UK to look at media ownership after hacking scandal

 

CAMBRIDGE, England

(Reuters) - Britain, embarrassed earlier this year by its apparent inability to block Rupert Murdoch from expanding his empire, is to examine new ways to measure the influence of media owners and whether limits should be set.  

Murdoch's News Corp withdrew a bid to buy the rest of pay-TV group BSkyB it did not already own in July, after months of protests by rivals and politicians who said the deal would give too much control to one company.

But it was only the fallout from the phone hacking scandal that forced the media magnate to pull the bid, with media secretary Jeremy Hunt all but set to approve what would have been one of the most controversial deals in years after it was cleared by regulators.

Hunt now plans to use a new Communications Act to set out how regulators should measure consumer contact with media across a range of platforms such as online, TV, radio and newspapers.

"I have today asked (regulator) Ofcom to examine what the options are for measuring media plurality across platforms and recommend the best approach," he will tell an industry gathering on Wednesday evening, according to the transcript.

"In particular I have asked them to look at whether or not it is practical or advisable to set absolute limits on news market share."

The announcement is the second move to stem from the phone hacking scandal in one day, after the Australian government said it would launch a review of its media regulations following the events in Britain, where journalists hacked in to the phones of celebrities and murder victims to write stories.

However any changes could also be good news for James Murdoch, the son of Rupert and chairman of BSkyB, as he has consistently called for the state broadcaster, the BBC, to be cut back as it also has a huge presence on TV, radio and online.

The only cross-media restriction currently in place prevents any newspaper owner who accounts for more than 20 percent of total circulation -- such as News Corp -- from owning more than 20 percent of ITV, the country's biggest free-to-air commercial broadcaster.

At the time of the proposed deal, News Corp owned around a third of the national newspaper market and buying BSkyB would have given it control of one of the most powerful voices in television and radio news.

Regulator Ofcom was tasked to investigate the deal and the impact it would have on the number of voices in the media, and had to use a range of methods as different measurements are used to measure audience levels on each platform.

The deal was quickly approved by Brussels, which looked at the impact in terms of competition, and eventually by British media regulator Ofcom after it imposed some conditions to maintain the number of voices in the sector.

"As a citizen, I want plurality of news provision so I can be confident that no one person or organization exerts too much control over where I get my news from," Hunt will say.

"We need to ensure that there is the opportunity for multiple voices. And we must take care that power is never over-concentrated in a few hands."

Other areas raised by the takeover was the involvement of politicians in such a difficult case and the fact that Ofcom could only investigate changes to media plurality once a transaction had been proposed and could not take changes due to organic growth or from technology in to account.

Hunt suggested that both of those issues could change.

The government hopes to have a new Communications Act in place by the end of this parliament in 2015.

(Reporting by Kate Holton; Editing by Mike Nesbit)

Murdoch drops bid for British Sky Broadcasting

LONDON (AP) - In a stunning retreat, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. media empire dropped its bid Wednesday to take over full control of British Sky Broadcasting amid a political and legal firestorm over phone hacking at one of its British newspapers.

Murdoch was forced to step back from the biggest battle of his career over a lucrative prize, accepting that he could not win government acceptance of the takeover as Britain's major political parties had united against it.

"It has become clear that it is too difficult to progress in this climate," News Corp. deputy chairman and president Chase Carey said in a brief statement to the London Stock Exchange.

Shares in BSkyB dived 4 percent lower after the announcement.

Hours earlier, Prime Minister David Cameron announced he was putting a senior judge in charge of an inquiry into phone hacking and alleged bribery by a tabloid newspaper, and vowed to investigate an allegation that a U.K. reporter may have sought the phone numbers of 9/11 victims in a quest for sensational scoops.

"There is a firestorm, if you like, that is engulfing parts of the media, parts of the police, and indeed our political system's ability to respond," Cameron said in the House of Commons. He said the focus must now be on the victims, and make sure that the guilty are prosecuted.

The hacking and police bribery scandal also claimed another victim. News International, the British unit of News Corp., said its legal director, Tom Crone, had left the company. Crone had led an internal inquiry that concluded only two people at the News of the World tabloid had been involved in phone hacking - a stance that collapsed as numerous revelations tumbled out this year.

"This is a victory for people up and down this country who have been appalled by the revelations of the phone hacking scandal and the failure of News International to take responsibility," said Labour Party leader Ed Miliband, who had mobilized an all-party agreement to vote on a motion urging Murdoch to back off.

"People thought it was beyond belief that Mr. Murdoch could continue with his takeover after these revelations," Miliband said.

 

(AP) British Prime Minister David Cameron leaves No.10 Downing Street for Prime Minister's Questions at... Full Image

Outrage has grown and Murdoch's News Corp.'s share price has fallen since a report last week that his News of the World tabloid hacked into the phone of teenage murder victim Milly Dowler in 2002 and may have impeded a police investigation into her disappearance. That was followed by claims of intrusion into private records by Murdoch's other U.K. papers, The Sun and The Sunday Times.

Murdoch shut down the 168-year-old News of the World on Sunday and came to London to direct the company's efforts to get on top of its problems.

Dowler's family was meeting with Cameron at 10 Downing Street later Wednesday.

Police have arrested eight people so far in their investigation, including Cameron's former communications director Andy Coulson, a former editor of News of the World. No one has been charged.

Cameron appointed Lord Justice Brian Leveson to lead the inquiry, which will be able to compel witnesses - including government figures - to give evidence under oath.

 

(AP) British Prime Minister David Cameron leaves 10 Downing Street for the Prime Minister's Questions at... Full Image

Leveson will first investigate the culture, practices and ethics of the press, its relationship with police and the failure of the current system of self-regulation. That inquiry is expected to last up to one year. Only then will the inquiry focus shift to what went wrong at the News of the World and other papers, Cameron said.

The suggestion that 9/11 victims may have been targeted surfaced Monday in the Mirror, a British competitor of The Sun. It quoted an anonymous source as saying an unidentified American investigator had rejected approaches from unidentified journalists who showed a particular interest in British victims of the terror attacks. It cited no evidence that any phone had actually been hacked.

In Washington, Sen. Jay Rockefeller, a Democrat from West Virginia, urged an investigation into whether Murdoch's News Corp. had violated U.S. law because of the British paper's activities.

If there was any hacking of phones belonging to 9/11 victims or other Americans, "the consequences will be severe," said Rockefeller, chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation.

Murdoch had hoped to gain control of the 61 percent of BSkyB shares that his News Corp. doesn't yet own, but the bid was delayed for several months even before he withdrew while the British government's Competition Commission reviewed monopoly concerns.

 

(AP) In this image from a BBC television interview aired Tuesday July 12 2011, former British Prime... Full Image

A report Wednesday in The Wall Street Journal, which is part of News Corp., said Murdoch has met with advisers over recent weeks to discuss possible options including the sale of the remaining British newspapers - The Sun, The Times and The Sunday Times.

The Journal, citing unidentified people familiar with the situation, said there didn't appear to be any buyers given the poor economics of the newspaper division.

Still, a defiant mood was evident at one News International paper, The Sun tabloid, which slapped the headline "Brown Wrong" across its front page in response to claims by former Prime Minister Gordon Brown that the paper had obtained confidential medical records of his younger son.

Brown accused Murdoch's papers, including The Sun and The Sunday Times, of obtaining his confidential bank accounts, tax records and even health information about his son, Fraser, who suffers from cystic fibrosis, using fraudulent, criminal means. But, the newspaper insisted it learned of the boy's ailment from the father of another child with the same condition, and that it contacted the Browns, who consented to the story.

"We are not aware of Mr. Brown, nor any of his colleagues to whom we spoke, making any complaint about it at the time," The Sun said.

(AP) Rebekah Brooks Chief executive of News International arrives at News Corporation chairman Rupert... Full Image

Murdoch's News International responded to his accusations by asking Brown for any information that would help to investigate them.

London Mayor Boris Johnson said Wednesday that he had been informed that his telephone had been hacked, but he decided not to take legal action.

"Quite frankly, why on earth should I go through some court case in which it would have inevitably involved going over all the pathetic so-called revelations that the News of the World had dug up?" Johnson said.

