Rupert Murdoch, owner of Fox News, NYPost, SkyTV, NOTW and others faces his own watergate

[Chris]

Let me just start by saying that this is not intended to be a thread about politics (though I suspect it will devolve into one) so much as it is one about CRIMES. There's been so much news on this of late everywhere but the NYPost, the WSJ and Fox that I'm surprised there's been no mention at all of it on the mane. The massive amount of news means that it's hard to give the "be all end all" link so I'll try to summarise based on what I've read.



In a nutshell, an investigation by the Guardian unearthed all of this after previous government and police inquiries went nowhere (the reason for this is now being investigated). Newscorp has been found to have done the following things:

• News of the World (Newscorp owned tabloid and biggest paper in the UK) hacked into the voice mails of thousands of people including those of murdered children and dead soldiers families, in one instance giving false hope to the family of a dead girl after they deleted some of her voice messages.
• Sunday times (another Newscorp owned paper) paid medical staff for medical records on the Ex-Prime Minister's son while he was in power. The son has cystic fibrosis.
• The current prime minister hired the former editor of the News of the World (when these crimes were taking place) as his "Press Secretary" and has refused to apologise for it despite being warned by several people not to hire the man. The guy has since been arrested.
• Newscorp paid off police in several instances for information, including the phone numbers of the royal family (they hacked into Prince Harry's voicemail)
• Senior Newscorp executive deleted 'thousands' of emails as soon as he learned of a police investigation earlier this year. They also withheld information they had about crimes since 2007 until June of this year
• Newscorp used ex-con private investigators to dig dirt on politicians, in effect blackmailing them so they could direct policy
• Newscorp effectively "ordered" police to stay away from investigating a friend of one of its executives for murder
• Newscorp repeatedly made payments between 100 and 600 000 pounds to people that discovered their phones had been hacked in exchange for their silence

That is just the tip of the iceberg. This all comes on the heels of Newscorp trying to purchase the remaining majority of British Sky Broadcasting, which would give them majority control of broadcasting in the UK.

Some background links:

Interactive timeline - http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/inte...cking-timeline

Full coverage - http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/phone-hacking

Deliberately thwarting the investigation - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14116786

'Newscorp hired known criminals' - Ex-PM Gordon Prown: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/13/wo...13hacking.html

[Inkana7]

I saw something about this in TIME, I didn't know how far-reaching it was though.

[Chris]

Originally Posted by Inkana7

I saw something about this on TIME, I didn't know how far-reaching it was though.

Bout as far reaching as it could possibly be. It implicates newscorp, politicians including the current PM and the police.

[TheElusiveKyleOrton]

This **** is pretty bad, but it really does happen in all the British tabloids. I wouldn't be surprised to see this thing continue past Murdoch and News of the World.

[rugbythug]

Go directly to jail. Bet they are liberals.

[TheReverend]

Despicable. Haven't they been trying to pass off these examples as the actions of individual over zealous reporters, too?

[Smiling Assassin27]

If the dude or his media conglomerate committed a crime or multiple crimes, then let him/the appropriate people face charges, stand trial, and be held accountable for whatever the law prescribes. As an aside, I'd bet dollars to doughnuts that this is the tip of the iceberg with respect to the media (general term, i realize) obtaining or attempting to obtain its information in illegal and unethical ways. It'll be interesting to see how entrenched and organizational these methods run within Murdoch's group.

[alkemical]

Originally Posted by Chris

Bout as far reaching as it could possibly be. It implicates newscorp, politicians including the current PM and the police.

I wonder what this means as towards the growing oligarchy.....

[sirhcyennek81]

Originally Posted by Smiling Assassin27

If the dude or his media conglomerate committed a crime or multiple crimes, then let him/the appropriate people face charges, stand trial, and be held accountable for whatever the law prescribes. As an aside, I'd bet dollars to doughnuts that this is the tip of the iceberg with respect to the media (general term, i realize) obtaining or attempting to obtain its information in illegal and unethical ways. It'll be interesting to see how entrenched and organizational these methods run within Murdoch's group.

I agree with this. I would not be surprised if its a common practice with all media to pay for sources or "hacking" vm's.

