NOTW/News Intl. controversy MEGATHREAD

Run_to_da_hills

It seems a great pity that a title that was so steeped in history been thrown away after 168 years through the downright corruption and mismanagement of its current owners ie. News International / News Corporation. .

Despite been once being a respectable broad sheet and then turned into a total sleaze rag by Murdock it still had a massive following and generated huge revenues through advertising right up until the very end.

What if the title was sold off / handed over to new management could it be reactivated ?

Victor

Anything is possible.

As to whether anyone would want to even point at it with someone else's 12 foot barge pole is another matter.

EricM

I have seen much misinformation about using two phones, faking caller id which is all false.

Here is how they really did it and it really works.

1. Take a number such as 087-123-4567 and add a 5 after the prefix.
The number becomes 087-5-123-4567.

2. Call the number and you will hear the voicemail greeting "leave a message after the beep" or whatever.
The receivers phone will not ring and will not be aware of this, you will be connected directly to voicemail.

3. Don't let the greeting play to the beep, just immediately dial #0000# as soon as the call is connected.

4. That's it your in, Press 1 to listen, 4 to change greeting etc..., same as if you had dialed 171 to access your own voicemail.

Happy hacking.

I can't believe this still works and the networks haven't blocked it, I figured this out about 10 years ago.

To prevent this you need to set a voicemail password.
Many people don't do this because they think the voicemail can only be listened to from their phone and why bother password it, but this is wrong, voicemail can be accessed from any phone.

mikemac

That's pretty much common knowledge

You're right most people don't change the password though networks advise them to

Jesus Wept

[ ] Hacking

dazed+confused

EricM wrote: »

I can't believe this still works and the networks haven't blocked it, I figured this out about 10 years ago.

You did not "figure this out" its in the flippin manual, its so you can check your voicemail from another phone should you forget your phone or if your battery dies etc. You're supposed to change the password, but most people don't bother.

Run_to_da_hills

Gordon Brown must have felt the Sun was out to destroy him.

I love the pun.

Murdock would probably better off having a fire sale with News International and getting the hell out of the UK. If one pi*sed off city can boycott the sun for over 20 years could you imagine what a pi*sed off country could do with the rest of his papers..

flogen

Yes absolutely, but in order to escape the negative connotations the brand now has they would have to change enough as to make it completely different from the strong-selling newspaper it was previously.

Bit of a catch-22.

flogen

I've merged the five threads on the News of the World / News International / NewsCorp into one thread.

Please keep all discussion about the phone hacking / blagging / corrupt payments controversy here unless there's a very good reason for splitting it into a separate discussion.

I know things are changing at a rapid pace but I think it's best to keep the discussion all in one place rather than having loads of tiny segmented ones going on.

mike65

Talk now about Murdoch ditching all the UK titles for the "greater corporate good", maybe this is the moment that NC shifts towards being a TV dominated company. James Murdoch who is the heir apparent seems to have little interest in newsprint.

dlofnep

Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation has announced that it is dropping its planned bid to take full ownership of BSkyB.

The announcement came as the House of Commons was preparing to vote for a motion calling on Mr Murdoch to do so.

All three major party leaders had said they supported the motion, which would not be legally binding on News Corp.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14142307

Delighted to see this happen. Murdoch's control over global media is lunacy. Their stocks appear to have plummeted also.

steelcityblues

NewsCorp pulling out of BSKYB bid - no shock there!

wes

Good to see this, as Murdoch already controls too much of the media. Hopefully, this is a permanent set back for News Corp, as the hacking scandal shows they can't be trusted.

whatstherush

:pac:GOTCHA:pac:

Scotty #

They're still holding onto their 40% though. I reckon the bid is postponed rather than abandoned.

I still think the phone companies should really he held accountable for a lot of this scandal though. If they didn't make it so damn easy to listen to other people voicemail it wouldn't have happened.

the groutch

he's just biding his time, so he can do the deal for cheaper

syklops

the groutch wrote: »

he's just biding his time, so he can do the deal for cheaper

He is in his 80's. He'd want to bide his time a bit quicker.

whatstherush

the groutch wrote: »

he's just biding his time, so he can do the deal for cheaper

Why would it be cheaper in the future? He's bidding his time so he can off load two loss making papers + the sun to someone else and then rebid for the cash cow sky.

irishh_bob

syklops wrote: »

He is in his 80's. He'd want to bide his time a bit quicker.

mr burns is 103 , hard to kill a bad thing

Run_to_da_hills

syklops wrote: »

He is in his 80's. He'd want to bide his time a bit quicker.

He will probably try to bribe St Peter. at the pearly gates.

flogen

whatstherush wrote: »

Why would it be cheaper in the future

Well BSkyB's share price has fallen from a peak of 850 on the 4th July to around 705 today (was at 700 at one stage).

The price could recover, of course, but there's a chance that if/when Murdoch does return with a new bid it will be for much less than it was before.

whatstherush

flogen wrote: »

Well BSkyB's share price has fallen from a peak of 850 on the 4th July to around 705 today (was at 700 at one stage).

The price could recover, of course, but there's a chance that if/when Murdoch does return with a new bid it will be for much less than it was before.

That price had the expectation of a successful take over built into it. Once that takeover was jeopardized, the stock started to fall. When they bid again, expect to see the price climb as per the first bid.

flogen

whatstherush wrote: »

That price had the expectation of a successful take over built into it. Once that takeover was jeopardized, the stock started to fall. When they bid again, expect to see the price climb as per the first bid.

It's not guaranteed to rise to the same level - there's also no certainty that it won't go higher, of course.

steelcityblues

David Adams made a valid point in today's Irish Times that the likes of Alistair Campbell, John Prescott, Ed Milliband (and now add Brown) have been pursuing a self-serving agenda since last week, given they played with the 'devil' before. Even Hugh Grant and Steve Coogan's contributions have to be questioned on some level, as they could hide behind increased privacy laws.

The only real heroes are the long time investigators like Nick Davies, of course.

Benny_Cake

FBI investigating News Corp:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=137855465

The plot thickens...

whatstherush

Brooks Resigns
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/press/rebekah-brooks-resigns-from-news-international-2314213.html

mike65

boom boom!

kraggy

There's talk of Murdoch selling News International altogether but who in their right mind would buy The Sun, The Times etc.

If they did, there would have to be serious rebranding or at least re-imaging done.

Also, what were they thinking smiling into the cameras outside Murdoch's London residence last week? That was actually planned by themselves as some sort of tactic according to The Guardian. What the hell did they think they were going to achive? They looked so smug and arrogant (exactly as I suspect them to be in reality).

Mind boggles.