http://www.observer.com Just another WordPress site Tue, 14 Feb 2012 21:24:36 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Five staffers of News Corp's U.K. tabloid The Sun were arrested early today in what the A.P. termed an "early morning swoop."  Surprisingly they--and 3 others--were not nabbed for trying to convince the public woolly mammoths have returned to Siberia, but for allegedly bribing police and defense officials. Read More

]]> http://www.observer.com/2012/02/staffers-of-u-k-tabloid-the-sun-arrested-in-bribery-probe/ Today Bloomberg Businessweek's Greg Farrell published a remarkable piece about power shifts among News Corp.'s top executives in the early days of the phone hacking scandal. He also reconstructs a fateful dinner party chez Murdoch, which we've mined for etiquette tips, below, should you ever secure an invite.

Q: When should I arrive at Rupert Murdoch's dinner party? Read More

]]> http://www.observer.com/2012/02/what-to-expect-at-your-first-rupert-murdoch-dinner-party/ 2011 was a hell of a year to be the person charged with spinning the public image of News Corp, with that whole phone hacking scandal and all. Read More

]]> http://www.observer.com/2012/01/news-corp-pr-teri-everett-julie-henderson-01302012/ Police in the United Kingdom made new arrests Saturday as part of "Operation Elveden." The dead-serious probe with the Tolkienesque name is digging into allegations Rupert Murdoch's Sun paid cops for inside information. News Corp's Management and Standards Committee reported the arrests and took credit in the process: Read More

]]> http://www.observer.com/2012/01/u-k-police-arrest-murdoch-journalists-as-part-of-operation-elveden/ How can you tell 2012 has begun with a bang? Just log onto Twitter: the hot topics since Jan. 1 are a Venn diagram of American life—from pop culture to politics, to sports and even race relations. It’s beginning to feel an awful lot like looking into a microcosm not too dissimilar to those sea monkey kits we cried enough about to have Mom and Dad buy one, only to have it sitting in garage next to whatever Santa had brought us the year before. In fact, Twitter has morphed into This American Life. Well, again, for sea monkeys. At least there’s a community spirit in the barrage of 140-character thought bubblettes: it’s one of the few times that you’ll find New Yorkers venturing outside their insular world and joining in the national dialogue ­… even if it’s only online and it turns out that our sea monkeys are just brine shrimp with great marketing.

So here was your week on Twitter. Read More

]]> http://www.observer.com/2012/01/seven-days-of-social-networking/ Things we learned about the British tabloids from watching former News of the World deputy editor Paul McMullan's testimony to the British government today: -- British tabloids have moles in rival British tabloids. -- British reporters will pay sources tens of thousands of pounds for a good scoop. -- "Dangling a carrot Read More

]]> http://www.observer.com/2011/11/paul-mcmullan-reveals-sordid-tactics-at-rupert-murdochs-news-of-the-world/ There's a flier going around at Occupy Wall Street events in recent days. "UNION RALLY," it reads. "HARPERCOLLINS BOOK PUBLISHERS." Read More

]]> http://www.observer.com/2011/11/occupy-book-publishing-harpercollins-this-means-you/ Earlier this week, the Village got a new neighbor: Alec Baldwin bought a new downtown home at Devonshire House, taking over the massive duplex penthouse. He appears to be making room in the city's hipper environs for his new girlfriend, Hilaria Thomas, who will likely prefer the neighborhood to his previous home in the star-studded 300 Central Park West.

It's a well-worn path. Indeed, Mr. Baldwin is only the latest in a line of older uptown dudes to to head downtown in search of love. Read More

]]> http://www.observer.com/2011/10/dirty-old-men-downtown-10-uptown-guys-in-search-of-love-and-a-decent-loft/ Phew. Just when you thought Roger Ailes was just a bloodless automaton who only cares about ratings and how expressive anchors can be when he mutes them on television, he opens up and shows his more sensual side.

"I hired Sarah Palin because she was hot and got ratings," the Fox News president declared to the Associated Press recently. Okay, but which one of those features did you actually find sexually exciting, Mr. Ailes?

We'll never know, as that is all he says on the subject. But don't worry, TV's most infamous exec is full of fun soundbites today! Read More

]]> http://www.observer.com/2011/10/roger-ailes-knows-sarah-palin-is-hot-has-doctor-call-him-ugly/ After only a month on Bloomberg's media desk, Edmund Lee, formerly of AdAge, has already solved one of the industry's biggest mysteries: How's The Daily doing? It's averaging 120,000 readers a week, an advertising executive working with them told him. That's less than a quarter of the half a million readers Rupert Murdoch said Read More

]]> http://www.observer.com/2011/09/bloomberg-breaks-open-the-daily-at-120000-readers-falls-far-short-of-profitability/ Big things are happening in post-Fashion Week NYC. For the first time since the late 80s, all the hot young things are flooding to Wall Street. But unfortunately for Turnbull & Asser and half of the meatpacking district’s nightlife establishment, these kids aren’t spending all-nighters snorting drugs and waiting for the markets to open to Japan. They’re occupying Wall Street. And by occupying, we mean camping out in a semi-organized fashion in the Financial District, despite the fact that the financial district is no longer in the Financial District. And we have to admit, midtown just doesn’t have the same symbolic appeal. Read More

]]> http://www.observer.com/2011/09/new-york-comes-full-circle/ Rupert and James Murdoch will be called to the Royal Courts of Justice in October for an official inquiry under oath  reports The Telegraph. Since the Murdochs' appearance before Parliament in July, letters from former News of the World employees Tom Crone and Glenn Mulcaire suggest that, contrary to their testimony, the Murdochs were informed that phone hacking Read More

]]> http://www.observer.com/2011/08/murdochs-to-swear-on-bibles/ London may be burning, but that doesn’t mean that the Murdoch hacking scandal isn’t still helping sell book proposals. New York Times writers Sarah Lyall and Don Van Natta, Jr. will co-author the “definitive account.” Times Books, an imprint of Henry Holt, will publish, they announced today. They did not announce a publication date Read More

]]> http://www.observer.com/2011/08/anglo-file-times-writers-get-book-deal-for-definitive-account-of-hacking-scandal/ Did Nicholas Schmidle's New Yorker story "Getting Bin Laden: What happened that night in Abbottabad" give the impression that he spoke directly with Navy SEALS? Many critics think so, according to WWD. Guardian journalist Nick Davies thinks James Murdoch will have a hard time recovering, politically, from misleading Parliament, as he believes reports will Read More

]]> http://www.observer.com/2011/08/morning-links-elisabeth-murdoch-wont-be-at-news-corp-boarding-meeting/   In the latest installment of our ongoing Rupert Murdoch photo series, The New Yorker snapped the News Corp. patriarch outside his home at 834 Fifth Avenue, where he joined the pedestrians gawking at the peacock  perched on the fifth floor window of his neighbors at 838 Fifth Avenue. It had Read More

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