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Moment of Brutal Honesty: Political Commentator Quits Over HSBC Coverage, Accuses Telegraph Of "Fraud On Readers"

Tyler Durden's picture




 

What happens when the "impartial and independent" media puts its relationship with advertisers (especially when said advertisers are admitted criminal consortiums among whose chief sources of revenue in recent decades has been facilitating tax evasion and "laundering the world's drug money") above the interests of its readers and the presentation of "impartial and independent" facts? This: "The coverage of HSBC in Britain's Daily Telegraph is a fraud on its readers. If major newspapers allow corporations to influence their content for fear of losing advertising revenue, democracy itself is in peril."

Those are the words of the former chief political commentator of The Telegraph,  Peter Oborne, who resigned from the paper and launched a blistering attack on the Telegraph, saying it put bank’s interests before readers to save ad contract.

According to the Guardian, "Peter Oborne, the Daily Telegraph’s chief political commentator, has resigned from the paper, accusing it of a “fraud on its readers” over its coverage of HSBC. In a blistering attack on the paper’s management and owners, Sir David and Sir Frederick Barclay, Oborne claimed the paper deliberately suppressed stories about the banking group in order to keep its valuable advertising account. He said it was a “most sinister development” at the paper, where he claimed the traditional distinction between the advertising and editorial department had collapsed."

Oborne said he had told Murdoch MacLennan, chief executive of the paper’s parent company the Telegraph Media Group, that he was resigning last December.

 

He said he had intended to leave quietly but had a “duty to make all this public” following the Telegraph’s coverage of last week’s revelations about HSBC’s Swiss banking arm, which helped wealthy customers dodge taxes and conceal millions of dollars of assets, doling out bundles of untraceable cash and advising clients on how to circumvent domestic tax authorities.

 

Oborne claimed it was a pattern that could be seen elsewhere in the paper’s reporting, including its coverage of last year’s protests in Hong Kong.

 

Oborne alleged that the paper had discouraged critical stories of HSBC since the start of 2013 when the bank suspended its advertising with the paper following a Telegraph investigation into its operation in Jersey.

Why not HSBC? "He said one former Telegraph executive told him HSBC was “the advertiser you literally cannot afford to offend”."

So this is like the WSJ being unable to offend the NY Fed... or the FT can't offend Goldman Sachs?

Before the HSBC revelations were published – by the Guardian and a range of other outlets including the BBC – and while discussions were continuing over the material, the bank put its advertising with the Guardian’s parent company, Guardian News & Media, “on pause”.

Oh well, after our expose yesterday on "HSBC Bank: Secret Origins To Laundering The World's Drug Money", we can probably kiss our ad revenue from the bank goodbye as well.

Oborne's entire letter, posted in OurKingdom, is a must read for anyone who still cares about the "impartial and independent" media:

Why I have resigned from the Telegraph

Five years ago I was invited to become the chief political commentator of the Telegraph. It was a job I was very proud to accept. The Telegraph has long been the most important conservative-leaning newspaper in Britain, admired as much for its integrity as for its superb news coverage. When I joined the Telegraph had just broken the MPs’ expenses scandal, the most important political scoop of the 21st century.

I was very conscious that I was joining a formidable tradition of political commentary. I spent my summer holiday before taking up my duties as columnist reading the essays of the great Peter Utley, edited by Charles Moore and Simon Heffer, two other masters of the art.

No one has ever expressed quite as well as Utley the quiet decency and pragmatism of British conservatism. The Mail is raucous and populist, while the Times is proud to swing with the wind as the voice of the official class. The Telegraph stood in a different tradition. It is read by the nation as a whole, not just by the City and Westminster. It is confident of its own values. It has long been famous for the accuracy of its news reporting. I imagine its readers to be country solicitors, struggling small businessmen, harassed second secretaries in foreign embassies, schoolteachers, military folk, farmersdecent people with a stake in the country.

My grandfather, Lt Col Tom Oborne DSO, had been a Telegraph reader. He was also a churchwarden and played a role in the Petersfield Conservative Association. He had a special rack on the breakfast table and would read the paper carefully over his bacon and eggs, devoting special attention to the leaders. I often thought about my grandfather when I wrote my Telegraph columns.

‘You don’t know what you are fucking talking about’

Circulation was falling fast when I joined the paper in September 2010, and I suspect this panicked the owners. Waves of sackings started, and the management made it plain that it believed the future of the British press to be digital. Murdoch MacLennan, the chief executive, invited me to lunch at the Goring Hotel near Buckingham Palace, where Telegraph executives like to do their business. I urged him not to take the newspaper itself for granted, pointing out that it still had a very healthy circulation of more than half a million. I added that our readers were loyal, that the paper was still very profitable and that the owners had no right to destroy it.

The sackings continued. A little while later I met Mr MacLennan by chance in the queue of mourners outside Margaret Thatcher’s funeral and once again urged him not to take Telegraph readers for granted. He replied: “You don’t know what you are fucking talking about.”

Events at the Telegraph became more and more dismaying. In January 2014 the editor, Tony Gallagher, was fired. He had been an excellent editor, well respected by staff. Mr Gallagher was replaced by an American called Jason Seiken, who took up a position called ‘Head of Content.’ In the 81 years between 1923 and 2004 the Telegraph had six editors, all of them towering figures: Arthur Watson, Colin Coote, Maurice Green, Bill Deedes, Max Hastings and Charles Moore. Since the Barclay Brothers purchased the paper 11 years ago there have been roughly six more, though it is hard to be certain since with the arrival of Mr Seiken the title of editor was abolished, then replaced by a Head of Content (Monday to Friday). There were three editors (or Heads of Content) in 2014 alone.

