The Murdoch Empire's Greatest Test

Well, we get more coverage than y'all because we're infinitely more interesting. :D

As for Murdoch: I predict that the only way to stop the hemorrhage is for him to retire & divest himself from the business. Even that might not work as long as it's controlled by the family. It's not just over there. There were already a slew of broadcast licence challenges to the FCC on grounds of "moral turpitude" before the scandal ever broke. There's a story breaking that they were doing the same thing over here, & it doesn't matter who the targets of the hack/taps were/are. The News Corp stock is dropping like a rock. I wouldn't be surprized to see the WSJ & maybe even Dow Jones on the auction block if the slide continues. I don't think tossing some underling scapegoat under the bus is going to work if the stockholders get any more panicky.

I thought that this article by Marina Hyde in Saturday's Guardian had an interesting slant on the current state of the scandal.

Without a constitution, we are once again left in Clusterfakia

The phone-hacking scandal shows us where power really lies. A written rulebook is the only way to stop this cycle of squalor

For an industry built on words, Her Majesty's press hasn't half found itself short of vocab this week. Thrice-minutely, we hear the crisis engulfing the Murdoch empire is "deepening". Deepening? It's already like the Mariana trench. At this rate, it will be akin to deep space by tomorrow, while the latest buzzphrase to crack under the burden is "uncharted territory". We have been in uncharted territory for almost a fortnight now. No cartographer has mapped this place, though naming rights are presumably up for grabs by whichever explorer has the chutzpah to plant the flag first. I'm suggesting Clusterfakia.

Try to imagine recent events as that brilliant shot in The Truman Show when Jim Carrey's boat literally bumps up against the painted-on horizon and he suddenly realises reality was not as it seemed. Yup, the creepily cosy bubble of Murdochvision that nurtured and narcotised us has been burst, and it's a brave new world out there. Brave and deepening. And uncharted.

Yet the first question isn't how we're coping. It is: is there a "we", for all Ed Miliband's talk of victory for "the people"? I'd suggest that people have been coping in at least two very distinct ways – and later, why this disconnect should ring alarm bells.

A popular way of coping has been to carry on as normal. Public disgust at the News of the World manifested in the paper selling more copies last weekend than it had for 13 years. The souvenir factor counted, obviously, and the Sun did drop a quarter of a million sales last Saturday, but the public had inhaled sufficient smelling salts by Monday for sales to rally to near-ish normal levels. The Sun continued the week slightly down, though given it's July and the major push for their £9.50 holidays promotion was last week, a dip might have been expected.

Meanwhile, tabloids that may or may not have judicial questions of their own to answer are preparing increased print runs, even as the Sunday Sun prepares to launch in time for the football season. Let's reserve judgment on quite how meaningfully revolted by the scandal the "public" really are.

And so to the second means of coping, adopted by the group who have got all the airplay. Indeed, they are the airplay, because we're talking about the politicians and the media. They – or rather we, given I'm of their number – are not carrying on as usual. We are in week zero, anno non-domini, and no one knows the rules. Thursday saw senior parliamentarians wondering if the deputy serjeant-at-arms could technically drag Rupert Murdoch to parliament. Would he have to wear tights? The Speaker hadn't a clue.

Someone recalled the Commons cell (no longer in use). The chairman of the committee Murdoch will face admitted: "We are in territory that has not been explored for 50 or 60 years." Since 1880, someone else said. Clouds of dust were blown stagily off Erskine May, the parliamentary bible governments have long ignored.

I kept thinking of Chris Morris's Day Today news anchor bellowing "Peter! You've lost the news!" at hapless reporter Peter O'Hanraha-hanrahan. We've lost the rulebook! Where the hell did power lie, if not somewhere in Murdoch's core, which accounted for the many expeditions of the great and good sent burrowing up his backside these past few decades?

You could almost have been listening to dispatches from a country that had recently overthrown an entrenched dictatorship and emerged blinking into the unfamiliar light of democracy. Now, some optimists will shriek that is exactly what we have done – in which case, perhaps the international assistance offered to states struggling to make the transition might be afforded to us.

