Rebekah Brooks, Witness for the Prosecution

By Michael Collins

Criminal charges against Rupert Murdoch insider and favorite Rebekah Brooks may be a prelude to looming charges arising out of Brooks’ testimony before the Leveson Inquiry last week.

Crown Prosecution Services charged Brooks, her husband, and four others with conspiracy to pervert the course of justice on Tuesday May 15. The alleged conspiracy took place between July 6 and July 19, 2011.

Brooks and the co-conspirators concealed and removed materials sought by police in their investigation of phone hacking by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation subsidiary, News International, according to prosecutors. Brooks resigned as chief executive officer of the subsidiary on July 15, 2011. (Image: SnowViolent)

Brooks’ current legal troubles should not obscure the significance of her testimony before the Leveson Inquiry last week. During her several hours on the witness stand, she was confronted with an explosive email that, if true, implicates Conservative Party Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt in a conspiracy to pervert the British regulatory process in favor of News Corporation’s bid to acquire the ten-million-subscriber pay TV company BSkyB.  News Corp owns 39% of the company.  It sought the remaining 61%. Read the rest of this entry »

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Germans say NO to austerity – Curtain falling on Merkel’s long Con


Angela Merkel is a pleasant practitioner of the art of suffering. She loves to share the crackpot notion that belt-tightening in times of Depression represents sound policy. Reminds me of Krugman’s statement of shock when, at a gathering of academic economists, he realized that about 1/2 of them knew little about John Manyard Keynes. Now Merkel is getting another message from the German public (this happened a few years ago but this is harsher).

Merkel’s party humiliated by shock election defeat
German voters reject austerity programme in favour of pro-growth opposition in state poll Tony Paterson, May 14, Berlin  The Independent

“Angela Merkel’s ruling conservatives suffered a humiliating defeat in key elections in Germany’s most populous state yesterday when voters rejected her party’s austerity policies and handed a resounding victory to her pro-growth Social Democratic Party opponents.

“Ms Merkel’s Christian Democrats were shell-shocked by the devastating result they returned in the poll in North Rhine Westphalia, which has a total population of 18 million. Exit polls showed that they secured a mere 25.5 per cent of the vote – their worst performance ever in the state.

“Germany’s conservative Environment Minister, Norbert Röttgen, the party’s candidate in the election, had mounted a vigorous campaign centred on Ms Merkel’s austerity policies, which aimed to cut the state’s €230 billion debt.

The conservatives in Germany deserve more than just electoral humiliation.  Look how they are visiting total humiliation on Greece, Spain, and Portugal.  Have no sympathy for these arrogant penny pinchers:

“Today is a very bitter day,” Mr Röttgen conceded last night. “We have been clearly defeated.” Read the rest of this entry »

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Independent Australia Net – The Kiss of Rupert Murdoch

From Australia’s free thinking media voice, Independent Australia Net. They enhanced and published my latest article on Murdoch – Rupert Watch – the Kiss of Death. Several outstanding videos were added by the editors that show the dangers of dealing with Murdoch (as Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt found out today via Murdoch fav Rebekah Brooks).

The kiss of Rupert Murdoch
By Michael Collins

Posted by admin in International, Media on 10 May, 2012 12:01 am

As British Prime Minister David Cameron will soon find out, says Michael Collins, doing business with Rupert Murdoch can often be the kiss of death.

 

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The British don’t like anyone (or any party)

A FOURTH WAY?

The Independent did a poll in late April of 2000 citizens. The results show that the three parties and their leaders are in bad shape in the public eye. The ruling Conservative-Liberal Democratic Coalition’s popularity is dreadful. Only 27% like both the Conservative Party and its leader PM David Cameron. Liberal Democrats poll only 18% for the same questions. You’d think that Labour would benefit but the leader, Ed Miliband drags down the combined endorsement. Only 16% of the public like both Labour and Miliband.

Cameron is a failure on the economy and a BLiar lite war monger. Liberal Democrat Clegg jumped into bed with the Conservatives to become faux Deputy PM in the coalition government. People know who he is. Miliband is politically nondescript and opposed a robust investigation of BLiar’s illegal Iraq invasion.

 

Who will step forward and lead in this time of crisis?  An easy answer is – none of the above.

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Greece left with mandate to create government says NO to bailout terms and illegal debt

By Michael Collins

Wall Streeters, big banks, and their proxies in political office are all reaching for the Xanax tonight.  The Greek left, led by Alexis Tsipras, is saying that there’s no obligation to pay back the rotten deal handed down to the Greek people.  (Image: Oneiros)

“After accepting a mandate to create a multiparty administration following inconclusive elections, Alexis Tsipras sent shock waves through financial markets by announcing the pledges Athens had made to secure rescue funds from the EU and IMF were null and void.

“The popular verdict clearly renders the bailout deal null,” said the politician, whose stridently anti-austerity coalition of the radical left, known as Syriza, sprung the surprise of the weekend’s poll, coming in second with 16.8% of the vote. “This is an historic moment for the left and the popular movement and a great responsibility for me.”  Guardian, May 8, 2012

And what does this mean?

