This entry was posted on
Tuesday, June 7th, 2005 at
12:18 pm and is filed
under Rupert ‘The Evil One’ Murdoch.

Report – Campaign against anti-social behaviour ‘needs prevention as well as enforcement’: The Government should consider shifting the emphasis of its campaign against anti-social behaviour (ASB) to show it can tackle the underlying causes, as well as taking a hard line with perpetrators. Research for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation reveals that a majority 66 per cent of adults believe preventive action offers the most effective way to tackle rowdy, intimidating behaviour, vandalism and other anti-social behaviour. Only 20 per cent interviewed in a specially-commissioned national survey regarded tough action against young people and others accused of ‘ASB’ as the best way forward, while another 11 per cent called for a combination of prevention and enforcement.

Damn it all, you’d think these people would read a newspaper or two. Had they cast an eye over the Sun or the Daily Mail (both pretty much the same thing these days) they would have realised that we are in danger of being overwhelmed by rampaging yobs, criminal gangs and terrorists.

Wait… hang on… now I think about it… isn’t needlessly stirring up fear to sell newpapers a form of anti-social behaviour? How about referring to the French as ‘Crazy Frogs’ on the front page as The Scum do today? Someone should take out an ASBO against these people (and make sure that they use the right name on the form)….

Media Monkey: It was one of those legal quirks that makes you proud of the England and Wales justice system. The Sun escaped prosecution last week for allegedly naming the victim of a sexual assault after the Crown Prosecution Service bungled the case by naming News International as its publisher. Oh no, said the Sun’s lawyers, we’re not called News International, we’re called News Group Newspapers. Legal manager Tom Crone produced a swath of past litigation to prove his point. Asked whether News International “holds itself out” as publisher of the Sun, Crone told Huntingdon magistrates court: “Not to my knowledge. Quite the opposite. The publisher, as the attorney general has always known, is News Group Newspapers.” Moreover, the Sun lawyer Henri Brandman said there was no such thing in law as News International. “The evidence is absolutely overwhelming that not only has the incorrect defendant been charged but, in fact, there is no legal entity that is the party that’s been charged.” Case, as they say, dismissed. But hang on, what’s this on the website of News Corp, the umbrella company for Rupert Murdoch’s worldwide media empire? “News International publishes four of the UK’s top national newspapers – the Times, the Sunday Times, the Sun and the News of the World.” The address for News International is given as “1 Virginia Street” – Wapping, to you and me. So does all this mean that News International is an illegal entity? We should be told.