Fox, News Corp, Right Wing Media Scandal Corruption!!!

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source: <FOOTER id=ibt_copy>International Business Times


News Corp Scandal Rocks British Politics, Media

By IB Times Staff Reporter

</HEADER><SECTION>“There is something rotten in sate of Denmark”: Marcellus said in Hamlet. There are many in Great Britain who must be echoing this sentiment.

The closing of the News Of The World, the arrest of Andrew Coulson, erstwhile editor of NOTW and ex media advisor to the British Prime Minister James Cameron, has landed Britain into a mess of gigantic proportions.

Questions are being thrown around about media ethics, political and police corruption . Within all this clamor, fear of a media takeover of the British skies by Murdoch’s bid to buy BSkyB can also be heard.

Rupert Murdoch owned NOTW, the highest selling weekly of UK , is at the centre of the hacking, tapping and corruption scandal.
Closure of NOTW, with a 168 years old history and present sales going into 2.6 million, is claimed as a firefighting effort by Murdoch to save his bid to buy BskyB.

BSKYB, upping the ante

Due to the fallout, it seems now Murdoch will have to wait some time for his $14 billion to buy the UK satellite company. The decision to consider the sale by the Minsitry of Sports Culture and Media has been deferred. This was due to the huge outcry against the deal by the public.

The shares of BSkyB fell by 6 per cent. BskyB is a lucrative company with its annual revenues running into billions of dollars.Mr Murdoch already has 40 per cent stake in the company and he intends to buy it outright.

With the ownership of BSkyB, the Murdoch empire will have complete control of the internet and satellite channels of Britain. The British media and some politicians are not at all happy with this scenario.

The Root of the Scandal

The second casualty was the arrest of Andrew Coulson, the editor of the newspaper from 2003-2007 and present media advisor to the British Prime Minister. He is held on charges of corruption and hacking. Cameron is scrambling to defend his decision to hire him despite warnings about the happenings at News of the World under his tenure.

News Of the World is in the midst of allegations of having hacked into the emails and phones of numerous royals, celebrities, families of dead army soldiers and that of a schoolgirl, Milly Dowler, who was later found murdered.

The corruption charges include paying bribes to policemen to keep the whole scandal from coming out.

Rebekah Brooks who is the chief executive editor of News International , a close friend of the Prime Minister and a close aide of Rupert Murdoch, seems to have escaped the axe which has left a lot of people unhappy. She was the editor when the phone of the dead schoolgirl, Milly, was tapped into.

Nearly 200 staff members of NOTW are without a job at the moment. There are indications that the drastic step of closing down was also taken as many big advertisers had pulled out of the newspaper after the scandal broke. Some observers believe that NOTW may reappear as the Sunday version of The Sun.

Loss and Compensation

News Corp may also have to shell out nearly $ 1.9 billion in compensation to the 4000 victims of phone tapping and hacking.The share prices of News Corp made a recovery after losing £610 million or nearly $9 billion from their value on Wednesday.

There is a whole nation up in arms against the intrusion of media into their private lives. The Prime Minister is asking for an official inquiry into media ethics. But, there is a deeper malaise of political and media alignments. Just muzzling the media will not be the answer, it is not the only rotten apple in the whole basket. The whole rot has to be stemmed.
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source: The Telegraph

News of the World shut down in bid to end phone hacking scandal

Britain's biggest-selling newspaper was shut down last night by the Murdoch family in a surprise move designed to bring an end to the phone hacking scandal engulfing the News of the World.

James Murdoch, the chairman of News International, which owns the newspaper, announced that the final edition would be published this weekend, citing the “inhuman” alleged behaviour of some staff as prompting the decision.

The 168-year-old newspaper will donate all this weekend’s revenues to good causes and would not accept any paid advertising, he said.

Hundreds of staff now face an uncertain future. However, Rebekah Brooks, the chief executive of News International and former editor of the News of the World, has been allowed to keep her job despite widespread calls for her to be sacked.

Last night she faced angry scenes at the paper as she broke the news to journalists. There were reports she had to be escorted from the offices by security guards for her protection.

Rupert Murdoch and his family sacrificed the tabloid as they fought to salvage their company’s attempt to take over BSkyB, the satellite broadcaster, after the scandal resulted in growing political pressure for the Government to block the deal.

Last night politicians warned that shutting the newspaper would not shut down the scandal, which they said would only end when those responsible for the hacking were brought to justice.

The historic announcement of the closure followed several days of allegations that investigators working for the newspaper had hacked into the mobile phones of military families, the victims of the 7/7 attacks and murder victims, including the teenager Milly Dowler.

It was made hours after the Metropolitan Police disclosed that more than 4,000 people had been identified as potential victims of private detectives employed by the paper.

The News of the World, the biggest selling English-language newspaper in the world, is currently at the centre of two police investigations, one into the alleged hacking, the other into payments allegedly made to police officers.

