Robert Shrimsley has painted a light-hearted picture of the News Corp debacle in
The Financial Times :
With somewhat overheated rhetoric, a number of commentators are talking of the “British spring” – the moment when the political class followed the example of the Arab revolts and threw off the old order; turning against the aged dictator Rupert “Hosni” Muburdoch. The FT was there to witness the scenes from freedom’s latest front line.
They came after elevenses and vowed to stay all day. For years they had been warned to stay silent but suddenly it seemed they were no longer afraid. Out of the House of Commons they streamed and made for Parliament Square, now renamed “Freedom Square”, sticking tulips in the rolled-up papers of the Muburdoch press. Others moved to occupy the main TV positions on the green opposite the House of Lords. Inside the Commons, we heard remarkable reports of politician after politician daring to denounce the ageing and feared media dictator.
They knew the risks. Muburdoch’s secret police were known to hack phones and private records; they bribed police officers and ran smear campaigns to destroy anyone identified as an enemy. The MPs’ courage outshone even the Arab revolts. In Syria dissenters faced only tanks and bullets, but in Britain they knew that Muburdoch’s feared redtops might run a picture of them in their underpants or dig up dirt on their love life.
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The Financial Times :
With somewhat overheated rhetoric, a number of commentators are talking of the “British spring” – the moment when the political class followed the example of the Arab revolts and threw off the old order; turning against the aged dictator Rupert “Hosni” Muburdoch. The FT was there to witness the scenes from freedom’s latest front line.
They came after elevenses and vowed to stay all day. For years they had been warned to stay silent but suddenly it seemed they were no longer afraid. Out of the House of Commons they streamed and made for Parliament Square, now renamed “Freedom Square”, sticking tulips in the rolled-up papers of the Muburdoch press. Others moved to occupy the main TV positions on the green opposite the House of Lords. Inside the Commons, we heard remarkable reports of politician after politician daring to denounce the ageing and feared media dictator.
They knew the risks. Muburdoch’s secret police were known to hack phones and private records; they bribed police officers and ran smear campaigns to destroy anyone identified as an enemy. The MPs’ courage outshone even the Arab revolts. In Syria dissenters faced only tanks and bullets, but in Britain they knew that Muburdoch’s feared redtops might run a picture of them in their underpants or dig up dirt on their love life.
Read more
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