Inspired by the classic film “It’s A Wonderful Life,” British comics Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie take a look at the world if Rupert Murdoch had never been born:
Click here to call on Congress to investigate News Corp’s hacking practices and whether they are doing it in the U.S.
Click here to call on the Justice Department to investigate whether Rupert Murdoch is violating the law.
As the scandal over Rupert Murdoch’s British tabloids continues to unravel the News Corp empire, much speculation has arisen as to how the affair will impact Murdoch’s American enterprises, particularly Fox News.
The latest bombshell is that Murdoch has dropped his bid to acquire the portion of the British satellite network BSkyB that he does not already own. That retreat came after it became clear that critics from across the political spectrum were about call for such an action in a rare show of non-partisan unity. Abandoning BSkyB is major defeat for both Rupert and his son, James.
Amongst the potential scenarios for the future of News Corp is one that includes neither Rupert, nor James, leading the company. Rupert is already tainted goods, and James is going to have to explain how the News of the World affair occurred on his watch without his knowing, even though he personally signed checks to payoff victims.
All of this must have Roger Ailes squirming in his lair. Rupert is, far and away, his most ardent supporter. James is said to be appreciative of Ailes ability to produce profit, but their personal relationship is described as cordial at best. What happens if they should depart?
The next Murdoch in line could be Rupert’s daughter, Elisabeth. Prior to this year she was not affiliated with News Corp, but then daddy bought her production company, Shine, and she came along with. Back in the fold, she now has more influence over corporate affairs.
The problem for Ailes is that Elisabeth is not an admirer of Ailes or his politics. She held a fundraiser for Barack Obama when he was a candidate for president in 2008. Her husband, Matthew Freud, told a reporter that…
“I am by no means alone within the family or the company in being ashamed and sickened by Roger Ailes’s horrendous and sustained disregard of the journalistic standards that News Corporation, its founder and every other global media business aspires to.”
Of course now we know that the journalistic standards that News Corp are not particularly high.
Lachlan Murdoch, Rupert’s oldest son, left the company years ago in part because of conflicts with Ailes. Prior to his departure he was the expected heir to the empire. While he no longer has an executive role, Lachlan, like all the Rupert spawn, shares in the ownership of the business. With Papa out of the way, his voice will surely be more prominent.
Ailes doesn’t help his own cause either. Just this year he has been involved in incidents that cast his reputation into doubt. Last April he was caught spying on employees of a small-town newspaper he owns in New York. And he used News Corp security to conduct the operations. In February Ailes was implicated in a scheme to deceive federal investigators who were vetting Bernie Kerik’s bid to become the director of Homeland Security. Judith Regan accused Ailes of instructing her to lie to the feds in order to protect Ailes’ pal Rudy Giuliani who was running for president at the time.
As the pillars of News Corp’s ivory tower weaken and crumble, Ailes is going to find himself increasingly beset by rivals and adversaries from within his own ranks. It’s hard to see how he can survive if the current Murdoch hierarchy is deposed. And considering his age and his wealth he may just find it more convenient to retire so that he can spend more time spying on his employees and propping up his dishonest political buddies.
Much of the world is presently learning what a despicable old plutocrat Rupert Murdoch is. The still unfolding scandals in the UK have revealed just how low his ethics can descend.
On top of that his Fox News empire has been bashing Media Matters for weeks, and falsely asserting that the watchdog group is receiving federal funds with which to criticize Fox. In fact Media Matters receives no funds from the government. Fox is alleging that their tax exempt status represents some sort of financial gift. These assertions have no merit whatsoever.
The truth is that News Corp is the beneficiary of far more funding that comes at the expense of American taxpayers. I previously reported that News Corp has been stiffing America for years by using tax dodges and deferrals to underpay their fair share.
Now a new article from David Cay Johnston at Reuters confirms that Fox is a deadbeat. Johnston writes that…
[Note: Reuters has withdrawn the column by Johnston due to an error in analysis. The error involves only the $4.8 billion dollar tax refund. Everything else in his article and this one is still correct]
“Over the past four years Murdoch’s U.S.-based News Corp. has made money on income taxes. Having earned $10.4 billion in profits, News Corp. would have been expected to pay $3.6 billion at the 35 percent corporate tax rate. Instead, it actually collected $4.8 billion in income tax refunds, all or nearly all from the U.S. government.”
