The Murdoch Empire's Greatest Test

[Stavros]

According to the BBC's Emily Maitlis there will be a news 'bombshell' at 5pm, I have also seen a rumour that Murdoch is getting rid of News International -all of it! In other words he will dump newspapers for TV...situation at 3.22pm

[Prospero]

Announcement on News Int due at 4.30 according to BBC twitters
My own inside knowledge from a few weeks back already revealed that S Times is in deep financial turd and planning to close or merge certain sections, so Murdoch could be about to sell the whole thing off - making him simply a TV magnate in the UK. Harder to complain or stop that part of his plan then, eh

[Prospero]

http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2...he-world-over/

[robertlouis]

http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2...he-world-over/

Latest on Radio 5 - The Sun and The Sunday Times hacked into Gordon Brown's phones and other personal media when he was Chancellor, and Brown is in the chamber of the House ready to speak, with full commons privilege, if the need arises. Good - this spreads the shit river away from the lonely scapegoat of the NotW and deeper into the heart of the Murdoch empire.

If at the end of this he comes away owning all of BskyB it will be a craven acceptance that he actually rules the UK, not the democratically-elected government. Heady times.

[robertlouis]

Chris Bryant MP in the house right now - Brown's sons' medical records have also been hacked. Milly Dowler territory. Bastards

[Miss Aeryn]

Latest on Radio 5 - The Sun and The Sunday Times hacked into Gordon Brown's phones and other personal media when he was Chancellor, and Brown is in the chamber of the House ready to speak, with full commons privilege, if the need arises. Good - this spreads the shit river away from the lonely scapegoat of the NotW and deeper into the heart of the Murdoch empire.

If at the end of this he comes away owning all of BskyB it will be a craven acceptance that he actually rules the UK, not the democratically-elected government. Heady times.

I like the way you think too lol

All that needs to happen is that poo river to hit News Ltd here and time

[Stavros]

I could write a very long and hostile message about Gordon Brown's political career in the last 15 years or so, but there are limits and it doesn't matter to me who it is, Sarah Palin or Sarah Brown, sick children, murdered schoolgirls: this is depraved, offensive, and takes the scandal into the areas of the Murdoch empire they didn't want it to reach. It also makes the police enquiries look even worse than they were, and we still haven't heard the last of these revelations. Can News International survive this week? At some point soon the main investors must start to ask serious questions about the financial security of their shareholding, and even the ethical dimension of owning this cess-pit of lies and criminality.

[robertlouis]

I like the way you think too lol

All that needs to happen is that poo river to hit News Ltd here and time

I could write a very long and hostile message about Gordon Brown's political career in the last 15 years or so, but there are limits and it doesn't matter to me who it is, Sarah Palin or Sarah Brown, sick children, murdered schoolgirls: this is depraved, offensive, and takes the scandal into the areas of the Murdoch empire they didn't want it to reach. It also makes the police enquiries look even worse than they were, and we still haven't heard the last of these revelations. Can News International survive this week? At some point soon the main investors must start to ask serious questions about the financial security of their shareholding, and even the ethical dimension of owning this cess-pit of lies and criminality.
1 Hour Ago 07:12 PM

Crikey Aeryn, you're up early (or very late!). It's moving by the minute over here, and Stavros' latest post suggests the possibility of News Int going down the tubes totally because of shareholder jitters.

Mind you, the govt got themselves off the merger hook by referring, at Murdoch's request (hah!), the proposed sale to the Competition Commission which effectively does away with the "fit and proper persons" test and leaves it down to the lawyers. Add in that the closure of the NotW actually reduces NI's percentage holding of the total UK media market, and the possibility of the deal being nodded through increases, at least in the narrow context of competition law.

Bloody hell!

[Prospero]

Well Murdoch is a sly one. By withdrawing offer to spin off Sky News has forced the Government to refer the whole thing to Competition Commission. That'll take a year or so to decide which effectively cools things for him on that front - and if he has to shut the papers, well he will. Big bucks from TV not much from depleted paper empire. Murdoch is such an operator I bet he'll get what he wants eventually. Bastard.

[Stavros]

So far the news has focused on Brown and now the involvement of The Sun and The Sunday Times, expanding rather than contracting the scandal. But at some point we have to face the most explosive issue: the police had the evidence that the law had been broken, and insisted they had prosecuted the 'rogue' journalist -Clive Goodman- and the private investigator, Glen Mulcaire. It is now obvious that either this was an expedient way to 'deal with Murdoch' without destroying News International, or our boys in blue are not just useless at police work, but are on the take even when they are 'guarding' the Head of State and her Family! If its the former, maybe someone said at one time -'we can't do this, hundreds of people will lose their jobs and the courts will be showered with lawsuits' but Murdoch sacks them anyway...he is a ruthless businessman which is why if the main shareholders of NewsCorp get the jitters, he has to take action -but his biographer Michael Wolff on Channel 4 tonight thinks its all over for the Quiet American...