Layoffs At The Daily News

From Capital NY:

The Daily News is now undergoing what employees of the tabloid have been fearing for weeks: Multiple insiders tell Capital that layoffs have hit the newsroom today.

Several sources put the total number of pink slips at around 15.

Two high-profile bylines we've confirmed to be among the laid-off Newsers so far are columnists Albor Ruiz and Joanna Molloy, both longtime veterans of the paper. Ruiz will continue to freelance for the News, according to a source familiar with the situation.

The news of Molloy's termination was particularly shocking. She's arguably the most famous writer still at the paper, having helmed its gossip pages for 15 years with her husband, George Rush, who took a buyout in 2010.

...

Sources said other names on the list include reporters Christina Boyle and Robert Gearty and editorial writers Stephen McFarland and Alexander Nazaryan, who also writes the paper's books blog.

Those who are affected are being told that the headcount reduction is a result of a "restructuring" at the paper with an emphasis on digital, according to a source with knowledge of the discussions.

The News has been ramping up its digital operation this past year in a bid to capture national advertising dollars and grow its online reader base outside of New York. Two weeks ago, in a sign of its web ambitions, two major promotions were announced under digital editor Ted Young, a Mail Online alumnus imported last year by Myler, a fellow Brit.

Myler characterized the promotions in a memo as part of a "general restructuring of our digital and business development operation."

The News is the fifth most widely-read newspaper in the U.S., although its combined print and digital average weekday circulation slipped 11 percent year-over-year to 516,165 during the six-month period between October and March, according to data released last week by the Alliance for Audited Media.

The Daily News is unreadable these days.

Colin Myler has made it into absolute dreck.

It's all bikini photos of celebrities and sensationalized crime stories.

No wonder the average weekday circulation is down 11%.

Heckuva job, Colin.

Zuckerman is going to come to regret that you didn't go to jail for your hacking cover-up crimes.

12/21/2012

It's the apocalypse, folks.

If the United Federation of Teachers leadership does not sign off on a new teacher evaluation agreement that is full of junk science, an absurd observation rubric longer than War and Peace, a Student Learning Objective process so convoluted it will be essentially meaningless, and other so-called "reforms" imposed by the corporate education deformers, the world will end.

That's right - the end of human history as we know it is right in the hands of teachers.

Because the Mayans knew, when they ended their calendar on 12/21/12, that the United States public education system would be in crisis and only "Bolder, Faster Change" in the form of high stakes tests in every grade in every subject, teacher evaluations tied to those test scores via a value-added measurement algorithm with a margin of error bigger than the hole in the ozone caused by human hair products, and the immediate firing of as many "ineffective" (i.e., expensive veteran teachers) as possible can save us all from destruction.

And so that figure of the spirit, that man in touch with the soul of the universe, the Dalai Bloomberg, has come to us all with a plan to save humanity from total destruction.

Agree to the evaluation system the NYCDOE has put before the UFT leadership or else.

The phone hacking criminals running the NY Daily News concur - agree to the new system or suffer the wrath of the universe.

So what if the value-added measurement they're going to use on you is error-riddled, subject to wide swings in stability and will eventually tar every teacher as "ineffective" if they hang around long enough?

So what if the Danielson rubric has a 57 page checklist that will be used on you and it is nearly impossible (not to mention ludicrous) to be expected to hit all the criteria on the checklist in a 45 minute class, day-in and day-out, as the new evaluation system will mandate?

So what if the Student Learning Objectives process, which will account for 20% of the evaluation grade, will be complex, convoluted and useless?

So what if the education leaders at the NYCDOE, the NYSED, and the Regents are misleading the public about the "objectivity" and "scientific" nature of this system and know that it has been specifically designed to give districts the tools they need to shed thousands of teachers every year and turn the teaching profession into a right-to-work job?

We simply must agree to what the Dalai Bloomberg has put in front of us, even though we know the system is unfair, unjust and rigged or the world as we know it will end.

You have been warned, my friends - agree to the worst possible teacher evaluation system or be responsible for the end of humanity.

The future is in your hands.

Daily News Editor Slammed In British Report On Media Ethics

Our old friend, Daily News editor Colin Myler, got hammered in the Leveson report on media ethics today for helping Rupert Murdoch cover up the hacking scandal at News of the World:

The coverage of Lord Justice Leveson's inquiry into phone hacking by the British press, released on Thursday, have focused on its findings of pervasive misdeeds, especially at Rupert Murdoch's now-defunct News of the World, and its recommendation that a powerful new government watchdog is necessary to prevent future abuses. Lost somewhat in that are Leveson's conclusions about the ethical lapses of Colin Myler, currently editor in chief of the New York Daily News, who served as editor of NOTW as the paper began its death spiral. Myler was not at the paper when it engaged in phone hacking, but was brought on board in 2007 as the scandal was expanding. According to Rupert Murdoch, Myler was there to "find out what the hell was going on." Myler disputed his ex-boss's account, claiming that "he simply understood his role as being to edit the paper."

Still, Myler professed to being uneasy about what might be lurking in the paper's recent past. "I felt that there could have been bombs under the newsroom floor and I didn't know where they were and I didn't know when they were going to go off," he testified.

