By Dark Politricks
Today the first edition of
the Sun on Sunday is released to the British public.
This is the successor paper to
the very discredited News of the World. A paper so blackened in the eyes of the British public it led to a Parliamentary inquiry into Press Practices -
the Levison Inquiry, saw the arrest and jailing of a number
of reporters and policemen, the paying of millions in compensation to stalked celebrities and victims of phone hacking like
Milly Dowler and the subsequent appearances of Murdoch (senior and junior) being grilled in front of MP's before they threw everyone on the paper overboard and
disbanded the most successful Sunday tabloid paper the UK has ever known.
The Levison Inquiry is still going and day by day more revelations are revealed about the cosy practises that saw
the British Police trade tips with Journalists for cash, the illegal hacking into computers and phones of targets of stories, the stalking of celebrities and the ways and means in which the British tabloid press works as a whole on an almost daily basis.
Lest anyone think I am going to attack
the Sun and the News of the World unfairly in this article let me tell you know that I believe all Fleet Street papers are as bad as each other, that all of them have probably engaged in phone hacking, bribery and tip trading with the Police. It is only because the News of the World got caught first that they are facing the full force of the public wrath but I hold all mainstream papers in the utter contempt they deserve.
This week at Levison see's quite an interesting list of witnesses including the ex head of the Metropolitan Police
Sir Paul Stephenson, and
Yates of Yard, who
lead the initial inquiry into the phone hacking and is now
working hard in Bahrain teaching their police how to crack heads of the protesters - not that we hear much of this in our tabloids seeing that Bahrain is an ally whilst Syria isn't.
The line up at Levison for the coming week is as follows:
Monday Sue Akers, the Deputy Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) who is leading the inquiry into phone and email hacking and claims of bribery of public officials.
Brian Paddick, former deputy assistant commissioner, MPS, who claims his voicemail was hacked.
Lord Prescott, the former Labour Party deputy leader who also claimed his voicemail was hacked.
Tuesday Nick Davies, The Guardian journalist. Jacqui Hames, former MPS officer, and Crimewatch presenter.
MP Simon Hughes.
Chris Jeffries, the Bristol landlord, who falsely implicated in the murder of Jo Yeates.
Jane Winter, director of British Irish Rights Watch (to be confirmed)
Magnus Boyd, solicitor (to be read)
Wednesday Detective Inspector (MPS) Mark Maberley
Detective Chief Superintendent (MPS) Keith Surtees
Detective Sergeant Phillip Williams
Thursday Peter Clarke, former deputy assistant commissioner with specialist operations, MPS
Andy Hayman, former assistant commissioner, MPS
Sir Paul Stephenson, former Metropolitan Police Commissioner
John Yates, former assistant commissioner, MPS
Apparently,
the Independent assures us that we can expect to hear 'Jaw-dropping' testimonies as the focus of the inquiry turns to police and public officials.
Apparently the reason
the Sun on Sunday was brought out today and not next week as planned is purely down to the prospect of so much dirt being revealed in the coming week at
Levison that it would have been impossible to launch a new paper amidst so much dirt and fresh revelations about
the corrupt relationship between the mainstream media and the British police.
As the Independent assures us, this week we will see "jaw-dropping stuff" and "the most sensational developments yet." As well as the promise that these new revelations, allegations and counter-allegations would result in a "bloodbath".
It seems the choice between
launching the Sun on Sunday now during the comparatively quiet of only just having a number of
Sun journalists arrested along with members of our fine constabulary under claims of corruption is nothing compared to the shit storm that could be blowing around Westminster next Sunday.
The arrest of Sun journalists including the deputy editor over claims of inappropriate payments to police and public officials is apparently not out of the ordinary in these dying days of mainstream news.
The five Sun Journalists arrested were deputy editor Geoff Webster, picture editor John Edwards, chief reporter John Kay, chief foreign correspondent Nick Parker and deputy news editor John Sturgis.
As well as the usual mob of
News International criminals that are making their homes at the Police Stations of London these days a police officer from Surrey, a Ministry of Defence employee and a member of the armed forces were also arrested at their homes last Saturday on suspicion of corruption, misconduct in a public office and conspiracy in relation to both.
It really seems that the decision to bring out
the new and improved News International tabloid AKA the Sun on Sunday was nothing more than a business decision colliding with a very narrow time slot in which the publics attention would be diverted onto other matters apart from the serious and all invasive problem of police corruption and bent journalism in fleet street.