After widespread public revulsion at the scandal and condemnation from MPs, dozens of companies had announced they were withdrawing advertising from the paper. The share price of News Corp, the parent company of New Limited, had also been badly affected.

James Murdoch last night said that the paper had lost the trust of its readers after the allegations.

He told staff: “The good things the News of the World does have been sullied by behaviour that was wrong. Indeed, if recent allegations are true, it was inhuman and has no place in our company.”

The company’s investigation into the claims had been inadequate, he said, and its insistence that hacking was confined to one rogue reporter was wrong. “The News of the World is in the business of holding others to account. But it failed when it came to itself. Wrongdoers turned a good newsroom bad and this was not fully understood or adequately pursued.

“As a result, the News of the World and News International wrongly maintained that these issues were confined to one reporter. Having consulted senior colleagues, I have decided that we must take further decisive action with respect to the paper. This Sunday will be the last issue of the News of the World.”

Mr Murdoch also conceded that he and other executives had made serious mistakes in their handling of the crisis. “The paper made statements to Parliament without being in the full possession of the facts. This was wrong,” he said. “The company paid out-of-court settlements approved by me. I now know that I did not have a complete picture when I did so. This was wrong and is a matter of serious regret.” In a television interview, however, he refused to apologise, simply repeating that the scandal was “regrettable”.

More than 200 staff reacted with anger at the announcement, claiming they were innocent victims of the behaviour of a previous regime. Sub editors at sister newspaper The Sun walked out in protest.

Mrs Brooks, who is said to have been in tears as she announced the paper’s closure, was faced with a “lynch mob mentality” from staff. David Wooding, the associate editor, said: “The problem is, all these decent hard-working distinguished journalists are carrying the can for the sins of the previous regime. I don’t think they could have done any more to cleanse the News of the World.” Mrs Brooks was the editor of the News of the World when some of the most controversial incidents — including the hacking of the murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler’s phone — took place. It was reported last night that she offered her resignation on Wednesday evening but it was rejected by the Murdoch family. Mr Murdoch last night staunchly defended Mrs Brooks, insisting that she was not culpable for the hacking allegations.

Last night, senior Labour figures demanded that she step aside and take “responsibility” for the situation. Ed Miliband, the Labour leader, said of the closure: “It’s a big act but I don’t think it solves the real issues. One of the people who’s remaining in her job is the chief executive of News International who was the editor at the time of the hacking of Milly Dowler’s phone.” Mr Miliband said people were right to be appalled by the allegations, adding: “What I’m interested in is not closing down newspapers, I’m interested in those who were responsible being brought to justice and those who have responsibility for the running of that newspaper taking their responsibility and I don’t think those two things have happened today.”

In a statement, Downing Street said: “What matters is that all wrongdoing is exposed and those responsible for these appalling acts are brought to justice.

“As the Prime Minister has made clear, he is committed to establishing rigorous public inquiries to make sure this never happens in our country again.”

Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator used by the News of the World, said there had been a “committee” of journalists at the paper who commissioned phone hacking. The admission, made to a victim of sexual assault who was secretly filming their conversation, dispels the notion that phone hacking was encouraged by one rogue reporter. His lawyer later released a statement saying that his use of the word “committee” was a “colloquial expression and did not mean that an official committee had been set up”.
 
Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s Bank,
Medical Information Hacked by Murdoch’s Newspapers

http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2011/07/gordon_browns_bank_medical_inf.html


Imagine that, hacking the PM's private records. When does Scotland Yard arrest Rupert Murdoch, his son and all the top executives.
What the fuck is going on here?
Is he above the law?
He also hacked the British royal family?
Did his US <s>FOX</s> FAKE news gang hack any American politicos or his Wall Street Journal crew?
This story is BIG!
We will see if the "rule of law" applies to this decrepit oligarch?
 
source: stuff.co.nz

News Corp may face US bribery probe

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp could face probes by US authorities for possibly violating bribery laws, compounding the media mogul's problems after a phone-hacking scandal in Britain.

The Obama administration has significantly stepped up enforcement of anti-bribery laws in the last two years, winning big settlements from the likes of Daimler AG and BAE Systems Plc by focusing on bribes they paid to foreign officials to win lucrative contracts.

Bribes for business have represented the bulk of these anti-bribery cases brought by the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission. It is unclear whether U.S. authorities would use scarce resources to probe News Corp over bribes allegedly paid to British police and other officials for information that became news scoops.

Employees of Murdoch's now-shuttered News of the World tabloid have been accused of hacking into personal voicemail and paying bribes. British authorities are investigating.

Legal experts in the United States said News Corp could face scrutiny on this side of the Atlantic Ocean as US officials probe whether any of the allegations, if proven true, violate the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

That law makes it a crime for any company with US ties to bribe foreign officials to obtain or retain business.

