Why This Murdoch Scandal Won't Disappear

[babylonsister]

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-07-12/why-this-murdoch-scandal-wont-disappear/full/


Why This Murdoch Scandal Won't Disappear

by Richard Heller


An angry parliament and hungry lawyers are likely to keep Rupert Murdoch’s phone-hacking scandal in the headlines and, Richard Heller writes, force Britain’s pols to stand up to the media baron.


If any story could strike terror into the leaders of Britain’s two major political parties, it would be: MURDOCH NEWSPAPERS ACCUSED OF CRIME SPREE.

And it happened last week, when revealed a £1 million ($1.54 million) legal settlement by News International (Murdoch’s UK newspaper company) for illegally intercepting telephone voicemails of Gordon Taylor, head of England’s Professional Football Players association, and of his legal adviser. The Guardian also accused Murdoch’s newspapers—the weekday Sun and its Sunday stablemate The News Of The World—of obtaining information by criminal means from 3,000 other people.

The terror of Rupert Murdoch has dominated British politics for around 25 years. Even Mrs. Thatcher, famous for her resolute defense of free enterprise, personally refused to enforce anti-monopoloy laws in newspapers and television for the benefit of the owner of The Sun, News of the World, The Times, and Sunday Times. Since then every leader of each major party has been Mr Murdoch’s eager courtier. Tony Blair set the style of the relationship in his first year as leader of the Labour party, when he dashed halfway across the world to speak to Mr Murdoch’s executives on a holiday island in Australia. (In return Mr. Murdoch was gracious enough to praise Blair for his courage). In his first year as Prime Minister, Blair made a personal call to the then Italian Prime Minister, Romano Prodi, to help Mr Murdoch’s bid for the Mediaset–the first time in history that a British Prime Minister has helped a non-British company to make a non-British acquisition.

Gordon Brown followed suit by courting Mr Murdoch’s economic guru, Irwin Steltzer, nervously awaiting the latter’s verdicts on his handling of the British economy like a schoolboy hoping for a good report card from the principal. It was most clearly seen when both the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the Conservative opposition leader, David Cameron, were desperately eager to attend the recent wedding of Sun editor Rebekah Wade, who is shortly to become chief executive of Murdoch’s British newspaper empire.

snip//

The Guardian story could, just possibly, force Britain’s major parties to face up to Rupert Murdoch after 25 years of subservience.

[Berry Cool]

1. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy! n/t

[Buzz Clik]

2. Meh. Nothing a little money and some good press won't fix.

They're still politicians, and politicians can be purchased.

[Exultant Democracy]

3. If he tapped phones in the UK you better bet he tapped phones here too. I wonder how many congress

people he has under his thumb right now because of dirty that he found.