The Beginning of the End of Murdoch's Empire

[Will H]

I would be more surprised if Murdoch didn't intend to give Brooks a 'leaving' bonus payout. At a guess, he's the sort of man that perceives people who work closely with him as part of his family, and he values his family over anything, including morality. He would give her a cheque even if she was jailed for murder. That's the kind of person he is.

 

I agree with you that there is definitely a problem when someone can amass this much power. Most importantly, this should have been uncovered much earlier, and newspapers need to be held to account regarding how they obtain information, while still maintaining a freedom to say what they want at the end. It's a difficult job.

[magekillr]

The hits just keep on coming:

 

The commissioner of Londons Metropolitan Police Services, Sir Paul Stephenson, resigned his post on Sunday just hours after his officers arrested Rebekah Brooks, the former chief of Rupert Murdochs media operations in Britain, as damage from a phone-hacking scandal moved to the highest levels of British public life.

 

Scotland Yard Chief Quits Over Hacking

[Nomrombom]

Do we know for sure Murdoch knew about the phone hacking? And who did they hack?

[1_man_army]

Brooks being arrested is just good media management for the Metropolitan Police. The allegations about Sir Paul Stevenson (the then head of The Met) taking hospitality from Neil Wallis (former deputy editor at NOTW) threatened to make things look even worse (if that is possible) for the force. A high profile arrest works as a good distraction especially when she is due in front of the Culture & Media Committee hearing on Tuesday where she could have said some things to make them look bad - now she as well as Ruper & James Murdoch will answer very little by pulling the "we don't want to impede any criminal investigation" card. They've had enough evidence to arrest/charge her for ages...lovely timing for everyone right?

 

Do we know for sure Murdoch knew about the phone hacking? And who did they hack?

 

Nobody knows if Murdoch personally knew, if they did I doubt that it ever could be proven. As for who they have hacked, the private investigator at the centre of all this (Glenn Mulcaire) has already been jailed several years back for hacking the voicemail of Prince William. His notebooks however, contain around 4,000 names of people who are potential victims. They range from former Prime Ministers and senior politicians to celebrities to survivors of terrorist attacks and murder victims. The revelations that victims of crime were targeted were the tipping point where the public became outraged. In particular the case of Milly Dowler, a girl who at the time was a missing person, whose phone was hacked by NOTW and whose voicemails were deleted (to make room for more). The deletion of the voicemail effected the missing persons investigation because it gave hope that she was alive although she had actually already been murdered at that point. There is also evidence that NOTW was paying corrupt police officers for confidential details which is just as serious.

[Dheginsea]

Gf Murdoch.

 

I actually see him coming back from this almost as strong as before because:

1. He's rich rich rich stinkin rich.

2. See above.

3. His news empire he can affect how much of this becomes public.

4. People have really short attention spans.

5. Oh, and he's filthy rich.

[magekillr]

The Guardian is reporting that John Yates, who was in charge of the Metropolitan Polices phone hacking investigation, will resign today. Thats two top officials of the most important police force in England gone within two days time.

 

The WSJ has a screed about how mean everyone is being, and how the journalists are being unnecessarily targeted with bad reputations: News and Its Critics

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Hzh1jZPOkU

 

Wanna watch the culture of lying at News Corp. get interviewed? Watch that clip.

 

And then how could we miss the biggest spin out there yet: the issue should be about how hacking is rampant and it's going to get us in our sleep!

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9gOSsvLIO4

 

"Yes I murdered that woman, but you're missing the point: you shouldn't be concerned with me murdering her, but people are dying! People are getting hit by buses and other murderers! The problem isn't this specific murderer, we should be talking about the problem of murder!"

[Will H]

NotW whistle-blower is found dead

 

I'm trying very hard not to draw conclusions, but holy crap.

[sees_all1]

NotW whistle-blower is found dead

 

I'm trying very hard not to draw conclusions, but holy crap.

Saw that on Drudge. That's a pretty big coincidence.

[Range_This11]

Someone call Alex Jones!

[Racheya]

NotW whistle-blower is found dead

 

I'm trying very hard not to draw conclusions, but holy crap.

Saw that on Drudge. That's a pretty big coincidence.

As much as I want to see the Murdoch Empire go down. I hope it's a coincidence. I really don't want to see people DIE because of a [cabbage] tabloid newspaper.

 

Just going to watch tonight's Panorama on the NoTW now: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b012y1tv/Panorama_Murdoch_Breaking_the_Spell/

[Sam]

I don't want to rush to conclusions, but that seems.. terribly coincidental.

[Danqazmlp]

Sometimes this are just too much of a coincidence.

[magekillr]

The police say that the death is unexplained but not suspicious. Under the circumstances, there is no such thing as "not suspicious"; the degree to which the police have been dragged into this make that an automatic. When a security agency kills, it usually disguises the cause of death if at all possible. Creating a heart attack is SOP. When people start turning up dead, other people get the message.

[obfuscator]

Apparently someone pied Murdoch in the face during the hearing.

 

http://twitter.com/#!/DownGoesBrown/status/93350735286255617

[Ginger_Warrior]

And he was arrested for common assault.

