Scandal keeps worsening
Murdoch watcher Michael Wolff seems to think the London media firestorm over the Murdoch press's tactics might well mean the media empire will go under at any moment.
http://www.channel4.com/news/
At this point, according to a conjecture reported by Britain's Guardian newspaper, Rupert Murdoch's main aim is to safeguard his son James, who heads News Corp.'s British fiefdom.
Repercussions have reached U.S. shores, with an investor group filing suit in Delaware for relief of autocratic management of the publicly traded part of the media conglomorate.
The wild methods of the Murdoch press stem from management problems at upper levels, the suit says.
http://online.wsj.com/article/
The latest shockers include reports that the Murdoch press targeted the cell phones of 9/11 victims and their relatives, poked through private financial records of former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, and even had Queen Elizabeth II on its list of cell phone hack targets. It was the hacking of Prince William's phone that alerted the prince's aides as to the source of the information and led to the mounting disclosures, which went viral once a former Murdoch man was secretly taped bragging about such practices.
If News International, or James Murdoch, are found to have condoned a practice of police bribes and payoffs, the U.S. Justice Dept. can impose fines on the parent News Corp., which is incorporated in the United States, and possibly seize assets. Politically, this may prove a boon to the Obama administration, which can hold out such a possibility if the Murdoch press in America is too hard on the president or too accommodating to the Republican Party.
Links to stories on the Murdoch hurricane at the Guardian:
- Evidence of illegal data checks on Brown buried by 2005 ruling
- Audio: Listen to how the Sunday Times blagged Brown's property details
- Police chiefs to tell MPs that it was a cock-up not a conspiracy
- News Corp in crisis, but Murdoch determined to protect son
- News International undermining inquiry, say police
- Dowler family call for Rebekah Brooks to resign
- Police guards 'sold royal contacts to News of the World'
- News of the World executives – who knew what and when?
- Full coverage of the phone-hacking scandal
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