"Why should I, when the police had made it clear to me when they had abundant evidence?" he added.

Police in the U.K. are pursuing two investigations of News International, one on phone hacking and the other on allegations that the News of the World bribed police officers for information.

Hugh Orde, president of the Association of Chief Police Officers, urged News International to come clean about any such payments.

"Let's not play around with legal games here: If they have names, dates, times, places, payments to officers, we would like to see them so that we can lock these officers up and throw away the key," Orde told the British Broadcasting radio.

Police officials have indicated the bribery investigations involve about half a dozen officers.

via apnews.excite.com

 

Rebekah Brooks Arrested for News of the World Phone Hacking Scandal

Rebekah Brooks has gone from an employee of Rupert Murdoch, to the former editor of News of the World, to a woman under arrest all in one week.

The disgraced journalist resigned from News International on Friday, following the revelation that her newspaper tapped the phones of over 4,000 people, including celebrities and the families of 9/11 victims.

Now, British police confirm they have arrested Brooks for her role in this scandal.

Brooks stands accused of conspiring to intercept communications and of bribing cops for information. She is the sixth, and the highest-ranked, News Corp official to be arrested in this case.

The 43-year old is a friend of Prime Minster David Cameron and started working at News International in 2000.

Murdoch and his son will appear before Parliament on Tuesday and answer questions about their media empire in Great Britain.

via thehollywoodgossip.com

Dow Jones-Wall Street Journal Head Drawn Into Murdoch UK Phone Jacking Scandal

via economicpopulist.org

Rebekah Brooks - News of the World Editor 2000-2003, Currently CEO, News International
Brooks: We have paid the police for information in the past.

Les Hinton - Former chairman of the board News International 2004-2007. Currently CEO Dow Jones and Company (which includes the Wall Street Journal)
Q: Have you carried out a full rigorous internal inquiry and are you absolutely convinced that Clive Goodman was the only person who knew what was going on?
Les Hinton: Yes I have and I believe that he was the only person but that investigation continues under the new editor.

Andy Coulson - News of the World Editor 2003-2007. Currently under arrest, in police custody.

Coulson: We never condoned the use of phone hacking nor do I have any recollection of incidences when phone hacking took place.

Les Hinton is the chief executive of Dow Jones and the publisher of the Wall Street Journal, the most prestigious and valued media holdings of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation media empire. Hinton is implicated as a key player in at least the cover up of illegal break-ins involving hundreds of voice mail accounts belonging to news worthy British citizens high and low. Hinton was chairman of News International, the parent company of Murdoch's London tabloids and newspapers (including the Times of London), at the time of the illegal activities and police investigations.
What Happened Under Hinton's Reign
The UK phone jacking scandal started in 2007 when news broke that the News of the World, London's leading tabloid, had been breaking into to voice mail accounts of prominent British citizens:

In 2006, reporters at the paper used private investigators to illegally gain access to hundreds of mobile phone voicemail accounts held by a variety of people of interest to the newspaper. In 2007 the paper's royal correspondent, Clive Goodman, pleaded guilty to illegal interception of personal communication and was jailed for four months; the paper's editor, Andy Coulson, had resigned two weeks earlier. In 2009/2010, further revelations emerged on the extent of the phone hacking, and how it was common knowledge within the News of the World and its News International parent. According to a former reporter at the paper, "Everyone knew. The office cat knew," about the illegal activities used to scoop stories. Wikipedia

It died down due to lackluster investigation by the London Metropolitan Police. But when it was revealed that the electronic spying was focused on crime victims and orphans, the British public had quite enough.

James Murdoch, son of Mr. Murdoch, pulled the plug on the News of World, earlier this week after claims it paid private investigators to illegally intercept the voicemail messages of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler, bereaved military families and relatives of London bombing victims. It is also accused of paying thousands of pounds illegally to corrupt police officers. Irish Times, July 9

The Sky is Falling

Now, Murdoch's highly lucrative deal to take over 60% of broadcasting giant BSkyB is threatened by this scandal. Prime Minister David Cameron's Culture Minister was expected to approve the acquisition. Quickly, that option may become a political impossibility given Cameron's personal involvement with News Corporation executives, in particular, Rebekah Brooks.

The much reviled Brooks is the former head of the News of the World, shut down just this week as a result of the scandal. Brooks and Cameron appear to be very close. They take regular horseback rides together in the woods near Brooks' country estate and Cameron attended a Christmas party at the Brooks estate, something he was criticized for in the London press.
Hints About Hinton

Les Hinton was and is once again a key player in the investigation.

The Guardian summed up the problems facing Murdoch's prize possession, the WSJ:

As News Corporation battles to prevent the damage caused by the phone-hacking scandal spilling over into its all-important US holdings, attention is falling on Les Hinton, one of Rupert Murdoch's closest executives in New York, who was deeply involved in the handling of the affair.

Since 2007, Hinton has been chief executive of Dow Jones, publisher of the Wall Street Journal and one of the most prestigious of Murdoch's possessions. The bastion of US business coverage is seen as the crown jewel of Murdoch's media empire. Ed Pilkington, The Guardian, July 8

Hinton faces major challenges right now. The Guardian reports that he may have misrepresented News Corporation's internal investigations to the British Parliament.

Hinton replied by standing up for Andy Coulson, the News of the World editor who had resigned over the Goodman affair while denying any knowledge of it: "I believe absolutely that Andy did not have knowledge of what was going on." Coulson was arrested on Friday in connection with the phone-hacking investigation. Guardian, July 8.

Andy Coulson, under arrest in London for his role in this scandal, went on to become communications director for Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative Party from 2007 through Cameron's election.

Hinton will also have to explain, in some detail, why News Corporation paid the man they blamed for this scandal, Andy Goodman, while he was serving time in a British prison.

Questions also remain over Hinton's approval of a payment to Goodman made after the News of the World's royal editor had been jailed in January 2007. Guardian, July 8

This is reminiscent of the secret payments from the Republican Party to the Watergate burglars while they awaited trial in Judge John Sirica's court.

Meantime we shall express our darker purpose. King Lear
The questions about Hinton's competence and veracity arising from this spreading scandal lead right back to the credibility of the most prized possession of the Murdoch media empire, the credibility of his entire enterprise, the Wall Street Journal:

Ilyse Hogue, who specialises in News Corporation affairs within the progressive campaign Media Matters, said: "Given the evidence, Hinton was, at best, supremely neglectful in his investigation or, at worst, he knew about wider wrongdoing and brushed it under the rug. I think Americans are well within their rights to question his role." Guardian, July 8

Ms. Hogue is very diplomatic. Review the Guardian video and testimony transcript at the end of this article. You will see what the Murdoch empire is all about. His key executives reflect the enterprises darker purpose. Rebekah Brooks, CEO of News International, admits to paying police for news information through 2003. She doesn't seem to think that it is illegal to do so. Les Hinton denies that he found any illegal phone jacking other than the reporter that the Murdoch paper gave up. Apparently he was unaware of the very long list of individuals indicating illegal snooping was a common affair. Hinton is followed by News of the World Editor from 2003 through 2007, Andy Coulson, who was arrested recently and is now in police custody for crimes related to this scandal. Without blushing, Coulson states that he never approved of illegal phone surveillance. If these are Murdoch's best, just imagine his worst.
For decades, Rupert Murdoch has seemed invincible. Now, like a tired Lear, he returns to the United Kingdom reportedly to shore up the empire as a result of the illegal activities targeting many, even crime victims and orphans.

Murdoch's rise to power, position, and wealth has seemed an irresistible force since then Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich, was accused of helping Murdoch acquire United States media deal. Gingrich had just received a $4.5 million advance for a book from a Murdoch subsidiary.

The overlord of the press seems to want it both ways. His Fox News and tabloids are nothing less than engines for the basest scandal and dysfunction. At the same time, he displays the Times of London, the Wall Street Journal, and Dow Jones as signs of his credibility. Thanks to his over reach with his British tabloid, he is now the object of intense coverage by the British press from the Mirror to the Guardian.