British media outlets reported that News of the World reporters bought phone details for the royal family from a security officer. The Daily Mirror newspaper reported, citing an unidentified source, that News of the World reporters had also offered to pay a New York police officer to retrieve the private phone records of victims of the September 11 attacks.

At a minimum, the News Corp would be at risk for violating laws on accurate accounting reporting if the bribes were paid, according to legal experts. News Corp shares trade on Nasdaq and the company files its financial reports with the SEC.

"Would the Department of Justice go after them on a criminal basis? Hard to say. But the SEC definitely has a stake in this," said Alexandra Wrage, a legal expert on bribery who is the president of the firm TRACE, which helps companies comply with anti-bribery and anti-corruption laws.

One source familiar with the matter said News Corp had not received any query from US authorities.

SEC LIKELY TO LEAD ANY PROBE

"How did they account for these payments? If you falsify, misrepresent on your books what this money was spent on, straight out of the box you have a FCPA violation," Wrage said.

The Justice Department, the SEC and News Corp all declined to comment.

The United States has been pushing other countries to step up their enforcement of anti-bribery laws and a stiff new law in that vein took effect July 1 in Britain. However, it would not apply to the News of the World case because the alleged activity took place before the measure came into force.

One lawyer said US prosecutors would likely defer to their British counterparts and raised questions of whether a criminal case here could be made since prosecutors would have to show bribes were paid to obtain or retain business.

"It's a million-to-one shot," said the attorney, who declined to be identified because he did not want to jeopardize any business with News Corp.

Ed Rubinoff, a Washington-based attorney with Akin Gump Strauss Hauer and Feld, said any investigation would likely be led by the SEC and focus on how the company reported and accounted for any alleged bribes it paid as well as what controls it had for such payments.

If a probe is initiated, that could signal a broadening of the US government's interpretation of the law, Rubinoff said. However, the difficulty could be in proving that any bribes gave News Corp a business advantage, Rubinoff said.

"This would be pushing the boundary a good bit more," he said, adding that "you don't have to prove all those elements for a record-keeping violation."

Another possible headache for Murdoch's empire is that a bribery inquiry that started in one country could go global and such investigations can drag on for years and cost tens of millions of dollars.

"Another potential issue here that should be of concern to the company is it is very common for FCPA inquiries to focus on a discrete set of facts, but then for a company to do a world-wide internal review," said Michael Koehler, a professor of business law at Butler University.

"It's very common for enforcement agencies to ask the 'where else?' questions," he said
 
source: The Vancouver Sun

U.S. pressure mounts on Congress to investigate Murdoch's News Corp. for phone hacking


The U.S. Congress is under increasing pressure to investigate the American activities of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. in the wake of the phone hacking scandal.

U.S. ethics watchdogs called on the Senate and House of Representatives Tuesday to investigate the parent company of News International and hold "thorough public hearings" on whether the voicemails of Americans had been hacked.

One group has even written to the Security and Exchanges Commission (SEC) and the FBI calling for investigations into possible breaches of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). Under the FCPA, it is a crime for any American-linked company to bribe foreign officials to obtain or keep business.

Kevin Zeese, a lawyer acting for the group ProtectOurElections.org, said: "Rupert Murdoch moved to the U.S. and became an American citizen in 1985 in order to take advantage of our laws."

Thus far, Congress is maintaining a watching brief on the issue and waiting for the tide of revelations in Britain to subside.

"We're keeping an eye on the situation, but are not planning on looking into it at this time," said Jodi Seth, press secretary of Senator John Kerry, chairman of the Senate sub-committee on communications.

"For now, all that is certain is that there was hacking in Britain, which is outside of our jurisdiction."

Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), said that congressional investigations were essential because it was evident there was a culture of corruption within News Corp.

"It's hard to imagine that the same things have not been happening in the United States."

The tipping point, she added, would be if it became apparent that the phones of Americans had been hacked.

"Republicans are very tied to Murdoch but not at the expense of constituencies of Americans such as terror victims and soldiers," she said. She also noted that Les Hinton, the Dow Jones chief executive, and Robert Thomson, the Wall Street Journal editor, were former senior figures in News International.

A former U.S. government official said that the SEC, the federal regulatory agency that oversees the securities industry and stock exchanges, was very likely to look into whether News Corp. had violated the FCPA.

The alleged bribing of police officers protecting the Royal family and a claim by the Daily Mirror that News of the World reporters had also tried to pay a New York police officer to access the phone records of victims of the September 11 attacks could have repercussions on News Corp. in the U.S..

At a minimum, the company could be at risk for violating laws on accurate accounting or reporting if it could be proved there were bribes paid, according to legal experts. News Corp. shares trade on the Nasdaq and it files its financial reports with the SEC.

"It's difficult for enforcement agencies not to look into cases that are so public because a big part of their role is deterrence," said Alexandra Wrage, president of the firm Trace, which helps companies comply with anti-bribery and anti-corruption laws.

Most of Mr Murdoch's News Corp. empire comprises Fox News, which has widespread reach particularly among conservatives, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post and 20th Century Fox, the film studio.

