NewsCorp just dropped its bid to buy out the British cable network BSkyB (via radio). Meanwhile the parties in Parliament are fighting to stake out who hates papa Murdoch more.
Anybody think that NewsCorp will stand up to serious scrutiny on either side of the Atlantic? Anyone?
Elizabelle
excellent news
General Stuck
I would imagine busy little beavers are scouring the ethers for evidence of misdeeds from Murdoch’s minions in the states. Considering the staggering ratfuckery they engaged in in GB, it is not a stretch to believe they did some of it here as well. For all we know, Roger Ailes received morning intelligence briefings from Scooter Libby, or John Bolton, gleaned from American Big Brother, that ran amuck during the Bush years.
catclub
massey energy is the model. merge with someone else so that the corporation disappears as an identifiable entity.
beltane
Rupert Murdoch has made many lasting enemies over the years. Now that he is in a weakened state, expect to see them all come out of the woodwork seeking to do their part in finishing him off.
Gregory
Wow, that’s huge.
It would seem that dropping the BSkyB bid indicates that NewsCorp doesn’t think so, either. Though I’d presume that NewsCorp expects its political arm (the Republican Party) to prevent any close scrutiny over here.
Ben Cisco
HA HA!
Chris
YES, YES and YES! FREEDOM!
Going with my gut, I’d say, on the other side of the Atlantic: yes. On this side of the Atlantic: no.
(I’d love nothing more than to be proven wrong on the latter point, btw).
Han's Solo
So is anyone aware of what legal ramifications exist in the UK for this? Can victims sue? Does the UK have a Supreme Court that will do anything for corporations like we have in the US?
Roger Moore
Anyone think that NewsCorp will face serious scrutiny on the American side of the Atlantic? I didn’t either.
dmsilev
NY Times coverage:
Some sweet sweet schadenfreude to start the morning out right.
bkny
Ha! Some journo commented that rupert expected all of his bought for/intimidated political pals would save him; instead … This. How fucking sweet that this mongrel’s kingdom is imploding just as he’s preparing to step aside.
catclub
Yeah, it is almost as satisfying as Fitzmas was.
Remember that? When Fitzgerald indicted Cheney and the Bush administration fell? Me Neither.
handsmile
I watched BBC America’s live coverage of David Cameron’s sternly-worded message to Murdoch from the Parliament floor this morning. I must say Mitt Romney has a thing or two to learn from the well-groomed PM on how to deliver starkly different positions on the same issue over a brief span of time.
As this volcanic story continues to rock Whitehall and Wapping (NewsCorp’s HQ), it is worth noting that at this very moment in a London courtroom, Julian Assange is appealing his extradition to Sweden on rape allegations.
It’s a bracing reminder of how justice is deployed within the political/media ecosystem. And that whistleblowers are rarely not treated with derision. A fact not lost I suspect on the host of Murdoch’s former employees.
Jay C
What Roger Moore said @ #9: Nice as it might be to imagine the Murdoch media empire imploding into a black hole of its own creation, barring the serious (i.e. thoroughly backed with tons of provable evidence) suspicion of widespread corporate malfeasance/illegality/suborning-of-corruption on the British scale, it’s unlikely that News Corp will have to face much worse than a few peripheral investigations here and there (New York, maybe?).
Now these may be Good Things in and of themselves, as is anything (IMHO) that gives the Murdoch Empire a black eye; but I think it’s unlikely, given the differences in the business structures of their UK vs. US operations – still less the legal systems in play – that, absent a (Hiroshima-level) bombshell-revelation, that any major damage will, or can. be done.
Though an FPCA
inquisitioninvestigation might not be a bad idea…gene108
The A-bomb detonated over Hiroshima is relatively small in comparison to modern H-bombs.
You’d need the big bomb the Russians set off in the 1950’s (largest nuke bomb yield ever, I think), level of bombshell revelation to stifle News Corp. in the U.S.