[alkemical]

Hey, if you've got nothing to hide - there shouldn't be a problem...right?

Kidding, sorta

[baja]

This is why monopolies used to be illegal in the USA.

When one man controls that much of the media it is a formula for control.

read about William Randolph Hurst.

[Beantown Bronco]

[alkemical]

Originally Posted by baja

This is why monopolies used to be illegal in the USA.

When one man controls that much of the media it is a formula for control.

read about William Randolph Hurst.

Rupert made a bad investment with Myspace - but if it would have "worked" - think about even more information flow.

[SonOfLe-loLang]

Originally Posted by alkemical

Rupert made a bad investment with Myspace - but if it would have "worked" - think about even more information flow.

Horrible. Bought for 580, sold for 30. It was faulty from go though...terrible decision

[Vegas_Bronco]

This kind of deceptive action has no financial value...this is pure control. As Tina Turner once said...whats love got to do with it?

[alkemical]

Originally Posted by SonOfLe-loLang

Horrible. Bought for 580, sold for 30. It was faulty from go though...terrible decision

I guess they thought with the $ that Newscorp had, they could "right it".

they should have just killed the social networking aspect of it off - and just made it a record label.

Myspace Music.... make an mp3 player - charge people $1+ per download...

oh wait...

[Chris]

Originally Posted by TheReverend

Despicable. Haven't they been trying to pass off these examples as the actions of individual over zealous reporters, too?

Yes. They were "allowed" to do their own investigation and then assured everyone it was a single rouge journalist. What's come to light is this was really systematic.

I agree with what other people have said that some of these incredibly cynical tactics are likely not limited to NewsCorp. Having said that, it's my opinion that few will have tried to manipulate government to such an extent.

[alkemical]

How fast does this disappear?

i remember when i was trying to dig up info on the Abramoff scandal, and when it looked like many more people were involved - it sort of "vanished".

Boo!

[broncocalijohn]

Originally Posted by Chris

Bout as far reaching as it could possibly be. It implicates newscorp, politicians including the current PM and the police.

Maybe they all get lucky and have the Casey Anthony jury on this coming case. To shut down the entire paper without just trying to reform it tells you that Murdoch knows there is so much in this that it became a complete disaster. Should be very interesting research.

[Chris]

Originally Posted by alkemical

How fast does this disappear?

i remember when i was trying to dig up info on the Abramoff scandal, and when it looked like many more people were involved - it sort of "vanished".

Boo!

Different country. There's also so much that can be unearthed I don't think this goes away quickly at all. The sharks are in the water.

[alkemical]

Originally Posted by Chris

Different country. There's also so much that can be unearthed I don't think this goes away quickly at all. The sharks are in the water.

That's what I thought too about Abramoff.

[ghwk]

Originally Posted by Chris

Different country. There's also so much that can be unearthed I don't think this goes away quickly at all. The sharks are in the water.

I think you will find out how dirty they were in the US as well as those complicit with them on this one. Think about it, there is no reason for them to confine the practice to Britain. Remember also these guys have probably canned a lot of reporters in their time who didn't bow down to the blatent lies they spew in the name of being "fair and balanced". Those reporters now get to exact thier revenge and expose the things they couldn't before because the lid has now blown off this thing.

Centralized media control is the closest thing we have to the state sponsored media of the communist/dictator countries and anyone in our govt. who has advocated for Rupert and his global propaganda machine should be held accountable for the communization of Amerika.

[Chris]

Best big picture analysis I've seen - http://www.thedailybeast.com/article...obref=obinsite

[ColoradoDarin]

Originally Posted by Beantown Bronco

Dang it, I was going to say James Bond solved this already.

[Drunk Monkey]

Murdoch drops bid for British Sky Broadcasting

LONDON (AP) — In a stunning retreat, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. dropped its bid Wednesday to take full control of British Sky Broadcasting during what the prime minister called a political and media "firestorm" over phone hacking at one of the media baron's U.K. newspapers.
Murdoch stepped back from making potentially his biggest, most lucrative acquisition, accepting that he could not win British government approval of the takeover since the country's major political parties had united against it.

http://news.yahoo.com/murdoch-drops-...141648396.html

That had to hurt