Soon, Murdoch may have something of his own to cover … bail.

Update: Murdoch Drops Bid For BSkyB : The Two-Way : NPR

Update at 9:20 a.m. ET: "News Corp Withdraws BskyB bid" is the latest message on the SkyNewsBreak Twitter page. Given that Sky News is part of Murdoch's News International empire, that would seem to be a solid source.

Also confirming the news: NPR's David Folkenflik. (9:43 a.m. ET: News Corp.'s statement is posted here.)

Our original post — "U.K. Lawmakers Unite To Oppose Murdoch Bid For Broadcaster":

There's a lot happening right now in the expanding scandal in the U.K. over allegations that newspapers owned by Rupert Murdoch's News International illegally obtained private information — sometimes by paying police — about thousands of people, from members of the royal family and a former prime minister to victims of the 2005 London bombings and the 9/11 attacks.:

— It's "question time" in Parliament (watch here), and Prime Minister David Cameron has announced that there will be a "public inquiry" led by Lord Justice Brian Leveson. "The judge can take the inquiry in any direction," Cameron told lawmakers.

— Cameron's Conservative Party, the opposition Labor Party and Liberals have joined to call on News International to drop its bid for the 60 percent or so of BSkyB, an independent British broadcaster, that it doesn't already own. While, as NPR's David Folkenflik points out, the vote is not binding, The Atlantic declares that the BSkyB bid "is falling," and that "Murdoch's dreams are on the verge of collapsing."

— As The New York Times writes, Cameron is also seeking to "distance himself from Murdoch." The prime minister hired a former News of the World editor (the News International tabloid, which folded Sunday, has been at the center of the scandal) as his first spokesman. That person, Andy Coulson, resigned after about a year during an earlier phase of the so-called hacking scandal. Cameron has said he was not aware of Coulson's involvement in News of the World's actions.

Rupert Murdoch in meltdown: BSkyB deal shelved and shareholders sue

By Daily Mail Reporter

Rupert Murdoch’s media empire today risked implosion amid claims he could abandon his British newspapers over the phone hacking scandal.

The embattled News Corp boss may sell his three remaining national titles after accusations were made against The Sun and the Sunday Times.

Lending weight to the claim, Mr Murdoch’s other tightly-controlled paper, The Times, reported that ‘City analysts asked whether News Corps could walk away’.

This afternoon News Corp launched a $5billion shares buy back, artificially bolstering the value of the company after days of losses. 

 

Struggling: Rupert Murdoch with his personal trainer, left, and bodyguard in Kensington Gardens in London today

 

 

Bad news: Mr Murdoch with his daughter Elizabeth earlier today

BSKYB INVESTORS CONFRONT FALLOUT FROM DEAL DELAY

 

BSkyB shares have taken a further 2 per cent hit today as investors face up to the diminishing likelihood of its buyout by crisis-stricken News Corp.

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp effectively triggered the referral of the deal to the Competition Commission yesterday by withdrawing its undertaking to spin off Sky News. Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt swiftly handed it over to the watchdog, which will take at least six months to make a decision on 'media plurality' grounds.

But Ofcom could still weigh in on the issue too as it is responsible for deciding whether the bosses of News Corp are 'fit and proper' to run a broadcaster. Shares in BSkyB are down 13.75p at 701.75p today, on top of a 5 per cent drop yesterday.

Meanwhile, News Corp shares closed down 8% at $15.48 in New York last night as the embattled media giant was hit with a class action lawsuit by shareholders over claims bosses failed to properly investigate phone hacking at the killed-off News of the World (below).

 

Speculation is now mounting that Mr Murdoch may sell his three remaining UK national newspapers after fresh allegations emerged about News International activities involving the private information of Gordon Brown and the Royal Family.

City commentators are doubtful that News Corp will be permitted to buy the 61 per cent of BSkyB it doesn't already own following the furore, and have reassessed their positions on the UK pay-TV company.

Credit Suisse slashed its target price from 850p to 650p, predicting BSkyB would move to trading on standalone fundamentals.

'We now believe there is only a 10 per cent chance News Corp's attempt to take full control of Sky will eventually be successful,' it said.

'As well as a potentially significant delay for a Competition Commission review, we believe Ofcom has the power to use its "fit and proper" test to erect an insurmountable barrier to the deal; and that the worst case scenario is News Corp is asked to divest part of its existing 39 per cent stake.' The bank noted that Sky had just decided to freeze its TV packages in the next financial year, which suggested it anticipated tougher trading conditions in the coming year as UK household budgets come under continued pressure.

Royal Bank of Scotland said it believed News Corp had engineered a delay by getting the BSkyB deal referred to the Competition Commission 'presumably so that opinion cools, and perhaps with a mind to exploring an exit of UK newspapers to focus on BSkyB'.

'NewsCorp’s move keeps the approval process alive, but only just,' it said, but in the meantime investors focusing on the fundamentals at BSkyB would find it in robust shape. We forecast 8 per cent revenue growth in 2011/12 despite the (one-year) freeze in subscription prices from September 2011 as the rising penetration of HD, broadband and talk continues to drive average revenue per user (albeit at a slower pace  than in 2010/11) and as the subscriber base continues to grow (we forecast it reaching 10.5million by June 2012).'

RBS also floated the idea of a BSkyB special dividend of £2 a share, saying: 'If plan A was the NewsCorp deal, plan B may be a capital return.'

Broker Numis Securities took a more optimistic view of the prospects for the BSKyB deal still going ahead. 'We expect a lengthy regulatory process lasting into 2012, however we believe that, on the basis of media plurality, it will be cleared and remain of the view that a price of 800p-850p is likely,' it said.

'Although we believe the deal will complete, we recognise that the situation with respect to News International and (perhaps more importantly) political expediency remains fluid.' Numis cut its target price for BSkyB from 825p to 800p and said it viewed 700p as 'a very attractive entry point for the business on fundamentals'.

The figure is just a fraction of the $12billion in cash Murdoch has at his disposal. Some analysts believe more of this money should have been used to stabilise the company.

The share buyback comes as BSkyB shares fell 2 per cent this morning after the tycoon delayed his controversial bid to take control of the satellite giant by submitting it to a competition inquiry. 

Yesterday, News Corps shares fell 7 per cent on the New York Stock Exchange, while Sky’s fell 5 per cent in London.

Ministers are understood to be desperate to find a way to block his bid while trying not to offend the powerful tycoon, who was pictured with his personal trainer in a London park this morning.

More...

• BSkyB investors confront fallout from News Corp deal delay and fresh scandals
• QUENTIN LETTS: He's like a dog in a Pedigree Chum ad, all woofish and waggy-tailed
• RICHARD LITTLEJOHN: If Max Clifford deserves £1m, what price the Dowler family?
• Is the BBC's Robert Peston too close to Rupert Murdoch's man Will Lewis?
• 'We were in tears': Brown's fury at the use of 'criminal underworld' by News International as it's revealed The Sun had seen his sick son's medical files
• Scotland Yard at war with Murdoch over leaks: Fury at latest revelation of bribes to royal protection officers

His business has also been hit by a class action lawsuit by News Corps shareholders over claims bosses failed to properly investigate phone hacking taking place at the News of the World, which was shut down on Sunday.

However, Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt's move to delay the Sky bid yesterday afternoon could potentially salvage the deal, which had looked on the brink of collapse in the morning, according to City analysts.

It is thought that Mr Murdoch is willing to try anything to ensure his bid succeeds - even ditching his famous newspaper stable, which earn considerably less than Sky, which last year made a £1billion profit.

Analysts also said it frees Mr Hunt from a politically explosive conundrum.

If he had blocked the deal, or called in the Competition Commission himself, he could have faced a legal challenge from News Corp. 

But if he had waved the takeover through, he risked triggering a wave of public fury.

The investigation will take at least six months.

Senior Lib Dem MP Don Foster, the party’s former culture spokesman, described the move as a ‘ruse’ designed to buy ‘breathing space’.

He added: ‘This is the best Murdoch can do to keep the possibility of the merger on the table. 

‘By dropping the News of the World, he can say his involvement in news and current affairs in Britain has actually diminished and argue that the issue of media plurality has disappeared.

