NewsCorp: How much longer can it survive?

So today, we've had 6 more arrests in this NewsCorp saga. One of those arrested, Rebekah Brooks, has been previously arrested in relation to this ongoing saga, the other 5, including her husband, the racehorse trainer Charlie Brooks, and News International's Head of Security Mark Hanna, are new arrests in the case.

Rebekah herself has also been a victim of the scandal, after it emerged at the end of February that her phone had been hacked by News Of The World journalists, whilst she was Editor of The Sun. Incredibly irony or poetic justice? One thing is for sure, the old adgae of there being no honour amongst thieves, seems to hold true for Murdoch employees too.

Does anybody else think she is never going to return to NewsCorp after this? More by her own choice though I believe rather than Murdoch not wanting her back. After this episode, she'll want to stay out of the public spotlight for as long as she can.

And with Ofcom currently investigating to see if NewsCorp are a fit and proper company to hold a broadcast licence, for BSkyB, how long will it take before Rupert Murdoch finally gives up and slowly dissolves the whole company, selling off assets for as much as he can so he can live out some form of retirement in relative peace, rather than ending his days in a prison cell and his assets sold off for the mere pitance of their real worth.

Thoughts on the weekend's news

Shocked to hear of the death of Whitney Houston, she was only 48, and seemed to have gotten over the darkest time in her life. I will be posting some of her music here on Viewpoint, as a tribute later.

Other thoughts...

Felt Luis Suarez behaved like a petulant child on Saturday at the Liverpool v Manchester United football match. FA should charge him with bringing the game into disrepute after all the petulance he showed, all the way through the match, despite his goal. Apologies the day after do not make much difference when the world was watching your petulance on display.

David Cameron and Andrew Lansley are digging themselves into a pit at the moment. Neither want to conceed that the NHS reforms they've put forward are the wrong way forward. Torbay had the right idea, putting social care and health care together under one trust. The right ideas were already out there, if they could have been bothered to look. Andrew Lansley should resign.

8 more arrests this weekend in the scandal between journalists and Metropolitan Police officers. 5 of those arrested, were journalists from the Sun. Murdoch, rather too quickly for my liking, came out to announce that he was committed to continuing to publish The Sun. Give it 3 months. I think we may be seeing a different kind of tabloid from Murdoch coming out soon. One that won't be so obvioously biased, presenting itself as straight news with opinion limited to the opinion columns. In fact, the bias will be more subtle, but it'll still be there. Then the Sun will close.

Interesting that 4 current employees from the Royal Bank of Scotland, which is now 83% owned by the state, have been arrested in a tax fraud investigation. HMRC say that the arrests concern the individuals financial affairs and are not related to their work at the bank, but surely, they cannot handle their own financial affairs without resorting to fraud, does that mean we can trust that they won't employ fraudulent methods in their work for RBS? I don't think so.

Former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey, says that Christianity is facing a gradual marginalisation. There are hundreds of religions out there, some very real like Shinto and Buddhism, and some that only really exists in the minds of the believers, such as the Jedi religion. To claim that any one faith should be dominant over all others, is a very dangerous statement to make. Tolerance of all faiths, should be the watchword here.

Overseas, Mitt Romney pulled off a very impressive but unexpected double. He won the Maine Caucuses, which Ron Paul had been expected to win. He also won the straw poll at CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference, where it had been expected that Rick Santorum would do well. Conservative Republicans may not be fully behind Romney, as they seem to have the opinion that only a Conservative is truly electable, instead of totally unelectable, but if they don't get behind Romney, they don't stand a chance. Why do you think that Democrats have been pushing for Santorum or Gingrich to become the nominee? Neither one has a hope against Obama, it would be an easy victory for Barack Obama. Mitt Romney, with the right VP candidate, probably Ron Paul, would be a much tougher challenge.

Video Blogging Week on Viewpoint - Day 6 of 7

It's day 6 of Video Blogging Week here on Viewpoint, and we somehow manage to go from Doctor Who and Michelle Ryan in a catsuit, to the conservative press.



Tomorrow, we round up the week long experiment and look back over what the experiment has shown me so far.

Muslim Preacher's Daughter a Pole Dancer!

Here we go again, the so called conservative press showing their so called self righteousness at the daughter of deported muslim cleric Omar Bakri being revealed by The Sun as a pole dancer.

