Summertime

Have a nice summer. Go away somewhere. Enjoy yourselves. This blog will be back in September - before Parliament returns.

The Guardian Exposes the"Screws"

Want to know why Nick Davies couldn't come and speak on Tuesday? This story in tomorrow's Guardian is why. A great bit of investigative journalism from the man who brought us "Flat Earth News", exposing the corrupt practices behind Murdoch's News Corp, and in particular the "News of the World" - once christened by Private Eye as "News of the Screws" for its salacious content.

Media as powerful as that of Rupert Murdoch's possessions should certainly be subject to investigative journalism itself, but too many in the old Fleet Street world are either afraid, or too much part of the system, to want to take it on. When a newspaper resorts to the bankrupt measures of the most corrupt sort of government agency to 'get' their stories, they deserve the same level of opprobrium that we heap upon crooked politicians. The two editors at the heart of Davies' story have made significant moves. The News' Andy Coulson is now David Cameron's much trusted Communications Director, while Rebekah Wade of the Sun is about to become Murdoch's British chief executive. Fine characters both.

Getting to the Heart of Palin

Although she has just resigned as governor of Alaska, rumours persist that Sarah Palin is still interested in a run at the Republican nomination in 2012. So a reading of this article in Vanity Fair by Todd Purdman might be a suitable reminder of just how unsuitable she is. He goes behind the scenes of the McCain campaign to reveal the rail-crash that was Palin's candidacy.

"Your daddy wasn't strange...."

So Michael Jackson enjoyed sleeping with pre-pubescent boys, had several radical plastic surgery alterations to his face, sought over the years to lighten the pigmentation of his skin, built a personal fairground at a house called 'Neverland', was best friends with a chimp, produced three children in still murky circumstances that certainly didn't involve sleeping with the mother, and had illusions of himself as a Christ like figure sent to 'save the children'. Does Al Sharpton, the logically challenged preacher at Jackson's memorial concert, really think that the statement to Jackson's children, "Your daddy wasn't strange," is in any way related to even a loose understanding of the facts?