Excellent work Bob - and they say the blogosphere is killing off investigative journalism.

:-)

The full statement is pretty strongly worded however. Hitting back at the Observer for the same behaviour was cute too.

I'm going to be genuinely interested to see how far politicians push this, given that - I assume - they'd like to generally stay on the 'good' side (if such a thing exists) of Murdoch's empire.

I wonder if Gordon would prefer J Prescott to wind his neck in a little?

You may well be right Adrian, but personally I hope the vile Aussie scab gets the kicking he so richly deserves. I'm sick of Labour politicians bowing at the knee to the bastard, they should go for his throat.

OK, he's backing the Tories. But what sort of surprise is that? Cameron is Blair-lite and therefore malleable for Murdoch, and the poor bloody infantry who thought they were Conservative, will do what so many Labour members did, sell their soul for a place in the spotlight. Suckers!

Couldn't agree more on the Murdoch meme. The guy's influence over UK 'news ' is frightening; it's almost a justification for the license fee in itself (shame the Beeb has misplaced its collective backbone).

I sometimes flick on Fox news, and the thought of the equivalents of O'Reilly, Hannity et al showing up over here fills me with dread.

Didn't we once have a law that you couldn't own dominant positions in TV and Newspapers? My memory is a little faulty on this, I know there was a similar provision in th US. Anyway, if there was, it could do with the Lazarus treatment.

Still, the last politician his lot backed in a General Election was Sarah Palin, so you know, he at least knows how to pick a winner. Oh, hang on...

I'm beginning to think that any political party that stood up to Murdoch would get my vote. His lust for power is deeply disquieting. How did we let it come to this?