As the Independent makes clear the choice between launching just after the arrests of a large section of their staff - the same staff who by the way produce
the new Sun on Sunday paper - and the potential fallout from new explosive revelations would be virtually impossible.
Apparently
emails at News International were being deleted until 2010 and yesterday it was reported that the Independent Police Complaints Commission was looking into a claim that
a senior News International figure was given a report from inside the Metropolitan Police on the progress of the original police investigation.
The day before, court documents emerged showing the systematic deletion of emails relating to phone hacking. If only these journo's had read a few more
#altnews sites they would have known the only way to delete data from our modern interweb is not to put it there in the first place.
So today's
new Sun on Sunday is nothing more than a brazen attempt by Murdoch and Son to gain a few days of coverage and get the brand into the public consciousness before the mud slinging starts.
I have been watching BBC News for the last hour and a half as I write this and they have already mentioned the paper over 20 times including 3 segments with an "expert" (an expert of sleaze I presume) who details the papers strengths in depth and yet the connection between the Independents front page headline and the release of the paper has not been made a single time.
Slack reporting, lazy journalism or just the BBC doing what they do best - ignoring the dots and choosing to draw little fluffy bunnies instead to distract the viewers from any real news.
So will you be going out today and purchasing
the all new and improved Sun on Sunday. A paper that promises all of the following on its new "
The Sun Says Page":
On our first day as a tabloid — November 17, 1969 — the debut "Sun Says" editorial announced:
"The Sun cares. About the quality of life. About the kind of world we live in. And about people.
"We will never forget YOUR place in The Sun. This newspaper will not be produced for the politicians or the pundits. It will be produced for you."
Forty-three years later, The Sun remains true to those ideals. Our readers' interests, fears, hopes and aspirations are at the centre of everything we do. That is the secret of our success.
On the Phone Hacking scandal the paper mentions only that the arrested staff are "innocent until proven guilty" something they never bothered to do when they hounded members of the public and gave them trials by media before a court could even sit and decide their fate.
Who can forget the mob justice they inspired when they published the names and addresses of pedophiles and a children's doctor had her home attacked because
the mob got the words pediatrician and pedophile confused with each other.
"News International closed our sister paper the News of the World over the phone hacking scandal. Since then some of our own journalists have been arrested, though not charged, over allegations of payments to public officials for stories. We believe those individuals are innocent until proven guilty."
But most of all the Sun staff want
YOU the reader to know that they care about the law and the
oh so strict self regulation that they can choose to drop out of if it suits them like the Daily Express and Daily Star have done.
Our journalists must abide by the Press Complaints Commission's Editors' Code, the industry standard for ethical behaviour, and the News Corporation Standards of Business Conduct. We will hold our journalists to the standards we expect of them.
After all, a newspaper which holds the powerful to account must do the same with itself.
You will be able to trust our journalists to abide by the values of decency as they gather news.
You will be able to trust us
I almost pissed myself whilst reading that bullshit but then I know what these papers are like, I stupidly used to read them before I became aware that there was actually more than one side to every story. That people who live in countries like Iran or Afghanistan deserve more from us than just bombs and missiles no matter how many times papers like the Sun act as drummer boys for war.
Most importantly I learnt on my schooling into journalism (for I once wanted to be such a fine upstanding member of the community) that when you chose to be a journo for a job you are making
a Faustian deal with the devil.
No matter how much you may want to uncover truth in the darkest places, reveal dishonesty in places of power and write ground breaking stories that will one day cover walls as examples of bravery and honest journalism. You will in all likelihood end up working for
a fleet street rag like the Sun or the Star who show topless girls on Page 3, pay coppers for stories, break the law at every opportunity to gain such important scoops such as which footballer is shagging which model and spend hours outside restaurants hoping to get a photo of Amanda Holden or Cheryl Cole eating a salad.
In all reality you will never get to do all those things you dreamt about at college as the mainstream media is nothing but an establishment whore, a mouthpiece owned by a few rich white men who would rip your story up in a heartbeat if it didn't conform to their editorial policy and didn't have sales figures rather than news worthiness as the key factor in the decision to publish.
I wonder how many people feel the same today.
I also wonder how many ignoramuses will forget that
the News of the World was always just the "Sun on Sunday" under a different name and be suckered into parting with money that would be better spent buying a homeless man a can of special brew.
The damage to the tramps brain would undoubtedly be less than the damage to anyone's brain who reads the Sun by choice and at least the tramp will gain some kind of benefit from drinking that can of strong alcohol. All you get from reading the Sun is dimmer by the sentence.