I'm afraid we will need it, because the one thing that you can never underestimate is Britain's potential to lapse back into another version of the same dysfunction that brought it to whichever pretty pass it has come to. If the wasted anger over MPs' expenses taught us anything, it is that things can always proceed much as they were before if nothing material changes.

And so, yet again, to the only way to break this cycle of squalor and begin rebuilding this country's self-worth – a written constitution. Along with Israel and New Zealand, we remain one of only three countries in the world without a written constitution. During the chaotic limbo that followed the election last year, it was suggested the best authority on how to proceed was a 1950 letter to the Times, penned pseudonymously, but believed to be from one of George VI's private secretaries. And people wonder why it is that abuses of power just keep happening to us.

So, if David Cameron, Nick Clegg and Ed Miliband really want to do something in the name of "we the people", they could enshrine the golden rulebook for ever. Any other solution to the Clusterfakian messes in which we keep finding ourselves will be a short-termist failure, a sop thrown to us by an elite in whose eternal interest it is to preserve the lack of rules. Surely we've finally, finally been done over enough now?

Ae we letting slip a little of the mask here to reveal a Tory bias lol?

No, Prospero, far from it, and I don't know any of my posts have been close to Tory thinking! But this is a thread on the Murdoch empire, not my Labour Party past....

Rebekah Brooks has been arrested.

Is James Murdoch going to be next?

Why not go direct for Rupert? We could transport him to Australia? Oh wait a imnute....

Bloody Nora! Sir Paul Stephenson, Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, has resigned.

Who's next? The Queen????

Stephenson has basically said News International lied to the police, he either doesn't know if John Yates and Andy Hardy kicked the evidence into touch and colluded with News International, or he does and isn't saying -but for once, someone at the top has done the honourable thing and stepped down, which can't be said for Brooks, Murdoch J or Murdoch R, but I still think this ought to be settled in the courts and not in front of a parliamentary committee. Also, if Sue Akers is still going through thousands of pages of Glenn Mulcaire's notes, we still don't know the full extent of this scandal.

I don't think the Queen is next, but in a month's time, the only people left in Government could indeed be the Queen... and the Archbishop of Canterbury....

Cameron's head to roll maybe... this gets better and better and better

Yes I have been wondering about Cameron -the problem with the hubris of the Murdoch enterprise over the years, is that instead of being called to account they got away with it but drew so many into the net: Alex Salmond is now nin the frame; Gordon Brown is desperately trying to save his arse/ass by going on the attack: Ed Balls and his petite wife are in the frame; Blair can't be far behind: without yet knowing the full list this looks like some kind of political version of a nuclear meltdown -at least we do have Our Noble Majesty, and His Grace The Archbishop to save us from Armageddon....I wonder, are they any good at banking?

Rebekah Brooks has been questioned for 13 hours
wonder what she had to say or didn't say
this just gets deeper every hour

Is the Archbishop implicated yet? I see he had to fire his publicity man because he made rather crude jokes about the prelate "roughly taking" Chistina Odone (a roman catholic journalist and broadcaster) in a debate. Surely they must be able to discover that the Archbishop had dinner with Rebekah or rupert?

Its not His Grace we should be concerned about now; David Cameron as far as I can see has made poor judgements, and I am assuming that Clegg has consulted with his colleagues to work out what happens if they decide this situation is not just a crisis for the Murdoch press and the Metropolitan Police, but the Governance of Britain. I am assuming that Cameron can resign as Prime Minister and remain leader of the Party in which case Parliament nominates a new PM; or Cameron can resign both positions and the Conservatives nominate a new leader and PM -only it can't be George Osborne because his links to Murdoch are deeper than Cameron's. Neither in the coalition will want an election, given the hammering the LibDems got last time; also, it is not clear how far the general public care about any of this beyond the specific cases of Milly Dowler, the 7/7 families and the service personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan. Labour's problem is that most of the alleged crimes took place when it was in power and thus Blair, Brown and people like Ed Balls and Yvette Cooper can't just walk away from it or join the shoot. As the New York Times put it today, Murdoch has tended to buy its way out of problems, in the US as well as the UK, but this time money doesn't put out the fire, it just burns...NewsCorp has now lost $10bn in value in the last 2 weeks. The various lawsuits NewsCorp silenced with cash are referred to here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/18/bu...agewanted=2&hp