For the last 12 months matters have got much, much worse. The foreign deskmagnificent under the leadership of David Munk and David Wastellhas been decimated. As all reporters are aware, no newspaper can operate without skilled sub-editors. Half of these have been sacked, and the chief sub, Richard Oliver, has left.

Solecisms, unthinkable until very recently, are now commonplace. Recently readers were introduced to someone called the Duke of Wessex. Prince Edward is the Earl of Wessex. There was a front page story about deer-hunting. It was actually about deer-stalking, a completely different activity. Obviously the management don’t care about nice distinctions like this. But the readers do, and the Telegraph took great care to get these things right until very recently.

The arrival of Mr Seiken coincided with the arrival of the click culture. Stories seemed no longer judged by their importance, accuracy or appeal to those who actually bought the paper. The more important measure appeared to be the number of online visits. On 22 September Telegraph online ran a story about a woman with three breasts. One despairing executive told me that it was known this was false even before the story was published. I have no doubt it was published in order to generate online traffic, at which it may have succeeded. I am not saying that online traffic is unimportant, but over the long term, however, such episodes inflict incalculable damage on the reputation of the paper.

Open for business?

With the collapse in standards has come a most sinister development. It has long been axiomatic in quality British journalism that the advertising department and editorial should be kept rigorously apart. There is a great deal of evidence that, at the Telegraph, this distinction has collapsed.

Late last year I set to work on a story about the international banking giant HSBC. Well-known British Muslims had received letters out of the blue from HSBC informing them that their accounts had been closed. No reason was given, and it was made plain that there was no possibility of appeal. "It’s like having your water cut off," one victim told me.

When I submitted it for publication on the Telegraph website, I was at first told there would be no problem. When it was not published I made enquiries. I was fobbed off with excuses, then told there was a legal problem. When I asked the legal department, the lawyers were unaware of any difficulty. When I pushed the point, an executive took me aside and said that "there is a bit of an issue" with HSBC. Eventually I gave up in despair and offered the article to openDemocracy. It can be read here.

I researched the newspaper’s coverage of HSBC. I learnt that Harry Wilson, the admirable banking correspondent of the Telegraph, had published an online story about HSBC based on a report from a Hong Kong analyst who had claimed there was a ‘black hole’ in the HSBC accounts. This story was swiftly removed from the Telegraph website, even though there were no legal problems. When I asked HSBC whether the bank had complained about Wilson's article, or played any role in the decision to remove it, the bank declined to comment. Mr Wilson’s contemporaneous tweets referring to the story can be found here. The story itself, however, is no longer available on the website, as anybody trying to follow through the link can discover. Mr Wilson rather bravely raised this issue publicly at the ‘town hall meeting’ when Jason Seiken introduced himself to staff. He has since left the paper.

Then, on 4 November 2014, a number of papers reported a blow to HSBC profits as the bank set aside more than £1 billion for customer compensation and an investigation into the rigging of currency markets. This story was the city splash in the Times, Guardian and Mail, making a page lead in the Independent. I inspected the Telegraph coverage. It generated five paragraphs in total on page 5 of the business section.

The reporting of HSBC is part of a wider problem. On 10 May last year the Telegraph ran a long feature on Cunard’s Queen Mary II liner on the news review page. This episode looked to many like a plug for an advertiser on a page normally dedicated to serious news analysis. I again checked and certainly Telegraph competitors did not view Cunard’s liner as a major news story. Cunard is an important Telegraph advertiser.

The paper’s comment on last year’s protests in Hong Kong was bizarre. One would have expected the Telegraph of all papers to have taken a keen interest and adopted a robust position. Yet (in sharp contrast to competitors like the Times) I could not find a single leader on the subject.

At the start of December the Financial Times, the Times and the Guardian all wrote powerful leaders on the refusal by the Chinese government to allow a committee of British MPs into Hong Kong. The Telegraph remained silent. I can think of few subjects which anger and concern Telegraph readers more.

On 15 September the Telegraph published a commentary by the Chinese ambassador, just before the lucrative China Watch supplement. The headline of the ambassador’s article was beyond parody: ‘Let’s not allow Hong Kong to come between us’. On 17 September there was a four-page fashion pull-out in the middle of the news run, granted more coverage than the Scottish referendum. The Tesco false accounting story on 23 September was covered only in the business section. By contrast it was the splash, inside spread and leader in the Mail. Not that the Telegraph is short of Tesco coverage. Tesco pledging £10m to fight cancer, an inside peak at Tesco’s £35m jet and ‘Meet the cat that has lived in Tesco for 4 years’ were all deemed newsworthy.

There are other very troubling cases, many of them set out in Private Eye, which has been a major source of information for Telegraph journalists wanting to understand what is happening on their paper. There was no avoiding the impression that something had gone awry with the Telegraph’s news judgment. At this point I wrote a long letter to Murdoch MacLennan setting out all my concerns about the newspaper, and handing in my notice. I copied this letter to the Telegraph chairman, Aidan Barclay.

