I don’t plan on writing much about the News Corporation scandal unless and until it becomes more of an American story, but things are really heating up in the United Kingdom and investigations have begun here in the States. We could discover some troubling corruption if the FBI has been penetrated in the same way that Scotland Yard was compromised.
The testimony and evidence that emerged last week, as well as interviews with current and former officials, indicate that the police agency and News International, the British subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation and the publisher of The News of the World, became so intertwined that they wound up sharing the goal of containing the investigation.
Basically, employees of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. empire bribed people in their equivalent of the FBI, which caused Scotland Yard to sit on mountains of evidence, lie to parliament, and fail to prosecute widespread violations of people’s privacy.
Attorney General Eric Holder has announced that the “appropriate agencies” are investigating claims that News Corp. employees hacked into the phones of people who died on 9/11 in order to listen to their voicemail. There’s also a new allegation from actor Jude Law that his phone was hacked by News Corp. employees shortly after he arrived at JFK Airport in New York.
My primary interest in this story is in its potential to disrupt or destroy Murdoch’s evil empire. His ability to aggressively misinform and weaponize the stupidity of our citizenry could be seriously threatened. With the arrest of Rebekah Brooks, people like Roger Ailes must be nervous. Unless, of course, Ailes hasn’t been involved in any similar illegal activity. So far, the evidence seems to be contained to the print side of Murdoch’s operation, but it seems pretty widespread.
If you ask me whether or not I think Fox News broke privacy laws during the Bush/Cheney era, based on what I’m seeing from England, I’d have to say the chances are pretty good that they did.
Either way, it seems likely that Murdoch will lose control of News Corp. It’s a big, successful company with tons of assets all around the world. The question is whether or not a new ownership would want to continue using the same format for Fox News, and whether they’d be quite so in bed with the Republican Party.
As much as I’m enjoying the Murdoch-squirming-on-the-hotseat show, a little voice whispers, “Be careful what you wish for” and I wonder what News Corp. would be like in the hands of, say, the Kochs. <shudder>
How about Warren Buffett? He’s a good guy who could afford to not only buy out Murdoch but also the Saudi prince who owns like 40% of the company (and has more than just a little influence over the propaganda fed to our rabble.)
Let’s bust ’em up. And let’s hope that the UK passes a law that no foreigners can have a controlling interest in any media-related company. We really should beef up our laws as well. Demand 100% American ownership of all media-related companies.
That’s a violation of the First Amendment.
What is a violation of the 1st Amendment?
I should add that we already demand by law a majority ownership in all broadcast entities (TV and Radio be American.)
That is the ONLY reason Murdoch became an American citizen in the eighties. And amazingly, he was granted it in like 15 minutes. No one gets that kind of turn around out of the INS unless they know people. In fact the FCC approved his licenses for TV stations before he could prove that he successfully became a naturalized citizen. Good times during the Reagan administration for scoundrels like Murdoch.
We should demand American ownership for all media (newspapers, TV, Radio, Internet that uses any .com., .org, .net, .us, etc American-specific domain names.)
I know that you have to be American to own that sort of stuff, but you’re not going to find much sympathy from me with regard to most FCC regulations (especially with regard to censorship).
Moreover, Fox News isn’t a broadcast entity, it is a cable and satellite channel.
This is nothing but unfounded xenophobic tendencies that somehow a foreigner is going to make our discourse even worse. It’s based on a dumbfounded assumption that foreign owners are likely to program a channel differently from their domestic counterparts.
Last, extending such a ban beyond broadcasting is a dangerous precedent.
I hear your point. Really. My point is that we should be able to expect the utmost from American citizens if they are so entrusted with a FREE public license to broadcast over the airwaves. These are always the channels watched by the majority. (Broadcast channel ratings are always enormously higher than cable/satellite channel ratings.) And I totally agree on the FCC regulations over speech. Total nonsense. Carlin spelld out his version of the words:
Drop the censorship. I agree.
It’s not so dangerous to restrict who can feed us “news” though, really. To insist that owners of any broadcast, print or US-identified Internet medium be citizens is really the least we can do. Seriously.