Rather than defuse them, the report suggests he aided the cover-up. "He vigorously and forcefully followed a line which, to pursue the analogy of a bomb under the newsroom floor, simply ignored his privately held fear of an impending explosion," Leveson concluded. "Although ... it may have been difficult or embarrassing, he did little to assuage his own 'discomfort' except lay down rules for the future."

The report also characterizes Myler's testimony as "hardly persuasive," "unconvincing," and causing "serious concern."

"I've worked with Colin Myler for a year, I think he's an outstanding editor, operated the newspaper with great abilty and complete integrity," said Daily News owner Mort Zuckerman. "I have every confidence in him." In Myler's short tenure — he arrived in in January, 2011 — he has infused the paper with energy and drive, relishing the competition against Col Allan, his former mentor and editor of the Post. Zuckerman will no doubt continue to ignore the murky recent chapters in Myler's past. As every newspaperman knows, the public's attention span is very short.

The public's attention span may be short, but mine isn't.

Every time Myler runs some anti-teacher, anti-union piece in the DN, especially when he runs one of those pieces that impugns the integrity and the motives of teachers, I will remind people that Myler is a criminal who engaged in a cover-up and a conspiracy.

He belongs in jail with Rupert and James Murdoch, Andy Coulson, Rebekah Brooks, Clive Goodman and a host of the other News Corp. criminals.

New York Times Executive May Have Helped Cover Up Pedophilia Allegations Against Former BBC Personality

In a pot calling the kettle black moment, the scandal-plagued, Murdoch-owned New York Post covers a scandal at the New York Times:

A burgeoning molestation scandal across the pond may have New York Times Chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr. wishing he had looked closer to home to fill the CEO spot.

Mark Thompson, the former head of the British Broadcasting Corp., is slated to take over the troubled broadsheet next month, but cover-up allegations are swirling about his role in an investigation into a popular television personality.

The scandal involves a TV host named Jimmy Savile, a 40-year employee of the BBC on radio and on TV with an English version of “Bandstand” called “Top of the Pops.”

The flamboyant Savile also hosted a weekly primetime TV show called “Jim’ll Fix It,” on which he made the wishes of many young viewers come true by using his celebrity to get donations.

Savile, who was knighted by Queen Elizabeth in 1972, passed away in October 2011 at the age of 84, and as part of its holiday schedule the BBC scheduled retrospectives on his life and the tens of millions of pounds he collected for charity over the years.

But since his death, more than 20 people, all under the age of 16 at the time of the crimes, have alerted British police that they were molested by Savile.

On Friday, Scotland Yard said it was following more than 400 leads with at least 200 potential pedophile victims. Some girls were as young as 13 when attacked by Savile.

Now the BBC is under fire for an alleged cover-up — both for possibly ignoring early warnings of Savile’s behavior, as well as cancelling a critical documentary about Savile after his death.

The documentary was scheduled to run on “Newsnight,” Britain’s top news show. It was scrapped for editorial reasons, according to Thompson.

“Thompson spoke to the British press and said it was a News Department decision to squash the story, and he was not in the loop — which a subsequent BBC press release apparently partially contradicted,” said Evercore Partners’ Douglas Arthur, who covers the Times.

“It may blow over unless Thompson is called to testify, should Parliament hold hearings. I believe the prime minister has called for a full investigation. So it’s unclear how this unfolds,” he said.

So a newspaper owned by the scandal-plagued Rupert Murdoch covers a pedophilia scandal at the BBC that now is embroiling the New York Times.

Add in the New York Daily News, currently run by the scandal-plagued, former Murdoch employee/hacking criminal Colin Myler, and you can see how the three major newspapers in New York City are going to be run by unaccountable, unethical and, in the case of Murdoch and Myler, criminal men.

NY Post And NY Daily News Slap At Andrew Cuomo Over Teacher Evaluations

Ooh, lookee here - Rupert Murdoch just slapped Cuomo across the face with today's editorial on teacher evaluations and the Daily News made matters worse by comparing him unfavorably (at least in their minds) to the behemoth across the Hudson, Chris Christie (who happens to be Cuomo's rival, perhaps, for the 2016 WH race.)

Cuomo never likes to be criticized by any news outlets, but he especially hates to be taken to task publicly by his patron, Rupert Murdoch, or Murdoch's proxy in Albany, Fred Dicker.

You can bet Cuomo will respond the way he always responds when slapped by Murdoch - he'll act as fast as he can to make Uncle Rupert happy.

Remember, that's what he did the last time Murdoch slapped at him by calling him "Chicken Cuomo" on Twitter over teacher evaluations.

Within hours, Cuomo responded by giving Uncle Rupert everything he wanted (at least at that time) on evaluations.

But now it turns out it wasn't enough.

How long will it take for Cuomo to give Murdoch what he wants once again?

Oh, and one last thing - are the DN and Post coordinating editorials?

Funny how they ran the same one on the same day.

Daily News editor Colin Myler of course is a former criminal, er, employee of News Corporation, so perhaps there is some coordination there.