“Alarm in EU capitals is growing, with Germany in particular emphasising that Greece must stick with the terms of the agreements it has signed with lenders who have committed themselves to give a total of €240bn to the crisis-hit country.

“The prospect of protracted political instability has stoked fears that Greece is not just teetering on a political precipice but also laying the ground, however unwittingly, for its own euro exit.”  Guardian, May 8, 201

The Greek left saying that the people are not obligated to pay the debt created by their leaders and Goldman in back rooms in Greece and elsewhere.

“As in the American subprime crisis and the implosion of the American International Group, financial derivatives played a role in the run-up of Greek debt. Instruments developed by Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and a wide range of other banks enabled politicians to mask additional borrowing in Greece, Italy and possibly elsewhere.

“In dozens of deals across the Continent, banks provided cash upfront in return for government payments in the future, with those liabilities then left off the books. Greece, for example, traded away the rights to airport fees and lottery proceeds in years to come.”   New York Times, February 13, 2010

A debt created through illegal means is not a debt at all.  That is the basic argument.  How can the people be obligated to pay (and suffer) for what their leaders did in secret with Wall Street?

The Germans are whining.  German Chancellor Angela Merkel may need another of those George W. Bush (remember him) back rubs.

Time to liberate ourselves from this useless charade of bogus debt created by the ultimate criminal class, the type that steal everything that isn’ nailed down and are freed to do it again and again … financed with bailouts from we the people.

END

This article may be reproduced with attribution of authorship and a link to this article.

The Money Party

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Obama embraces populist themes in Ohio

By Michael Collins

When you take the right side, style trumps substance every time in politics. President Obama was on fire Saturday in Columbus, Ohio, hammering home populist themes that will define his campaign. This was his campaign kick-off. He couldn’t have done a better job of stating his case as the candidate of the people, while painting Romney as the darling of The Money Party (Wall Street, big banks).

PRESIDENT OBAMA: The problem with our economy isn’t that the American people aren’t productive enough — you’ve been working harder than ever.  The challenge we face right now — the challenge we faced for over a decade is that harder work hasn’t led to higher incomes.  It’s that bigger profits haven’t led to better jobs. President Obama (Full text of Obama’s remarks, Columbus, Ohio, May 5, 2012)

It’s not your fault the president tells us, which happens to be absolutely correct. Then he nailed Romney:

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Governor Romney doesn’t seem to get that.  He doesn’t seem to understand that maximizing profits by whatever means necessary — whether through layoffs or outsourcing or tax avoidance or union-busting — might not always be good for the average American or for the American economy. Pres. Obama May 5

See the video from the Guardian. It will show you just how focused Obama is at this point.

This is classic populism and well done at that. Based on his record, I doubt this but that’s not the point here. Obama is showing that he’s an all-time big game player in the same league as Bob Gibson, Kenny Stabler, Magic Johnson, and Larry Bird. This is when it counts and Obama is in outstanding form. Read the rest of this entry »

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Connecting the Dots on May 5 – Climate Change and Extreme Weather

350.org organized “Connect the Dots” on Saturday May 5, 2012.  People all over the world generated local events to connect the dots between climate change and extreme weather. Droughts, floods, hurricanes, seasonal change, etc. are a function of accelerating and damaging climate change.

Headed by Bill McKibben, 350.0rg runs “online campaigns, grassroots organizing, and mass public actions … led from the bottom up by people in 188 countries.”

If the rulers won’t deal with the problem, the people will.

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Australian Media Regulators Looking into Murdoch’s “Fitness”

The first crack in Rupert Murdoch’s political facade in Australia occurred Friday, May 4.   The Australian Media and Communications Authority (ACMA) announced it was looking closely at the House of Commons committee report that declared Murdoch unfit to run an international business.   ACMA licenses and regulates television broadcasting, digital communication, and radio frequency allocation.

Rupert Murdoch controls 70% of the newspaper market in Australia.  He has major interests in the Foxtel pay TV network.  And his political influence in Australia is even greater than in Great Britain and the United States.

The Australian Communication and Media Authority (ACMA) is reviewing the British parliamentary committee report which described News Corporation chairman Rupert Murdoch as ‘not fit’ to lead an international company.

The explosive findings also suggested that former chief executive James Murdoch was wilfully ignorant of the extent of the practice of phone hacking at the now-defunct News of the World. News Corporation released a statement on Tuesday accepting the report, while rejecting some of its “unjustified and highly partisan” commentary.   Murdoch report: ACMA and US Senate enter the fray, May 4

This is the first sign of any potential challenge to Murdoch’s authority in his former homeland.   Despite a heavily documented expose of alleged pay TV hacking and piracy published by the Australian Financial Review, Australian competition regulators gave approval for a Foxtel (Murdoch controls it) acquisition of a competitor (AUSTAR)  that it is alleged Murdoch’s firm hacked.