‘There is nothing to prevent Ofcom, however, from investigating whether or not the Murdoch empire is fit and proper to own even the 39 per cent of BSkyB it already owns.’

Mark Kelly, at stockbroker Olivetree Securities, said: ‘News Corp is smoothing the way for the Government here – keeping friends in power by making the decision for them.’

Louise Cooper, of City broking firm BGC Partners, said Murdoch had given Hunt ‘some wriggle room’ and avoided a ‘potentially damaging’ confidence vote in the House of Commons tomorrow.

Labour leader Ed Miliband had threatened to force a vote if the Government did not call time on the proposed takeover.

Preventing a parliamentary debate where fresh attacks could have been levelled against his papers was a ‘smart move by an operator who is rapidly taking back control of the situation’, she added.

However, the chances of News Corp buying the 61 per cent of Sky it does not already own have tumbled with each new startling revelation.

Sky shares plunged 5 per cent yesterday and a staggering £2.4billion has been wiped off the value of the satellite giant over the past week.

Alex DeGroote, at stockbroker Panmure Gordon, said the likelihood of the deal going ahead had reduced.

He said: ‘On Friday we cut our probability of the deal going ahead to 50:50 from 90:10 in favour. This seems very optimistic now. Our new assessment is 10:90 in favour. In other words, we believe the deal is all but dead.’

He also raised the possibility of a forced divestiture – sale, liquidation or spin off – of News Corp’s 39 per cent shareholding in BSkyB.

He added: ‘If the “fit and proper” test is applied rigidly by Ofcom and events elsewhere worsen, it could become a factor.’

It is now alleged that as many as 4,000 people had their phones hacked by private investigators working for the News Of The World.

Speculation grew today that the red top would be replaced by The Sun On Sunday after the domain name was transferred to News International from the company who bought it last week.

In a further development News International said today it would co-operate after Rebekah Brooks, Rupert Murdoch and his son James were asked to appear before a committee of MPs.

The Culture, Media and Sport (CMS) Committee asked the trio to give evidence about the phone hacking and police payments scandals at a hearing next week.

A spokeswoman for News International, publisher of the News of the World, the Sun, the Times and the Sunday Times, could not confirm whether all three would attend the hearing.

But the company said in a statement: "We have been made aware of the request from the CMS committee to interview senior executives and will co-operate. We await the formal invitation."

Enlarge    

 

D'oh! Shares in the satellite giant, which screens The Simpsons on Sky One, plunged 5pc yesterday

 

 

 

 

 

Jeremy Hunt was left with no choice to refer the case to the Competition Commission following the decision, and ends Ed Miliband's threat to call for a vote of confidence if the Government did not call time on the takeover

 

CofE WARNED SALE OF £3.76M SHARES FROM 'REBEKAH WOTSIT'S' ORGANISATION 'PREMATURE'

 

The head of the Church of England's £5.3billion investment fund today warned against a 'premature' sale of shares in News Corp and BSkyB in the face of the phone hacking scandal.

Andreas Whittam Smith (pictured), First Church Estates Commissioner, said it was possible that Rupert Murdoch could sell his British newspapers in the future.

'I feel that a premature sale of News Corp and BSkyB might just be simply very bad timing,' he told members of the Church of England's national assembly meeting in York.

'I don't argue with anything that anybody is saying about them but I think it must be possible that News Corp will get rid of its entire British holdings, of newspapers that is, and that if it is to do so, first of all the problem would have vanished if you like from the point of view of the parent company and for us as investors, and the shares will certainly bounce up again, and so it is a ticklish area.'

Mr Whittam Smith's remarks came after the Church of England's Ethical Investment Advisory Group (EIAG) warned it could pull £3.76million in shares out of News Corp if it fails to hold senior executives to account over the phone hacking scandal.

The EIAG said it had written to News Corp describing the behaviour of the News of the World as 'utterly reprehensible and unethical'.

The Church of England holds a further £5.3million in shares in BSkyB, which is currently the subject of a take-over bid by News Corp.

Mr Whittam Smith, a former Daily Telegraph City editor and founding editor of the Independent newspaper, said he wished the EIAG 'best of luck' in talking to News Corp about their response to the phone-hacking scandal. 'I do wish them the best of luck in talking to Rupert Murdoch and James Murdoch and Rebekah wotsit, it won't be easy, and I do not volunteer to be part of the team,' he told the General Synod.

Could Murdoch deputy Hinton take the fall?

Les Hinton, chief executive officer of Dow Jones & Company, speaks during the World Business Forum in New York October 5, 2010.

(Reuters) - Les Hinton was adamant. Asked in 2007 by a British parliamentary committee whether the News of the World had "carried out a full, rigorous internal inquiry" into the use of illegal phone hacking by the newspaper and was "absolutely convinced" it was limited to a single reporter, Hinton did not hesitate.

"Yes, we have," the then-executive chairman of News of the World's owner News International told the select committee, "and I believe he was the only person, but that investigation, under the new editor, continues."

Four years on, Hinton may have serious reason to regret those words. In the middle of a voicemail hacking scandal that has killed the 168-year-old mass-circulation paper and threatens further damage to Rupert Murdoch's media empire, much of the public anger so far has focused on Rebekah Brooks, editor of News of the World between 2000 and 2003 when some of the most high-profile hacking occurred, and her successor Andy Coulson, under whom it continued.

But attention is now turning to Hinton, 67, who headed up News International during Brooks's and Coulson's editorships and now runs the New York-based Dow Jones & Co., another arm of Murdoch's sprawling News Corp. Murdoch's long-time lieutenant, some News Corp watchers say, could end up being a high-profile casualty in the scandal.

"The person that I think is most of a problem for Murdoch is Les Hinton," Peter Burden, author of a 2008 book about the News of the World, told Reuters.

"He was definitely around when it was going on and he's now running the Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones, and for him to be seen to be mixed up in that whole tacky situation would be very, very damaging indeed."

Claire Enders, head of a research consultancy that advises many of Europe's biggest media and communications companies, points out that Murdoch's son and heir apparent James took on responsibility for News Corp's British newspapers after Hinton left for New York in 2007. The younger Murdoch now has to deal with problems that occurred on his predecessor's watch.

"For the last 6 months, I have heard that Mr Hinton has not been visiting the UK for precisely that reason, in order to avoid drawing any attention to himself," Enders told Reuters.

Britain's Guardian newspaper, whose story last Monday triggered the crisis for News Corp, had asked questions "about the role of Les Hinton in the culture of News International and in particular in the way that the company defense, the rogue reporter argument, was developed."

A spokeswoman for Dow Jones declined to comment and turned down a request to interview Hinton. She would not say whether British authorities had been in touch with Dow Jones.

TRUSTED DEPUTY

Hinton has spent his entire career working for Murdoch, beginning as a reporter at the Adelaide News -- legend has it that he used to collect Murdoch's sandwiches -- and rising through the ranks until he was tapped to run News International in 1995, and later Dow Jones after News Corp bought the publisher of the Wall Street Journal.

Tall, trim and debonair, with rimless glasses and waves of silver hair, Hinton has a reputation for being level-headed and insightful, and wins praise for balancing out some of the stormier personalities within News Corp, including Murdoch himself.

"He runs interference for Rupert," said one source who knows both men. "He's a very nice guy -- congenial, easy going and smart."

Hinton lives in an elegant townhouse -- fitted out with a Jacuzzi and a deck -- on Manhattan's upper east side with his wife, Kath, a former aide to Gordon Brown.

He and Murdoch have spent more than 50 years working alongside each other, so it's not surprising that insiders describe Hinton as one of the newspaper baron's consiglieri, trusted to sort through sticky business issues or smooth political flaps.

One recent example: Hinton was instrumental in saving the Wall Street Journal's online pay model after his boss toyed with the idea of making the wsj.com website free, according to a source familiar with the matter.

"I think Les was very helpful in persuading Rupert not to take down the subscription wall," the source said." And now of course, Rupert will put a wall around anything."

The source saw Hinton as part of Murdoch's inner circle, but added that he was not as close to the mogul as Wall Street Journal editor Robert Thomson or Brooks, who took over as the News International chief executive in 2009.