Or perhaps somebody in the education reform/hedge fundie world pushed to have the editorial pages run the editorials so close together.

More likely it's the second choice.

With the start of school just a few weeks away, I suspect we are about to get a very heavy-handed push from the education reform world and their media mouthpieces to get a punitive, test-centric teacher evaluation deal here in NYC that will give the DOE the right to impose dozens of local standardized tests in every subject in every grade on top of the state tests and use the scores from both to evaluate and fire teachers.

Who cares if adding dozens of high stakes standardized tests a year to every grade in every subject makes sense?

Who cares if this so-called accountability movement is actually doing much more harm than good to kids?

After all, there is money to be made by Uncle Rupert and the rest of the reformers on all the testing, the test prep and the accountability and data tracking tools, and there is money to be saved by firing all those expensive veteran teachers and replacing them with cheaper (and disposable) newbies.

Daily News Editor-In-Chief Colin Myler May Be Called Before Parliament For Punishment

Does Colin Myler still get to run the Daily News now?

Three former News International executives accused of lying to parliament have been referred by MPs to a Commons committee that has the power to recommend punishment.

Ex-News of the World editor Colin Myler, the paper's former legal manager Tom Crone and one-time News International chairman Les Hinton were accused of misleading the culture, media and sport committee during its investigation into phone hacking.

All three deny giving misleading testimony and further action will now be decided upon by the standards and privileges committee after MPs passed a Commons motion on Tuesday afternoon.

Therese Coffey, a Conservative member of the culture committee said: "We are the parliament of the people, we should not be lied to."

Labour MP Chris Bryant said parliament should consider fining or even imprisoning the men.

"I simply think we were hoodwinked, indeed for a long period politicians were so nervous and frightened of what the press would say about us we effectively put the hoodwinks on ourselves," he said.

"It is time we asserted the freedom of parliament, the rights of parliament … if parliament is lied to we can not do our job on behalf of our constituents."

Speaking in the Commons on Tuesday, the chair of the culture committee, John Whittingdale said: "The conclusions we've reached have serious repercussions. I'm not sure what they are but these are serious matters.

The vote to refer the three men to the standards committee was supported by both the government and Labour front benches.

Parliament hasn't fined anybody since 1666.

The last non-member of Parliament called to apologize before Parliament was in 1957.

And the last time Parliament imprisoned a non-member of Parliament was in 1880.

But Myler, Crone and Hinton face all three of those possibilities.

In addition, it is believed that Hinton may eventually face criminal charges related to the News Corporation hacking scandal as well.

I wonder, can Colin Myler run the New York Daily News from a British prison cell?

NY Times Turns Its Attention To Colin Myler

The NY Times takes a look at New York Daily News editor-in-chief Colin Myler and his role in the News Corp. scandal.

Doesn't move the story much except to say that Myler seems to have been behind the “FIRE ’EM! Exposed: Perv Teachers Still on Payroll" stories and Mort Zuckerman is sticking by his gangster editor - for now.

The Times also notes that the Daily News has declined to cover the Commons committee report on News Corp. hacking that stated Colin Myler was guilty of misleading Parliament.

It seems in the world of the Zuckerman Daily News only innocent teachers accused and later exonerated of allegations need to be fired.

Daily News editors found guilty of lying to Parliament and accused by a Labor MP of sending reporters to dig up dirt on investigators in order to get them to drop their investigation of his newspaper - those offenses are apparently not cause for concern.

Just another example of the two-tier justice system we have in our neo-feudal society these days - one where elites can pretty much do anything they want with impunity, and another for the rest of us where even a remark on Facebook can get you fired.

Daily News Editor-In-Chief Gets A Taste Of His Own Tabloid Medicine

Classic - Colin Myler, a tabloid editor and newsman who has spent his life having other people blindsided and hounded by reporters, finds himself followed to the cleaners by an ITV reporter.

Video here.

Myler, the Daily News editor-in-chief who sent Daily News reporters to schools to ask parents how they felt about having their kids taught by "bad teachers," the editor-in-chief who sent Daily News reporters to camp outside the homes of teachers rated "bad" on the NYC Teacher Data Reports and take their pictures for the papers, is getting a taste of his own tabloid medicine as he drops his clothes off.

There's a reason Myler is getting the tabloid treatment.

The Commons select committee report on the News Corporation hacking scandal that was released today said Myler had

deliberately avoided disclosing crucial information to the committee and, when asked to do, answered questions falsely."

The Guardian reports that Myler has issued a statement defending himself:

"I stand by the evidence that I gave the committee. I have always sought to be accurate and consistent in what I have said."

Given the seriousness of the Commons report censure and the possibility that Myler will have to appear before Parliament to publicly apologize for his deliberately misleasing the committee investigating the hacking scandal, I would think this won't be the last time Myler gets followed by a reporter looking for comment - especially since Myler remains as editor-in-chief of the NY Daily News.

Lying to Parliament is not the only crime Myler is accused of in the hacking scandal.

