and now its not the news of the world

after something like a 168 years britains largest selling (sunday)newspaper has been sent into oblivion.unfortunately the demise is probably not permanednt and there are already guesses in the media community that a new title will emerge from the ruins with lower wages and conditions.

this end is the result after the resurfacing of stories involving the power of the murdock media empire in britain,the degree of influence it has in printed word journalism and televison here asw well as iuts more immediate power and influence over politicians,(bourgeois)parties and their corrupt and corrupting influence in politics and in numerous police investigations.

whilst there has been limited and ambivalent "public concern"about media intrusion into the lives of politiciians and celebrities what is considered particularly disgusting and repulsive has been telephone hacking into police investigations,the phones of victims and families of victims in child murder cases and into the phone accoiunts of dead soldiers and their families.

it may be that murdock has sacrificed the title.the only oen ofg the news international group in britain making profit,in an attempt to bring the scandal to an end.

it will not do.it is not enough.it claims it was a paper founded to be read by the rich and the poor.it claimed at its foundation to be dedicated to the truth and to be a campaigning newspaper,on"the peoples side"

its price made it accessible to the poor at the beginning.before the scandal broke it was fianciallly the most successful paper in britain.i doubt whetehjr it was ever dedicated to any higher truth or indeed any truth at all.in my lifetime it was always known as a"scandal rag".its campaigns at their best were always subordinated to other ends,primaeilly profit.campaigning for a missing child filled its coffers.a campaign for child protection led to a change in the law that remains controversial.its campaign against child sex offending contributed to the rampages by people who could not spell peadophile and did not know how different they were from paediatricians,which led to attacks on doctors homes and cars.it was never on the peoples side,that idea is part of its grandly disgusting delusion.

it is said that its 200 innocent staff paid the price whilst the executives are likely to get off lightly.i am not so sure and am more ambivalent.the ex editor coulson who was then appointed by cameron as his media spin doctor,before being forced again to resign has been arrested.the same police force corrupted in this scandal is now going to investigate.they deserve each other.the public and particularly working people deserve better.the chief executive of the group,brooks is sin charge of the investigation within the group.both coulson and brooks are deeeply implicated.

the standing of the "journalists"at the paper is questionable.the nuj/national union of journalists was effectively locked out of the group ;long ago.whilst resistance to anything would have been difficult there is no sign that i am aware of that any of the staff were unhappy with what they or others were expectedf to do.one of the "journalists"brought out for tv discussions over recent days seemed deeply troubled,though not apparently bby tje ethics of intrusion/phone hacking but definitely at the loss of his paypacket.he seemed drunk or under the influence and oscillated between feeling sorry for himself and simply shouting abuse at anyone who had their phones hacked,who inevitably happenned to be celebrities or stars.

and they always wheeled out the great moral issue of press freedom.
things are not what they appear.it seems to me that like many things in bourgeois society,what one meant something is now empty.such is press freedom.a genuinely free press,largely i belive out of socialist or other alternative traditions exist on the margins without the resources to cover in breadth or depth what might be a more genuine news of the world.within the bourgeois press this probably leaves a handful of individuals or departments who are genuinely a free press dedicated to investigation or anything like the truth.it was the telegraph and an indpendent anglo-american journalist who told the mps expenses scandal.it is the guardian and a few courageous names who have tried telling this story.otherwise press freedom and independence is empty,vacuous,meaningless,dead.

the tooth poodle that is the self regulating press complaints comission has been eradicated.it barely warrants being described as being abolished the outfit was so feeble.

my opinion counts for little or nothing.but i do not invite legislation or further controls.it would make more sense for working people to change pour own way of thinking by close investigation of the system in which we live.we should then reject and refuse it.we can stop reading this rubbish that passes for newspapers.we can close them down or take them over.

whilst we should not rely on the nuj alone,it does set a standard of conduct which provides minimum standards.we should expect and demand better.i do not mourn the passing of the news of the world.we should seek to change the press,independently of the state.what cant be changed should be shut down.we can build our own press.

-more follows-

yesterday there were fresh disclosures and speculations about the activity of news corporation in britain,and its filthy and lawless engagement with the political slass.

disclusyres include that the times paid for hacking into the personal lives and details of the "royal famil"-the only open social security scroungers i know.this seems to involve police officers in the royal protection squad.others hacked into records relating to the children of politicians.all of this shows to me the decadence,decay and entangled corruption of the mainstream media,the political class and the police.it seems none are to be believed or trusted about anything.the crisis is now revealed as economic,political and social.None of it has anything to do with our class beyond those working class individuals who have been bought off or paid for in the process

looked at clearly,sharply,independently those who rule over us seem no longer able to run the system according to their own rules with any competence,or even confidence.

unfortunately their stinking rotten corpse of capitalism is like a zombie.it still has life of some kind along with some surprises.it can still mystify,logic chop and carve up reality to suck profits out of exploited humand labour.it keeps going despite the symptoms of illness.to see it as terminally ill is probably wishful thinking.it will certainly not fall over and die by itself.

we need to push and kick it.revolutionary socialists and the working class should break with any semblance of social contract with the current order,for their contract with us has been broken and failed at every point where it has been tested.

we need to organise to make and take evry opportunity not just to bring it down but to identify the best in those struggles to lay the foundations for a new way of living that is for human need not greed or profit.

we do the work that is the foundation of what is.knowing that experience,we have the collective skills to build a better world.it need not be perfect but its clear that it cannot.must not fail to be better.