[And…]
News Corp. has 152 subsidiaries in tax havens, including 62 in the British Virgin Islands and 33 in the Caymans. Among the hundred largest U.S. companies, only Citigroup and Morgan Stanley have more tax haven subsidiaries than News Corp., a 2009 U.S. Government Accountability Office study found.
To repeat: That’s $4.8 billion in tax refunds (not credits). So while Fox is hyperventilating over Media Matters (whose entire budget is just a few million dollars), News Corp is walking away with nearly $5 billion from American taxpayers. And they are experts at dispersing their assets throughout the world, dispensing costs to countries that collect higher tax revenues, and profits to countries that have little or no taxes. So that money is likely leaving the country never to be seen again.
It’s time to stop Murdoch from raiding the American treasury. He is the poster fogey for decrepit oligarchs. He is using money that rightfully belongs to the citizens of the United States to finance campaigns against Media Matters; to disseminate propaganda via Fox News, the Wall Street Journal, etc.; to promote right-wing candidates and issues; to bankroll AstroTurf Tea Party groups; and now, to hack into the phones of kidnapped schoolgirls and victims of terrorism on both sides of the Atlantic.
His immoral enterprise has been exposed, and now he must be made to make restitution. To start with he should pay that $5 billion back. Then we can discuss what legal actions, civil and criminal, should be pursued.
Click here to call on Congress to investigate News Corp’s hacking practices and whether they are doing it in the U.S.
Click here to call on the Justice Department to investigate whether Rupert Murdoch is violating the law.
Remember way back in January when mysterious atmospheric conditions resulted in tiny flakes of frozen water descending from the heavens and covering everything in a blanket of white frost?
Most people with active brain functions understood that it was something we professionals like to call “Winter,” but Fox News reported it as proof that Climate Change did not exist. Their logic was simple: If it was snowing then how could the climate be warming?
So why are there no reports from Fox News today when most of the country is sweltering under record high temperatures?
Last January everyone on Fox was stunned that winter brought snowstorms, and that was enough to dismiss the fact that 2010 was the hottest year on record, capping the hottest decade on record. But now that summer is burning up a nation already suffering from severe draught, Fox News is silent on the matter. And this is precisely the same stupidity the Fox crew demonstrated last summer.
To be clear, Glenn Beck, Bill O’Reilly, Steve Doocy, et al, were idiots to assert that there was no Global Warming just because the seasons had changed. And I am not asserting that the Earth is warming just because summer has arrived. The evidence of Climate Change is in the hundreds of studies performed by scientists that document historical trends and project future probabilities. People who mistake weather for climate ought not to be displaying their ignorance on television. But then again, displaying ignorance on television is Fox’s business model. They would have 24 hours of dead air without it.
Fox Nation has posted another item that grossly misrepresents reality. Their featured story this morning concerns an interview that President Obama gave to CBS News.
Notice the headline from the Reuters article to which the Fox Nationalists linked: Obama: Seniors could be hurt without debt deal. The article quotes Obama saying that…
“I cannot guarantee that those [Social Security] checks go out on August 3rd if we haven’t resolved this issue. Because there may simply not be the money in the coffers to do it.”
However, the Fox Nation headline is: Obama Threatens to Withhold Social Security Checks from Seniors and Vets. That, of course, is a lie. There is nothing in the article or Obama’s remarks that even implies that he would withhold any payments. He simply pointed out a potential consequence of the Republican’s intransigence and unwillingness to compromise.
There is a huge difference between an alert and a threat. If I were to tap you on the shoulder and warn you not to cross the street because of oncoming traffic, Fox would report it as me threatening to shove you off the curb into the path of a speeding truck. In the world of Fox News no distortion is too twisted if it casts Democrats in a bad light.
Anyone waiting for the next shoe to drop in the News Corp hacking affair would be wise to seek cover. It’s about to hail footwear. No matter how hard Rupert Murdoch and his minions struggle to hold back the sea, they are continuing to get battered by higher and more powerful waves of corruption. And the tsunami is reaching across the Atlantic to American shores.