‪Vanden Heuvel on Murdoch 'The sky has fallen on him'‬‏ - YouTube

Congress: Investigate Rupert Murdoch:

http://act2.freepress.net/sign/investigate_murdoch/

For those who are interested:

‪Rupert & James Murdoch Testimony To Parliament pt.1‬‏ - YouTube

‪Rupert & James Murdoch Testimony To Parliament pt.2‬‏ - YouTube

love the pie in the face haha

Quite disappointing questions really, aside from Tom Watson of course - who was fantastic :)

The foam in the face was moronic really, yea lets do as much as we can to assist this "poor 80 yr old fella" to appear the victim, or leave it till the last question (?) so that people can quickly forget all the questions prior... amazing lack of intelligence for giggles there. What a wanker that chap was.

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Originally Posted by SammiValentine

Quite disappointing questions really, aside from Tom Watson of course - who was fantastic :)

The foam in the face was moronic really, yea lets do as much as we can to assist this "poor 80 yr old fella" to appear the victim, or leave it till the last question (?) so that people can quickly forget all the questions prior... amazing lack of intelligence for giggles there. What a wanker that chap was.

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Well put, Sammi. It was always going to be a bit of a show trial without much purpose beyond the symbolic, once judicial proceedings got kicked off - interesting timing by the Met there, don't you think?

As for the foam - the guy must have got a tin of the stuff past security, presumably metal. If it had been a gun????

And finally, yes, fuck the Sun, forever and a day.

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Originally Posted by robertlouis

And finally, yes, fuck the Sun, forever and a day.

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Horrible rag. The NOTW was the sunday sun anyway. good riddance.

This YT clip w/ Hugh Grant shows the utter nexus between government and corporations. They are two peas in a pod. (Albeit the difference between government and a corporation is, well, government has a flaw. The "flaw" is they're potentially democratic.
Corporations, of course, aren't democratic. But corporations, on the other hand, do not tolerate corruption. Whereas corruption is the basis of government -- :))

‪Question Time - Hugh Grant - Were You Not At Murdoch's Party Three Weeks Ago? [07.07.2011]‬‏ - YouTube

‪Yes, Minister - The moral dimension(I)‬‏ - YouTube

And the fragrant Rebekah was all over the place, evasive and very non effervescent really. its going to be hard to keep the pressure up now. I think Cameron is off the hook somehow.

Do you think Rupert is really that doddery - or was it an act to win sympathy?

he started off on the old senile act, an old mafioso trick in court. he soon perked up and by the end before the shaving foam party - he was a chirpy fucker, cracking puns, arguing the toss. a lot of desk banging , nothing wrong with the fella.

Yep... well there is a LOT wrong with him in the moral sense

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Originally Posted by SammiValentine

he started off on the old senile act, an old mafioso trick in court. he soon perked up and by the end before the shaving foam party - he was a chirpy fucker, cracking puns, arguing the toss. a lot of desk banging , nothing wrong with the fella.

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News Corp shares are up. Well done Roop - your act worked.

yup thats why he was there :)

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Originally Posted by robertlouis

News Corp shares are up. Well done Roop - your act worked.

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now that will leave a lot of people foaming at the mouth. irony!

They may still retire the sad old fuck

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Originally Posted by Prospero

They may still retire the sad old fuck

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Not sure, I think Condom Dave will keep his job.....

I think I said in an earlier post it would be a circus, but I didn't expect a clown with a foam pie to make an entrance! The evasive responses and denials from the witnesses were as expected ''Don't know', 'No', 'It wasn't me it was other people' -did anyone think either Rupert or James would say they nobbled policemen and politicians to look the other way when bad things were happening? I recall BP's ex CEO in the US being grilled by Senator Waxman -I mean what was Hayward going to do, make himself and BP liable for years of litigation?