I received a cursory response from Mr Barclay. He wrote that he hoped I could resolve my differences with Murdoch MacLennan. I duly went to see the chief executive in mid-December. He was civil, served me tea and asked me to take off my jacket. He said that I was a valued writer, and said that he wanted me to stay.

I expressed all of my concerns about the direction of the paper. I told him that I was not leaving to join another paper. I was resigning as a matter of conscience. Mr MacLennan agreed that advertising was allowed to affect editorial, but was unapologetic, saying that “it was not as bad as all that” and adding that there was a long history of this sort of thing at the Telegraph.

I have since consulted Charles Moore, the last editor of the Telegraph before the Barclays bought the paper in 2004. Mr Moore confessed that the published accounts of Hollinger Inc, then the holding company for the Telegraph, did not receive the scrutiny they deserved. But no newspaper in history has ever given an unfavourable gloss on its owner’s accounts. Beyond that, Mr Moore told me, there had been no advertising influence on the paper’s news coverage.  

After my meeting with Mr MacLennan I received a letter from the Telegraph saying that the paper had accepted my letter of resignation, but welcomed my offer to work out my six-month notice period. However in mid January I was asked to meet a Telegraph executive, this time over tea at the Goring Hotel. He told me that my weekly column would be discontinued and there had been a "parting of the ways".

He stressed, however, that the Telegraph would continue to honour my contract until it ran out in May. For my part I said that I would leave quietly. I had no desire to damage the newspaper. For all its problems it continues to employ a large number of very fine writers. They have mortgages and families. They are doing a fine job in very trying circumstances. I prepared myself mentally for the alluring prospect of several months paid gardening leave.

Story, what story?

That was how matters stood when, on Monday of last week, BBC Panorama ran its story about HSBC and its Swiss banking arm, alleging a wide-scale tax evasion scheme, while the Guardian and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists published their 'HSBC files'. All newspapers realised at once that this was a major event. The FT splashed on it for two days in a row, while the Times and the Mail gave it solid coverage spread over several pages.

You needed a microscope to find the Telegraph coverage: nothing on Monday, six slim paragraphs at the bottom left of page two on Tuesday, seven paragraphs deep in the business pages on Wednesday. The Telegraph’s reporting only looked up when the story turned into claims that there might be questions about the tax affairs of people connected to the Labour party.

After a lot of agony I have come to the conclusion that I have a duty to make all this public. There are two powerful reasons. The first concerns the future of the Telegraph under the Barclay Brothers. It might sound a pompous thing to say, but I believe the newspaper is a significant part of Britain’s civic architecture. It is the most important public voice of civilised, sceptical conservatism.

Telegraph readers are intelligent, sensible, well-informed people. They buy the newspaper because they feel that they can trust it. If advertising priorities are allowed to determine editorial judgments, how can readers continue to feel this trust? The Telegraph’s recent coverage of HSBC amounts to a form of fraud on its readers. It has been placing what it perceives to be the interests of a major international bank above its duty to bring the news to Telegraph readers. There is only one word to describe this situation: terrible. Imagine if the BBCso often the object of Telegraph attackhad conducted itself in this way. The Telegraph would have been contemptuous. It would have insisted that heads should roll, and rightly so.

This brings me to a second and even more important point that bears not just on the fate of one newspaper but on public life as a whole. A free press is essential to a healthy democracy. There is a purpose to journalism, and it is not just to entertain. It is not to pander to political power, big corporations and rich men. Newspapers have what amounts in the end to a constitutional duty to tell their readers the truth.

It is not only the Telegraph that is at fault here. The past few years have seen the rise of shadowy executives who determine what truths can and what truths can’t be conveyed across the mainstream media. The criminality of News International newspapers during the phone hacking years was a particularly grotesque example of this wholly malign phenomenon. All the newspaper groups, bar the magnificent exception of the Guardian, maintained a culture of omerta around phone-hacking, even if (like the Telegraph) they had not themselves been involved. One of the consequences of this conspiracy of silence was the appointment of Andy Coulson, who has since been jailed and now faces further charges of perjury, as director of communications in 10 Downing Street.

Urgent questions to answer

Last week I made another discovery. Three years ago the Telegraph investigations teamthe same lot who carried out the superb MPs’ expenses investigationreceived a tip off about accounts held with HSBC in Jersey. Essentially this investigation was similar to the Panorama investigation into the Swiss banking arm of HSBC. After three months research the Telegraph resolved to publish. Six articles on this subject can now be found online, between 8 and 15 November 2012, although three are not available to view.

Thereafter no fresh reports appeared. Reporters were ordered to destroy all emails, reports and documents related to the HSBC investigation. I have now learnt, in a remarkable departure from normal practice, that at this stage lawyers for the Barclay brothers became closely involved. When I asked the Telegraph why the Barclay brothers were involved, it declined to comment.

This was the pivotal moment. From the start of 2013 onwards stories critical of HSBC were discouraged. HSBC suspended its advertising with the Telegraph. Its account, I have been told by an extremely well informed insider, was extremely valuable. HSBC, as one former Telegraph executive told me, is “the advertiser you literally cannot afford to offend”. HSBC today refused to comment when I asked whether the bank's decision to stop advertising with the Telegraph was connected in any way with the paper's investigation into the Jersey accounts. 