Here are a few of the late breaking stories that threaten to being down many of News Corp’s highest ranking officers:
Reports now emerging that News Corp reporters hacked the phones of 9/11 victims.
“…a former New York cop made the 9/11 hacking claim. He alleged he was contacted by News of the World journalists who said they would pay him to retrieve the private phone records of the dead.”
Congress encouraged to investigate News Corp in the U.S.
“The watchdog group Citizens For Responsibility and Ethics in Washington is calling on Congress to investigate Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. for evidence that the company’s sprawling phone hacking scandal reached the United States.”
[Note: Media Matters has a petition calling on Congress to investigate News Corp. That’s only fair since Fox News has initiated a campaign against Media Matters.]
More News Corp papers engaged in hacking. Plus more high-profile victims.
“British media said Monday that Brown was one of thousands whose personal details — including his bank account and his son’s medical records — were targeted by people working for News International titles including the Sun and the Sunday Times.”
News Corp shareholders are revolting. Company has lost $7 Billion in market cap.
“A group of News Corp. shareholders have sued the company over a phone-hacking scandal at its now-closed News of the World tabloid in London. The lawsuit accuses News Corp. of large-scale governance failures.”
The scandal is reaching into the executive suites of Rupert Murdoch, who may lose his bid for the BSkyB satellite business. Even worse, he may be liable for prosecution under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Murdoch’s man at Dow Jones (parent of the Wall Street Journal), Les Hinton, has been implicated in a cover up. Even conservative British Prime Minister David Cameron called Hinton out saying…
“There is now a large-scale and well-resourced police investigation. Of course, in 2006 we did have a police investigation, but we can now see that it was plainly inadequate. This in itself requires investigation.”
That 2006 investigation was overseen by Hinton who concluded that only one NotW reporter had done anything wrong. Clearly that was untrue. We now know that more than 4,000 people were victims of the hackers. Either Hinton was utterly incompetent or he was deliberately complicit in the cover up. And while Hinton was running Murdoch’s British papers, Rebekah Brooks was the editor of NotW. Brooks was briefly in charge of conducting the most recent inquiry into the scandal, but she has been removed as more speculation arises as to her involvement.
As an illustration of the depraved nature of these weasels, BBC’s Newsnight hosted actor/comedian Steve Coogan who confronted the former deputy features editor of NotW, Paul McMullan. Coogan told McMullan that he was morally bankrupt after McMullan explicitly defended the unlawful practice of hacking into people’s cell phones:
McMullan: I’ve always said that I try to write articles in a truthful way, and what better source of getting the truth is to listen to someone’s messages?
McMullan could also get the truth by breaking into people’s homes and hiding in their closets. He went on to make the ludicrous claim that freedom of the press would be at risk if he were prohibited from invading the privacy of anyone with a phone. And he mocked Coogan for profiting from his celebrity while complaining about having his phone hacked.
Today Rupert Murdoch withdrew his offer to spin off Sky News as a condition to win approval of his acquisition of BSkyB. That condition was key to the bid going forward due to concerns that he would control too much of the British media. By withdrawing the offer he casts the bid back into the Competition Commission for a review that will likely take six months. Murdoch’s purpose is to delay the decision in hopes that the hacking scandal would fade away. But there is now the risk that the Commission will decline approval for the acquisition. This move shows both how cynical and how desperate Murdoch is.
Stay tuned. This thing is getting worse by the hour. And don’t expect to see much about it on Fox News. Roger Ailes must be running scared himself. I wonder why.
This is a compilation of several previous News Corpse articles that I put together for Alternet.com.
In the untamed jungle that is cable news, there is a ferocious and predatory beast stalking the terrain. Anyone who has encountered Fox News in the wild can attest to the spine-chilling threat imposed by the pseudo-news network. And now Fox News has the scent of new game.
The Fox News pack is on the prowl for the media watchdog group, Media Matters, against whom they have recently initiated a sustained assault. In the past two weeks they have featured over 30 stories with the express purpose of challenging the group’s right to exist. Fox has assigned network stalwarts like Bill O’Reilly, Bret Baier, Charles Krauthammer, James Rosen, Ann Coulter, Dick Morris, and Bernie Goldberg, to the mission. This is an unprecedented, broadly distributed attack by a major media enterprise against a non-profit group they regard as an adversary.