In addition, Labor MP Tom Watson has accused Myler of sending reporters to dig up dirt on Commons committee members who were investigating the News Corporation hacking scandal in order to intimidate them from following through in the investigation:

Colin Myler's editorship of the New York Daily News, one of the most prominent newspapers in America, has come under renewed scrutiny following allegations that he attempted to intimidate members of the UK parliament investigating phone hacking at the News of the World at the time he led the now-defunct tabloid.

Media monitoring groups and experts in journalistic ethics in America have described the allegations raised against Myler as "horrifying" and "abhorrent". New York magazine has also published a 5,000-word profile of Myler in its current issue, putting a spotlight on to Myler within the US media that he has assiduously tried to avoid – until now with relative success.

...

The allegations were made last week by Tom Watson, a Labour MP who has been at the forefront of the exposure of phone hacking and other illegal activities within Rupert Murdoch's UK newspapers. At the launch of his new co-authored book, Dial M for Murdoch, Watson said he had been told of Myler's attempted intimidation of MPs by Neville Thurlbeck, former chief reporter at the News of the World.

Myler has yet to respond to that allegation.

Daily News owner Mort Zuckerman has made no comment at all.

Apparently in the world of Zuckerman and Myler, accountability is only for the little people - like the teachers smeared by the media, in particular the New York Daily News, over the error-riddled TDR's.

But when the editor-in-chief of one of the nation's biggest newspapers is censured for lying to Parliament and accused of having his reporters dig up dirt on investigators in order to use that information to intimidate them into lightening up in their investigation, there is no accountability for either the editor embroiled in the scandal or the real estate mogul who hired him to run his newspaper.

Commons Committee Report: New York Daily News Editor-In-Chief Colin Myler Guilty Of Misleading Parliament

Not that this would surprise anybody who actually reads the New York Daily News, but there's a criminal running the newspaper.

Colin Myler, Daily News editor-in-chief and former editor of the now-closed News of the World, was found guilty of having misled the Commons committee on culture, media and sport in the News Corporation hacking scandal.

Along with Myler, former Wall Street Journal publisher Les Hinton and former News of the World lawyer Tom Crone were also found guilty of misleading the committee.

Hinton was also found to be "complicit" in a cover-up of the scandal as well.

The Guardian has the details:

The cross-party group of MPs said that Les Hinton, the former executive chairman of News International, was "complicit" in a cover-up at the newspaper group, and that Colin Myler, former editor of the News of the World, and the paper's ex-head of legal, Tom Crone, deliberately withheld crucial information and answered questions falsely. All three were accused of misleading parliament by the culture select committee.

...

The culture select committee charged Hinton with being "complicit" in a cover-up of wrongdoing at Rupert Murdoch's media empire.

MPs said that Myler and Crone deliberately withheld crucial information and answered falsely questions put by the committee.

The executives demonstrated contempt for parliament "in the most blatant fashion", the MPs said, in what they described as a corporate attempt to mislead the committee about the true extent of phone hacking at the News of the World.

The MPs said that Hinton, executive chairman of News International until December 2007, had "inexcusably" mislead the committee over his role in authorising the £243,000 payout to Clive Goodman, the former royal editor convicted of phone hacking in January that year.

"We consider, therefore, that Les Hinton was complicit in the cover-up at News International, which included making misleading statements and giving a misleading picture to the committee," the MPs said.

Crone and Myler were accused of deliberately misleading the MPs on the culture select committee in 2009 and again in 2011 about their alleged knowledge that phone hacking went beyond a single "rogue reporter" at the now-closed Sunday tabloid.

"Both Tom Crone and Colin Myler deliberately avoided disclosing crucial information to the committee and, when asked to do, answered questions falsely," the MPs said in the report.

All three executives now face the prospect of being called to apologise before parliament, in a constitutional move that has not been used for almost half a century.

How does a man who lied to Parliament and helped run the News Corporation hacking cover-up continue as editor-in-chief of the New York Daily News?

So far, both Colin Myler and DN owner Mort Zuckerman have maintained silence on this.

Indeed, the Daily News doesn't cover the Murdoch/News Corp hacking story in the paper because of Myler's proximity to the scandal.

And of course the NY Post NEVER covers the story (although the Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal does.)

So most New Yorkers do not know the extent of the criminality at both companies.

The Commons committee found that the toxic culture at the News Corporation media outlets "permeated from the top" and "speaks volumes about the lack of effective corporate governance at News Corporation and News International".

Therefore, the committee concluded, "Rupert Murdoch is not a fit person to exercise the stewardship of major international company."

If Rupert Murdoch is unfit to exercise stewardship of a major international company, you can bet his former News of the World editor, the guy who lied to Parliament and helped cover up the hacking scandal, is unfit to exercise stewardship of the Daily News.

It is time for Colin Myler to go.

Commons Committee Report: Rupert Murdoch Is Unfit To Lead Major Company

The Commons culture, media and sport select committee is out this morning - and it's pretty devastating to News Corporation:

Rupert Murdoch is "not a fit person" to exercise stewardship of a major international company, a committee of MPs has concluded, in a report highly critical of the mogul and his son James's role in the News of the World phone-hacking affair.