Winning back the HSBC advertising account became an urgent priority. It was eventually restored after approximately 12 months. Executives say that Murdoch MacLennan was determined not to allow any criticism of the international bank. “He would express concern about headlines even on minor stories,” says one former Telegraph journalist. “Anything that mentioned money-laundering was just banned, even though the bank was on a final warning from the US authorities. This interference was happening on an industrial scale.

“An editorial operation that is clearly influenced by advertising is classic appeasement. Once a very powerful body know they can exert influence they know they can come back and threaten you. It totally changes the relationship you have with them. You know that even if you are robust you won’t be supported and will be undermined.”

When I sent detailed questions to the Telegraph this afternoon about its connections with advertisers, the paper gave the following response. "Your questions are full of inaccuracies, and we do not therefore intend to respond to them. More generally, like any other business, we never comment on individual commercial relationships, but our policy is absolutely clear. We aim to provide all our commercial partners with a range of advertising solutions, but the distinction between advertising and our award-winning editorial operation has always been fundamental to our business. We utterly refute any allegation to the contrary."

The evidence suggests otherwise, and the consequences of the Telegraph’s recent soft coverage of HSBC may have been profound. Would Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs have been much more energetic in its own recent investigations into wide-scale tax avoidance, had the Telegraph continued to hold HSBC to account after its 2012 investigation? There are great issues here. They go to the heart of our democracy, and can no longer be ignored.

 

 


Curious for more? Read: "HSBC Bank: Secret Origins To Laundering The World's Drug Money"

 

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Tue, 02/17/2015 - 15:57 | 5795046 Thirst Mutilator
Thirst Mutilator's picture

Wormer DEAD! Oborne DEAD! Neidermeyer DEAD!

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 16:01 | 5795077 Bunghole
Bunghole's picture

Truthiness will not be tolerated

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 16:07 | 5795111 Doubleguns
Doubleguns's picture

Advertising contracts, campaign contributions, jobs for the ole lady or other family members, trips on private jets, use of the condo as some resort, have all replace the simple blow job for bribery. Now you have to throw a sex party if your going to use sex for bribery.  Of course if BO brings his Wooky its not going to go over well. 

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 16:24 | 5795150 kliguy38
kliguy38's picture

NO ONE GIVES A SHIT!!... If you have one brain cell working you've known these slime ball media shills are all bought and paid for.......NOW they decide to get an honest bone??? Foch himn

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 16:30 | 5795209 Antifaschistische
Antifaschistische's picture

too bad when they use "shocker" in the title of an article that it's not remotely shocking.

The only thing that would shock me, would be if some supreme being told me this wasn't happening all day every single day.

by the way...since the NSA listens to everything, how can they not be in on the shill game also

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 16:36 | 5795234 0b1knob
0b1knob's picture

There's a nailgun or shotgun shell with his name on it.   Remember the prosecuter in Argentina?

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 17:07 | 5795415 Rubicon
Rubicon's picture

Im shocked that the lady with three breasts doesnt actually exist! What the hell have I been looking at!

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 16:53 | 5795327 Miffed Microbio...
Miffed Microbiologist's picture

My mother was an investigative reporter in the sixties. She quit in disgust by the constant interference from her editor due to advertising money. She said the conflict of interest was overwhelming and her job was on the line all the time for any perceived slander to the wrong party. She taught me to believe nothing in print when I was eight.

My dad got his MBA at Columbia. His thesis was on the gold standard and at 11 taught me paper money has not inherent value and to keep PMs

I tend to run a tad cynical at times.

Miffed

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 23:42 | 5797377 cornflakesdisease
cornflakesdisease's picture

Your words are poetry.

Thu, 02/19/2015 - 22:14 | 5806373 Absinthe Minded
Absinthe Minded's picture

It's disgusting that a person with an open mind trying to write about the truth with no agenda has to dodge the bullets of fascists covering up for scumbags operating a criminal enterprise in broad daylight. FUCK HSBC and their fucking cover up cohorts!!,

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 16:03 | 5795087 nope-1004
nope-1004's picture

What's a "newspaper"?

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 17:30 | 5795525 FMOTL
FMOTL's picture

Lol exactly. No newspapers , no TV ,no commercial radio for FMOTL family, only Zerohedge, Corbett Report, Red Ice Radio , FreedomainRadio and FreeMinds Brighton all with Adblock of course !

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 18:12 | 5795789 NeedtoSecede
NeedtoSecede's picture

What's a democracy? Haven't seen one of those mythical beasts in decades...

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 16:05 | 5795101 yrad
yrad's picture

A sucker is Oborne every minute.

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 16:08 | 5795114 Eirik Magnus Larssen
Eirik Magnus Larssen's picture

The Daily Telegraph is a right-wing publication. There is a lesson here which is likely to fly completely over the heads of the majority of people on this board.

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 16:43 | 5795260 The.Harmless.Jew
The.Harmless.Jew's picture

 

 

The paper, like others has an agenda clearly, but let's not fall for this faux-left / faux-right paradigm. 

 

The left / right only existed briefly, perhaps when it was thought out by Napolean and co.... 

 

Anyway, let's not detract from the real story: 

 

PETER OBORNE is a LEGEND - not because of his decision to quit, which lamentable.  Rather, it is because he dared to speak up for Democracy on many occasions, for daring to highlight the corruption of the elites (during the London riots), and above all, for daring to make an (albeit mainstream) documentary on ZIONISM in British Politics - which showed how terrified british politicians were of this Lobby. 