This latest batch of complaints stem from comments made last March by Media Matters founder, David Brock. He was quoted in Politico as saying that the organization was shifting its focus toward Fox News to one of “guerrilla warfare and sabotage.” Giving Fox the benefit of doubt, one might conclude that it’s only fair that Fox defend itself from such an overt declaration of war. The only thing that might refute that perspective is – reality.
If this is war, it is one wherein Fox is the aggressor. Fox News initiated their attacks long ago with aggressive and false assertions that cast Media Matters as hacks, anti-American, violent, and communist. They alleged that George Soros was pulling their strings long before Soros ever made any contributions the group. Fox stalwarts like Bill O’Reilly and Glenn Beck engaged in rhetoric so hostile that it inspired actual physical attacks against Media Matters and their progressive allies. This video (courtesy of Media Matters) was posted two years ago and illustrates the hostility harbored across the Fox platform long before Brock’s recent comments:
The new and highly coordinated offensive by Fox asserts that Media Matters has violated the terms of their tax-exempt status by setting their sights on Fox. They quote from the IRS rules governing non-profits that state that…
“…501(c)(3) organizations are absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office.”
On the basis of that criteria, Fox News argues that Media Matters is in violation and should have their tax-exempt status revoked. However, in order for that to be valid, Fox would have to admit that they are a political operation so that attacks on Fox News would qualify as opposition to political campaigns and/or candidates. Without that stipulation there is no violation on the part of Media Matters. So Fox is, in effect, conceding their role as a Republican mouthpiece. Shocking, I know.
The corruption and criminality threatening to sink Rupert Murdoch’s media empire is growing into a monstrous story throughout the world. One place you won’t hear of it is on Fox News’ own “News Watch.” This may be the most shocking media story in a century and the only half hour on Fox News dedicated to reporting about the media completely ignored the international scandal even as new revelations have emerged. In just the past 48 hours:
None of these factors were deemed significant enough to warrant a mention on News Watch (which last week devoted half the show to blasting Media Matters). Just as his minions are attempting to subvert justice in the UK, the Murdoch gang is plainly trying to hide the evidence of their guilt by silencing their domestic reporters. They have provided only the most perfunctory coverage of the affair on Fox News, and nothing at all on Fox Nation.
This deliberate effort to cover up the scandal affirms my speculation that the worst is yet to come. Murdoch would not have shuttered a 168 year old newspaper overnight – one of the largest circulation papers in the UK – unless there were some dreadful consequences looming. Remember, Murdoch stuck with Glenn Beck for two years as his audience was cratering and advertisers fleeing in droves. He has stuck with the New York Post despite a decade of losses that total more than half a billion dollars. Why would he suddenly turn to mush and jettison a profitable enterprise like NotW without even putting up a fight? There’s trouble-a-brewin, you can rest assured.
The rabidly partisan Fox News web site, Fox Nation, has revealed what they regard as the most terrifying foe in the political universe. They posted an article that makes it clear what is keeping them up nights: Media Matters Spawn Trailing G.O.P. With Cameras.
The headline references an article in the New York Times about American Bridge, an independent organization that documents public political events and candidates. It was founded by David Brock, founder of Media Matters. However, that brief headline is dripping with references to Fox’s spine-chilling horror.
First, and foremost, is the frightful Media Matters. Fox News is so petrified of this little, non-profit, media watchdog, that they are presently engaged in a weeks-long effort to shut it down by challenging their tax-exempt status. They have committed dozens of stories and personnel to the campaign that includes direct appeals to file complaints with the IRS.
The other cause of their dread is the notion that Republican candidates might be recorded by (cue scary music) CAMERAS! That’s right, the most frightening prospect facing any Republican is that of being captured actually saying things to citizens. It sends them into seizures of anxiety and wails of gotcha-ism. The last thing a Republican wants is to be held accountable for what they actually say.
Recent examples of why they are so apprehensive include, Michele Bachmann’s stated affinity for serial killer John Wayne Gacy; Mitt Romney’s sequence of contradictory assertions that President Obama made the economy worse, which he later denied saying, then later said it again; Herman Cain’s remarks that Obama is not really black; Newt Gingrich slamming Paul Ryan’s GOP budget as “right-wing social engineering.”
