Murdoch could lose big

Written By: - Date published: 6:14 pm, July 7th, 2011 - 47 comments
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The phone-hacking story in England is not only out from under the carpet – it has gone ballistic. Fresh allegations are surfacing hourly, and it gets worse – now there are allegations of the phones of families of slain soldiers being hacked. Rupert Murdoch has been used to having politicians beating a path to his door, but the fallout from the scandal is now hitting his pocket. Major advertisers are deserting his papers, his share prices are dropping, and now there are signs that his takeover of BSkyB, the big prize, may be under threat. Comeuppance at long last, and where it hurts – couldn’t happen to a nicer chap. Cameron won’t escape either – he and Clegg are at odds over the scope of an enquiry.

47 comments on “Murdoch could lose big ”

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  1. Colonial Viper 1
    7 July 2011 at 6:42 pm

    Murdoch has with his MSM done more damage to the Left than any other single billionaire around.

  2. ianupnorth 2
    7 July 2011 at 6:47 pm

    You couldn’t make this stuff up
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jul/06/news-of-the-world-rebekah-brooks
    and Murdoch is backing his former editor
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jul/06/rupert-murdoch-rebekah-brooks-phone-hacking?intcmp=239
    They have also set up this interesting graphic to illustrate how much the NOTW takes in advertising revenue
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/jul/06/news-of-the-world-top-50-advertisers-spend

  4. deemac 4
    7 July 2011 at 9:31 pm

    my UK sources tell me that the Sun and the Times were being given away free at London tube stations today – and people were refusing to take them.

    • Frank Macskasy 4.1
      7 July 2011 at 11:12 pm

      Perhaps our British cousins are waking up to the reality of tabloid journalism…

    • rosy 4.2
      8 July 2011 at 5:33 am

      Well that’s the News of the World gone…. but it’s not enough. It appears to be damage control so it doesn’t interfere with the takeover of BSkyB.

      200 people have lost their jobs but the editor that was in charge when 13 year-old Milly Dowler’s phone was hacked, leading her parents to believe she might be alive after she ad been murdered, is in charge of the News International internal investigation. Rebekah Brooks needs to do the right thing.

    • Vicky32 4.3
      9 July 2011 at 2:13 am

      and people were refusing to take them.

      Excellent!

  5. Tigger 5
    8 July 2011 at 6:53 am

    Funny to see articles referring to ‘acceptable’ phone hacking just because they were cheating pop stars etc… Let’s be clear, it wasn’t.

  6. ropata 6
    8 July 2011 at 7:57 am

    A classic rant: “Michael Moore Says Capitalism Killed Newspaper Industry”
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFkbShik1L0

    Moore said that newspapers, bought up by corporations in the last generation, have pursued profits at the expense of news gathering. By basing their businesses on advertising over circulation, newspaper owners have neglected their true economic base and core constituency …
    Moore cited newspapers like those in Baltimore or Detroit, his home town, with firing reporters that cover subjects that affect the community.

  7. travellerev 7
    8 July 2011 at 9:47 am

    Never mind Murdoch, how come it is so easy and untraceable to listen in to telephone conversations in the first place. Why isn’t there say a software module requiring authorisation by a judge or something.

    Does this mean that any old police officer can listen in to whoever he wants? Because that would just invite corruption and God knows what else! And with the SIS getting more power to invade our privacy what is happening in our telephone exchanges?
     

    • The Voice of Reason 7.1
      8 July 2011 at 9:54 am

      About 30 years ago a very wise man told me to never say anything on a telephone you wouldn’t want to hear repeated in court. Sound advice.

      Still, there must be some way of successfully blocking access to phones, if only in America. After all, none of the many thousands of the co-conspirators of the Great 9/11hoax have ever been caught talking about it ; )

      • travellerev 7.1.1
        8 July 2011 at 10:14 am

        How do you get to thousands of 911 conspirators?