 

One member of parliment / law-maker insisted that Oborne not only switched off his mobile phone, but removed the battery and sim before discussing the power of the Zionist Lobby.  

 

Peter Oborne, we salute you. 

 

 

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 22:01 | 5796959 king leon
king leon's picture

This is the erational talk of a man likely contemplating suicide!! 

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 16:44 | 5795263 Augustus
Augustus's picture

It appears that Oborne disliked the change in direction.

Selling of corruption in business and government is the current clear route to media operations maintaining existance.

Exciting coverage of government gift programs leave little page space for anything else.

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 18:16 | 5795810 Crazy Canuck
Crazy Canuck's picture

... Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son.

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 15:57 | 5795050 zeropain
zeropain's picture

decent on the rise... the shit blizzard is in the air,,,,

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 16:10 | 5795125 ANestIOS
ANestIOS's picture

more like the shit hit the fan

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 15:57 | 5795052 Zymurguy
Zymurguy's picture

Oborne better not have any nailguns lying around... they've been known to jump up self activate and accidently suicide you.

Just sayin'.

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 16:09 | 5795117 Thirst Mutilator
Thirst Mutilator's picture

Compromising fotos of him engaged in perverse sex acts with Ken dolls should emerge by suppertime.

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 15:58 | 5795053 kowalli
kowalli's picture

freedom and democracy /sacr

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 16:05 | 5795098 101 years and c...
101 years and counting's picture

serfdom and censorship.  

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 16:01 | 5795058 Ignatius
Ignatius's picture

Editor of major German newspaper admits planting CIA stories:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yp-Wh77wt1o

So we're left with... listening to nobody?

File under: fucktard rulers

The "American/World Mind" is as healthy as Iraqi infrastructure.  Way to go, guys.

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 15:59 | 5795063 doggis
doggis's picture

THAT IS SO 10 YEARS AGO. WE HAVE BEEN LIVING IN A STATE OF LIE FOR A DECADE. THE MAIN STREAM PRESS HAS ABDICATED LONG AGO.

 

THAT IS WHY I AM TYPING ON ZEROHEDGE. THE ALTERNATIVE PRESS IS NOW THE MAIN STREAM. LONG LIVE THE NEW PRESS!

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 16:03 | 5795086 sleigher
sleigher's picture

WHAT?  I CAN'T HEAR YOU?

sry couldn't help it.

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 16:10 | 5795124 Thirst Mutilator
Thirst Mutilator's picture

So, are you missing an ear too?

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 16:37 | 5795235 youngman
youngman's picture

he is..but he painted a nice self portrait...

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 16:19 | 5795162 maskone909
maskone909's picture

This is why it is such a problem. People must comply or the banks will pull their money out. The banks run everything.

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 16:05 | 5795094 kowalli
kowalli's picture

You were living in a state of lie from federal reserve birth, Period

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 16:00 | 5795065 Tsar Pointless
Tsar Pointless's picture

Goddamn liberal news media! The media should just stick to stories about football (either American or international, depending upon where you live) and leave those poor corporations and banks alone!

Commies!

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 16:07 | 5795107 drendebe10
drendebe10's picture

OMG!  Can it be???? A MSM individual with actual integrity?  OMG....

BTW, old news I know but I want to vent.... the multimillionaire NBC liar who "misremembered" his helicopter flight...  I heard three different sound bites on the NBC liar lying about the incident three different times and each time it seemed like the "story" got embelished.  A pathological liar doesn't lie just once...  just ask the fudgepacker in chief....

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 16:10 | 5795128 Tsar Pointless
Tsar Pointless's picture

Jesusfuckingchrist. Do you people REALLY need to use homophobic language when trying to make a point? Do you also feel the need to bring Obama into everything?

Jesusfuckingchrist. I didn't even bring Bush or Cheney into everything 10 years ago, and I absolutely loathe those individuals with a passion.

Jesusfuckingchrist. Goddamn breeders.

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 16:22 | 5795176 maskone909
maskone909's picture

Dafuq?

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 16:28 | 5795201 yrad
yrad's picture

Can you start a sentence that doesn’t begin with Jesusfuckingchrist?

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 16:37 | 5795232 Zymurguy
Zymurguy's picture

Tsar... Can you make a point without taking the Lord's name in vain, my brother?

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 16:41 | 5795247 Tsar Pointless
Tsar Pointless's picture

1. I don't believe in any "Lord".

2. I am not your brother, brother. Who are you? Hulk Hogan? Randy Savage, from the dead?

I cannot and will not worry about offending anybody and their religious icons, no matter what you people say or think. Well, mostly say.

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 17:09 | 5795427 Likstane
Likstane's picture

You may not yet believe in Jesus, but you will get to meet Him one day.

...so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven, and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Philllipians 2:10,11

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 20:59 | 5796680 RaceToTheBottom
RaceToTheBottom's picture

If we meet him, I am sure he will be able to introduce himself, if need be.

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 17:53 | 5795624 Renfield
Renfield's picture

<<I cannot and will not worry about offending anybody and their religious icons, no matter what you people say or think. Well, mostly say.>>

So, you demand other people be so kind as to respect your little button panel (OMG "homophobic" "Obama! Bush! Cheney!"), but the deal is you can smash anyone's button you feel like with a hammer. Because, you.

hehehe

You should work for the ECB. You're a natural.