This week in the senate, Orrin Hatch (R-UT) spoke about the sputtering economy and his opposition to the wealthy sharing in the sacrifice required to get the country back on track. He began by saying that…
“Shared sacrifice is something – sounds good – but I’d prefer the Republican approach to shared prosperity.”
What does that even mean? Have the uber-rich been sharing their prosperity without my noticing (or getting any)? But Hatch wasn’t through embarrassing himself with how pitifully out-of-touch and insensitive he is. He continued his speech to note that…
“The poor need jobs, and they also need to share some of the responsibility.”
Of course. Because the poor have not suffered enough. While the top 1% of earners have seen their fortunes increase and their taxes decline, the poor have been living it up at soup kitchens and unemployment offices. In a nation where the 400 richest individuals have more wealth than the 150 million at the bottom combined (half of the nation’s population), it is the poor who have not taken up enough of the burden. And the rallying cry of the GOP is that cuts must be made; cuts to Social Security; cuts to pensions; cuts to worker’s compensation; and of course, cuts to taxes for the rich – again. There’s your shared sacrifice GOP style:
It’s that sort of rhetoric that the GOP is afraid will be distributed to voters. And their hypocrisy only compounds the problem. That’s why American Bridge – or any citizen with a cell phone – will always be regarded as a threat by Republicans. They simply can’t handle the truth. That’s why they created Fox News.
The hacking scandal that has embroiled Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp is one of the most stunning ever recorded. The News of the World is not some backwater rag with a handful of readers. It is one of the largest circulation Sunday papers in the UK. Well, it was. As of next Sunday it no longer exists. And arrests are said to be pending as soon as tomorrow.
The despicable actions of its reporters and executives that brought the paper down include hacking into the cell phones of celebrities, politicians, sports stars, and royals. However, the bottom-feeding scum at NotW went even lower when they hacked into the phone of a kidnapped thirteen year old girl who later turned up dead. And as if that weren’t enough, new reports reveal that they also hacked the families of soldiers who were killed in Afghanistan and victims of the terrorist subway bombing in London.
When news of hacking first broke two years ago, Murdoch appeared on his own Fox Business Network where Stuart Varney, who is notorious for aggressively challenging (i.e. interrupting) liberals, attempted to ask him a question:
Varney: The story that is really buzzing all around the country, and certainly right here in New York, is that the News of the World, a News Corporation newspaper in Britain…
Murdoch: No, I’m not talking about that issue at all today.
Varney: OK. No worries, Mr. Chairman. That’s fine with me.
That’s fine with him? What an intrepid reporter. Murdoch’s response today would be starkly different, I’m sure. In fact, in response to this parade of revulsion, James Murdoch, the heir-apparent to daddy Rupert’s empire, announced that, rather than cleaning house and soldiering on, the NotW would shut down entirely, thus avoiding the sort of scrutiny that would come with a corporate cleansing. This dramatic solution will result in hundreds of staffers being terminated who had nothing to do with the scandal, while the guilty executives continue on in new positions at other divisions.
Rebekah Brooks, who edited the NotW during the period the hacking occurred, is presently the chief executive of its parent company, News International. Les Hinton who ran Murdoch’s British newspapers is now running the Wall Street Journal. Hinton also lead the internal investigation that concluded that there was no widespread wrongdoing at the paper. That’s a conclusion that can only be explained as either incompetence or complicity.
Murdoch hopes that shuttering the paper will allow him to evade further questions about its criminality. There are even reports that by closing up shop he will be permitted to dispose of company records that the law would otherwise require be maintained for investigations. And speculation has already emerged that the paper may actually resurface as the Sunday edition of The Sun, another of Murdoch’s British tabloids (that has its own hacking scandal). So the closing may be a subterfuge that masks the rats scurrying off to another garbage dump.
The NotW was not sacrificed for some moral repentance. This radical reaction has a purpose that is not being disclosed. Nothing Rupert Murdoch does can be taken at face value. He has proven himself to be a ruthless, untrustworthy, and dishonest businessman. That ought to be cause for conjecture as to what sort of chicanery might be taking place at his U.S. enterprises. Who is being hacked here at home? And is the demise of NotW a gimmick to prevent the exposure of even more disturbing revelations?
