Media Coverage
Apparently the Wall Street Journal didn’t think that the problems facing News Corp were of much interest to their readership, which is why they put the few stories they ran in the B Section, rather than the front page.
Fortunately, for those interested, other media outlets filled the gap. Outlets like NewsBiscuit provide the reader with interesting sidelights, as this story from 07/14: Rebekah Brooks should go now, urges Gaddafi
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi is urging News International CEO Rebekah Brooks to ‘do the right thing and leave now.’ In an interview on Libyan state television, Gaffafi says: ‘She may well be charismatic, but she’s also batshit loopy. She’s power-daft, and yet I don’t think she can hold out much longer. It’s getting embarrassing, y’know?’
And there was: Rebekah Brooks unresigns
In yet another twist to the phone hacking scandal, former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks has announced her unresignation from the company.
‘It is totally inconceivable that I could have known anything about my resignation,’ said Ms Brooks, speaking to a small crowd of remaining News International staff. ‘Clearly I cannot be held responsible for any decision to resign because when I made it I was only in charge,’ adding, ‘and anyway I was probably on holiday at the time.’
Note: for those who don’t understand, NewsBiscuit is a British satire site, so let’s not see these stories on CNN, OK? It goes without saying that Fox wouldn’t publish anything that questions the awesomeness of Rupert, even if it were a police report or court decision.
4 comments
The “awesomeness of Rupert.”
You’re certainly captured his “essence.”
My sense is that the awesome goes in the negative direction.
And the smell is vile.
Watch people around him/them move away quickly.
NO much in the line of new revelations today but Brooks was arrested today
and the Comissioner of the Metropolitan Police has just resigned.
I have had the Brooks report ready to go, but thanks for the heads up on the top cop, Jams. The post is now up.
You probably don’t care, Suzan, but I’m going to tell you a story about ‘awesome’.
Long ago, in a land far, far away [the 15th and 16th centuries in what would become Russia, actually] there were two men with the same name, Johann Basil’s son. The first was the grandfather of the second.
The older was the third major Prince named Johann, so he is often referred to as Johann III, while his grandson is referred to as Johann IV.
Johann III did many things that were important to building what became Russia, but the most important was telling the Mongols to sod off, and helping to push them out. He then developed his own principality, Moscow, into the most important of all the Slavic cities. With this much power he was able to wed Sophia Palaiologina, a niece of the last Byzantine emperor, Constantine XI.
Because of all his accomplishments, Johann III was awarded the title “the Great”.
We can skip what happened under Johann’s boring son, Basil III, and go to Johann IV.
Johann IV expanded the Grand Duchy of Moscow in all directions, reclaiming old Slavic territories, and conquering new territories. He added to the empire, and declared its creation by calling himself Caesar of all the Russias, which in Russian is Tsar. He claimed it as a right as a descendent of the last Roman Caesar, Constantine XI, Constantinople having fallen to the Turks.
With all of these accomplishments, he obviously deserved to be awarded a title to differentiate him for the other Johanns. As his grandfather was “the Great”. he was called “the Awesome”.
Johann was hard for the other princes of Russia to like. He had all sorts of nasty habits, like being extremely religious and moral, expecting people to honor their commitments and obey laws that were actually being written down. He had books, wrote music, all sorts of unsavory habits. But his worse habit was, instead of just executing people, like any other reasonable monarch of the time, he exiled them.
Well, the exiles were really torqued off, so they did a bit of editing. Instead of referring to him as Johann [Иоанн], the Biblical form of the name used by Boyars, they started referring to him with the common form of the name, Ivan [Иван], and they changed the meaning of his title Grozny [Грозный] from Awesome, to Terrible. And since they were doing this from exile in the West, that’s way most people think of him today.
“Awe” can be good or bad, it is a slippery sort of word. Consider that a person filled with awe is awful…