"My sense is that they are not personally close in the way that Robert and Rupert are close," said the source. "But he has Rupert's respect."

A former Dow Jones employee, though, said Murdoch trusts Hinton as much as he trusts Thomson or Brooks, even if their relationship is less public.

"He's very smart, very level-headed, very calm. He makes Rupert see the light on things. Les believes the lower the profile you have, the longer you survive in News Corp. Les is a confidant and Rupert knows that everything Les knows will go to the grave with him," said the source.

QUESTIONS TO ANSWER

That relationship could now be tested as never before.

After his assurances to the parliamentary committee in 2007, Hinton answered further questions in September 2009. Speaking over a video link from New York, the Murdoch lieutenant again sought to convince the members of parliament that all was now right at the British tabloid newspaper.

"There was never any evidence delivered to me that suggested that the conduct of (the single reporter) Clive Goodman spread beyond him ... We went, I promise you, to extraordinary lengths within the News of the World," he said.

Though there were times during the hearing when Hinton's certainty appeared to be cracking -- he used the phrases "I do not recall" or "I do not know" or variations on them at least 55 times -- his faith in the newspaper's internal checks seemed resolute.

Asked whether he should have pushed his editors on "the extent of the inquiry and more details about what had actually been looked into," he replied that he "was happy when I gave evidence to you all two and a half years ago that the answers I gave were sincere and that the efforts made to discover any other wrongdoing had been conscientious and thorough, and I think people worked very hard in very difficult circumstances to both investigate what might have happened and to make sure that it did not happen again."

Those answers could come back to haunt him.

James Murdoch conceded on Thursday that statements had been made to parliament before all the facts of the case were known. "That was wrong," he said, without placing blame on any one person.

At least one of the two inquiries announced by Prime Minister David Cameron is likely to call Hinton, who could face questions not just about phone hacking but also about a payment to Goodman, the News of the World's former royal editor, after the journalist had been jailed.

"He's got lots of questions to answer," Mark Lewis, lawyer for the family of Milly Dowler, the murdered teenager whose voicemail the News of the World allegedly hacked into, told reporters outside the entrance to News International in London. "There is none so blind as those that will not see."

Author Burden believes that Murdoch's desire to protect his beloved Wall Street Journal will help dictate his next moves. "Rupert is very proud of the Wall Street Journal and that's why he wouldn't want to see it being damaged by Les Hinton being smeared," Burden said.

That, said the former Dow Jones employee, might mean Hinton has to fall on his sword: "I wouldn't be surprised if Hinton was the fall guy. He would take one for the team."

In his 2007 appearance before the parliamentary committee, Hinton gave his thoughts on the way his reporters sometimes skirted the line of what was permissible.

"Those lines exist all the time and editors, when they are running aggressive, investigative newspapers, are forever having to judge the wisdom or not of stepping over the line," he said. "And -- do you know what? -- they do not always get it right."

(With additional reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta and Paul Hoskins in London; Editing by Simon Robinson, Michael Williams and Kevin Liffey)

Dow Jones chief under hacking pressure

Les Hinton, chief executive of Dow Jones, is being blamed by people close to News Corp, for failing to get to grips with the News of the World phone hacking scandal when he was in charge of Rupert Murdoch’s UK newspaper group.

Mr Hinton, a loyal Murdoch employee for 52 years who had been expected to retire next year, could become the most senior casualty of the crisis, his friends fear, deflecting blame from James Murdoch, who runs News Corp’s European operations, and Rebekah Brooks, chief executive of News International, which publishes Mr Murdoch’s UK papers.

“Les [Hinton] will be sacrificed to save James and Rebekah,” one person familiar with the company said. “It happened on Les’s watch,” another added: “James was not even a director of News Corp at the time.”

Rupert Murdoch, who arrived in London on Sunday to take charge of the crisis, is facing growing political opposition to his bid for full control of British Sky Broadcasting, but received critical support from News Corp’s largest non-family shareholder.

“This is the time for a loyal shareholder to stand by his friends and allies, the Murdoch family,” Prince Al Waleed bin Talal, chairman of Kingdom Holdings, which owns 7 per cent of the company, told the Financial Times.

“This is a strong alliance. We do not chicken out when we face crisis; we get stronger,“ he said, adding that Mr Murdoch, his son James and Chase Carey, chief operating officer, made “an excellent trio” of managers. He added that he had urged Mr Murdoch for “a dramatic and fast decision” to end the News of the World “mini crisis” and focus on securing BSkyB.

The backing came as David Cameron, the British prime minister, was scrambling to find a way to delay News Corp’s bid after Ed Miliband, the opposition Labour leader, announced Labour would call a parliamentary vote on the matter.

The move was supported by some leading Liberal Democrats, who govern in coalition with Mr Cameron’s Conservatives.

Mr Hinton “has questions to answer” about what he originally reassured a parliamentary committee had been a rigorous internal inquiry in 2007, people close to News Corp said.

That inquiry had involved Colin Myler, editor of the News of the World, Daniel Cloke, News International’s former head of human resources, Tom Crone, general counsel for the News of the World, and Harbottle & Lewis, the law firm, they said.

Mr Hinton declined requests for comment. Mr Hinton may not have seen all the evidence he needed to see in 2007, one person familiar with News International’s new internal inquiry said. Police are expected to ask some News International executives this week to give witness statements. News International had no comment.

Mr Murdoch drove into News International’s Wapping offices for a series of meetings reading the final edition of the News of the World. He was later photographed with his arm around Ms Brooks, telling Reuters she was his first priority before dining with her.

Keith Vaz, home affairs select committee chairman, said John Yates, Scotland Yard Assistant Commissioner, would appear before MPs on Tuesday.

Additional reporting by Ben Fenton and Salamander Davoudi in London

via ft.com

 

Les Hinton, Murdoch's closest advisor faces new questions

via theglobeandmail.com

Les Hinton, Rupert Murdoch’s lifelong lieutenant and closest adviser, faces questions over whether he saw a 2007 internal News International report, which found evidence that phone hacking was more widespread than admitted by the company, before he testified to a parliamentary committee that the practice was limited to a single reporter.News of the existence of the 2007 report – the conclusions of which were kept hidden from the public, MPs and police – came as Mr. Murdoch, chairman and CEO of News Corporation, arrived in Britain to deal directly with the rapidly developing crisis.

The collection of memos that formed the inquiry were sent to the London’s Metropolitan Police earlier this year. This step came after executives who had recently joined News International, News Corp.’s British subsidiary, discovered its existence and sent it to the police team investigating News of the World phone hacking.

Despite the alleged conclusions of the memos, News International executives repeatedly went on the record to say hacking was confined to a single “rogue reporter” – and they gave evidence to Parliament that that was the case.

Mr. Hinton, who at the time ran News International, spoke to the British House of Commons culture committee on March 6, 2007. He was asked whether the News of the World had “carried out a full, rigorous internal inquiry” into phone hacking and whether he was “absolutely convinced” the practice was limited to a single reporter.

The investigation began after Clive Goodman, the News of the World’s former royal editor, and Glenn Mulcaire, its £100,000-a-year private investigator, were jailed for hacking into phones belonging to aides of Prince William and Prince Harry.

The scandal continues to grip Westminster and Scotland Yard. The British government was scrambling to find a way Sunday to postpone a decision on allowing Murdoch full ownership of satellite broadcaster BSkyB without exposing it to a multimillion-pound judicial review, in order to head off an attempt by the opposition Labour party and the Liberal Democrats – U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron’s coalition partner – to force a vote in the British House of Commons.

Labour is threatening to table a motion on Wednesday calling for a delay in the BSkyB deal until after the police inquiries are completed if Mr. Cameron does not take action. Ed Miliband, the Labour Leader, told the BBC: “I say this to the Prime Minister candidly. Over the next 72 hours I hope he changes his position on this because I don’t want to force this to a vote in the House of Commons.

