I’m off to Readercon today, picking up folks along the way, including a certain mad Ukrainian in Northampton if all goes according to plan. I will doubtless post more this weekend as there are sure to be entertaining things to write about, like torturing Todd and dishing with Liz. I can’t believe I’m scheduled at the same time as her twice, so I’ll be missing the Norwegian metal music talk. Sigh.

My column today takes up an aspect of the Murdoch meltdown; I can’t believe Americans aren’t getting upset about this. Too complacent? I am mystified — and outraged. You might want to look into that. But I suppose Fox News triumphed long ago: that’s why we find ourselves in the state we’re in.

Rebekah Brooks: The Charm Offensive

If you’ve been living under a rock, you may have missed the complete shut down of The News of the World and Murdoch’s New International’s withdrawing their bid for control of BSkyB—and of course the schadenfreudegasm it generated (thanks,John Oliver, for that new term).
The gleeful noise has threatened to drown out everything, especially on Twitter, even pressing issues of a similarly nefarious nature. Even people in the States seem to have glanced up from their obsessive attention tobaseless conspiracy theories and barking madness to recognize that Murdoch and his Fox”News” have had a similarly devastating effect on their lives including the hacking of phones belonging to 9/11 victims…

Read the rest at BBHQ.

My editor removed my lovely Shakespeare quote: “Who is Sylvia? What is she / That all our swains commend her?” Too much?