Rupert-gate now has a version of a ‘Friday Night massacre’: News Corp’s Les Hinton resigns amid phone-hacking scandal

One of the most senior executives of Rupert Murdoch’s embattled News Corporation has quit.

Les Hinton, chief executive of the media group’s Dow Jones, is standing down, announced the Wall Street Journal newspaper.

Mr Hinton is the most senior executive to leave the conglomerate, which has been engulfed by a phone-hacking scandal.

Rebekah Brooks, chief executive of News International, also resigned on Friday.

Yet another News Corp executive who “knows nah-theenk” about what happened when in charge of News of the World.

Mr. Hinton and Ms Brooks both spent their entire professional lives working for News Corp, so there was no opportunity for either to have acquired ‘bad habits’ at another employer.

Update: On the lighter side from Australia we have an ABC News video of News Limited chairman and CEO John Hartigan says there is no need for a parliamentary investigation into Australian media. See it’s the Brits that did this, not Australians … well, except for the Murdochs and Les Hinton … umm, they were corrupted by the Brits … that’s the ticket … the British ‘cowboys’ caused the whole mess. Nothing to see here … move along.

Pie charts from Inequality.org

The Magnitude and Sources of Economic Growth Through 2011 [PDF] by Andrew Sum, Ishwar Khatiwada, Joseph McLaughlin, and Sheila Palma at the Center for Labor Market Studies, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts.

Pau – Lourdes

Distance: 152.5 kilometers.

After a sane start climbing a Category 3 and then a Category 4 before lunch, things become a good deal less than sane.

After lunch there is a sprint followed by the 16.4 kilometer climb to the top of Col d’Aubisque, a Hors Catégorie. At lot of hard work, but not insane, you say? Well consider the 40 kilometer, roller coaster descent to Lourdes. It is hoped that they have some sort of arresting net for those whose brakes burn out.

If you think I’m kidding, go to the official site and look at the “Profile” tab for the stage.

Jérémy Roy, David Moncoutie, and Thor Hushovd came over the top ahead of the peloton, and took the E-Ticket flight to the bottom, with Thor and Jérémy reversing positions. The rest were five minutes behind them, having decided not to die trying to catch up.

Thomas Voeckler ( Fra – EUC – 181 ) [Yellow] 55h 49′ 57″
Mark Cavendish ( GBr – THR – 171 ) [Green] 264 points
Jérémy Roy ( Fra – FDJ – 138 ) [Polka Dot] 45 points
Arnold Jeannesson ( Fra – FDJ – 134 ) 13 [White]

Team: Garmin-Cervelo ( 051-059 ) [Yellow numbers]
Stage winner: Thor Hushovd ( Nor – GRM – 051 )
Combative: Jérémy Roy ( Fra – FDJ – 138 ) [Red numbers]

They’ve gone 2,280.0 kilometers [1,416.7 miles] at an average speed of 40.8 kph [25.4 mph] ↓.

OVERALL STANDINGS:
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Income 04/15/2007-07/10/2011

A lot of things have gone wrong this week, but far and away the worse was returning to my house on Sunday night to find Income laying on his side in the computer room.

There was no indication of any trauma, he was laying as he often did to ‘sucker’ his brother or sister into attacking him. He had been totally normal, and was racing around when I left the house. It was sudden, possibly a heart problem that had never showed up in the vet checks.

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