“But I think he’s got to understand that when the public have seen the disgusting revelations that we’ve seen this week the idea that this organization which engaged in these terrible practices should be allowed to get that 100 per cent stake without the criminal investigation being completed and on the basis of assurances from that self-same organization, I’m afraid that won’t wash with the public.“

The political developments came as Mr. Murdoch touched down in London on Sunday to take charge of his media empire's phone-hacking crisis as his best-selling Sunday tabloid, the News of the World, published its last edition.

The 80-year-old News Corp. CEO was seen reading the paper's last issue in a red Range Rover as he was driven to the east London offices of News International. Later, at his London apartment, he met with News International's chief executive, Rebekah Brooks, who led News of the World when its reporters committed some of the most egregious ethical lapses.

Mr. Murdoch has publicly backed Ms. Brooks, who insists she had no knowledge of wrongdoing. He put his hand on her shoulder as they left the residence about an hour after she arrived. They smiled for the pack of photographers and camera crews gathered outside before walking to a nearby hotel for a meal.

In its last edition Sunday, the paper issued a full-page apology.

“We praised high standards, we demanded high standards but, as we are now only too painfully aware, for a period of a few years up to 2006 some who worked for us, or in our name, fell shamefully short of those standards,” the editorial read. “Quite simply, we lost our way.”

Some of the 200 journalists being laid off from News of the World appeared to sneak in their own message to Ms. Brooks, who kept her job.

Clues in one crossword puzzle included “Brook,” “stink,” “catastrophe” and “criminal enterprise.” A second crossword contained the hints “string of recordings” and what many interpreted to be a direct jab at Ms. Brooks: “Woman stares wildly at calamity.”

The answer to that clue? “Disaster.”

Murdoch's big mistake was flaunting his hold on No 10

Murdoch's newspapers have caused offence in most corners of society by embarrassing the Queen, defeating the unions and exposing the infidelities of MPs from all political parties

News International boss Rupert Murdoch arrives in Britain to find himself described publicly as a bully, gangster and ‘media sorcerer with a touch of evil’. In normal circumstances, this would be water off a duck’s back.

Over the past 40 years, Murdoch’s newspapers have caused offence in most corners of society by embarrassing the Queen, defeating the unions and exposing the infidelities of MPs from all political parties.

But this time it’s serious. The phone-hacking scandal that saw the demise of the News of the World yesterday might prevent him taking full control of the BSkyB satellite broadcaster, which is estimated to be worth  £10 billion. The media regulator Ofcom has to decide if the Murdochs are ‘fit and proper’ custodians.

Yesterday — in advance of this week’s Commons emergency debate on whether Murdoch’s ambitions for BSkyB should be thwarted — Labour leader Ed Miliband advised him to drop the bid, at least for the time being.

Even if Miliband loses the  vote on the issue, can David Cameron allow the deal to go through with- out being for ever tarnished as Murdoch’s creature?

Murdoch’s News of the World and his top executives in London — his son James and former NoW editor Rebekah Brooks — might have ridden out the phone-hacking storm if it hadn’t been revealed that the paper had eavesdropped on the mobile phones of murdered teenager Milly Dowler, one of the families of the Soham schoolgirls, as well as relatives of terror bomb victims and dead British soldiers. Or if James Murdoch had handled the crisis more adroitly.

Killing off the paper while preserving Mrs Brooks in her job as chief executive turned out to be a public relations disaster. Especially after it came out that the Murdochs planned to close the fading paper anyway and replace it with a Sun on Sunday.

For years, Rupert Murdoch got his way with Tory and Labour governments. They all kow-towed to him.

Former Tory minister David Mellor recalled on Radio 4 at the weekend that even Margaret Thatcher was in thrall to Rupert — just like Tony Blair and David Cameron. Surely that’s all over now?

But most big newspaper groups — indeed, most big commercial concerns — have access to prime ministers. Murdoch can only be faulted for allowing his political connections to become so obvious by flaunting his access to No 10.

Flying Tony Blair halfway round the world to address Murdoch staff was vulgar. So is Murdoch’s PR son-in-law Matthew Freud ‘high-fiving’ David Cameron when they meet, to demonstrate their closeness.

But is it any worse than George Osborne — then shadow chancellor — schmoozing with Russian oligarchs on a yacht in the Med?

Murdoch’s BSkyB take-over bid looks dead in the water for now, if not for ever. If so, why is it considered such a disaster for the family?

After all, they already control News Corp, a company with a £20 billion turnover making £2 billion profits.

The answer, according to Andreas Whittam Smith, co-founder of the Independent newspaper, is that: ‘If one major publishing territory in the English-speaking world declares that the Murdochs are not fit and proper persons . . . then this will have an international impact.’

Meaning that the family’s control of broadcasting interests in the U.S., Australia and India might also come under pressure — ‘a sort of doomsday machine is operating against them’.

Why strive to become so big in the first place? BBC presenter Evan Davies conducted a discussion on Radio 4 at the weekend about why some companies expand so feverishly. The conclusion: they felt it was necessary; standing still wasn’t an option; rivals might devour their business.

With Murdoch, there is another complicating factor: his desire at the age of 80 to pass on to his children the great media empire he built.

‘The Murdochs may not control all the voting rights of the group [News Corp], but they run it as if they did — it is not a place where shareholders come first,’ says Whittam Smith.

Shareholders are often held up as victims in this way, but they seldom restrain companies, especially when profits are rolling in. Just look at the investors in banks.

BSkyB’s share price rocketed when it looked as if Murdoch was about  to get full control, but plunged  7.6 per cent on Friday after this seemed unlikely.

Murdoch has few friends willing to defend him publicly, but the writer, commentator and Murdoch biographer William Shawcross is one. He points out that without Murdoch’s Wapping revolution and creation of BskyB, our Press and broadcasting would be weaker institutions.

Why should Shawcross defend Murdoch? True, his 1992 biography of Rupert was admiring. Since then, though, Willie has become a towering establishment figure. He was chosen by the Queen to be the Queen Mum’s official biographer, and from the Palace point of view did a fine job.
Murdoch was a Republican who is said to have ‘repented’ his dislike of monarchy. For the Queen’s friends, that might be more important than the ‘phone hacking of his minions, or Rupert’s sequestration of her prime ministers. Might it be that HM thinks as little of them as Rupert does?

 

 

Kate Winslet isn't the actress of whom it was once said: 'She will always keep her clothes on if the part demands it.'

Kate Winslet isn’t the actress of whom it was once said: ‘She will always keep her clothes on if the part demands it.’  But she disrobes again on the new Sky Atlantic mini-series Mildred Pierce, in which she plays a  pie-making single mother in Depression-era America, whose success is marred by her disastrously combative relationship with her daughter.

First, an awkward, trouser-dropping, frock-raising encounter when a chubby colleague of her estranged husband takes advantage of her broken marriage. Then full-on naked sex with her weedy playboy love interest in the series, portrayed by Guy Pearce.

But, at 35, Ms Winslet (above) mitigates charges of vulgarity by looking good and acting brilliantly. Certainly, the nudity and sex scenes are less questionable, taste-wise, than those in The Reader, a film in which she plays a former Nazi death camp guard who, unpunished and living anonymously, enjoys naked romps with a besotted boy.

Ms Winslet said after The Reader: ‘I’ll be 34 in October. I can’t keep getting away with it.’

She’s done it again, though.

 

Right off the stinking rich scale

 

Lord Mandelson once said that New Labour was very relaxed about people becoming rich

The investment banker Nat Rothschild, a friend of Chancellor George Osborne, throws a three-day party in Porto Montenegro for Eurotrash personalities, allegedly costing  £1 million — a nice round figure — to mark his 40th birthday. I wonder how much will be charged to business expenses?

It’s said his ambition is to make the Balkan port a rival to Monte Carlo, the Riviera’s ‘sunny place for shady people’. Given the stink of cronyism at the top of our politics — the effluent of the Murdoch affair — Rothschild couldn’t have expected Osborne to attend, but Labour’s Peter Mandelson (right) was reported to be there. Lord Mandelson once said that New Labour was very relaxed about people becoming rich. So are the Tories. But they used to keep quiet rather than flaunt their friendships with rich creeps on the make.