        • The Voice of Reason 7.1.1.1
          8 July 2011 at 10:35 am

          I might have assumed the total worldwide staff of the New World Order were involved as well as everone at the Pentagon, the White House and Halliburton. Or I could have just been exaggerating for effect, given that there really isn’t a conspiracy.

          • travellerev 7.1.1.1.1
            8 July 2011 at 11:04 am

            Conspiracy.
            Interesting! Lord Ashcroft and John Key secretly meeting would be considered conspiratorial by many. So would Murdoch and team for closing down the NOTW. In fact conspiracies are the most widely used form of achieving ones end but we only call them that if the end was criminal.

            911 could have been organised with a very small group knowing all the details through a process called compartmentalizing (in fact some 32 military war games were taking place on that day alone, one of them being some planes slamming into some buildings) but speculating about that would be conspiracy theorising and in order to find out what really happened we need a new and independent investigation as to why on that day and that day alone 3 buildings collapsed end exploded into pyroclastic flows into their own footprint within freefall speed.

          • Gina 7.1.1.1.2
            8 July 2011 at 11:41 am

            OK voice of Reason. Why don’t you use your reasonging power.

            Im sure most of us here are aware that “Voice of Reason” is Full of BS but lets humour him shall we.

            A quote from the “Architects and Engineers for 911 truth” website at

            http://www2.ae911truth.org/11rfa911.php

            “Whenever contact is lost with any airplane, fighter jets routinely take to the air to investigate. This commonly occurs about 100 times per year in well under 20 minutes. But on 9/11 nearly two hours passed without any interception.

            Unidentified insiders made millions on the stocks of American and United Airlines and those of other corporations that were likewise impacted by the attacks. These “put option” bets were made just prior to 9/11. ”

            Architects and Engineers for 911 truth have over 1000 members.

            Why do we never hear in mainstrem media about the group called Architects and Engineers for 911 Truth. Over 1000 professionals demanding and enquiry into 911 are nut cases are they? Take a look at their website. Why wont the US or New Zealand media even mention this group of professionals who are demanding answers.

            I think some of your conspirators are “the Council of Foreign Relations” who have over 4000 members including 7 of the 8 candidates for president at the 2008 elections, many many media people and corporations. H Clinton and Dick Cheney can be viewed on youtube addressing the council with Cheney having a little joke about not telling his constituants he was a member. Just search “Council on Foreign Relations Cheney/Clinton etc, etc to see video of them all addressing CFR meetings. There are other groups of elites like Builderburg and the Trilaterals commission.

            Here’s an excerpt about the council from a Washington Post article by Richard Harwood in 1993

            ““ …are the closest thing we have to a ruling Establishment in the United States. The President is a member. So is his Secretary of State, the Deputy Secretary of State, all five of the Undersecretaries, several of the Assistant Secretaries and the department’s legal adviser. The President’s National Security Adviser and his Deputy are members. The Director of Central Intelligence (like all previous directors) and the Chairman of the Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board are members. The Secretary of Defense, three Undersecretaries and at least four Assistant Secretaries are members. The Secretaries of the Departments of Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Health and Human Services and the Chief White House Public Relations man …along with the Speaker of the House [are members] …. This is not a retinue of people who ‘look like America,’ as the President once put it, but they very definitely look like the people who, for more than half a century, have managed our international affairs and our military-industrial complex.”

            A really good video that shows media involvement is “september clues”. It points out that most of the witnesses that saw a large plane hit the towers were media staff or their families and lots lots more.”

            http://www.septemberclues.info/

            There is also a video of Mayor Guiliani being asked if there were bombs planted in the building. Guliani “who’s father was a mobster” turns around to ask the man behind him ( New York Police Chief” who shakes his head and Guiliani says no.
            The then New York man at the back of Guiliani is now in prison and is reportedly suspected many crimes.

            If you watch “911 myteries demolitions” you will see footage of Guiliani running down the road telling people to get out of the way becuase “that building is comming down” while the tower showed no signs of collapse.

