News Of The World newspaper no more...

rhyeking wrote: ...Except that it's exactly what Roger was commenting on in his song "Dear Mr. Murdoch".

NOTW's practices, those specifically cited in Roger's song 17 years ago, brought this closure about and I felt it worthy of discussion. If I had titled the post: "Did Roger predict the future...?" or something like that, would that justify it on this thread for you?
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have to disagree. Firstly, Roger's song was a dig at Mr Murdoch in the way that many many aging rock stars suddenly become self-righteous, judgemental and holier than thou...if he'd written soenthing like that in his younger days it may have carried some weight...but it comes across as grumpy old sod....

secondly, you say "those specifically cited in Roger's song" ....Roger didn't even allude to (let alone cite) phone tapping....nobody was aware the papers were doign this back then...so no. your point is unfounded. Specifically (your word) because the newspaper did not collapse because of tits or arses or celebrity scandals or soft-porn or gossip or in fact due to Murdoch being a ego-maniaclly-minded despot....the paper collapsed soley due to one thing PHONE TAPPING

and finally, Roger DID NOT predict anything...it's hardly the fall of the Roman empire...Murdoch's power base will be stronger today for him ceasing production of the paper - clearly the morally right thing to do......sunday's last issue is for charity - all revenue....another morally good ting to do...whatever you think of murdoch, he has done the right thing...and as for NOTW - it'll be back....as the Sunday Sun or some such....cos people forget in time...i'd give it til august sept...and we'll have "Britains newest and brightest sunday paper"   (that'll be their tagline)

It got us talking, Brenski, which was exactly my intent.

I'm of the opinion that the phone hacking was merely the last straw for a nation that was increasingly getting sick of the (also my words) "general sleaze" and base practices. He does, however, cite, "How many times must they poke and they pry...?" I'm told that the phone hacking was such that they were deleting messages in order to make room for more, all while she was missing, leading the family to believe she was still alive, since someone was accessing her service. I guess they pried a few times too many in the public's opinion.

Whatever Roger's intent, he was calling out the business and journalistic practices of Rupert Murdoch 17 years ago, and in light of recent developments, it seems to me eerily relevant. And notice I said "Did Roger predict the future...?" not "Roger totally called it!", and was only doing so as an example of what I thought the other poster might require as a valid post title to relate to Queen.

I draw the connection the way we often, for example, draw on '60s protest songs whenever a government does something we disapprove of, like passing a questionable law or going to war for ill-advised reasons. It is human nature to seek truth in words and art that resound again in modern contexts.

Did Roger predict anything? Of course not, but he wrote a song about a man, who's methods eventually caught up with him. It may be a relatively inconsequential event that NOTW ends in disgrace. If his entire empire had collapsed, I'd have put this thread in the Serious Discussion Forum.

your first paragraph: - again i disagree - doesn't matter what the views of the morale minority are - bad news sells papers and the NOTW was still the biggest selling sunday paper - by quite a distance (2.7m sales, estimate 5.5 m readers) - and yes sales of news have fallen off - for EVERY paper - because more are reading news online...but fact is NOTW despite it's gutter approach had not suffered one bit....until "phonegate"

and sorry, but his song is not "eerily relevant".....something from 17 years ago cannot be eerily relevant (unless it was suddenly always on when you heard a radio - which it isnt)....it'd be eerily relevant if the song came out last week and the news broke this week

and anyhow, there are better songs about newspapers and intrusion.....try the jam's NOTW and pretenders - back on the chain gang

 and please don't liken Roger's DMM to a 60s protest song.....cos 60s protest songs were relevant at the time they were written...Roger's was a sad, embittered lone voice, 60s protest songs were part of a greater cause and a whole peace movement

aside form all that tho...i do agree with you re:press intrusion....but then...bad news always sells column inches...which is why news at ten always had wall-to-wall misery and war and torture and grief...then closed off with a heartwarming story about a kitten or some such crap

I understand what you're saying, but I'm not sure you quite get where I was coming from (and I mean that nicely). I wasn't saying DMM is equal to a Bob Dylan protest song, I was saying that I was seeing the relevance of what Roger said 17 years ago in the same way as those who quote '60s lyrics today. The comparison is in the observation and application of the content, not a comparison of the content itself.