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 21:52 | 5796919 Muh Raf
Muh Raf's picture

+100 - total hypocrisy

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 16:44 | 5795269 Tsar Pointless
Tsar Pointless's picture

Jesusfuckingchrist, apparently not!

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 21:58 | 5796949 Muh Raf
Muh Raf's picture

Looks like your quoting straight from the Talmud. Your invective resembles the stench of a practicing ashke-Nazi. Suggest you do us all a favour and FOAD.

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 17:26 | 5795509 ImReady
ImReady's picture

Do you REALLY have to use foul language in order to make a point? 

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 18:13 | 5795794 RealistDuJour
RealistDuJour's picture

Profanity is the effort of a feeble brain to express itself forcibly...

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 19:22 | 5796154 Minder For Priapus
Minder For Priapus's picture

Shut up moaning ya puff! Sarc.....

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 16:13 | 5795141 Sinnedi
Sinnedi's picture

CIA meme liberul

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 16:00 | 5795071 taketheredpill
taketheredpill's picture

 

 

Thatcher is Dead?

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 16:02 | 5795082 Usurious
Usurious's picture

 

 

does anyone have any updates on Bobbi Kristina??

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 16:36 | 5795227 knukles
knukles's picture

The Enquirer at the Safeway today had a headline about her murder and is calling for an investigation.  Another piece said that they were waiting a few days to bury her on the same day her mom was buried.   But she's dead, so the story's not got a lot of breathing room anymore, so to speak.

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 16:02 | 5795083 Number 156
Number 156's picture

Stay away from nail guns.

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 16:03 | 5795085 Goatboy
Goatboy's picture

At the moment, this guy's behavior is just an anomaly. M(B?)illions around the world will keep being paid not to understand or talk about what is really happening.

On the other hand, small critical mass of similar incidents would offer some hope.

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 16:03 | 5795088 Atomizer
Atomizer's picture

Brian Williams must be moonlighting for the Telegraph.

/sarc

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 16:05 | 5795097 DOGGONE
DOGGONE's picture

Peter Oborne,
Your HONESTY is so welcome!

PLEASE show this super fraud:
Stop whoring for Wall Street.
http://www.showrealhist.com/yTRIAL.html
http://patrick.net/?p=1223928

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 16:05 | 5795102 TeaClipper
TeaClipper's picture

The Daily Telegraph, an overtly politically right wing newspaper, owned by the Barclay brothers, and funded by HSBC through advertising. Oh that kind of independent and impartial media

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 16:12 | 5795134 Atomizer
Atomizer's picture

Stop with the two party division antics, there is only one filtering propaganda to lodge chaos against an illusionary two party system.

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 16:15 | 5795146 Sinnedi
Sinnedi's picture

Yep they all are one party. Operating from their perspective 33 degree Freemason lodges

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 16:16 | 5795154 TeaClipper
TeaClipper's picture

Go tell them that

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 16:08 | 5795112 Hohum
Hohum's picture

No worries, the Telegraph's coverage on climate change is outstanding.

 

https://robertscribbler.wordpress.com/

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 16:09 | 5795116 SuperVinci
SuperVinci's picture

Repeat after me:

 

NO MORE BUSHs

 

NO MORE CLINTONs

 

(it's a start)

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 16:13 | 5795132 CuttingEdge
CuttingEdge's picture

Peter Oborne might have had a shred of integrity had he not posted as much anti-Putin CIA-sponsored bullshit as everyone else in the MSM over the Ukraine since last February.

As it is, he's just your common or garden variety cunt like the rest of the so called "journalists" with which the MSM is infested - all owned lock stock by you know who...

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 17:57 | 5795706 localizer
localizer's picture

I'm not aware of what he has been posting before he quit as I generally don't read the Telegraph, but the fact that he has taken this public speaks volumes about the whole media business. Despite what he has been posting this is still a huge step for a journalist since he is surely not getting much new friends with this move... It is always easy to criticize people, but when you need to make a decision like this yourself you will have to think very hard... the key thing here is this message "major newspapers allow corporations to influence their content for fear of losing advertising revenue, democracy itself is in peril" - this is what it is all about!

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 16:12 | 5795137 IridiumRebel
IridiumRebel's picture

More of this. Dissent motherfuckers.

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 16:18 | 5795160 q99x2
q99x2's picture

Arrest Jamie Dimon and Lloyd Blankfein

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 16:21 | 5795172 Tsar Pointless
Tsar Pointless's picture

Free Jon Corzine!

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 16:24 | 5795179 Smiley
Smiley's picture

Modern "News" organizations are not supposed to report facts or investigate anything.  Modern "News" organizations are supposed to generate revenue streams for the share and bond holders.  That's it. 

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 16:41 | 5795246 dexter_morgan
dexter_morgan's picture

Well, that and spread the propaganda of the day.

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 16:29 | 5795207 RisingSun
RisingSun's picture

Sounds similar to those RT journalists who quit RT last year over the Russian propoganda reports.

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 17:19 | 5795473 JuliaS
JuliaS's picture

No Ukrainian reporter quit over the cold-blooded murder of pregnant woman in Odessa. No US reporter quit when Miriam Carey was gunned down in DC, driving with a toddler in the back seat. I guess quitting takes special kind of courage.