The goal here was always to keep out foreign propaganda. Of course domestic (government funded) propaganda is also illegal but never seems to be prosecuted. So maybe you have a good point. al Jazeera has provided the best coverage of our despicable actions in the middle east over the last several years. And they, along with BBC News AND EVEN Fox News would still remain in place on Cable/ Satellite. But they may be a little more careful after their company has been busted to pieces for their illegal behavior. Mind you, violating the privacy of private citizens and bribing law enforcement is illegal for anyone, broadcast OR cable/satellite, regardless of what country you are citizens of.
And Fox broadcast network, which was started before Fox News (cable/satellite,) IS broadcast. I have noticed that Murdoch has walked the fine line here. Fox (broadcast) does not offer a national “Nightly News” show for Fox affiliates but they do offer “Fox News Sunday” and keep tight ropes over it because it is broadcast over the airwaves of many affiliates and they could cross the anti-domestic-propaganda laws if they did the O’Reilly, Hannity, Beck or ‘Fox and Friends’ routine on THAT show.
“Let’s bust ’em up.”
Yep, I like that idea a lot.
I can’t imagine Fox News behaving any differently–with or without Murdoch. The Ailes/Atwater ratfucking philosophy seems to be so ingrained these days–not just in political/news media, but ALL media–that it’s difficult for me to picture a world in which all of that goes away because of one man’s takedown.
Because really, it’s not like they invented ratfucking. People have done that to each other time out of mind. Someone else will pick up Murdoch’s slack.
I agree. But ideally Roger Ailes should go to jail for 300 years or so. If they do the investigations right I am sure he will qualify. The guy is as EVIL or worse than Dick Cheney.
It wasn’t just about gathering dirt on ppl to publish, sounds like they were trying to influence elections and gov via a combination of blackmail and bribes. Interesting that it is finally unraveling now.
Yup. Murdoch and his gang of criminals is worse than J. Edgar Hoover was. Hoover stayed in office for decades and despite his record, he was left there because he kept files on all famous and/or elected people. They didn’t dare take on that closet-queen. No way.
it is about the U.S., Booman.
Fox News is by far the single most powerful right-wing media outlet here, and the crap that the Fox network runs as “entertainment” is right up there on top of the cultural no-no scale as far as I am concerned as well. (Remember…it’s easier to hypnotize the stoopid.) The Wall Street Journal keeps the wealthier NY Times readers in its pocket as much as possible…don’t forget, for every extra 100% one makes over the national mean, one’s real power is basically squared. And the NY Post? Please. Every right-wing white asshole I have met in NYC over the past 15 years sounds like a ditto machine for the Post.
The other Fox/Murdoch holdings? Add to the above an near monpoly on Australian media and serious power in the UK as well and whaddaya got?
A force to be reckoned with in the U.S.
A mover and shaker of national and international policies.
Afraid of the Kochs?
Give me those fools any day. Compared to the massive popular power…read voting power… wielded by Murdoch, they’re rank beginners. Even if they had his smarts…which I doubt…it would be a decade before they got their act to his present level.
Take him off at the knees.
Please!!!
He is a blight on the republic.
Later…
AG
For once I am in total agreement, AG. Thanks.
Again, how did Eliot Spitzer get taken out?
Here’s the series on Kos by Brit with quite a bit of info and the latest resignation
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/07/17/995477/-FALL-OF-THE-HOUSE-OF-MURDOCH-VIINI-Chief-Executive-
Arrested:-U
My friend Angela in Britain said that it’s by far the biggest story of her lifetime.
Here’s how she described it:
thanks for posting! even here it looks huge; it’s one thing to try to influence the outcome of elections and legislation by skewed reporting, it’s another thing to place certain ppl in power via blackmail and bribery. Irc it was the kos series by Brit that showed Murdoch saying he wanted that kind of influence in the USA. I’m interested that it finally is unraveling at this time (along with many other things). The phrase “Jasmine revolution” keeps running in the back of my mind, maybe because there was a photo of Murdoch in limo with caption something like “aging [don’t recall exact word] dictators: Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, …”
just keeping an eye on it. watching the shoes drop
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"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence.".
Murdoch’s Crumbling Empire – Assistant John Yates Quits Met Police
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."