Similarly, my exact quote was "it seemed to me be eerily relevant." I was qualifying the statement from my own perspective, clarifying why I brought up the discussion in the first place. 

You don't see the same relevance and don't put much stock in Roger's point of view in that song, which is fair. I suggest, though, that when Roger wrote the song during the Blue Rock sessions of 1990, he was experiencing the effect of tabloid journalism as it related to Freddie. Curmudgeon or not, his expressed feelings were probably sincere.

i wasn't referring to Dylan...that'd be a little too predictable..i was referring to other protest writers - john fogerty is a good example of what i had in mind...and the application of protest songs about specific events, vietnam (for one) do not apply to later (similar) events...they're written as a relevance to a specific snapshot of history...and that's what makes them important...otherwise they just become "morals" rather than "observational"

as regards DMM - sorry but i refuse to get it...he wrote it about the intrusion into Freddie's illness...but you have to be realistic....Freddie knew he was dying...and we can all be wise with hindsight ...but if he'd not left it to the last 24 hrs to go public, then he may have had a relatively private last few months....who knows?

Roger wrote DMM to vent his spleen. but sometimes the motives for venting are not always clear. consider this: he'd lost his dear friend of 20 yrs to a terrible illness, he needed to lash out and blame someone. and his friens could not be blamed. so the media became an easy target.....and whatever intrusions they may have tried to make THEY DID NOT KILL FREDDIE.....freddie's promiscuity killed freddie

sorry, but i refuse to accept your "eerily relevant" comment - in any context. it doesn't work. the song was 17 yrs old and has not (to my knowledge ever been aired much - even when it was new. so it can't be relevant unless it's being heard lots. i'll try giving you an example of true "eerie relevance" (please indulge me while i bore you).

Three years ago my dad was dying with cancer - he was only told this two months beforehand. so he gave me load sof instructions to sort out his funeral. while arrranging stuff...i ended up putting together a huge slideshow (for the wake) of every photo i could locate of him...going right back to his christening, holy communion and confirmation back in Ireland in the 1940s....i had boxes and boxes of photos...thousands of em...and while i did this? what song followed me everywhere i went (in the car, at home, at work) for a month? Nickelback - Photograph...listen to the lyrics...that's true eerie relevance

DMM was just shit, boring muic from a guy capable of way more.  I love Roger for his passion, but getting in bed with Murdoch (or at least the tabloids, not a Brit so unsure of ownership) to promote the musical says that your activism or anger is selective at best.

Brenski, I can certainly sympathize with the loss your father. Mine passed away November 24th, 2009 (the significance of that date is not lost on me, by the way, while we're on the subject of "eerie").

Otherwise, on the subject of DMM, I expressed my point of view and can leave it at that. Cheers!

wow, they tapped phones?!  I am so naive :/

Of course Queen will live on for many generations to come.

Your children will hear it, your children's children etc will hear it...

But the newspaper? Never read it. So I say to the editor you are making the right choice because I read i :)

To: Pingfah....."Nothing wrong w/ drugs & porn"? WHAT?? Try......the fact that one or the other is responsible for the unraveling  of society! The major contributors to the break-up of families! And you don't see them as problems?!
I beg to differ vehemently. And if you weren't involved in one or both of these vices, you'd see more clearly as well.
A truer statement would be that there's really nothing right with them!

Anyway, Queen Rocksssssss!!!!!
Freddie makes everything better!!!!!

From Monday's 'Daily Show'.....John Oliver starts at 2:33, his NOTW commentary starts at 4:00, with a Freddie remark thrown in around 4:40

http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/mon-july-11-2011-denis-leary