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 17:20 | 5795477 IridiumRebel
IridiumRebel's picture

You should quit ZeroHedge in protest.

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 16:33 | 5795218 mog
mog's picture

GGood for you Mr Oborne.

But let me make a further point.

The DT and its arrogance to its readers.

As anyone who follows the paper knows.

It has become literally scared of its readers.

For a long time comments were open on most stories.

Not any more.

They have been increasingly whittled down to comments on absolute trivia - with few exceptions.

Its take a virulently anti Russia line.

Comments take a different view.

Any comments that take a critical view of Israel or Jews in general are immediately deleted. Even a whiff of criticism.

Readers comments are often hostile to NATO agression and neo conservatism - again comments gradually being closed - now almost completely.

The paper is radically pro David Cameron and the Tory party and generally almost pro Europe these days in the desire to curry his favour..

The comments from the readers tend to be pro the new party on the block UKIP.

So comments again curtailed.

Some threads have just lists of rdeleted comments - most now allow no comments at all.

The DT is becoming a national hive of pressitution

It has lost its independent spirit - it has sold out to the worse of international politics and the bloodletting of NATO and Israel.

I don't doubt Mr Oborne is completely aware of this as well.

A paper terrified of its readers.

What does that say for the British Press, the bias and the peddled propaganda..

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 16:42 | 5795253 Peltast
Peltast's picture

The Torygraph is just the official shytsrael mouthpiece in Britain.

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 16:46 | 5795283 WTFUD
WTFUD's picture

He reckons the Telegraph had ' integrity ' prior to him joining 5 years ago.

So happens i called the political editor, maybe his deputy and told him that beating the drums for WAR with Iraq was madness.
He told me more or less to stuff it.
At least i got 2 fucks and a cunt in before he slammed down the phone.

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 16:48 | 5795294 DavidC
DavidC's picture

I worked with a guitar maker in the 1980s who said that a reputation takes years to build and ten minutes to lose. He's still in business and still producing beautiful instruments.

http://www.giffinguitars.com/

DavidC

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 16:49 | 5795298 Catullus
Catullus's picture

Stick to comedy. You'll live longer.

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 16:52 | 5795315 WTFUD
WTFUD's picture

In fact they should rename it The Daily TerrorGraph.

Commenting on the other thread about the WSJ, Compared to Rupert Murdoch , George Soros could be considered relatively SANE.

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 16:52 | 5795318 localizer
localizer's picture

Utmost respect to this guy! I wish more reporters would expose the lies fed to the people! Too few truly independent journalists left!

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 16:53 | 5795324 kchrisc
kchrisc's picture

" What happens when the "impartial and independent" media puts its relationship with advertisers above the interests of its readers and the presentation of "impartial and independent" facts? This:"

Order of interests of the complicit-media:

Empire, advertizes, .......................................................readers

The banksters need to repay us.

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 16:56 | 5795348 Rusputin
Rusputin's picture

Please name an event, or even period when, the British press has not been hand-in-glove with the geopolitical interests of the state (ie the elite)?

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 17:00 | 5795368 WTFUD
WTFUD's picture

When Princess Diane was murdered.

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 18:49 | 5795983 Rusputin
Rusputin's picture

Nope, please try harder :-)

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 18:35 | 5795924 smacker
smacker's picture

The British press had a tradition of being independent but it has gotten into bed with .gov and other vested interests over the last years. I mainly blame Murdoch for this. He took over The Times and already owns The Sun.

The section of British MSM that is well and truly in bed with .gov are the TV News channels: mainly the BBC and Sky News. ITN also pays homage to .gov. TV news is regulated by a very different body to print news.

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 16:57 | 5795349 kchrisc
kchrisc's picture

Of course people should remember that "money laundering" is the empire's propaganda meme, and cover, for their catchall, plundering enabling political crime.

The banksters need to repay us.

 

"We'll steal it when you make it, steal it when you trade it, and then steal the rest."

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 16:58 | 5795363 stilletto
stilletto's picture

Sadly The Telegraph was probably the least biased of the British Newspapers! So if the Telegraph has gotten this bad the rest are just hogwash. Thank heavens for the free internet! Oh - so they are trying to shut that down too! Man the barricades!! We are all in the fight club now!

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 17:05 | 5795400 Fukushima Fricassee
Fukushima Fricassee's picture

Say 'NO!' to the FCC Internet Takeover , please , for gods sake sign the petition at this link. Feb 26th is the last chance to save freedom of speech.

http://action.politicalmedia.com/17314/constitutionally-say-no-to-fcc-internet-takeover/?ifr=820

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 17:40 | 5795590 Miss Expectations
Miss Expectations's picture

Introducing Robert McCormick, Former Publisher of the Chicago Tribune:

Excerpts from: The Last Will and Testament of Col. Robert R. McCormick

“A trust fund to be known as the Robert R. McCormick Charitable Trust shall be established for religious, charitable, scientific, literary or education purposes or for the prevention of cruelty to children or animals. It is my hope that my trustees will use a portion of the income…to encourage and promote the education of the people of the State of Illinois in the principles of the Constitution of the United States of America, and particularly in the principles of freedom of speech and of the press, and to assist in repelling any attacks upon the right of freedom of speech and freedom of press by providing educational opportunities for the study of the growth and importance of these principles.”     http://www.mccormickfoundation.org/page.aspx?pid=559

“The newspaper is an institution developed by modern civilization to present the news of the day, to foster commerce and industry, to inform and lead public opinion, and to furnish that check upon government which no constitution has ever been able to provide.”
--Robert R. McCormick  http://www.cantigny.org/museums/robert-r-mccormick-museum/the-man/newsma...