The Commons culture, media and sport select committee also concluded that James Murdoch showed "wilful ignorance" of the extent of phone hacking during 2009 and 2010 – in a highly charged document that saw MPs split on party lines as regards the two Murdochs.

Labour MPs and the sole Liberal Democrat on the committee, Adrian Sanders, voted together in a bloc of six against the five Conservatives to insert the criticisms of Rupert Murdoch and toughen up the remarks about his son James. But the MPs were united in their criticism of other former News International employees.

The cross-party group of MPs said that Les Hinton, the former executive chairman of News International, was "complicit" in a cover-up at the newspaper group, and that Colin Myler, former editor of the News of the World, and the paper's ex-head of legal, Tom Crone, deliberately withheld crucial information and answered questions falsely. All three were accused of misleading parliament by the culture select committee.

Rupert Murdoch, the document said, "did not take steps to become fully informed about phone hacking" and "turned a blind eye and exhibited wilful blindness to what was going on in his companies and publications".

The committee concluded that the culture of the company's newspapers "permeated from the top" and "speaks volumes about the lack of effective corporate governance at News Corporation and News International".

That prompted the MPs' report to say: "We conclude, therefore, that Rupert Murdoch is not a fit person to exercise the stewardship of major international company."

Hinton, Myler and Crone got hammered by the report:

The culture select committee charged Hinton with being "complicit" in a cover-up of wrongdoing at Rupert Murdoch's media empire.

MPs said that Myler and Crone deliberately withheld crucial information and answered falsely questions put by the committee.

The executives demonstrated contempt for parliament "in the most blatant fashion", the MPs said, in what they described as a corporate attempt to mislead the committee about the true extent of phone hacking at the News of the World.

The MPs said that Hinton, executive chairman of News International until December 2007, had "inexcusably" mislead the committee over his role in authorising the £243,000 payout to Clive Goodman, the former royal editor convicted of phone hacking in January that year.

"We consider, therefore, that Les Hinton was complicit in the cover-up at News International, which included making misleading statements and giving a misleading picture to the committee," the MPs said.

Crone and Myler were accused of deliberately misleading the MPs on the culture select committee in 2009 and again in 2011 about their alleged knowledge that phone hacking went beyond a single "rogue reporter" at the now-closed Sunday tabloid.

"Both Tom Crone and Colin Myler deliberately avoided disclosing crucial information to the committee and, when asked to do, answered questions falsely," the MPs said in the report.

All three executives now face the prospect of being called to apologise before parliament, in a constitutional move that has not been used for almost half a century.

The report could prove especially problematic for Myler, who is only five months into his editorship at the New York Daily News.

More on this later.

Former Wall Street Journal Publisher, Les Hinton, Accused Of Misleading Parliament

Interesting article from The Guardian on what tomorrow's committee report will look like:

James Murdoch will be criticised by MPs investigating phone hacking on Tuesday, but their assessment of his conduct is expected to fall just short of accusing the former chairman of News International of misleading parliament about the extent of his knowledge of the affair.

The all party culture media and sport select committee concluded they could not reach a final decision about whether Murdoch misled them because of what the MPs described as conflicting evidence, according to a source close to the process. However, there was enough to lead members to agree that Murdoch had not asked the questions that would help determine the true extent of phone hacking at the News of the World for several years.

...

The select committee will reserve some of its strongest condemnation for Murdoch's predecessor in the role, Les Hinton, who had appeared before the committee three times over the past five years. Hinton told the committee last October that he was right to have told MPs in 2009 that phone hacking was not rife at the newspaper.

Hinton is expected to be accused of misleading parliament as a result, with MPs particularly focused on his evidence as regards Clive Goodman, the former News of the World royal editor, who went to jail for hacking in 2007.

Goodman subsequently made an unfair dismissal complaint, saying hacking was "widely discussed" until reference to it was banned by the then editor. But Hinton said the complaint was unfounded, and amounted to "accusations and allegations".

The parliamentary report will also criticise the former News of the World editor Colin Myler and the newspaper's long serving chief lawyer Tom Crone in a long awaited document due to be released on Tuesday.

Myler, who is now editor of the New York Daily News, and Crone had been repeatedly pressed on their failure to uncover what had happened.

However, Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson, the two previous editors of the Sunday tabloid when phone hacking took place, will not be singled out, because both have been arrested on suspicion of involvement in the intercepting of voicemail messages.

Committee members felt they could not condemn indiduals who had been arrested – providing some relief for David Cameron, who appointed Coulson as his chief spin doctor after Coulson resigned from the News of the World after Goodman was jailed.

Here are some questions:

So now the ball is in Les Hinton's court - does he take the fall for the hacking and corruption scandal or does he tell what he REALLY knows Rupert Murdoch knew about the whole thing? (as Rupert's right hand man for a long, long time, Hinton knows where some bodies are buried...)

Also, will Colin Myler be criticized for not taking enough steps to clear up the hacking matter at NOTW or will he too be accused of misleading Parliament?

And can he remain as Daily News editor if he is criticized in the committee report for not taking the corrective actions needed to clean up the newsroom? (I think if he is accused of lying to Parliament, he has to go - but what do I know? I wouldn't have thought he'd have gotten another job after the NOTW mess!)

