They shoot hacks, don't they?

Was Rupert Murdoch joking when he said his (former?) lieutenant Rebekah Brooks had saved the retired police horse from the glue factory?  It seems such an archaic process as to be lost on most people – how equine is my Pritt Stick?  As Richard Pryor said, with comedy, always start from truth.  Who can relate to Murdoch malfeasance, let alone his gags?  Maybe in his doddery old age, he was confused that he had saved Brooks from the glue factory.  She may no longer have any formal role in News Corp but she enjoys all the perks of which most unemployed people can only dream.  And when the heat was turned up, she dispensed with the horse as easily as any of the journalists sacked from the News of the Screws.  The Met Police merely found a new owner.  It will be hard for Brooks to be similarly re-housed.  The New York executives loath her for the damage she has wrought on the company overall.  For them, she’s in the knacker’s yard.

As for the heir apparent James Murdoch, stepping down as chairman of News International, the British newspaper arm of News Corp, it may be billed as freeing him up to concentrate on the broadcasting arm, but no-one gives up power that simply, especially not a Murdoch.  Papa Murdoch is in town to sort out the mess in the newspaper division that his son let fester.  In a very real sense, James Murdoch has been put out to pasture and at the age of only 39.