McCormick carried on crusades against gangsters and racketeersprohibition and prohibitionists, local, state, and national politicians, Wall Street, the East and Easterners, Democrats, the New Deal and the Fair Dealliberal Republicans, the League of Nations, the World Court, the United Nations, British imperialism, socialism, and communism.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_R._McCormick

A champion of press freedom, he underwrote the cost of winning a landmark Supreme Court case that found a Minnesota gag law unconstitutional.

To make the paper speak with his voice, McCormick met daily with editors and editorial writers, and he peppered his staff with memos and telephone calls from Cantigny, his estate near west suburban Wheaton.

"Colonel McCormick's xenophobic `World's Greatest Newspaper' is one of the last, anachronistic citadels of muscular personal journalism," Time said.

The Colonel waged his fiercest campaign against President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal, in his view a monolithic threat to individual freedom. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/politics/chi-chicagodays-...

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 17:43 | 5795626 SharkBit
SharkBit's picture

Chap, all I can say is what took you so long to pull you head out of your ass?  Anyway, welcome to the real free world.  Perhaps you can now do some good with your life, unless you have mortgages and families to support.  Lame.

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 17:49 | 5795671 QQQBall
QQQBall's picture

Newspaper. Paying for yesterday's news. My dog won't even poop on newspaper.

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 18:15 | 5795803 smacker
smacker's picture

There was a time in Britain when broadsheet newspapers: especially Telegraph and Times, were respected journals of news. The garbage, lies, rubbish, nationalism and warmongering was left for Murdoch's trash The Sun to print.[**]

Nowadays, it seems even the broadsheets are sliding down the flusher.

Printed newspapers are being caught in a pincer movement of their own making: on one hand they are being seriously challenged by respected blogs who are generally independent of external pressures from .gov etc and on the other hand they are losing public trust & respect for their habit of sleeping with the devil (.gov and any other org that hands them money or privilege) and for spining the news to fit their own agendas.

As a result, sales are falling and advertising revenues must be falling too. It must be getting near time for a few harsh newspaper org downsizings.

[**] Here's a true story: When The Sun printers were about to go on strike a few years ago, the Trade Union Leader running the strike said this on TV News:

"If the binners go on strike we'd have garbage ON the streets. But if The Sun printers go on strile we'd have garbage OFF the streets"

 

 

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 18:29 | 5795892 Monty Burns
Monty Burns's picture

That's what's known as a virtuous circle.

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 18:23 | 5795854 Youri Carma
Youri Carma's picture

Peter Oborne: why I resigned from the Telegraph https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXl3xWJ01eE

London is a cesspool of fraud with HSBC committing fraud on every level which goes very under-reported and this rat faced channel 4 news ‘reporter’ is trying to suggest that ‘Time have changed’ LOlz  Yeah, the fascist have taking over.

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 18:43 | 5795962 Tinky
Tinky's picture

Speaking of excellent journalism practiced by British newspapers, on the front page of The Observer (U.K.) website a couple of days ago there was a photo of the well-known Irish politician Gerry Adams, with a link below to a story. This was the story:

"Gerry Adams recounts trampolining naked with his dog"

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 20:04 | 5796417 dot_bust
dot_bust's picture

The news media are so adverse to telling the truth about the bankers that sites like Bloomberg.com and CNN.com have eliminated the comments section that would normally appear under articles. Apparently, dissent isn't allowed.

Wed, 02/18/2015 - 17:54 | 5800838 MeelionDollerBogus
MeelionDollerBogus's picture

Increasingly common. Any site with any article about wrong-doing by banks, police, social-justice groups, or anythign controversial has switched from heavy erasure of comments to never permitting comments. Same with many youtube channels for absurd messages, like the one promoting children to steal their parents guns, or for women to claim "financial abuse" for being denied unlimited spending/borrowing of money of a spouse, when in fact the financial abuse of stealing everything in a divorce is ignored completely (Allstate, Purple purse: this is leading men to dump allstate completely)

Tue, 02/17/2015 - 22:09 | 5796988 Vinividivinci
Vinividivinci's picture

Hmmmm...I wonder how many years of writting bullshit articles he had to "endure" before FINALLY being able to cash in his chips.
As far as I'm concerned, he played his part in the farce otherwise known as a "financial journalist".
Ta-ta, fat ass.

Wed, 02/18/2015 - 17:49 | 5800811 MeelionDollerBogus
MeelionDollerBogus's picture

HSBC - logo

Umbrella Corporation - logo

Clearly nothing in common.

 

Thu, 02/19/2015 - 10:33 | 5803147 mantrid
mantrid's picture

HSBC is the advertiser you literally cannot afford to offend

CIA is the leak provider you literally cannot afford to offend

 

that explains the coverage on Ukraine, Middle East and pretty everything

Fri, 02/20/2015 - 11:32 | 5807895 thecrud
thecrud's picture

What would this democracy be you speak of.

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