Motley Moose – Archive

Events are moving so fast this is already out of date: first the resignation of resignation of Rebecca Brooks as head of News International. For a small personal vignette of my encounter here, you can read the whole thing here.

But it’s the US where Newscorp is based, and both Rupert and James are US citizens, and this is where the scandal will finally engulf him I believe. As Carl Bernstein said earlier this week, making the explicit comparison with Watergate these revelation “are the beginning, not the end, of the seismic event.”  He also stresses how important this US is to Murdoch

Murdoch associates, present and former-and his biographers-have said that one of his greatest long-term ambitions has been to replicate that political and cultural power in the United States. For a long time his vehicle was the New York Post-not profitable, but useful for increasing his eminence and working a wholesale change not only in American journalism but in the broader culture as well.., Then came the unfair and imbalanced politicized “news” of the Fox News Channel-showing (again) Murdoch’s genius at building an empire on the basis of an ever-descending lowest journalistic denominator…. And finally, in 2007 The Wall Street Journal‘s squabbling family owners succumbed to his acumen, willpower, and money, fulfilling Murdoch’s dream of owning an American newspaper to match the influence and prestige of his U.K. holding, The Times of London-one that really mattered, at the topmost tier of journalism.

Between the Post, Fox News, and the Journal, it’s hard to think of any other individual who has had a greater impact on American political and media culture in the past half century.

If we live in an information economy, then Newscorp is the Standard Oil of the 21st Century. Murdoch built up both horizontal and vertical monopoly power in the UK and Australia, leading to vast inefficiencies, corruption and unaccountable political power.

That was his aim in the US also: so it’s crucial to strike at the pillars of his power while they are beginning to crumble.

Now Rebekah Wade has gone (she “fucked the company” according to Elizabeth Murdoch), and her predecessor at News International, Les Hinton, has resigned as CEO of the Dow Jones (‘Les is no more’ as someone brilliantly put it)….

…the firewalls between the public outrage and the Murdoch family itself have fallen:

Yes, it’s working. The storm of outrage is crossing the Atlantic to Newscorp’s US base. As we’ve learned, the FBI have now launched an investigation into allegations of phone hacking by the Murdoch Empire thanks to the instigation of Pete King as I diaried yesterday. This is leading The Guardian and is featured heavily both on the the BBC, The New York Times and CNN.

Even Rupert himself is showing signs of flagging. He’s just released a rather dispirited, desultory but defiant interview in his own Wall Street Journal in which the main message really seems to be:

I’m tired.

Though many of you have been sceptical that the US public or MSM would pay attention to this, it seems some of the massive public revulsion here in the UK is beginning to transfer to Murdoch’s adopted homeland and commercial base – the United States.

But there’s more to this than just law-breaking: there’s Murdoch’s nefarious role in law-making.  

FINAL UPDATE: well it seems this news has caused a stir across the pond, not only with shareholders wondering why Murdoch treats Newscorp like “family candy” but a call from Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington calling for a Congressional Inquiry into Newscorp:

Despite claims by NI executives that the phone hacking scandal enveloping Murdoch and his media empire was confined to the now-defunct News of the World, new evidence shows other Murdoch papers used the same tactics.  Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown was repeatedly targeted for more than a decade by other Murdoch publications.

Further, a former New York City police officer claims he was offered money by News of the World journalists to retrieve the phone records of 9/11 victims and their families.

Yes, the scandal that is shaking the Murdoch Empire is expanding to the US, implicating not only the publisher of the WSJ in hacking the Royal Family with details bought from the police, but also – just as they hacked the victims and relatives of the London 7/7 bombings – there are reports that News International tried to suborn US police officers for hacking details of victims the 9/11 attacks.

According to today’s Daily Mirror:

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.

Now working as a private ­investigator, the ex-officer claimed reporters wanted the victim’s phone numbers and details of the calls they had made and received in the days leading up to the atrocity.

A source said: “This investigator is used by a lot of journalists in America and he recently told me that he was asked to hack into the 9/11 victims’ private phone data. He said that the journalists asked him to access records showing the calls that had been made to and from the mobile phones belonging to the victims and their ­relatives.

“His presumption was that they wanted the information so they could hack into the ­relevant voicemails, just like it has been shown they have done in the UK. The PI said he had to turn the job down. He knew how insensitive such research would be, and how bad it would look.

“The investigator said the ­journalists seemed particularly interested in getting the phone records belonging to the British victims of the attacks.”

This comes hard on the heels of revelations from Robert Peston at the BBC that emails, seen by senior NI executives in 2007, but only handed to the police a few weeks ago, show that the News of the World paid police domestic protection officers, looking after the Royal Family, for private phone numbers and personal details…

Regarding the emails that were found in 2007 but only passed to the police on July. At least some of them provided evidence that the NOTW was buying the contact details of the Royal family and their friends from a Royal protection officer. This suggests that the security of the head of state was being compromised. It’s a remarkable story. As soon as the newer management of the NOTW became aware of what was in the emails, they were told them that they had to give them immediately to the police. But here is evidence that the private details of the Royal family were sold, by a protection officer, to the News of the World.

So many laws, suborning a police officer, lying to Parliament, court perjury are exposed by this revelation, let alone the security risk to our nominal head of state. I don’t like Monarchy, but the idea that News International could break the law to bribe, distort and blackmail with impunity for so long staggers me.

And this has ramifications for his US operations too.