 

The visit of William and Kate to California was presumably meant to be the highlight of their first foreign tour. But this segment — despite the millions promised for charity — was surely a cynical add-on. In any case, they could have met Stephen Fry in London.
However, I applaud their visit to Santa Barbara, where I lived for a time in the Eighties. It’s easily the nicest town in the U.S., full of amiable, polite Americans of all ages — despite its reputation for being ‘the place retired Americans go to be near their parents’.

Euro laws to drive us spare

The owner of a BMW Z4 writes to a newspaper’s motoring expert about the law requiring the driver to carry spare bulbs prior to a trip to France and Italy, pointing out the bulbs ‘are a job for the dealer, not me’.

Another writes, saying his wife’s VW Touran’s  on-board computer keeps flashing up warnings that the oxygen exhaust level and door mechanisms weren’t working, which took £1,600 to fix.

Reply: ‘All this stuff has been legislated into cars [by the European Union] due to the intensive lobbying of the component manufacturers and the desire of car-makers to profit from replacing parts.’

What will it take to control the EU, or get rid of it altogether — a war?

This set of arrivistes

The so-called Chipping Norton Set, at the centre of the phone-hacking furore, allegedly includes the Prime Minister, Jeremy Clarkson, Rebekah Brooks and the slippery PR man Matthew Freud, husband of Rupert Murdoch’s daughter Elisabeth.

They’re not a ‘set’ in the sense that they’ve existed for a long time, or share the same hopes and dreams. They’re here today, gone tomorrow London arrivistes, who pal up at weekends and have little to do with blameless, bucolic Chipping Norton.

I am reminded of an ancient obituary in the Daily Telegraph of a Midlands personality who, sadly, died in his 30s. He was said to be ‘the blond-haired Adonis of the Market Harborough smart set’. There’s no Adonis or Aphrodite among Chipping Norton’s gruesome gang.

 

Foreign Secretary William Hague was at the celebrations to mark the creation of South Sudan, the new country which is characterised by ‘violence, illiteracy and poverty’, according to news reports. The president is Salva Kiir, who wore a black cowboy hat for the ceremonies.  Not a cheerful portent.

Do get to the points

Energy Secretary Chris Huhne repeated on TV yesterday that he has never asked anyone to take points on their driving licence on his behalf after a speeding offence, although his estranged wife has suggested otherwise.

If it turns out that his memory is faulty, his political career is over. If he says this under oath — and again his memory is faulty — he might go to prison.

If someone close to him said under oath that he did — and they are wrong — they might go to prison if it’s thought they did so maliciously.
Huhne and his estranged wife are clever, accomplished people. They are capable of knowing if he did or didn’t ask someone to take his speeding points. 

Rupert Murdoch is a paper tiger

 

Don't fear Rupert Murdoch

Blaming "the press" for the phone-hacking scandal, as Prime Minister David Cameron did Friday in a press conference, and calling for a new regulatory apparatus to govern the press, which he also did, ignores the obvious: It has been the press—make that the Guardian—that uncovered the phone-hacking scandal, payments by the press to the police, the various cover-ups by the police and Rupert Murdoch's enterprises, the possible destruction of crime evidence, and the obstruction of justice. The press—not the police or a government inquest.

The belief that the U.K. press will magically improve if the government appoints new regulators to replace the current self-regulators who man the Press Complaints Commission* is made laughable by the fact that Cameron personally hired journalist Andy Coulson as his director of communications in 2007, just six months after he resigned as News of the World editor in the wake of the first phone-hacking scandal.

Coulson, as you may have read today, was arrested Friday morning by police investigating illegal payments to police in the phone-hacking affair. He has repeatedly claimed that he knew nothing of the unscrupulous and illegal practices of his editor—who went to jail for his phone-hacking offenses—or of the private detective who helped the paper plunder the voicemail boxes of celebrities. He was forced to leave Cameron's service this past January as news of the phone-hacking scandal made him a political liability.

The revolving door between Rupert Murdoch's house of crime and 10 Downing Street tells us all we need to know about giving the government additional oversight of the press. Cameron, like Tony Blair before him, has proved himself eager to snuggle with Rupert in return for future political support. So if it's the press that's gone corrupt in the U.K., whose fault is it? Murdoch's or that of his allies, Blair and Cameron?

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If the blame falls on both Murdoch and his political allies (that's my view), then the remedy can't be additional government "guidance" of the press. If a firmer regulatory apparatus were already in place in the U.K., what do you suppose would have happened to the Guardian's current investigation as it began to implicate police officers, an adviser to the prime minister, and executives at Murdoch's News Corp. in criminal activity? It would have been spiked, of course.

I've never understood the idea that Rupert Murdoch's support was essential to a stable British government. The notion got started in the Margaret Thatcher era and has informed every election since. Oh, Murdoch's papers have always been capable of causing trouble for politicians who got in their way, but the true source of his power, if you want to call it that, has been his superb political timing. He knew precisely when to withdraw his support from the Conservative Party and mount the Labour Party's Tony Blair and then have his way with Tory leader David Cameron (sexual innuendo intended, thanks!). I can demonstrate similar clout by pointing to the east in the morning and commanding the sun to rise.

That's not the way they see it in the U.K., even now. They ascribe to him superhuman powers, as Peter Oborne writes in the Telegraph today:

The bitter truth is that no major figure in British public life was prepared to take on and expose the Murdoch newspaper empire. Rival proprietors were silent. Senior public figures did not dare to speak out for fear of exposure and attack in the Murdoch newspapers. This is why, for more than a generation, Rupert Murdoch's empire has been a spider at the heart of an intricate web that has poisoned British public life.

This is pure illusion. I find Murdoch to be a paper tiger, all growl and no bite, beyond the occasional paper cut. The Chinese figured this out very quickly in the 1990s, as he volunteered all manner of concessions and favors to the government in return for the right to set up his satellite-TV business in China. They played him for years, and all he got for his troubles was a third wife.

But let's agree for a moment that he was the spider at the heart of the web. Either way, his reign is over. Judging from the headlines coming out of London, the current U.K. scene is as giddy as Romania during the fall of Nicolae Ceausescu. Everybody is reviling the formerly feared genocidal tyrant. The press is speculating that his son James may be prosecuted in the United States under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act for his role in containing the phone-hacking scandal; that former News of the World editor Rebekah Brooks, currently chief executive of News International, is so doomed even Murdoch-supplicant Cameron said today her resignation should be accepted; and that Les Hinton, now the publisher* of Murdoch's Wall Street Journal but the chairman of News International during the phone-hacking years, has now fallen into the scandal "spotlight." Rushing into the building on fire is Rupert Murdoch himself. He's flying to London on Saturday, according to the Financial Times (registration required).

Related in Slate

Read Jack Shafer's past columns on Rupert Murdoch.

If there are anywhere near 4,000 phone-hacking cases, as one senior detective says, Murdoch could be bleeding slowly for as long as he lives. He no longer enjoys the friendship of the people he bought and has learned the hard way that real power is constrained by the truth. Like some discredited god, all the potency once ascribed to him is evaporating. The paper tiger is on fire.

******

I hope this isn't the end of Rupert. Without him, what will I write about? Send suggestions to ")slate.pressbox@gmail.com');. Thanks to my Twitter followers for steering phone-hacking-scandal stories my way. (Email may be quoted by name in "The Fray," Slate's readers' forum; in a future article; or elsewhere unless the writer stipulates otherwise. Permanent disclosure: Slate is owned by the Washington Post Co.)

Track my errors: This hand-built RSS feed will ring every time Slate runs a "Press Box" correction. For email notification of errors in this specific column, type Tiger in the subject head of an email message, and send it to ")slate.pressbox@gmail.com');.

*The original version of this article mistakenly called the Press Complaints Commission the Public Complaints Commission. It also mistakenly stated that Les Hinton is editor of the Wall Street Journal. He is publisher.

News of the World: Rupert Murdoch's tabloid tactics were nothing new

It is Sund ay afternoon, preferably before the war. The wife is already asleep in the armchair, and the children have been sent out for a nice long walk. You put your feet up on the sofa, settle your spectacles on your nose, and open the News of the World. … In these blissful circumstances, what is it that you want to read about? Naturally, about a murder. 