It also has 27 television stations that cover 40 per cent of the country and have to be licensed by the Federal Communications Commission. The licences can be challenged when they come up for renewal. Criminal convictions or making misrepresentations to any government agency could lead to licences being revoked.
 
I'm starting to see a pattern here. Whatever you guys are afraid of you attack. (ie Palin, Bachmann, Linbaugh, Fox News). All you do is validate their dominance. Get some balls and some self confidence.
 
muckraker10021 said:
Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s Bank,
Medical Information Hacked by Murdoch’s Newspapers

http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2011/07/gordon_browns_bank_medical_inf.html


Imagine that, hacking the PM's private records. When does Scotland Yard arrest Rupert Murdoch, his son and all the top executives.
What the fuck is going on here?
Is he above the law?
He also hacked the British royal family?
Did his US <s>FOX</s> FAKE news gang hack any American politicos or his Wall Street Journal crew?
This story is BIG!
We will see if the "rule of law" applies to this decrepit oligarch?
Click to expand...

Allen West had his personal information hacked were you shocked? Did you rant?Sarah Palin's personal email was hacked. Did you rant?
 

Flagrant ineptitude and displayed ignorance is usually a consequence of a deprived education but in far too many instances brandished stupidity is the result of a conscious decision by an educated individual to ignore reality; because acknowledging irrefutable facts is detrimental to the narrative they wish to create.

Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. is one of the top purveyors of media, news?? & entertainment on the planet earth. This position gives Murdoch and his hired minions unprecedented power to propagandize (lie) and shape public opinion in an all encompassing manner that the late Nazi propaganda minister Dr. Joseph Goebbels would envy.<div align="right"><!-- MSTableType="layout" --><img src="http://i.min.us/ieuxNs.PNG" align="right"></div> One of few individuals Murdoch has professional respect for is Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi. Berlusconi owns 90 percent of the Italian media (free-television, newspapers, cable-TV, radio, movie theaters, public-television) in Italy; therefore he controls what the majority of Italian people think. As we have seen with Berlusconi, if you control what the people think is true— then you can deflect & intimidate your opponents and do pretty much any fucking think you want; including having bunga-bunga parties (wild sex for money, drugs etc.) at your home while you are the nations prime minister.

To attempt to equate a 22 year old college kid’s hacking the email account of the ill-informed irrelevant V.P. candidate Sarah Palin, with Murdoch’s henchmen stealing the private information (including hacking his bank account & medical records) of an in-office British Prime Minister is beyond preposterous. Furthermore such folly demonstrates a complete, perhaps willful, denial of the magnitude of Murdoch’s crimes.

He has already acknowledged illegally secretly paying British policemen for British citizen’s private information. His son James appeared in front of parliament and committed perjury by testifying that the phone and private records hacking was just a few isolated incidents. We now find out that over 4,000 British citizens were hacked. Murdoch used his media empire in Britain to propel the current Prime Minister David Cameron to victory. Quid-pro-quo Murdoch’s bag man Andy Coulson – the former editor of Murdoch’s News of the World, and Murdoch’s illegal phone hacking shot-caller - becomes Cameron’s press secretary. Now Coulson has been arrested as Cameron throws-him-overboard in an attempt to distance himself from the rampant Murdoch criminality being exposed now almost on an hourly basis. As far as Alan West goes; why cling to the jock strap of such an inconsequential buffoon. I will wrap this up now. Damn do the research, turn of <s>FOX</s> FAKE News. Here in the US Murdoch paid Judith Regan $10,000,000 (10 Million) to keep quiet about illegal actions by himself and his top executives. Murdoch has-a-god-complex and thinks he’s above the law. We’ll see how aggressive these now worldwide investigations,now including the FBI, into his malfeasance will become. Can he pay $$$$$$$$$ everybody off to keep quiet? We will see.




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Lawless spying on people is being done across the pond. I have been speaking on this for awhile, because I have been targeted. Some people feel they have right to do whatever they want, they have the power to decide.

Anybody going along with it or doing nothing is scum.
 
This will probably do nothing to curb Murdoch's media dominance. For now anyway.

But it sure as HELL has been funny watching him squirm these last few weeks.
 

July 15th 2011

Another bad day for Murdoch as his global propaganda media empire spirals down toward the drain. Will News Corp. survive? Sure but it will be a different company not run by anyone named Murdoch. Today Murdoch's multi-million dollar attorneys who have been with him for 26 years resigned. This typically happens when corporate attorneys find out that you the client (Murdoch) have been lying to them. We saw this in the WorldCom & Enron debacles. Murdoch doesn't need white-shoe corporate attorneys right now, he needs top criminal lawyers, because one of the people who has been arrested and/ or is being investigated will talk to save their own ass. The british prime minister Cameron who was Murdoch's boy can't help Murdoch now. The opposition parties in Britian are out-for-blood.
<blockquote>
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Murdoch pictured with his top News Corp. executives. All of them have been thrown overboard in an attempt to save the company and his son James who most believe issued illegal orders

July 15th, 2011

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/blog/2011/jul/15/phone-hacking-live-coverage

.....The problem for News Corp now is that, at every stage, its attempts to contain this story have failed. The decision to close the News of the World was motivated in part to save the chief executive of NI, Rebekah Brooks.