So far the Murdochs and their "fixer" Joel Klein are managing to hang the scandal onto others.

Some of those people have pushed back.

Myler and Tom Crone have already accused James Murdoch of lying.

When does Les Hinton take on the Murdochs?

Does He Get His Job And Reputation Back?

The New York Daily News, a newspaper currently run by a man accused of covering up thousands of incidents of illegal phone hacking, bribery, extortion and other crimes when he was the editor for Rupert Murdoch's News of the World, is on a crusade.

The Daily News is out to get rid of all the "perverts" from the school system.

They've got a battery of reporters on the beat, meeting with DOE officials and reading through lots of Tweed-edited correspondence and half truths which they then publish verbatim in the News without checking on the validity or truthfulness of the DOE's claims.

This is of course in the public interest, since even people falsely accused of crimes should not work in the school system and must be weeded out by the crack team of Daily News "Perv Teacher" reporters on the case.

In today's News we learn about one of those "perverts" in the school system, a father of three who worked as a school and aide and was falsely accused of a crime:

An Upper West Side public school aide who was arrested for sex abuse and fired was freed Thursday after the charges proved unfounded.

Hany Abdalla, a paraprofessional at Public School 84 on W.92nd Street,St., was accused of touching an 8-year-old girl and arrested Wednesday.

But the 35-year-old married father of three, who has worked at PS 84 since 2007, was freed Thursday and all charges were dropped.

His lawyer, Virginia LoPreto, said the accuser’s account was contradicted by teachers and other students in the second-grade class.

“There were serious questions about the validity of the allegations,” LoPreto said. “We can only hope that the rumors that this was motivated by ethnic bias are untrue.”

At least seven city school workers have been arrested for sex crimes involving students in 2012.

Education officials said that Abdalla had no previous investigations by school authorities or police.

Arrested on Wednesday, fired on Wednesday, name splashed all over the papers Thursday morning as another one of those school perverts...but freed on Thursday when the police dropped all charges because the allegations were false and were contradicted by teachers and other students.

This man will get his reputation back?

No, not after his name was splashed all over the media as a "child molester" and "pervert."

This man will get his job back?

Probably not - because as we have learned from the Daily News' "Perv Teachers" series over the past few weeks, teachers or DOE employees who are falsely accused of crimes and exonerated are STILL guilty and not allowed to work in the schools system.

Once accused, always guilty.

Guilty even when proven innocent.

That's the motto of the NYCDOE, Chancellor Walcott and his crack team of Daily News, NY Post and other media stenographers who post his words for all to see in the papers.

Meanwhile Colin Myler, the Daily News editor who has admitted he lied to Parliament during a hacking inquiry and stands accused of covering up thousands of incidents of illegal phone hacking, bribery, extortion and other crimes when he was the editor for Rupert Murdoch's News of the World, not only STILL has his job, he's STILL on his crusade to root out real and imagined "perverts" from the NYC school system.

Funny how that works.

Actually, it's not funny at all.

Rupert Murdoch Tells Leveson Inquiry Colin Myler, Other NOTW "Characters," Responsible For Hacking Cover-Up

More ammunition aimed at New York Daily News editor-in-chief Colin Myler by Rupert Murdoch today:

Rupert Murdoch has admitted to the Leveson inquiry there was a "cover-up" at News International over the phone-hacking scandal.

Murdoch, the News Corp chairman and chief executive, giving his second day of evidence to the inquiry in London on Thursday morning, said he was "misinformed and shielded" from what was going on at the News of the World, adding that there was a "cover-up".

Robert Jay QC, counsel to the inquiry, said there had been a consistent theme of cover-up during the phone-hacking scandal, and asked Murdoch where he thought this emanated from. "I think from within the News of the World," he replied.

Murdoch said there were "one or two very strong characters" on the now defunct Sunday paper who, according to reported statements, had forbidden people from talking to Rebekah Brooks and James Murdoch, at the time News International chief executive and chairman respectively.

Murdoch said a News of the World editor was appointed – referring to Colin Myler, although he did not name him at this point – "with specific instructions to find out what was going on". "He did, I believe, put in two or three new steps of regulation but never reported back that there was more hacking than we had been told."

Myler was appointed in January 2007, after the News of the World royal reporter Clive Goodman and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire admitted phone hacking and went to prison. His predecessor, Andy Coulson, denied any knowledge of phone hacking but resigned, saying he took responsibilty for what happened.

Murdoch told the inquiry Myler "would not have been my choice", that he was the choice of Les Hinton, who at the time was News International's executive chairman. He said he thought at the time there were stronger candidates from News International sister title the Sun.

Jay then asked if Myler was a weak individual and wrong man for the job. "I would say that was a slight exaggeration," replied Murdoch. "I would hope Mr Myler would do what he was commissioned to do."

Myler has yet to respond to the latest allegations.

I am sure he will get his chance before the Leveson inquiry.

And as usual, we have another "accountability" guy in Murdoch who refuses to be held accountable himself.