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When was the last time a legislative body denounced any business leader by name?

By Michael Collins

May Day!  How remarkable (even though Rupert Murdoch was denounced by a committee of the House of Commons, not the entire body).   Murdoch is “not a fit person” to run “a major international company,” we were told in a report released by the Commons’ committee investigating phone hacking on May 1).  He may not be unbalanced, as Murdoch  recently characterized former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, but he’s certainly not fit.  (Image)

Here’s some of what this means:

1)  There’s no way Murdoch will survive the regulatory investigation on his ownership of media in Great Britain..  One of Ofcom’s charters (the regulatory body) is to determine if Murdoch is a “fit and proper” person to own BSkyB and other British media properties.
2)  When it looks like Murdoch has to divest the 39% News Corp interest in the highly profitable BSkyB pay TV network, institutional shareholders will Kirk out!  The Sky enterprise amounted to 20% plus of News Corp’s 2011 profits.  Oops!
3)   Murdoch won’t go gentle into the dark night.  He will become increasingly irrational as seen in his sting operation against his once loyal servant David Cameron.  It is fair to assume that he’s got more dirt on public officials than J. Edgar ever had … and he’ll start using it.
4)  Murdoch will retain the continued loyalty of the News Corp board (see members listed below).  After the release of the condemnation by the Commons committee, Murdoch’s board released a statement expressing “full confidence in Rupert Murdoch’s fitness and support for his continuing to lead News Corporation into the future as its Chairman and CEO.”
5) Murdoch may get the bums rush out of News Corp as a result of an institutional investor like the Christian Brothers Investment Services which has said it would ask the SEC to change the voting rights of shareholders (Murdoch has outsized representation in voting shares).

Read the rest of this entry »

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Murdoch Watch – the Kiss of Death

By Michael Collins

When things don’t work out, doing business with Murdoch can be the kiss of death.

No matter how hard you try, how loyal you are, if something goes wrong, you can be sure it will be your fault.

Reporting has failed to lay the proper foundation for understanding Rupert Murdoch’s remarkable testimony before the Leveson Inquiry in London and his behavior of late.

Rupert Murdoch is a nihilist.

Murdoch’s television outlets in the United States stoked the fires for the 2003 invasion of Iraq based on outrageous misrepresentations like the idea that Saddam Hussein was responsible for the 9/11 attacks. The war cost tens of thousands of dead and seriously injured U.S. soldiers, several hundred thousand dead Iraqi civilians, and $3 trillion. (Image: acb)

Last summer, Murdoch went full throttle to support Republicans in the U.S. Congress as they fabricated a debt ceiling crisis that seriously damaged the credit rating of the United States of America.

Murdoch’s support of the Tea Party created an utterly irrational voice in U.S. politics that prevents even the most modest necessary reforms. Created by right wing lobbyists, this pseudo party blocks every vital project, from reviving the economy to an effective, coordinated response to the crisis created by climate change.

In the nations occupied by his multinational media empire Murdoch takes the path of maximum damage to the public and governance.
Read the rest of this entry »

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US shareholders troubled by Murdoch testimony – begining of the end


US shareholders worry testimony raises new questions and poses threats to other areas of company’s media empire

Dominic Rushe and Jill Treanor
The Guardian

Thursday 26 April 2012 14.19 EDT

Advisers to News Corporation shareholders say they are “deeply troubled” by the performances of Rupert and James Murdoch at the Leveson inquiry into media ethics.

US shareholders are said to be worried that the Murdochs’ testimony this week has raised new questions about the management of the company and posed potential threats to other areas of its media empire.

Michael Pryce-Jones, senior policy analyst with Change To Win (CtW), a US advisory group that works with pension funds with over $200bn in assets, said the Murdochs’ testimony raised two immediate concerns for shareholders: the future of the firm’s control of broadcaster BSkyB and the ethics of top management.

“The big question is what does this mean for BSkyB,” he said. “Sky is one of their best assets.”

See: Murdoch watch – apocalypse when? and Murdoch watch – signaling the end

by Michael Collins

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independentaustralia.net – The Sky falling on the fox

(How gratifying! An independent Australian web site republished my story on Murdoch and BSkyB. The original was published on the 22nd but this was perfect tming given the revelations today at the Leveson hearings about Murdoch influence over the Cameron government actions on BSkyB.)


The Sky falling on the fox
independentaustralia.net, April 24

Rupert Murdoch’s grip on News Corporation hinges on whether British regulators decide he is a fit and proper person to own cable giant BSkyB. Michael Collins reports.

Rupert Murdoch’s reign over the $33 billion News Corporation hinges on events surrounding the company’s ownership share of Britain’s dominant pay TV network, BSkyB (Sky). As Business Insider said, “it’s the only asset that really matters” in the News Corp collection of media properties.

Link: http://www.independentaustralia.net/2012/business/media-2/the-sky-falling-on-the-fox/

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