The Daily Mail is also all over this story like a bad rash, but they correctly credit the story to The Sun, almost trying to distance themselves from the story.

The Sun further reports that Bakri paid for the operation whilst living on benefits. All I can say I'm glad the money didn't go on drugs or weapons.

But to be honest, I don't care if she is a pole dancer. She's entitled to make off her life what she wants. She chose to reject her father's extreme interpretation of Islam, she has her own life, leave her be.

Holding celebrities to account?

Here on Viewpoint and on TruthSeeker, I do my best to hold politicians, pundits and columnists to account.  I also at least do try and highlight when they get it right too.  But there is a blog out there that aims to point out every famous hypocrite, be they politician or celebrity.

The trouble is, I think they're a little over-zealous with their hypocrisy-hunting.  That or it's a poor excuse to focus on pretty female celebrities, who do seem to be the so-called main offenders according to Deceiver.com.

For instance, a recent post about Heroes cheerleader Hayden Panettiere referenced Murdoch rag The Sun and a story about rumours that Hayden is a lesbian.  Rather than try to deny it, she went completely the other way...

She said: “That’s fine with me. If I’m going to be linked with someone, I could do an affair with Angelina Jolie, Jessica Alba or Charlize Theron.

“And Kate Beckinsale is gorgeous. There are so many beautiful girls.”

Well, I can't disagree with her, but I can disagree with Deceiver, and another blog they reference, IDontLikeYouInThatWay.com, who say...

"Her publicists have already tried the Lolita thing, now there are "rumors" that this chick is a lesbian. So basically, they are trying everything they can to turn Panettiere into a sex symbol. In reality, the only thing that might work is a growth spurt and some thigh exercises."

I think that's very unfair, as she is a very sexy looking lady, in a girl next door kinda way.  Deceiver are no better...

"...the only reason she’s obnoxiously propagating this titillating tidbit is that she wants you to picture her making out with women who are way, way hotter than she is, and hope it rubs off on her a little."

Oh come on.  Are you seriously trying to tell me that this a cynical ploy to make her seem sexier?  Kinky Gerlinky has some very sexy pictures of Hayden in a lovely blue dress and thigh high leather boots, and Booted Up has more pictures of Hayden looking very pretty and very sexy in boots.  Boot Lady Teri, who runs the blog and Bootlovers.com, which the blog is associated with, even manages to congratulate Hayden on being a well behaved, decent young lady.

I think she's hot enough to not need any publicist to try and up her hotness.  No, this is much simpler than that.  What Hayden is doing is ending a rumour by not taking it seriously and laughing with it.  And because Hayden has not become the next Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan in the celebrity disaster department, these blogs, like Deceiver, are using every last excuse they can to criticise her and print her pictures.

Sorry, but this is easier to see through than a window!  I don't make a habit of criticising blogs without reason.  After all, most blogs are just ordinary people writing down their opinions, or keeping a diary of events and thoughts, and I'm pretty much the same.  I respect the differences in opinions, with the proviso that there is a factual basis for their opinion.  Opinions just for the sake of opinions is not something I do, and is definitely not something I like other people doing.  But it has to be said, when the truth is that visible, that obvious, and so well established by many other celebrities over the years doing the exact same thing, dismissing a rumour by laughing with it, you've gotta wonder whether the writer of that blog post has an ulterior agenda at work, and I strongly believe they do.

Like most tabloids and celeb-obsessed magazines, these celeb-obsessed blogs are looking for any excuse, however flimsy, to highlight certain celebrities, because they believe, rightly or wrongly, that covering those celebrities will get them readers.  I do understand that certain stories will get readers flocking to a blog, I experienced that myself with the recent Austrian Incest case, which brought more readers onto the blog than ever before.  But unlike the celebrity obsessive blogs, I look for the stories I want to cover, and if that means I get plenty of readers clicking through to the blog, even better.

Deceiver by name, and deceiver by nature.  Deceiver.com flatters to deceive.

Paris is a golden girl!

The Sun has a couple of pictures of Paris Hilton actually doing some work for a change, albeit posing for an advert for a champagne, but nice to see actually earning a living for once!

The interesting thing about these pictures though is that Paris is posing nude, but covered from head to toe in gold paint, ala Shirley Eaton in the Bond film, Goldfinger.