UPDATE: I should note that hacking took place at The Sun, the Times, and the partially Murdoch-owned Sky News - hard to see how Colin Myler and other News of the World "characters" were involved with that.

I can believe Myler and other NOTW execs didn't tell the extent of the hacking for fear that the paper might be closed if the extent was known.

In other words, I can believe they tried to cover things up - or at least minimize the damage.

But I cannot believe that Rupert Murdoch, the man who runs News Corporation, is not responsible for the hacking, piracy, bribery, corruption and criminal behavior that is now being exposed throughout his media empire.

The guys at the top set the tone for what happens below.

James Murdoch Accuses Daily News Editor Colin Myler Of Hacking Cover-Up

Jeremy Hunt wasn't the only score James Murdoch looked to settle at the Leveson inquiry today.

James Murdoch has accused Colin Myler, the editor of the New York Daily News, of withholding the full extent of the phone-hacking scandal at News corporation's UK newspaper arm when he was in charge of the now-defunct News of the World.

Under oath, Murdoch told the Leveson inquiry into British press ethics that he would have "cut out the cancer" if he had known about it earlier.

Murdoch repeated allegations that Myler, the News of the World's final editor, together with the company's former in-house lawyer Tom Crone, had misled him about the scale of illegal behaviour at the newspaper.

Myler and Crone have previously challenged Murdoch's account and called his recollection of events "disingenuous".

The row has shone a spotlight on Myler, now one of the US's top newspaper editors. He was appointed by Mort Zuckerman, owner of the New York Daily News, to edit the paper earlier this year, giving him a place at the top table of American journalism.

Myler declined to comment to the latest set of allegations from Murdoch.

Myler is clearly going to have address these allegations.

Whether he is called to testify under oath to the Leveson inquiry hasn't been made clear.

So far, Myler's keeping his head down here in New York and going after PERVERT TEACHERS!!!! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!

But he's got his own perversion troubles, as Labor MP Tom Watson is claiming Myler sent News Corporation reporters to dig up dirt on Parliament members in order to intimidate them off the hacking case and now James Murdoch is claiming that Myler, along with another News of the World associate, ran the hacking cover-up at the paper.

Tell me exactly how it is Colin Myler, stinking from the hacking case and already embroiled in a He Said/He Said with James Murdoch last summer over the mess, got hired by Mort Zuckerman to run the Daily News?

Tuesday Round-Up (UPDATED BELOW)

Lots going on in the Murdoch hacking scandal - thought I'd put a few links together for those of you watching the scandal.

Frontline has a nice round-up of News Corporation/Murdoch links - including James Murdoch going before the Leveson inquiry today and Rupert Murdoch going before the inquiry tomorrow and Thursday.

The Guardian reports that British investigators have opened another official hacking inquiry into a Murdoch-owned media outlet. Sky News, partly owned by News International, has admitted to hacking into email accounts on at least two separate occasions.

The Guardian also takes a closer look at the allegation that former News of the World editor and current New York Daily News editor-in-chief Colin Myler tried to intimidate those investigating hacking in 2009 by sending reporters to dig up dirt on them.

New York Magazine takes a close look at Myler's journalism career and previous missteps - including lying to the official inquiry looking into hacking charges against the Murdoch-owned News of the World back in 2009.

Michael Moore says he thinks FOX News will eventually be drawn into the hacking scandal.(Moore also criticized Davis Guggenheim for scapegoating public school teachers and unions in his pseudo-documentary Waiting for Superman.)

The Daily Beast reviews Labor MP Tom Watson's book (co-written with Martin Hickman) Dial M For Murdoch and finds it a part Hitchcockian thriller, part All the President’s Men.

Finally, if you're so inclined, you can watch the Murdoch go before the Leveson inquiry here.

UPDATE: James Murdoch goes before the Leveson inquiry and says

when he took over the family’s British newspaper outpost in 2007, responsibility for the journalist ethics of The News of the World, the now defunct Sunday tabloid at the heart of the scandal, lay with its editor and legal manager.

The “ethical risk was something that was very much in the hands of the editor,” he said. “I wasn’t in the business of deciding what to put into the newspaper.”

“The newsroom governance was really an issue for the editor and the legal manager,” he said.

...

As he has in the past, Mr. Murdoch said he did not recall in detail many aspects of the scandal and believed that he was not fully briefed on it because, if he had been, “I would say: cut out the cancer, and there was some desire not to do that” on the part of senior newsroom executives.

“There wasn’t a pro-active desire to bring me up to speed on these things,” he said.

In other words, James Murdoch is saying former News of the World editor and current New York Daily News editor Colin Myler and former News of the World legal affairs manager Tom Crone did not tell him the extent of the hacking and criminal activity at News of the World, nor were they too eager to get to the bottom of it all.

Daily News Editor-In-Chief Gets Scrutiny Over Latest Murdoch Corruption Allegations

Last week I asked if anybody would look into the allegation made by Labor MP Tom Watson that Colin Myler, former News of the World editor and current editor-in-chief of the New York Daily News, had sent reporters at the NOTW on a dirt-digging expedition against British politicians in order to intimidate them from calling his boss at the time, News International chief Rebekah Brooks, before a committee investigating phone hacking allegations against Rupert Murdoch's newspapers.