That decision failed and Brooks resigned today. The decision to sacrifice Brooks was an attempt to contain the story in the UK.

That failed, too. Now Hinton, who has been more significant to the company's fortunes and to Murdoch personally for far longer than Brooks, has been thrown to the wolves.

Will that be enough? Our experience of this story so far suggests not......
</blockquote>

READ entire story http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/blog/2011/jul/15/phone-hacking-live-coverage



 
source: Atlantic

Department of Justice Investigates News Corp.


After allegations surfaced that reporters working for The News of The World attempted to hack the phones of 9/11 victims, Attorney General Eric Holder said in Australia Friday that the U.S. Department of Justice is investigating Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. Reuters reports:

"There have been members of Congress in the United States who have asked us to investigate those same allegations and we are progressing in that regard using the appropriate Federal law enforcement agencies," Holder told reporters.​
This week, multiple members of Congress, hailing from both parties, asked Holder to investigate News Corp. after the allegations surfaced. The FBI is specifically investigating the claim about 9/11 victims, according to multiple news outlets.
Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee, asked for an investigation in a letter to FBI Director Robert Mueller this week. From TalkingPointsMemo:

"It is revolting to imagine that members of the media would seek to compromise the integrity of a public official for financial gain in the pursuit of yellow journalism," King said in a letter to FBI Director Robert Mueller. "The 9/11 families have suffered egregiously, but unfortunately they remain vulnerable against such unjustifiable parasitic strains."​
Sens. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) and Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), meanwhile, issued similar requests to holder and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). From National Journal:

"The allegations, if true, may constitute a violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which prohibits corrupt payments intended to influence any act or decision of a foreign official," Rockefeller and Boxer wrote in a joint statement.​
Sens. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) and Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) also sent letters to Holder and the SEC.
 
source: TPM

News Of The World Reportedly Hacked Phone Of Another Murder Victim's Mother


News Of The World reportedly hacked the phone of another woman whose daughter had been murdered -- and the phone may have been given to her by former NOTW editor Rebekah Brooks.

Scotland Yard officers told Sara Payne on Tuesday that they found evidence that private investigator Glenn Mulcaire had hacked into her voicemail, Nick Davies and Amelia Hill of The Guardian report.

In 2006 it was revealed that then-News Of The World reporter Clive Goodman hired Mulcaire to hack into the cell phones of the royal family and their aides, among others. Goodman eventually pleaded guilty and was sentenced to four months in prison, while Mulcaire got six months.

Payne, whose eight-year old daughter Sarah was abducted and killed in July 2000, had previously been told by the police that her name was not in the evidence obtained from Mulcaire. But the police have been reviewing the 11,000-odd pages of evidence obtained from Mulcaire in the wake of accusations that Scotland Yard botched the initial investigation because its reporters and officials were too tight with News International employees.

The police now believe that one set of notes refers to the Paynes -- and that those notes came from a phone reportedly given to Sara Payne as a gift by former NOTW editor and former News International chief Rebekah Brooks, "to help her stay in touch with her supporters," as The Guardian put it.

According to The Guardian, Payne had gotten particularly close to Brooks in the aftermath of her daughter's death, while believing that she was not a target of the hackings. She even wrote an op-ed in the final edition of the tabloid on July 10, calling the staff "my good and trusted friends."

"We have all seen the news this week and the terrible things that have happened, and I have no wish to sweep it under the carpet," Payne wrote. "Indeed, there were rumours - which turned out to be untrue - that I and my fellow Phoenix charity chiefs had our phones hacked. But today is a day to reflect, to look back and remember the passing of an old friend, the News of the World."

This is the second known instance of reporters for News Of The World using Mulcaire to hack into the voicemail of murder victims. On July 4th, the phone hacking scandal exploded after revelations that one of the hacking victims was 13-year old Milly Dowler, who was killed in 2002. News Of The World employees hacked into her voicemail and listened to messages from her friends and family after she went missing -- even deleting some to make room for new ones.

Brooks, who resigned from News International on July 15, has repeatedly denied that she had any prior knowledge of the phone hackings before the revelations about Goodman and Mulcaire, and has said that she did not realize the extend of the hackings until after the Dowler revelations. This defense could be undermined if she did give Sara Payne the hacked cell phone.

