah Brooks, while David Cameron, who is close to Brooks and had made the now-arrested former News of the World editor Andy Coulson his communications director, felt compelled to toss his chums under the double-decker bus. Big Society, small world. Although filled with journalists behaving badly, it's important to remember that it was journalists, especially the Guardian's Nick Davies and Amelia Hill, who diligently stuck with this story for years and brought it to light -- something the political elite and the paid-off police wouldn't do. Keep checking out HuffPost UK for the latest twists and turns.
Follow Arianna Huffington on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ariannahuff
News Of The World's Closing: In Pictures
News of the World closing down | The Sun |News
'News of The World' is Closing Down: The Fall of Rupertgate ...
Front pages in London and Canada feature News of the World closing ...
Phone hacking | Media | guardian.co.uk
Cameron Vows Full Probe Of Phone Hacking Scandal : NPR
Phone-hacking scandal is biggest PR disaster of Murdoch's career ...
It would be nice if the new media could undo him as thoroughly as he has undone so many.
www.hard=truths.blogspot.com
One can hope that the Murdoch empire can start to collapse and we can find that HuffingtonÂPost-like organizatiÂons taking its place.
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/courttv-founder-steve-brill-predicts-rupert-murdochs-fcc-licenses-will-be-challenged/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/sunday-roundup_179_b_893906.html#comments
Fox channel to see how they were covering it.
I've not seen a hint of "news" on this topic during my
searches. Of course, I can only hold my breath for 2 minutes.
Anyone here seen any Fox "coverage"?
But I do have to admit: that was before the rise of the neocons and the Tea Party.
In Greece, there's a simmering and budding revolt. In Egypt, the people in large numbers (hundred thousands in Tahrir Square) are challenging the top Supreme Council of the military provisional government. That's stage 2 of the advancing people's revolution in Egypt. The masses of people are deepening revolutionary commitments and developing revolutionary sophisticated discrimination between the people's army institution and the top echelon hangover from Mubarak (personally due to face trial in August).
Back on the ranch in Washington, the President, Boehner and McConnell are wrangling about who to sabotage whom, and whom among the American people to throw under the corporate bus. Talk about the difference between progression towards revolution and regression towards devolution, Egypt and Greece are symptomatic of one trend, while US and UK are symptomatic of the other trend.
What the Egyptians and Greeks are showing Americans is that the masses of middleworkingclass people don't have to take the sh*t from the 1% plutocratic ruling class lying down, when they mess up big time in diverting national resources into enriching the super-rich by depriving national economic employment growth and social safety-net stability.
As far as day to day developments, I don't think I've missed much, by simply following Huffpost frontpage daily. But few people would take the trouble to go deeper and connect the dots over a wider horizon and longer trajectory, and see where the trends are leading to. One day or a week is not indicative of a trend. What's happening in Greece and Egypt deserve close attention from Americans because the pressures that are hitting their societies and economies are a premonition of what could happen to America when pressures continue to build up in the social and economic domains.
The past weeks, aren't Boehner and McConnell contemplating, talking and openly advocating throwing large segments of Americans "under the bus"? to satisfy bigbanksters behind the curtains demands for "social austerity", ostensibly to "balance the budget". Isn't that what the IMF demanded as pre-condition for extending relief credits to the Greek government?
The hard-pressed American middleclass has more common interests with the Greek and Egyptian majority population than they have in common with the 0.1% super-rich billionaires controlling and mis-managing the wealth of the nation.
I visit a couple financial sites in the US - some are very, very good, then hop
over to HP for a thorough look at the general news - lots of the commentary
is excellent, and gives one a better insight into the news - I also find it fun to
be able to comment on events of the day & even rattle the odd pace-maker
Indeed a great job, HP
The BBC has earned its reputation for accurate and careful reporting. Is it that careful attention to detail that bores you? Do you prefer the salacious gossip and sensational style of Faux News?
[This OpEd opinion by Robert J.Herbold in WallStreetJournal July9,2011p.A15 speaks for itself.]
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Recently I flew from Los Angeles to China to attend a corporate BoardOfDirectors meeting in Shanghai, as well as customer and government visits there and in Beijing. After the trip was over, in thinking about the United States and China, it was not clear to me which is the developed, and which is the developing country.
INFRASTRUCTURE:
Let's face it, Los Angeles is decaying. Its airport is cramped and dirty, too small for the volume it tries to handle and in a state of disrepair. In contrast, the airports in Beijing and Shanghai are brand new, clean and incredibly spacious, with friendly, courteous staff galore. They are extremely well-designed to handle the large volume of air traffic needed to carry out global business these days.
In traveling the highways around Los Angeles to get to the airport, you are struck by the state of disrepair there, too. Of course, everyone knows California is bankrupt and that is probalby the reason why. In contrast, the infrastructure in the major Chinese cities such as Shanghai and Beijing is absolute state-of-the-art and relatively new.
The congestion in the two cities is similar. In China, consumers are buying 18 million cars per year compared to 11 million in the US. China is working hard building roads to keep up with the gigantic demand for the automobile.
The just-completed Beijing to Shanghai high-speed rail link, which takes less than five hours for the 800-mile trip, is the crown jewel of China's current 5,000 miles of rail, set to grow to 10,000 miles in 2020. Compare that to decaying Amtrak.
GOVERNMENT LEADERSHIP:
Here the differences are staggering. In every meeting we attended, with four different customers of our company as well as representatives from four different arms of the Chinese government, our hosts began their presentation with a brief discussion of China's new five-year-plan. This is the 12th five-year-plan and it was announced in March 2011. Each of these groups reminded us that the new five-year plan is primarily focused on three things: 1) improving innovation in the country; 2) making significant improvements in the environmental footprint of China; and 3) continuing to create jobs to employ large numbers of people moving from rural to urban areas. Can you imagine the US Congress and President emerging with a unified five-year plan that they actually achieve (like China typically does)?
The specificity of China's goals in each element of the five-year is impressive. For example, China plans to cut carbon emissions by 17% by 2016. In the same time frame, China's high-tech industries are to grow by 15% of the economy from 3% today.
GOVERNMENT FINANCES:
This topic is, frankly, embarrassing. China manages its economy with incredible care and is sitting on trillions of dollars of reserves. In contrast, the US government has managed its finances very poorly over the years, and is flirting with Greece-like catastrophe.
HUMAN RIGHTS / FREE SPEECH:
In this area, our American view is that China has a ton of work to do. Their view is that we are nuts for not blocking pornography and anti-government points-of-view from our youth and citizens.
TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION:
To give you a feel for China's determination to become globally competitive in technology innovation, let me cite some statistics from two facilities we visited. Over the last 10 years, the Institute of Biophysics, an arm of the Chinese Academy of Science, has received very significant investment by the Chinese government. Today it consists of more than 3,000 talented scientists focused on doing world-class research in areas such as protein science, and brain and cognitive sciences.
We also visited the new Shanghai Advanced Research Institute, another arm of the Chinese Academy of Science. This gigantic science and technology park is under construction and today consists of four buildings, but it will grow to over 60 buildings on a large piece of land equivalent to about a third of a square mile. It is being staffed by Ph.D.-caliber researchers. Their goal statement is fairly straightforward: "To be a pioneer in the development of new technologies relevant to business."