            One of the official reasons for the collapse of WTC was extreme heat from the fire weakining the steel. That somehow made a two massive steel framed buildings collapse. No steel framed building had ever collapsed from fire before and if you watch “911 Mysteries – Demolitions” they show other steel framed buidings on fire which look like towering infernos then after 20 hours of rampant obvious fire the steel frame remains standfing.

            It defies logic that anyone in the Towers could have walked out of that builing without severe burns to their body when you know that the melting point of steel is over 2000 degrees. Infact no one should have even survived a fire that hot at all. How hot does a fire need to be to collapse a building in approx 10 seconds which is faster than freefall speed. It was an event which did not comply with the laws of physics unless sophisticated explosives are added to the equation. These sort of explosives are found in the demolition industry.

            • The Voice of Reason 7.1.1.1.2.1
              8 July 2011 at 11:59 am

              Not buying into this, Gina. I made a joke that I thought Trav would get and even put 😉 after it so it was clear it was a gentle and topical dig at the 9/11 conspiracy theory in the light of the exposure of a genuine conspiracy. Feel free to believe and promote any right wing tosh you like, but a debate on it here would be seriously off topic.
               
               
               

              • Gina …
                8 July 2011 at 12:15 pm

                “Feel free to believe and promote any right wing tosh you like, but a debate on it here would be seriously off topic.”
                This makes no sense to me whatsover. The idea that it is the right wing that question 911 is ridiculous and I’m about as left wing as you can get.
                The only part that I get is “off topic” but you went there and I followed so blame yourself dear 🙂
                 
                 
                 

                • The Voice of Reason …
                  8 July 2011 at 12:53 pm

                  Well, I guess you haven’t done much enquiry into the background of the truther movement, Gina. It’s rabidly right wing, but with a scattering of the infantile left as well. Still, with the Tea party running out of steam, I’m sure they’ll welcome even a self confessed lefty such as yourself aboard. Good luck and if you can also find the real Obama birth certifiicate (the Kenyan one), they’ll be extra pleased with their new recruit!
                   

                  • Colonial Viper …
                    8 July 2011 at 1:05 pm

                    The video of the fall of the 3 WTC buildings looks remarkably simialr to controlled demolitions.

                    Having three very large buildings collapse fair and square precisely on to their own foot prints by coincidence is as likely as a house of cards collapsing downwards to form a nice shuffled deck at the bottom.

                    • The Voice of Reason …
                      8 July 2011 at 1:31 pm

                      It’s not coincidence, its science, CV. That’s how buildings fall, unlike trees which pivot on the weakest point. Anyway, I’m bored shitless with this mindless, unsupported crap so I really will STFU up now and I promise to never, ever try and share a laugh with the humourless and deluded again, for Fox’ sake.
                       
                       

                  • Gina …
                    8 July 2011 at 2:19 pm

                    Sorry you are not going to  make misleading comments without me refuting them. I guess I’m just no fun. You call your self “the voice of reason” but don’t appear to like people who reason with you. Sounds like Fox’s “Fair and Balanced” bull.
                    The Globalitsts have all types of fake propaganda movements out there. 911 truth might have a few infiltrates but originate from the anti Bush movement. They believe the Bush regime played a big part in 911.
                    Incase you didnt know Bush and the Republican party are right wing although it doesnt really matter in the US or the UK anymore. they are all controlled by the international bankers and  corporate elites. We have seen corporate infiltrates in both our major parties over the last 30 years including Roger Douglas for the Labour party.

                    Please supply some evidence for your claim that the 911 truth movement are right wing in origin.
                     
                     
                     
                     
                     

                    • Gina …
                      8 July 2011 at 2:35 pm

                      “It’s not coincidence, its science, CV. That’s how buildings fall, unlike trees which pivot on the weakest point.”
                      OK where is the evidence that buildings fall like that.
                      Give me an example of a “steel framed” building that has fallen this way with pictures please. I’m waiting.
                       
                       
                       
                       

                • Vicky32 …
                  9 July 2011 at 2:22 am

                  The idea that it is the right wing that question 911 is ridiculous and I’m about as left wing as you can get.