On Thursday, Lord Justice Leveson laid out that the public inquiry into the scandal will focus on specific allegations about News Of The World, and on regulation of the press. Leveson was appointed by Prime Minister David Cameron to lead the inquiry, and said in a statement that the panel would not just limit its investigation to News Of The World. "It may be tempting for a number of people to close ranks and suggest that the problem is or was local to a small group of journalists then operating at the News of the World," he said. "But I would encourage all to take a wider picture of the public good and help me grapple with the length, width and depth of the problem as it exists."
 
muckraker10021 said:

Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. is one of the top purveyors of media, news?? & entertainment on the planet earth. This position gives Murdoch and his hired minions unprecedented power to propagandize (lie) and shape public opinion in an all encompassing manner that the late Nazi propaganda minister Dr. Joseph Goebbels would envy.......

..... Murdoch has-a-god-complex and thinks he’s above the law. We’ll see how aggressive these now worldwide investigations,now including the FBI, into his malfeasance will become. Can he pay $$$$$$$$$ everybody off to keep quiet? We will see.
Click to expand...

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Murdochs Were Given Secret Defence Briefings

Ministers held meetings with media mogul's people more than 60 times

by Oliver Wright,

Wednesday, 27 July 2011

The extraordinary access that British Cabinet ministers granted Rupert Murdoch and his children was revealed for the first time yesterday, with more than two dozen private meetings between the family and senior members of the Government in the 15 months since David Cameron entered Downing Street.

In total, Cabinet ministers have had private meetings with Murdoch executives more than 60 times and, if social events such as receptions at party conferences are included, the figure is at least 107.

On two occasions, James Murdoch and former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks were given confidential defence briefings on Afghanistan and Britain's strategic defence review by the Defence Secretary, Liam Fox. A further briefing was held with Ms Brooks, Rupert Murdoch and the Sunday Times editor John Witherow..........

-more- http://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...e-given-secret-defence-briefings-2326517.html

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When Rupert Murdoch Calls...Condoleezza Rice Answers

March 22, 2004

........Rice took time out of the middle of the day to address a secretive gathering that included global media mogul Rupert Murdoch and top executives from television networks, newspapers and other media properties owned by Murdoch's News Corp. conglomerate. Rice spoke at some length via satellite to Murdoch and his cronies, who had gathered at the posh Ritz Carlton Hotel in Cancun Mexico, according to reports published in the British press.

The Guardian newspaper, which sent a reporter to Cancun, revealed that Rice was asked to address the group by executives of the Murdoch-controlled Fox broadcast and cable networks in the US. The Fox "family" includes, of course, the Fox News cable channel, which the Guardian correctly describes as "hugely supportive of President George Bush." ...............

-more- http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0322-07.htm

 

Murdoch staff who ordered hacking to be named


Court tells private investigator he must identify 'News of the World'
executives who asked him to intercept voicemails. Glenn Mulcaire,
the private investigator at the centre of the phone-hacking affair,
will be forced this week to reveal the identities of the News of the
World employees who hired him to intercept the voicemails of public
figures.


Mulcaire will have to submit to the court the names of the people
who engaged him to hack the phones of model Elle McPherson,
publicist Max Clifford, football agent Sky Andrew, Liberal Democrat
deputy leader Simon Hughes, chief executive of the Professional
Footballers' Association Gordon Taylor, and one of its legal advisers,
Jo Armstrong.

FULL ARTICLE



 
WELL, Well, well . . .



Sky News admits hacking emails

Broadcaster says accessing of emails of John Darwin, who faked
own death, was authorised by executives and in public interest




Sky News has admitted that one of its senior executives authorised a journalist to conduct email hacking on two separate occasions that it said were "in the public interest" – even though intercepting emails is a prima facie breach of the Computer Misuse Act, to which there is no such defence written in law.

Gerard Tubb, the broadcaster's northern England correspondent, accessed emails belonging to John Darwin, the "canoe man" accused of faking his own death, when his wife, Anne, was due to stand trial for deception in July 2008. The reporter built up a database of emails that he believed would help defeat Anne Darwin's defence; her husband had pleaded guilty to seven charges of deception before her trial.

The same reporter accessed the email accounts of a suspected paedophile and his wife in an investigation that did not lead to any material being published or broadcast, according to a statement sent to the Guardian by Sky, which is part-owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation.

Both instances of hacking were approved by Simon Cole, the managing editor of Sky News.

John Ryley, the head of Sky News, said the broadcaster had "authorised a journalist to access the emails of individuals suspected of criminal activity" and the hacking in both cases was "justified and in the public interest". Ryley said the broadcaster's decisions required "finely balanced judgment" and they were "subjected to the proper editorial controls".

The broadcaster said it stood by Tubb and that there were instances when the broadcaster believed breaking the law was justified to produce a news story of public interest. :eek: :eek: :eek:


It cited the example of a Sky News journalist buying an Uzi machine gun in the UK.

