Posts Tagged News Corp

Rupert Watch, Tony Blair Lying at the Leveson Inquiry

By Michael Collins

(Washington, 5/28/2012) Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair testified before the Leveson Inquiry today. He retains that familiar fatuous exuberance for failed policies and continues to deny the deadly lies he told in over a decade as Prime Minister. He was, as always, quite literally unbearable.(Image: Niecieden)

President George W. Bush had major problems selling his disastrous invasion plans for Iraq. The public smelled a rat. Strong majorities of both Democrats and Republicans opposed a preemptive invasion without confirmation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) by UN inspectors. That was during December 2002 and January 2003. Bush needed something special to push his diabolic plan over the top.

Blair’s government released two fraudulent intelligence papers during the critical period just before the March 2003 Iraq invasion, the September 2002 report and the Iraq or Dodgy Dossier in early February 2003. Rupert Murdoch’s media cartel led the charge for war. He headlined stories about both bogus reports including the outrageous claim that Iraq could launch chemical weapons at the invaders within 45 minutes of an attack and the big lie about Iraq seeking uranium from Niger to develop nuclear weapons.

Blair and Murdoch worked together to provide Bush with the credibility to tell the most disastrous lie ever told by a president:

“The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.” George W. Bush, State of the Union, January 29, 2003 Read the rest of this entry »

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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).

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News Corp faces proxy call for independent chairman: Reuters


Reuters
By Ross Kerber and Aruna Viswanatha BOSTON | Mon Apr 2, 2012

News Corp faces a call to appoint an independent board chairman on concerns Rupert Murdoch’s media company needs to pursue more reforms to deal with its phone-hacking scandal and other issues.

The proxy proposal, filed by Christian Brothers Investment Services, is likely to fan an ongoing controversy over governance at the company.

Although unlikely to get a majority of votes, the nonbinding resolution filed last month could put pressure on the board to remove Murdoch, currently News Corp’s chief executive, from his other role as chairman of the company, the sponsor said.

With current arrangements, the company is “stepping into the scandal with a flawed corporate governance structure,” Julie Tanner, who oversees socially responsible investing at Christian Brothers in New York, said in a telephone interview.

Murdoch, Sons Draw Substantial Negative Vote, ABC News, October 25, 2011

Cristain Brothers Investment Services (CBIS) Files Resolution on Separation of Chair and CEO at News Corp Read the rest of this entry »

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