(1) As long as Fox News exists 27% of the population will fight to make sure Murdoch isn’t hurt by evil government and (2) If Fox News / News Corp. take a hit, they will be martyred by 27% or more of the American people for standing up to the big evil government.
Expect any action against News Corp. to result in a counter-revolution, where right-wing interests and Republicans gang up to make sure all right-wing media entities become above the law.
Roger Moore
@gene108:
It was called the Tsar Bomba (Царь-бомба), and I’m not sure that would be enough. I’m thinking it would require something more like the Chicxulub impact to do the trick.
lllphd
hm. i understand the skepticism that seems to dominate here, but won’t everyone please note how far the empire has fallen in less than 2 weeks? newscorps value has lost 7 billion dollars – yup, that’s billion. shareholders are going berserk, and rightly so. this is after advertisers were exiting like rats from a sinking ship; the only reason workers won’t be following suit is jobs are now so precious.
but do expect ex-employees to pile on; many more shoes to fall here. and this extends back so far, including blair and bush and beyond (hell, murdoch manipulated the bejeezus out of congress and the fcc in the early 90s to get licensed here; go read kitman’s november harper’s story). there’s nothing in it for anyone like a whistleblower effect, unless of course they can contribute to the growing evidence of criminal behaviors. and since there is such a public outcry, it’s not like these whistleblowers will have an uphill battle for public sentiment as they often do.
which leads to the tipping point for US criminality. in the first place, there have already been some reports that 9/11 victims phones were hacked; would anyone doubt that? in the second place, there is the fcpa which has been aggressively prosecuted in recent years. as spitzer points out today, if the DOJ fails to pursue newscorp (which is located here in the US) under the auspices of the fcpa, then the entire world including all media (yeah, like fox would join in) can scream bloody murder that something fishy is going on that roger ailes is getting a free ride courtesy of holder.
all those things considered, i have to say that there will actually likely be great pressure to follow through with investigations (tho rockefeller’s call for the regular regulators – as in “captured” – to investigate this was somewhere lower than lame). the administration and all the dems will understandably have to tread lightly because of the perceived bias. the trick is in gaining public outcry. and if hacking into 9/11 victims doesn’t do it, i can’t think of what will.
gene108
As Ann Coulter et. al. demonstrated in 2003 and 2004, the families of 9/11 victims are attention seeking media whores and many people in this country agreed with her and other like minded media types.
I just don’t see any unified outrage coming from America anymore.
“If liberals are mad about it, it must be a good thing”, is the default position for a lot of people, which I don’t see how to overcome.
Jay C
@gene108:
You may be right about the potential uproar from the Fox Nation over a possible – serious – probe into the corporation’s malfeasance(s); but I am guessing that this time, the manufactured bluster and orchestrated outrage won’t have the same effect they might have had once-upon-a-time.
For one, any investigation into something on the scale of the British phone-hacking scandal can’t – and won’t – be spun as a “freedom of the press” issue: Fox/NC would have to, basically, defend themselves as standing up for “freedom of unethical sleaze-journalism” (which just might play in the boondocks) or, worse “freedom of illegal activities wrt journalism”, which most probably would not.
For another, the flipside “argument” about making the issue one of “Murdoch vs. big evil government” is, at bottom, “We should be above the law” – again, not a view that is going to have a lot of traction.
You’re probably right about the “martyrdom” bit, though – the capacity of the American Right Wing to wallow in and whine about imagined victimization is near-infinite – but for once, I would imagine, the Foxtards would quickly find out the downside of being that solid 27%: i.e., the other 73% of the population doesn’t care about your BS ideological fixations.
jl
Very good news. A few days ago, the CW was that Cameron and the Tories would just delay it until this all blew over. Looks like the scandal has gotten too big and public too outraged for it to blow over.
I think your question is better put: Will ‘serious scrutiny’ stand up to the Murdoch Empire. I think public outrage gives that a better chance in the UK than here.
burnspbesq
Those of you who think that News Corp. is going to skate need to brush up on the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.