​


FULL STORY
 
source: Frontline

<object width = "999" height = "562" > <param name = "movie" value = "http://www-tc.pbs.org/video/media/swf/PBSPlayer.swf" > </param><param name="flashvars" value="width=999&height=562&video=2215966370&player=viral&chapter=1" /> <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param > <param name = "allowscriptaccess" value = "always" > </param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param ><embed src="http://www-tc.pbs.org/video/media/swf/PBSPlayer.swf" flashvars="width=999&height=562&video=2215966370&player=viral&chapter=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" wmode="transparent" allowfullscreen="true" width="999" height="562" bgcolor="#000000"></embed></object><p style="font-size:11px; font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: #808080; margin-top: 5px; background: transparent; text-align: center; width: 512px;">Watch <a style="text-decoration:none !important; font-weight:normal !important; height: 13px; color:#4eb2fe !important;" href="http://video.pbs.org/video/2215966370" target="_blank">Murdoch's Scandal</a> on PBS. See more from <a style="text-decoration:none !important; font-weight:normal !important; height: 13px; color:#4eb2fe !important;" href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/" target="_blank">FRONTLINE.</a></p>


...stay tuned, more to come!:yes:
 

The Frontline documentary referenced above is devastating.

Watch It!!

Everyone knows about the "Underworld" mafia dons who order murders, and pimp, bribe and blackmail individuals. Replace the word <s>"Underworld"</s> with "Overworld" and everything the mafia does applies to the Murdoch syndicate, everything!! The Murdoch syndicate makes the underworld mafia look like pikers. The Murdoch syndicate purchased the entire London police department including the top commisioners & leaders, something the underworld could only dream of. What a criminal enterprise the Murdoch syndicate is. Will their billions of dollars keep anyone named Murdoch from being arrested? So far they have thrown a lot of people overboard in an attempt to prevent a Murdoch arrest. We'll see.
 
source: Sydney Morning Herald

Murdoch admits to phone-hacking 'cover-up'


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"All I can do is apologise to a lot of people including all the innocent people at the News of the World who have lost their jobs as a result of that." ... Rupert Murdoch
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THE media magnate Rupert Murdoch last night admitted there had been a ''cover-up'' over phone hacking at News International, that he had failed and that it was a matter of deep regret.

Mr Murdoch said he was ''misinformed and shielded'' from what was going on at the News of the World: ''I do blame one or two people for that, who perhaps I shouldn't name, for all I know they may be arrested.

''There is no question in my mind, maybe even the editor but certainly beyond that, someone took charge of a cover-up which we were victim to and I regret [that].''

Asked where the ''culture of cover-up'' had come from, Mr Murdoch said:''I think from within the News of the World, there were one or two very strong characters there who I think had been there many, many, many years and were friends of the journalists, or the person I'm thinking of was a friend of the journalists and a drinking pal and a clever lawyer, and forbade them … this person forbade people to go and report to Mrs [Rebekah] Brooks [chief executive of News International] or to James [Murdoch].''

''That's not to excuse it on our behalf at all. I take it extremely seriously that that situation had arisen … I also have to say that I failed, and I'm sorry about it.''

Mr Murdoch said he was guilty of not having paid enough attention to the News of the World all the time he had owned it. ''All I can do is apologise to a lot of people including all the innocent people at the News of the World who have lost their jobs as a result of that.''

Mr Murdoch said he thought he had never met Jeremy Hunt, the minister under fire following leaks from his office while he was arbitrating the Murdoch bid for the satellite broadcaster BSkyB.

''I don't believe I ever met him. I am not sure whether he came to a dinner once a couple of years ago, but no, I certainly didn't discuss [the bid with him].'' He said he did not discuss with his son, James, whether Mr Hunt would be favourable towards the bid.

Asked about the 163 pages of emails between Mr Hunt's office and the office of Fred Michel, the public affairs adviser to News International, Mr Murdoch said he thought Mr Michel might have exaggerated.

Mr Murdoch said the company would have achieved the Sky takeover had it not been caught up in the phone-hacking scandal.

He stood by his previous evidence that the former prime minister Gordon Brown had ''declared war'' on his media empire when it switched its endorsement to the Conservatives and he appeared to be ''unbalanced'' at the time.

Mr Murdoch said he gave his evidence under oath, ''and I stand by every word of it''.

Meanwhile, fallout continued from earlier evidence given by James Murdoch, whose testimony on Tuesday revealed News International had received detailed leaks from the office of the Secretary of State, Mr Hunt, while Mr Hunt was overseeing the Murdoch bid for BSkyB.

The Opposition Leader, Ed Miliband, continued to ramp up the pressure on Mr Hunt, refusing to accept the resignation of his special adviser, Adam Smith, was enough. Mr Smith said he had ''gone too far'' when dealing with News International.