I am not the first person to quote the opening lines from "Decline of the English Murder" this week, and no wonder: George Orwell, who composed that droll little essay in 1946, placed the now-defunct News of the World in its historical and cultural context as no one else could. Orwell's mid-20^th-century British tabloid reader first eats a lunch of "roast pork and apple sauce, followed up by suet pudding." Then he settles down to drink tea and r ead sc andalous stories, preferably involving the "chairman of the local Conservative Party branch," a "strong Temperance advocate," or someone equally respectable. British tabloid readers spent many Sunday afternoons that way in the decades before Orwell wrote those words. They have gone on doing so ever since. 

Over the next few days, many pundits will lament the decline of the press, the rise of sensationalism, and the rampant commercialism that led News of the World reporters to hack into the telephone voicemail accounts of murdered schoolgirls, divorcing celebrities, and grieving parents. But in truth, there is nothing new about any of this. Although the technology has changed, the practices in question—paying the police for stories; the use of subterfuge to obtain personal information; the persecution of celebrities, politicians, or victims of violence—are, in the tabloid world, very old. Certainly they predate Orwell.

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Until now, no one has been especially shocked by them. I worked for British newspapers in the early 1990s and remember very clearly the lack of surprise when transcripts of private telephone conversations between Diana, the princess of Wales, and her lover were made public, followed by transcripts of private telephone conversations between the prince of Wales and his lover. Nobody ever quite got to the bottom of either story. Some versions said that they came from ham radio operators, who picked them up by accident. Other versions said they came from MI5, Britain's internal security service.

Either way, they wound up in print, in tabloid newspapers that surely paid somebody for them. Either way, the recordings were illegal. But few cared at the time. The prince and princess of Wales were rich and famous, the public enjoyed watching them squirm, so why should they be allowed to have private conversations?

Nobody seemed especially bothered by police collusion with tabloid reporters, either. Also in the early 1990s, British criminal detectives searched the house of an acquaintance of mine. They confiscated documents as well as private photographs. Later, a few of those photographs appeared in the press, even though they had no relevance to the case. Nobody I knew seemed especially bothered by this. My acquaintance was a well-connected person on his way to jail, so why should he be allowed to control his wife's private pictures?

In its essence, this scandal is no different. Although one London journalist told me last week that an "important line was crossed" when the News of the World accessed the voicemail of Milly Dowler, a murdered teenage girl, I just don't see why. It's true that some of Dowler's voicemails were deleted, but once you've established the practice of hacking phones—and some 4,000 appear to have been hacked by the News of the World—this surely must seem, to the hackers, like a very minor additional transgression. After all, Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator who hacked Dowler's telephone, was acting out of precisely the same motives as the spooks who recorded Charles and Camilla or the police officers who search private houses looking for private pictures. All were in search of information that they intended to sell. And all knew very well that there would be plenty of willing buyers, whether at the News of the World, the Sun, the Daily Express, the Daily Mirror, the Daily Mail—or even at the grander offices of "up-market" newspapers, many of which (we may soon discover) may also have been eager purchasers of illegally obtained information.

And yet—they were in the market because they knew there was a demand. Here is the bottom line: British newspapers pay the police for scandal because the British newspaper-reading public has such an enormous appetite for scandal—especially scandals that bring down the rich and respectable. Here is the irony: The downfall of the News of the World fits this narrative beautifully. And here is a prediction: The public apologies of its owner, Rupert Murdoch, and the public humiliation of News International's chief executive, Rebekah Brooks, are going to please the British newspaper-reading public more than anything else it has read in a very, very long time.

Murdoch flies to UK as the News of the World Tabloid dies and Scandal lives

Rupert Murdoch touched down in London on Sunday to take charge of his media empire's phone-hacking crisis as his best-selling Sunday tabloid, the News of the World, published its last. The scandal lives on despite his sacrifice of the 168-year-old paper at the heart of it.

The scrapping of the News of the World has not tempered British anger over improprieties by journalists working for Murdoch, and his $19 billion deal to take full control of satellite broadcaster British Sky Broadcasting remains in jeopardy.

The 80-year-old News Corp. CEO was seen reading the paper's last issue in a red Range Rover as he was driven to the east London offices of his U.K. newspaper division, News International. Later, at his London apartment, he met with News International's chief executive, Rebekah Brooks, who led News of the World when its reporters committed some of the most egregrious ethical lapses.

Murdoch has publicly backed Brooks, who insists she had no knowledge of wrongdoing. He put his hand on her shoulder as they left the residence about an hour after she arrived; they smiled for the pack of photographers and camera crews gathered outside before walking to a nearby hotel for a meal.

The drama gripping media watchers in Britain and beyond has expanded at breakneck pace following allegations News of the World journalists paid police for information and hacked into the voicemails of young murder victims and the grieving families of dead soldiers. Three people have been arrested, including Prime Minister David Cameron's former communications chief.

In its last edition Sunday, the paper issued a full-page apology.

"We praised high standards, we demanded high standards but, as we are now only too painfully aware, for a period of a few years up to 2006 some who worked for us, or in our name, fell shamefully short of those standards," the editorial read. "Quite simply, we lost our way."

Some of the 200 journalists being laid off from News of the World appeared to sneak in their own message to Brooks, who kept her job.

The paper's demise does not end the questions surrounding Murdoch's media conglomerate, which has been hugely influential in British politics for years. Chief among them: What did Murdoch, Brooks and other executives know about the actions of News of the World journalists?

The Guardian newspaper reported Sunday that emails and memos from 2007 only recently turned over to police indicate News International was aware that phone hacking was more widespread than publicly acknowledged. The BBC reported that News International had found emails at the same time period that suggested payments were being made to police for information.

Closing down the News of the World was seen by some as a desperate attempt to stem negative fallout from the hacking scandal and thus save Murdoch's 12 billion-pound ($19 billion) to get full ownership of BSkyB, which he already holds a stake in. The British government has signaled that deal will be delayed because of the crisis.

Britain's opposition leader Ed Miliband warned that a Murdoch takeover of BSkyB should not be allowed while a phone-hacking investigation is ongoing, and he vowed to push for a parliamentary vote if Prime Minister David Cameron fails to act.

"When the public have seen the disgusting revelations that we have seen this week, the idea that this organization, which engaged in these terrible practices, should be allowed to take over BSkyB, to get that 100 percent stake, without the criminal investigation having been completed...frankly that just won't wash with the public," he told the BBC.

The scandal exploded this week after it was reported that News of the World had hacked the mobile phone of 13-year-old murder victim Milly Dowler in 2002 while her family and police were desperately searching for her. News of the World operatives reportedly deleted some messages from the phone's voicemail, giving the girl's parents false hope that she was still alive.

Brooks told lawmakers she had "no knowledge whatsoever" of the Milly Dowler hacking or any other case while she was editor, according to a letter published by Britain's home affairs select committee on Saturday. But in addition to calling for her ouster, many journalists and media watchers wonder if she might be the next focus in an ongoing police investigation.

The developments have turned up the heat on Britain's media industry amid concerns a police investigation won't stop with the News of the World, and cast new scrutiny on the relationship between British politicians and the tabloid press.

Buying the News of the World in 1969 gave the Australian-born Murdoch his first foothold in Britain's media. He went on to snap up several other titles, gaining almost unparalleled influence in British politics.

Cameron has conceded that politicians developed too cozy a relationship with the tabloid press, and has called for a new media regulation system and pledged a public inquiry into what went wrong. His former communications chief, Andy Coulson, is an ex-editor of the News of the World and was one of three men arrested last week as part of a police investigation into the phone-hacking and corruption allegations.

Police themselves also are a focus of criticism, not just for the corruption that allowed journalists to access to cell phone data, but for an initial, failed investigation into the hacking.

As the News of the World's final issue went to press, Assistant Police Commissioner John Yates expressed his "extreme regret" that he did not act to reopen police inquiries into phone hacking two years ago. In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph, he said "it's clear I could have done more."

Yates will give evidence to Parliament in the coming days.

via apnews.excite.com