Today The Guardian reports that Colin Myler is getting that scrutiny.

And as is usual with people who like to hold other people accountable, neither Mr. Myler nor his boss, Daily News publisher Mort Zuckerman, were available for comment about these allegations against Mr. Myler.

More on this later.

Suffice for now that it is good to see that Mr. Myler, a tireless champion of holding others accountable, may just be held accountable for his own crimes - including sending reporters into the garbage of public figures in order to extort them to stop investigating crimes committed by employees of his own company.

Did Daily News Editor-In-Chief Colin Myler Pervert Justice In Hacking Case?

Labor MP Tom Watson released a book about the News Corporation hacking scandal yesterday called Dial M For Murdoch.

At the press conference for the release, Watson called News Corporation a "toxic institution" that operated as a "shadow state" in Britain, subverting law and ethics at will, intimidating and/or bribing any official who tried to stand in its way.

One of the News Corporation employees Watson charged with intimidation was former News of the World editor and current New York Daily News editor-in-chief Colin Myler:

Tom Watson, joint author of Dial M for Murdoch, said that the book also featured allegations that Murdoch's News of the World set out to search for "secret lovers" or "extramarital affairs" of MPs on the culture, media and sport select committee in 2009.

At a packed press conference, Watson, a member of the Commons culture select committee, said that the surveillance revelation – passed to him by former News of the World chief reporter Neville Thurlbeck – demonstrated how the Murdoch organisation tried to intimidate parliament.

Thurlbeck gave Watson an interview, with a witness present, in which he said that the then News of the World editor, Colin Myler, told journalists on the Sunday tabloid to "find out everything you can about every single member".

At the time, the select committee was conducting its second inquiry into phone hacking, in the wake of revelations in the Guardian that the practice went beyond a single "rogue reporter" at the tabloid.

The aim was to discover "who was gay, who had affairs, anything we can use," according to Thurlbeck, as quoted in the book. "Each reporter was given two members [MPs] and there were six reporters that went on for around 10 days."

The Guardian blog from yesterday has additional details about Myler's orders to try and dig up dirt on politicians in order to subvert justice and just how successful that gambit was:

I am sorry to say that this tactic was successful, the committee's legitimate investigation was undermined and parliament was, in effect, intimidated. News International thought it could do this, that they would get away with it, that no one could touch them, and they actually did it, and it worked.

...

Although the committee wanted Brooks to give evidence, its members, whose private lives News International had pored over, capitulated and decided not to summons her…

The gay Plaid Cymru MP Adam Price … claimed that the committee's members had been warned that if they had called Brooks, their private lives would be raked over.

He said later: "I was told by a senior Conservative member of the committee, who I knew was in direct contact with executives at News International, that if we went for her, they would go for us - effectively they would delve into our personal lives in order to punish [us].

If this allegation is proven true, Colin Myler doesn't belong at the helm of the New York Daily News printing smear stories about NYC public school teachers with titles like PERV TEACHERS CAN'T BE TOUCHED - he belongs in jail.

In Britain the phrase perversion of justice refers to

a criminal offence in which someone prevents justice from being served on himself or on another party. It is a common law offence carrying a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

Perverting the course of justice can be any of three acts:

• Fabricating or disposing of evidence
• Intimidating or threatening a witness or juror
• Intimidating or threatening a judge

Also criminal are (1) conspiring with another to pervert the course of justice and (2) intending to pervert the course of justice.

If Colin Myler ordered News of the World reporters to dig up dirt on Parliament members to intimidate them from continuing an investigation into phone hacking by News of the World employees, he is guilty of perverting justice and ought to be arrested.

Former News of the World reporter Neville Thurlbeck gave this information to Watson in an interview in which there was a third party present. Thurlbeck today walked back the allegation saying he was

"surprised and disappointed" with Watson, because he said that the MP had chosen to make a private conversation public. He said that he had "no evidence" to support the belief that the monitoring request came from the editor's office and added:

"All the staff were very reluctant to carry out this surveillance for logistical and ethical reasons and they introduced a degree of procrastination until the plan was suddenly and unexpectedly halted by executives 10 days later and before any surveillance had taken place."

This matter needs further investigation.

While Thurlbeck now denies he has direct evidence that the dirt digging order came from Colin Myler, he doesn't deny that someone at News International did order NOTW reporters to look very deeply into the personal lives of Parliament committee members.

An investigation can determine just who that person or persons were.

So again I ask, did former NOTW editor and current NY Daily News editor-in-chief Colin Myler order NOTW reporters to dig up dirt on committee members in order to intimidate them from calling Rebekah Brooks to testify before the committee investigating phone hacking charges?

Has anybody in the press asked Mr. Myler this?

Has anybody at the Daily News asked Mr. Myler this?

Daily News reporters Ben Chapman likes to cover the crime beat, especially stories about "perverts."

This looks like a story right up his alley - an editor charged as a "pervert of justice."

What say you, Ben?

Why not get right on this story?