But Mr Miliband said the idea that Mr Smith had acted as a ''lone wolf'' beggared belief: ''To believe Mr Hunt should stay in his job you have to believe that his special adviser was acting for six months with text messages and daily email exchanges … and that the secretary of state had no idea this was going on …

''I believe the reason Jeremy Hunt is being kept in his post is because [Prime Minister David] Cameron knows questions will move to him, his meetings with Mr Murdoch … what he said to James Murdoch and Rebekah Brooks about the bid News Corp was making for BSkyB.''
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Murdoch ‘unfit’ to run global company


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Rupert Murdoch is not a fit person to exercise stewardship of a major
international company after failing to investigate phone hacking at the
News of the World and overseeing a culture of “wilful blindness”, a
committee of MPs said on Tuesday.

The findings of the culture, media and sport committee could endanger
News Corp’s continued ownership of British Sky Broadcasting, media
commentators said.

It is possible that the allegations of wilful blindness could prompt police
and prosecutors to launch a corporate prosecution of News International,
which would in turn leave its directors open to prosecution.


FULL STORY: Financial Times


 
If you say so Rupert.


source: The Telegraph


News Corp split not driven by hacking scandal - Murdoch

Rupert Murdoch has claimed that News Corporation's plans to split into two businesses has "nothing whatsoever" to do with the phone hacking scandal in Britain.

News Corporation has confirmed it plans to separate its troubled newspaper business from its entertainment operation, but claimed the split has "nothing whatsoever" to do with the phone hacking scandal in Britain.

The move to carve News Corp into two separately listed companies is widely seen as an attempt to limit the damage of the News of the World phone hacking scandal on the rest of the News Corp empire. However, Mr Murdoch rejected that analysis.

In a call to analysts the media chief said the plan to split News Corp had been in the works for three years, and that it was not "in any sense" a reaction to events "in the UK, Australia or anywhere else".

"We think it is the right way to take the business forward. It is not a reaction to anything in Britain," he added.

Rupert Murdoch will be chairman of both operations, and will remain chief executive of the media and entertainment business, which will house 20th Century Fox, the Fox broadcasting network and News Corp's 39pc stake in BSkyB. Chase Carey will be its president and chief operating officer.

The other company will hold all of News Corp's publishing interests, such as The Wall Street Journal, The Times, The Sunday Times, The Sun, The Australian, The New York Post, Dow Jones newswire and publisher HarperCollins. News Corp did not specify who would lead that unit, but will assemble its management teams over "the next several months".

News Corp's board voted unanimously to approve the plan to separate in two and plans to complete the process within a year.

Mr Murdoch reminded analysts that he had built News Corp up from a single regional newspaper in his native Australia, but said the "transformative" step to break the company up marked a moment of "great pride for me personally".

"We've come a long way, on a journey that began nearly 60 years ago with a single newspaper operation out of Adeleide," he said. "No doubt there will be some naysayers who see the announcement as concern about the long-term potential of publishing [at News Corp] but that couldn't be further from the truth.

"The opportunity is so big, single-minded pursuit is the best approach."

Mr Murdoch added in a statement: "There is much work to be done but our board and I believe that this new corporate structure we are pursuing would accelerate News Corp’s businesses to grow to new heights and enable each company and its divisions to recognise their full potential and unlock even greater long-term value.

“We recognise that over the years, News Corp’s broad collection of assets has become increasingly complex.”

The media giant said the separation would “simplify operations” and allow each unit to “focus on and pursue distinct strategic priorities and industry-specific opportunities that would maximise their long-term potential”.

News Corp said the new publishing company would "create a scaled publishing platform that would be one of the best capitalised in the industry," allowing it to "leverage its trusted brands...across all traditional and digital platforms".

In the UK, News International's chief executive Tom Mockridge said in a memo to staff that the changes would be "very positive" for the newspaper group, whose reputation has been savaged by the phone hacking scandal at the News of the World.

News Corp's publishing division, whose growth has been hindered by tough media market conditions and costs related to the hacking scandal, contributes just a tenth of the overall group's operating profits.

Meanwhile the entertainment arm, which will be by far the bigger of the two operations, will "build on its deep heritage in developing incredibly strong, premium content for distribution on screens of all sizes," the company said.

The split will also put a clearer separation between the group's 39pc stake in broadcasting giant BSkyB and the embattled UK newspaper arm News International, which has been the focus of the phone hacking scandal that led to the closure of News Corp's News of the World tabloid paper.

In London, BSkyB shares rose 3 to 684.5p amid market speculation that the split will raise the possibility of News Corp reviving its plans to take full control of the pay-TV operator.

News Corp had to scrap its first attempt to buy the remaining stake of BSkyB in the wake of the phone hacking scandal.

A report by the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee claimed that Rupert Murdoch was "not a fit person" to run an international company, raising doubts about whether News Corp could get a BSkyB takeover past Ofcom. The regulator has the power to revoke the broadcasting licence of any broadcaster it does not deem "fit and proper".

The split does not distance BSkyB from Mr Murdoch, but it has the potential to effectively quarantine the scandal-hit papers from the rest of the group, paving the way for a renewed bid.
 

Ex-Murdoch editors charged with hacking

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