Dont let a storm in the tea-cup worry you Sir!

Every thing is under control.

Rupert Murdock, his firm his family, may have committed only one sin.
That of bias openly knowingly shown in every way bias for one side against the other.
May? I should say did, at least, but in doing so we are less likely to read or see the details here.
Not in his papers nore TV news, see the purchase is total, loyalty unchallenged, to them not us.
Australian Police, no not all, just far too many, can be bought and sold by every one from Criminal Biker gangs to?
How many think it will ever change? indeed Skeptic, every thing is as you say under control and many coats of white wash.

Ah well, it is not "Hacking" anyway.

The telephone company running the system is equally to blame.
That they would be so stupid to not have software running in the
base stations and in the whole system that would not allow two mobile's
with the same phone number to operate at the same time, it is they that
should be in parliament answering questions.

There are two ways to do the trick and neither should be possible.
The reporters seem to have used facilities that are provided on the system.

What should concern Australians is the need for a free press providing a range of balanced views and accurate news, preferably under diverse ownership. There can be little doubt that we have a press which is free to source and publish any material, provided it does so within the law. By and large this occurs since we appear to have avoided UK travails. There, some journalists and editors have treated the law with contempt and as an obstacle to circulation and profits and setting rather than influencing public policy and opinion.

However, in Australia 75% of the print media is owned by one company which in popular parlance has become known as “Murdoch press”. The Murdoch press owns the country’s only national newspaper, and leading newspapers in every State capital except Perth.

It is not coincidence that the Murdoch press, like its UK and USA counterparts, should espouse views based on right wing ideology and lack political balance in what it reports and the way it is reported. It is not coincidence that in Australia newspapers published by the Murdoch press should reject the science of global warming, its effects on climate and be opposed to pricing carbon. Here again there is not only lack of balanced reporting but a concerted effort to influence public opinion, government policy and bring down the nations minority government. In these endeavours, the Murdoch press appears willing to any lengths, including misrepresenting the truth.

At the very least, we should ask weather such concentration of media ownership serves our interests as a nation and as individuals. The fact that Murdoch newspapers, Nation-wide and State-wide should all follow the same line has, in the past raised assertions of undue influence by Rupert Murdoch, rejected by him with unconvincing assurance that his newspaper editors had complete freedom.

In Australia we have warned against and in a tokenistic way tried to limit concentration of media ownership. This has not been very successful and what we are left with is the concentration of Australian media in foreign ownership. For reasons noted above, this is far from satisfactory.

Belly:

...but oh how “exhilarating” to see the real scum of the earth treated as the crims we all know them to be! Bring it all on…Yahhoo….

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/phone-hacking/8650631/Rupert-Murdochs-Fox-News-ran-black-ops-department-former-executive-claims.html
Ten? it could be ten times ten such links posted here.
That Many unanswered questions, ten times more concerns even fears.
Are we having our selves on.
Do we elect governments to run our country.
Or can cash/power /influence trash Democracy?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jul/20/deborah-orr-murdoch-downfall
Again this link talks to me about some thing we all must confront.
It shows a better standard of investigative journalism than we have seen in this country for decades.
British press is not 70 plus percent owned by one mans ego, that may be the reason it is better.

What a pile of rubbish.

Right wing press indeed. If the oz press was right wing they would have plastered the Climate-gate scandal all over the front page for some weeks.

The fact that they didn't is the only reason that our little Julia can even try to get away with the climate tax scam.

But never mind, the chickens will come home to roost, & the radical ratbag left wing types will be able to go back to chattering over their latte.

Aesop, (620-564) BCE; “We hang the petty thieves and appoint the big ones to public office”.

Now Aesop would say “Politicians are serfs of thieves”.

Westminster, the place where people with any shred of dignity fell on their sword, in the presence of Old-Murdoch, appeared consigned; scared of the man who still could maul them.

They treated him like a wounded beast and, not sure if he would recover and bite them back, kept well clear from his paws.

Hasbeen I have never doubted you have achieved much in life.
Or that you are well educated and most likely financially secure.
But mate, think with me on this, we each and every one of us, put the other sides of politics down.
Supporters or leaders we give them heaps, see only my side/me is right lives, in most of us.
You took my links, from British papers, and did the job for me, on your self!
Amused/Bemused, stunned that anyone, in the whole wide world.
Could not know, COULD claim as you did, Mate Murdock, Packer before him,Is further right than your beloved tea party.
On seeing the claim you made,on reading some others from your team,
I just must say, thanks bloke and rest my case.
Oh, in 6 months as the dust still rises from the wreckage of a once Empire of old Lefty, STOP LAUGHING BELLY Murdock's got to go ROTFL!

No,

Not *quite* like the world of Airstrip One.

In that world, the governing authorities owned, installed and maintained the viewscreens, and the Party members knew they were *on* all the tine.

Mobile phones have always had the capacity for reasonable encryption, to which government authorities have had acces. Here in Australia, the capacity for encryption was further nobbled when the capability was touted as a feature of GSM2 phones and police got nervous that they may have to actually investigate crimes in which the perpetrators communications were somewhat obscure.

In this world, unlike Airstrip One, we buy, maintain, and upgrade the enabling technology ourselves, nobly freeing the government from the expense.

Public-minded of us, don't you think?

Rusty

It is surprising to the fair-minded that the fans of the ABC and the Fairfax Press claim these two media outlets are unbiased, but then label News Limited papers as leaning to the Right.

Questions for all those posters who seem to regard the Murdoch press as the arch villains of Australia and the world:

Why do more readers prefer the Herald Sun to The Age or the Daily Telegraph to SMH?

What would you like to do about the FACT that Australians seem to PREFER Murdoch’s papers to Fairfax papers? Impose censorship? Ban the Murdoch papers?

These are not rhetorical questions.

Why?

Well Steven, one reason many prefer the Daily Telegraph is because
it is a lot easier to read on the train & bus.

Fair point Bazz.

But there's nothing to stop the Fairfax newspapers adopting the tabloid format. The Guardian has already done so tho' they call it the "Berliner" format.