As I have said, beyond the baiting of Murdoch for his political views, which I am opposed to but which he has a right to express, it is for the Courts of Law to determine what law has actually been broken, by whom and for what purpose. My guess is that the Jonathan Rees trial which collapsed this year when the Prosecution conceded that after 24 years, and with 750,000 pages of evidence the Defence could not be mounted reasonably, provides the most serious problem for News International and the Metropolitan Police -even though morally, the Dowler's and other families must take precedence over a cheap and squalid 'Private Detective' whose former partner had an axe buried in his skulll...

Predictions: Murdoch will retire with effusive praise from the Board of NewsCorp, James Murdoch will leave NewsCorp to 'explore new business ventures'; NewsCorp will 'refresh' its Board over the next 5 years which means that it will be, in terms of personnel, more or less unrecognisable from what it is today. If these changes do not take place, NewsCorps current security could be undermined by allegations in Court.

Finally, a pithy assessment from Simon Jenkins in today's Guardian:

Newspaper ownership has always been crazy and eccentric, dominated by ego and a yearning for glory. It seldom has to do with profit. If it had, the recent history of British newspapers would have been a miserable one. Murdoch's influence on tabloid journalism has been dire, though he is hardly alone in this. His influence on the media industry in general has been that of a serial innovator – confronting unions, lowering production costs, pay-for-view TV and now paywalls. All newspapers have benefited from this, loathe though they may be to admit it.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisf...-wall-hysteria

Just curious, do the same people that handle security at Parliament watch over the airports? Scary thought..

First time I've agreed with you Faldur. It is indeed scary - but then these same police people were also in the diplomatic protection corp and the royal protection corps and were, allegedly, selling contact details of various royals and other high-ups in politics to journalists. So you can tell just how important their work is as opposed to our safety.

I have been to a few Committee rooms (but not in Portcullis House where the Murdoch incident took place) as well as the Stranger's Gallery, you can't even make notes in the Gallery without being hauled out; my guess is that the clown managed to conceal a paper plate and a can of foam somewhere, or he was outside the room and dodged inside when someone wasn't looking, but I would have thought visitors were not allowed to carry bags into the room, so it puzzles me -also after that raid in the Commons chamber a few years ago and Murdoch being a 'prize target' you would expect extra vigilance. I didn't see if Wendi Murdoch had a handbag with her -not that she needed one...

& a fun time was had by all...

‪Question Time - Hugh Grant - MP's Were Terrified of News International [07.07.2011]‬‏ - YouTube

‪Question Time - Hugh Grant - Were You Not At Murdoch's Party Three Weeks Ago? [07.07.2011]‬‏ - YouTube

I wouldn't be at all surprised to find out in the wash that the whole pie foam stunt was indeed a planned, orchestrated stunt designed to distract attention and steal oxygen.

Very sunday paper-ish material fodder indeed.

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Originally Posted by Miss Aeryn

I wouldn't be at all surprised to find out in the wash that the whole pie foam stunt was indeed a planned, orchestrated stunt designed to distract attention and steal oxygen.

Very sunday paper-ish material fodder indeed.

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Miss Aeryn, You're very cynical - but that thought crossed my mind too Not so much a distraction as a way of getting the vulnerable old fella some sympathy - and showing him to be dignified enough to carry on regardless.

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Originally Posted by Miss Aeryn

I wouldn't be at all surprised to find out in the wash that the whole pie foam stunt was indeed a planned, orchestrated stunt designed to distract attention and steal oxygen.

Very sunday paper-ish material fodder indeed.

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Whatever, but Wendi Murdoch has to be a shoo-in for the next instalment of Kill Bill....

Oh I love Wendi... but read the profile in today's Independent and realise what a calculating person she is. Rupert is husband number 3 - part of her own campaign for global domination. I think she is a sleeper for the people's republic.

‪Bruce Lee - Kung Fu Fighting‬‏ - YouTube

was mentioned on a current affairs opinion show last night that she might be the one to take over running News Corp