                  Me too, but for some ineffable reason VoR likes to claim that we are all right wingers! Yet, I know many “truthers”, and we’re all more left wing than he is… 😀 (At the very least we’re not middle class kiddies!)

                  • travellerev …
                    9 July 2011 at 8:40 am

                    Gina and Vicky32,
                    May I say that I really appreciate your comments. VoR does not get that any remark about 911 is a handle to bring reasonable scientific arguments for a new investigation to the table. We need to know the truth about that day because it changed everything.
                    By the way did you know that John Key has a huge financial interest in in the BoA which is one of the big banks going to loose big time if the Greek population were to force a default on their government and banks debt and retreat from the EU?
                    Added to that did you know that Michael Moore the current US ambassador for NZ visited the Bilderberg 2000 meeting? the year before John Key came home to all of a sudden be the face of National. What you reckon? Did they discuss the final looting of NZ on that occasion?

                  • The Voice of Reason …
                    9 July 2011 at 9:25 am

                    Not so, Deb. I don’t think you are right wing, and have never claimed that ‘you all are right wingers’ but the truther/birther movement clearly is. All of us are complex people, capable of holding views that sometimes conflict with our overall political position. Some of your religious views, for example, might be considered conservative but are balanced by your liberal views in other areas. I’m the same, extremely left in a lot of ways, but with a quirk or two that could be considered conservative. It’s not a problem.
                     
                    Mind you, I do struggle to see Ev as left wing, and I’m not sure that’s a description she would apply to herself anyway. A climate change denier, truther and birther, who runs an often right wing website and regularly promotes right wing media is always going to struggle to be seen as a lefty by me, but, as I’ve said before, I believe her heart is in the right place. As no doubt is yours and I assume Gina’s too.
                     
                    And, at the risk of setting off the debate again, Gina, you have confused your enemy’s enemy as being your friend. The anti-Bush movement that you talk about is the extreme right, who consider Bush et al as liberal softies. You are hanging out with the KKK lite, dear. Time to do some serious thinking.
                     
                    Regarding my name, It’s stolen from the Ayn Rand book and I use it to annoy right wingers. Ironic that it annoys you, too, huh? 
                     
                    Anyway, my original comment was about the complete lack of evidence of a 9/11 conspiracy, comparing that fact vacuum with the ease by which corrupt English journalists were able to get almost total disclosure from their targets. When the truther ‘movement’ publishes an email, a recording or a confession that confirms that there was a domestic conspiracy, then I’ll take an interest. But, ten years on, not a scrap of evidence has been found. Nothing. Nada. That tells the real story.
                     
                     

                    • travellerev …
                      9 July 2011 at 10:22 am

                      It’s funny VoR how little left and right mean to me these days.

                      I’m anti-war and see the wars started in the aftermath of the vents of 911 as criminal illegal wars of aggression.

                      I’m anti-invasion of privacy by government.

                      I’m pro choice not because I believe that a women necessary has the last say about what happens to her body at all times but because I recognise that desperation will cause women to abort under any circumstance if the need is high and I’d rather have her have a legal and save abortion than a backstreet botch job. I would have known my maternal grandmother and my mother would not have lost her mother at age 11 causing her untold grief.

                      I am pro free health care, social support and try to live my life filled with compassion for everybody leaving them to live their live and me living my live as much as we see fit without hurting ourselves, others and nature.

                      I have lived my life in neighbourhoods with 1000s of Muslims from many different countries and have always had good relations with them and their religion and to have a Muslim women reduced to tears because some ass hole has a burqua phobia and refuses her entry to a bus which is there to serve as mass transport pisses me off mightily just like the automatic assumption and the near total silence and acceptance that we as the Western world hold the moral right to invade and bomb countries at will polluting them for the next 4.5 billion years merely because we don’t like their style of government in this country.

                      And last but not least I have questions as to why three buildings and only those on 911 collapsed in near freefall speed into their own foot print since that only happens when buildings a rigged to do so at the cost of millions of dollars and I have to say I find myself in excellent company.

