The Null Device

In major news stories recently:

• Couple who met at university to marry, as the Caledonian Mercury's refreshingly unhyperbolic coverage puts it:

  William Windsor (or possibly Wales or possibly Saxe-Coburg-Gotha) and Kate Middleton, both 28, met at St Andrews University eight years ago.

  Mr Windsor is a Flight Lieutenant in the RAF – and also a prince.

  Wall-to-wall, dewy-eyed hysterical coverage can be found in every other media outlet.

• The latest thing from Apple is not the long-awaited multitasking iPad OS, nor any shiny new gadget, but that iTunes will finally sell the albums of a band who broke up 40 years ago. Granted, the Beatles were significant, but were they really in a whole godlike league above a lot of other artists, such as, let's say randomly, Led Zeppelin or Michael Jackson? (Indeed, I've seen an argument that they were only the second most influential pop group, after Kraftwerk.)

  Meanwhile, Fox News broke the news that Apple would be distributing "Manchester's favourite mopheads". I wonder whether that's a mistake or something they deliberately put in to maintain their carefully crafted image of not giving a shit about offending foreign sensibilities.

(via Rhodri) ¶ apple foxnews media murdoch the beatles the royal family uk 2 Share

Fox News has uncovered a sinister hacking group named Anonymous, which destroys peoples' lives for laughs (or LULZ as they put it):

They are hackers on steroids, treating the web like a real life video game. Sacking websites, invading MySpace accounts and disrupting innocent people's lives.

They plastered his profile with gay sex pictures. His girlfriend left him.

¶ foxnews goons hoax lulz trolls 0 Share

From the BBC's On This Day section:

1971: Calley guilty of My Lai massacre

Lieutenant William Calley has been found guilty of murder at a court martial for his part in the My Lai massacre which claimed the lives of 500 South Vietnamese civilians.

And further down, it is revealed that he didn't get the death penalty, or even serve out his life sentence:

Freed on bail in 1974 his sentence was then cut to 10 years but he was paroled later that year after completing one third of his sentence.

It doesn't say what he went on to do after that; unfortunately for him, FOXNews hadn't been established yet, thus depriving him of a possible future career path.

Also on this day in 1971, failed Monkees auditionee, psycho-killer cult leader and subsequent role model to a thousand teen nihilists across McWorld, Charles Manson was sentenced to death; also never carried out.

¶ charles manson foxnews genocide history my lai the monkees vietnam 0 Share

Britain's Independent Television Commission is investigating claims that Rupert Murdoch's Fox News is biased. Apparently, for some quaint reason, such things are still frowned upon in Britain, to the extent that if the claims are found to be true, Fox News could be forced off Murdoch's Sky satellite TV network in the UK (something for which there is ample precedent). Unless, of course, they get their sponsored politicians and/or their good friend Tony Blair to relax the "archaic", "anti-competitive" impartiality laws (which, given enough money, can probably be proven to contravene some international free-trade agreement or other).

¶ foxnews media murdoch uk 2 Share