Murdoch Meltdown
 

Any of you following the news about Murdoch's UK business going into meltdown?

The News of the World, owned by Murdoch's News International has now closed. (a paper that has been in print since the mid 19th century!)

The rot appears to stretch through the whole tabloid industry, though it is only NoTW that seems to be in the firing line.

There are questions in the House about payments to police, illegal phonehacking (including the hacking of a missing 13 year old's phone, shortly prior to her being found dead, the phones of relatives of 7/11 victims, and likewise relatives of soldiers killed in Afghanistan.

Murdoch's bid for the remaining 70% shares of BSkyB (major broadcasting satellite network here) is looking increasingly under threat: but if it is decided the organisation is not 'Fit and proper' that could also mean them having to give up their current 30% share.

BSkyB's stock is plummetting.

People have already been jailed (2 years ago I think) now more have been arrested including a former press advisor to Prime Minister Cameron.

More is coming out every day.

They are covering it on NPR (radio) here, I couldn't say whether it hit's the network TV news.

Pretty shocking reaction to the shenanigans that they, all tabloids, have been up to all these years.

I think there must be soimething deeper, Murdoch stopped paying off the right people.

Possible. But part of it is also that the Guardian newspaper continued to engage in solid investigative journalism and uncovered more and more stuff.

The Guardian first reported two years ago. The oversight body for the press investigated, but accepted the Police's assertion that it had only been one journalist at fault, and one private detective. Despite the fact they had incontrovertible evidence to the contrary.

Since then the new management and staff at the NoTW have been co-operating with an investigation and trawling through past emails and records looking for wrongdoing. I feel rather sorry for the current workforce really. They are picking up the tab for something their predeccessors engaged in.

This has bubbled away for two years, what proved a tipping point though, was when it became clear they'd hacked Milly Dowling's answerphone mesages whilst she was missing. Not just accessing them, but allegedly also deleting them whch gave false hope to parents and police that she was still alive, whne in fact she;'d already been killed and her body dumped. Not only was that shocking, but also moved the timeline of events further back to 2002 thereby implicating more people.

Then came the news that they'd hacked servicemen's relatives, and relatives of 7/11 victims. At that point there was a massive public outcry.

The political angle to this is that Cameron's press guy had already resigned because bits of news kept coming out linking him to stuff, but not yet criminally so. Once it became clear he was about to be arrested and implicated in criminal activities, the PM had to start making statements and looking tough.

Alongside this there's been legal action running against the paper, by several prominent people who'd been hacked.

So, it was already coming, And was always going to come out.

It's in the news down here, too.

I have very cynical views.

It looks to me that Murdoch took NOTW out the back and shot it ASAP. Like he knew it wasn't going to get better and wanted to be rid of it before worse things came out. One wonders what, and how far, and who knew ... I guess lots, a long way, and everyone at the top, but nothing on paper.

And if phone-hacking and cop-bribing is what they do - more or less routinely - to put juicy stories in the paper, what do you think they do to make sure that important political and business decisions go how they want them?

*nods*

There are a lot of questions being asked now about how close the government are to Murdoch and how that relates to decisions over the BSkyB thing.

It was already deeply unpopular, with petitions and demonstrations against allowing it to go through.

As an aside, that twat Murdoch's son has been promoting the idea for a few years now that the BBC is too big, anti-competitive and needs to be brought down a peg or two. Succeeding governments have pressed for the BBC to reduce the content on its website, reduce its budget, change its oversight mechanisms.

Coincidence? I think not.

The one thing that REALLY got to me was the issue with the phone of the 13 year old that was missing, then found dead. Apparently they were deleting voicemail messages when her phone was full so that more could be left. It gave the family hope that she was receiving them and therefore still alive. That's is so far over the line :mad:

Sorry for the duplicate point. I was typing and just saw your post Dana ...

An American would be surprised how few news outlets exist in London. Murdoch's influence on UK information channels is that significant. His power as a king maker is massive.

He wanted to kill the body to discourage anybody from attacking the cancer.

Very true. He has made and broken many politicians.

Think about what Fox is like for hounding politicians they don't approve of. And then add a shitload more shit :P

News International today announced that they are requesting their BSkyB bid be subject to a full review. rather than withdrawing the proposal altogether. This effectively bounces the issue into the long grass for a year.

And now it is coming out that other papers owned by News International (most of the tabloid press and some of the broadsheet) are being implicated in some shady reportage:p

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14112097

Private Eye have been calling Murdoch The Dirty Digger for years.
Now we get to see how much mud-raking actually sticks.

Wouldn't it be lovely if this broke the bastard's stranglehold on our print media and political culture?

Pffffft.
We have the media we deserve.