 

Rightly so. That isn't how this problem is going to be solved: the select committee has shown us the right way with some excellent questioning today.

[Shiny]

Its surprising how dee p his involvement goes with the media. Scary too. You guys might be itnerested in this - https://secure.avaaz.org/en/stop_rupert_murdoch_donate/?cl=1168721212&v=9621.

[Racheya]

Its surprising how dee p his involvement goes with the media. Scary too. You guys might be itnerested in this - https://secure.avaaz.org/en/stop_rupert_murdoch_donate/?cl=1168721212&v=9621.

I've been aware of their campaign, I like them, but it's kinda annoying how 'we've played a lead role and stopped Murdoch from buying over 50% of UK commercial media!' when it was really Milly Dowler who sparked attention - nothing to do with their campaign.

[Nomrombom]

Its surprising how dee p his involvement goes with the media. Scary too. You guys might be itnerested in this - https://secure.avaaz.org/en/stop_rupert_murdoch_donate/?cl=1168721212&v=9621.

 

 

I read that very very very very wrong.

[Crocefisso]

Of course this won't be the end of Muroch's empire. It may threaten his family's nepotistic hegemony of News Corp (or maybe James will fall only to be replaced with another Murdoch child), but rest assured this is by no means a big blow to him financially. The newspapers are a negligible part of his business.

 

To be honest, I don't mind Muroch in the UK; though The Sun is absolute trash, I suspect that its profits help Murdoch keep The Times, which I imagine doesn't generate too much profit, as it is without having to close it or make it too 'commercial'. And The Times is by far the best paper in this country.

[1_man_army]

The newspapers are a negligible part of his business.

 

 

They may be a small part of his overall business but I did read somewhere that Murdoch considers them important because of their ability to shape public opinion (or their perceived ability to shape it).

[Racheya]

Of course this won't be the end of Muroch's empire. It may threaten his family's nepotistic hegemony of News Corp (or maybe James will fall only to be replaced with another Murdoch child), but rest assured this is by no means a big blow to him financially. The newspapers are a negligible part of his business.

 

To be honest, I don't mind Muroch in the UK; though The Sun is absolute trash, I suspect that its profits help Murdoch keep The Times, which I imagine doesn't generate too much profit, as it is without having to close it or make it too 'commercial'. And The Times is by far the best paper in this country.

I believe you're making a typo. You wrote Times when you meant Guardian :P

 

The Times isn't the *worst* paper but I'd certainly not mourn it's passing. The Sun does far more harm to public opinion than The Times might influence in a good way. I don't care what it's helping - Murdoch's mysoginistic, homophobic, islamophobic, scare-mongering excuse of a paper that is (and was) The Sun & NoTW should be destroyed.

 

While Murdoch might make less money from newspapers, the fact is that in the UK he can't shape public opinion with Sky because of broadcasting regulations, and what he needs more than money is influence and power.

[Crocefisso]

^ I cannot bring myself to read The Guardian. Any paper that employs condescending, pretentious [expletive]s like Polly Toynbee does not have my respect.

 

The Times does have its issues - such as supporting some religious fundamentalists (Israel), while condemning others (Taleban, al-Qa'ida) - but overall it's a paper that's just as balanced as most other quality press publications (The Daily Telegraph being the exception; it's too right wing biased to even make sense). Both The Guardian and The Times are biased, but only slightly, and readers of the quality press should be able to see through the thin veneer of bias in both publications.

 

Though I agree with much of what you say about The Sun, the reality is this: most people are morons and, if The Sun were to close, they would not suddenly start reading The Times, Guardian, Independent etc. They'd read The Daily Mail, which is 100 times worse than The Sun when it comes to racism, bigotry, and hate-fuelling against minorities and so on. Melanie Phillips - the woman who at the same time calls anyone who criticises Israel "racist" while spreading fear that Muslims are taking over London - is their star columnist, after all. I'd rather these people read The Sun, which is harmless by comparison. Especially when many Sun readers just look at the topless girls and sports, which are timid compared to the Mail.

[Jernlov]

to be honest I think the Mail is far more cancerous to this country than The Sun will ever be.

 

pretty much what the guy above me said, The Sun is looked down upon as a paper for the "working-class idiot" whereas the Mail propagates the same sensationalist lies but markets itself as an upmarket paper.

[magekillr]

We have Tabloids here, and they're in wide circulation, but I don't know that they're as influential as British ones. As for my favorite British newspapers: The Guardian, The Independent, and the Financial Times.

[magekillr]

Bump. This is obstruction of justice, it seems to me.

 

As Marian Wang, a blogger for ProPublica, points out, another copy of Mr. Goodmans letter was also supplied to the parliamentary committee by News International, in response to a request from the panel. What is most interesting about the version that News International produced is that it omits more than just names from the letter two entire sections of Mr. Goodmans letter are missing. Both sections relate to Mr. Goodmans claim that the newspapers editor, Mr. Coulson, and its senior lawyer, Tom Crone, had assured the reporter that he would not lose his job as long as he did not implicate the paper or any of its staff, during his trial.

 

Read the Embarrassing Hacking Allegations That News Corp. Redacted