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Posts Tagged BSkyB

Rebekah Brooks, Witness for the Prosecution

May 17

Posted by Michael Collins in Big Money, Corruption, Murdoch, Phone Hacking, United Kingdom | Comments off

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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Murdoch Watch – the Kiss of Death

May 2

Posted by Michael Collins in Big Money, Censorship, Corruption, Murdoch, News Corporation | Comments off

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.
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Rupert watch – signaling the end

Apr 22

Posted by Michael Collins in Big Money, Corruption | Comments off

By Michael Collins

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.

As a result of Murdoch scandals, News Corp lost the chance to buy 100% of Sky’s shares. More troubling for the media monarch, the company may lose the 39% interest it already holds if British regulators determine that Murdoch is not a fit and proper owner. This would fuel the major News Corp shareholder suits in Delaware and New York that seek to remove Murdoch as board chairman and vastly diminish his power and that of his family and cronies.

Sky reaches 25 million viewers in 10 million homes. Revenues are growing at 10% a year with adjusted operating profit growth averaging around 16% of revenues  (see 2009 through 2011). Revenues from 2012 through 2016 should top $70 billion total with adjusted operating profits around $11 billion. What happens with Sky really matters. Read the rest of this entry »

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Where’s the criminal investigation of the Murdoch Empire? Shareholders to the rescue

Apr 4

Posted by Michael Collins in Big Money, Corruption, News Corporation | Comments off

By Michael Collins

There was something tawdry and disgusting about the phone hacking by Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World.  The News Corporation owned tabloid hacked the phone mails of several thousand citizens of Great Britain.  Victims included celebrities, politicians, and even a murdered eleven year old kidnap victim.

But that wasn’t enough to generate type of criminal investigation of News Corporation that would topple Rupert Murdoch and his clan from the throne of the $30 billion News Corporation.

The current revelations of cable television hacking, laid out in detail by Australia’s Financial Review and the BBC, provide a more concrete connection between outright criminality and the Murdoch run media giant.  This alleged criminal behavior involves hackers on the payroll of a former Murdoch controlled Israel based company, NDS, and the demise of cable television competitors in Great Britain, the United States, and Australia due to that activity.

These allegations are reinvigorating the institutional shareholders revolt that may be the end of the Murdoch clan’s control of News Corporation. Read the rest of this entry »

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Ray Adams is the man in the lastest Murdoch scandal

Mar 29

Posted by Michael Collins in Big Money, Corruption, Wall St | Comments off

By Michael Collins

Ray Adams is a name you will hear more frequently as the latest and perhaps most fatal Murdoch – News Corp. scandal emerges.

When Murdoch was setting up his BSKYB cable network in England, he had some serious competition.  ITV had a digital service called ITV Digital.  The British broadcaster was prepared to go head to head with Murdoch’s network.  As the services rolled out, ITV Digital became subject to furious hacker attacks.  The hackers broke the ITV  encryption code and distributed it widely allowing so many people to get free ITV service, the venture failed, largely due to the piracy of its service, and Murdoch had a clean road to mega profits with BSKYB.

The BBC’s Panorama television show broke a story (not yet available in the United States) accusing a Murdoch owned firm, NDS, of hiring hackers to break the ITV code, thus sabotaging the Murdoch competitor.  The rest is history and huge profits.  BSKYB is the dominant British cable network.  It’s spreading throughout Europe.

During the time ITV was hacked out of existence, Ray Adams was the head of operational security for NDS.  The firm hired hackers to anticipate and check security problems with its own encryption system.  But there’s more.  Reports from Great Britain and Australia document NDS using hackers to target rivals.  Australia’s Financial Review just broke a well document story outlining the same pattern of hacking behavior by NDS in behalf of Murdoch cable operations there.  The publication documented the story with 10,000 emails it received from, you guessed it, the computer of Ray Adams. Read the rest of this entry »

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Murdoch in Free Fall – Credibility Gone Billions to Follow

Aug 20

Posted by Michael Collins in Big Money, Corruption, Wall St | Comments off

Rupert and James Murdoch conjured up a fictional report that serves as the fig leaf used to cover the naughty secret of News Corporation –- they never investigated phone hacking in general and they never tried to clean house.

The House of Commons committee investigating Rupert Murdoch’s United Kingdom media properties released new evidence this week. The evidence elaborates on themes generated at the committee hearing of July 19 and adds new information to the toxic brew that threatens to drown the largest media company in the world. (Images: Hubert Burda Media, L, World Economic Forum)

At the July 19 hearing of the House of Commons Media, Sport and Culture Committee (Commons committee), Member of Parliament (MP) Tom Watson asked both Rupert and his son James Murdoch if either was aware of the “for Neville” memo concerning the 2008 phone hacking settlement by the News of the World (NoW). The Murdoch paper’s on-staff private detective, Glenn Mulcaire, was caught tapping the voicemail of Gordon Taylor, chief executive of the Professional Footballers Association.

Rupert and James Murdoch both denied any knowledge of the memo prior to the extraordinary £725,000 out of court settlement of the Taylor suit.
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Running Rupert to Ground – Vox Populi, Vox Dei

Jul 18

Posted by Michael Collins in Big Money, Corruption, Criminal Justice | 1 Comment

By Michael Collins

How will they get rid of Rupert Murdoch and his toxic enterprises?

July 4, 2011 may turn into the people’s Independence Day.  On that day, stellar journalist Nick Davies of the Guardian released his story; Missing Milly Dowler’s voicemail was hacked by News of the World.  Twelve year old Milly Dowler had been kidnapped with foul play feared.  The Murdoch tabloid couldn’t resist.  News of the World (the News) hired a private detective to hack Milly’s voicemail.  Finding the mail box full, the News or its hired dick deleted existing messages to make room for new ones, all to fuel their ongoing coverage.  The deleted messages raised hopes by Milly’s parents that she was still alive and using her voicemail. (Image)

The Davies story elicited a reaction of near universal shock, outrage, and revulsion.  Milly had already been murdered by the time the Murdoch paper began its illegal tapping.

The public revulsion resulted in immediate and fervent popular demands for justice.  Those demands were compounded by follow-up stories on other Murdoch media hacking.  As it turned out, the News also broke into the voicemails of war widows to capture their most intimate exchanges on the loss of fallen soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq.   All in all, at least 4,000 citizens had their voicemails hacked to boost the Murdoch publication’s circulation and profits.
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