                      If you find someone lying in a pool of blood you don’t have to proof that person is murdered you go to the police and they investigate. If a house burns down under suspect circumstances the fire fighters investigate. That did not happen in the case of the mysterious collapse of the towers.

                      There have been many 911 whistle blowers but their testimonies were not included in the final 911 report. Here are a bunch of them testifying. and here is another one.

                      And lastly I believe that the terms left and right are used to keep us apart and divided. There is a right and wrong and there is a small group of very rich keeping the huge majority very poor. I think that’s wrong.

                      So call me anything you like VoR. It’s no skin of my nose.
                       
                      In fact here is a military whistle blower facebook friend of mine who still believes 911 was done by Muslims but has a very interesting story to tell about how he was stopped investigating them

                    • Colonial Viper …
                      9 July 2011 at 10:47 am

                      And lastly I believe that the terms left and right are used to keep us apart and divided. There is a right and wrong and there is a small group of very rich keeping the huge majority very poor.

                      This.

                    • Vicky32 …
                      9 July 2011 at 9:46 pm

                      Not so, Deb. I don’t think you are right wing, and have never claimed that ‘you all are right wingers’ but the truther/birther movement clearly is. All of us are complex people, capable of holding views that sometimes conflict with our overall political position. Some of your religious views, for example, might be considered conservative but are balanced by your liberal views in other areas. I’m the same, extremely left in a lot of ways, but with a quirk or two that could be considered conservative. It’s not a problem.

                      Mind you, I do struggle to see Ev as left wing, and I’m not sure that’s a description she would apply to herself anyway. A climate change denier, truther and birther, who runs an often right wing website and regularly promotes right wing media is always going to struggle to be seen as a lefty by me, but, as I’ve said before, I believe her heart is in the right place. As no doubt is yours and I assume Gina’s too.

                      VoR, you really do come across as a bit of a patronising berk, do you know that?
                      I wasn’t referring to Eve, with my comments about left-wing truthers, but to other friends of mine, who yes, are gasp, religious, as well as left wing… I am amused that you (and many others here – and )  automatically and unthinkingly equate religious with right wing. That shows an alarming depth of ignorance. 
                      You are also, sadly wrong, about no proof having been found that the official story of 9/11 stinks to high heaven. The problem is that the dimwits don’t query official stories, they take whatever the media feeds them for granted, and others, people who are so  sharp they’ll cut themselves, (as my old mother used to say) who pride themselves on, yes, their superior reason, consider themselves too clever for such lower-class nonsense as “conspiracy theory”. 
                      I am utterly astounded that you attribute all opposition to Bush to the Right wing! Where were you from 2001-08, under a rock? Maybe there is or was Right wing opposition to Dubya in the USA (although it was pretty well invisible before 2008) but not anywhere else in the world!
                      I despise the USA and all who sail in her almost solely  because I am anti-war and have been all my long life, I have as little to do with American culture as I possibly can, so I wouldn’t know if such RW opposition to Bush exists or ever did. But everyone I ever knew and still know who opposed Bush and blame(d) him for 9/11 was an is left-wing, non-American and at least 50% of them “religious”. 

                       

                       
                       

                    • The Voice of Reason …
                      9 July 2011 at 10:13 pm

                      “I am utterly astounded that you attribute all opposition to Bush to the Right wing!”
                       
                      Happily, I can report that I didn’t say that. 
                       
                      “You are also, sadly wrong, about no proof having been found that the official story of 9/11 stinks to high heaven.”
                       
                      That’s not what I said, either, but for the sake of clarity, I’ll accept an email, a taped conversation or a signed confession from Dick Cheney. Cite, please.

  9. uke 9
    8 July 2011 at 10:12 am

    Speculation is emerging that Murdoch has shut down NOTW because this will allow company documents to be shredded. Probably its already happening.

    • Colonial Viper 9.1
      8 July 2011 at 10:17 am

      Documents to be shredded, servers to be disassembled, hard drives wiped, employee cell phones containing txts crushed, the usual Enron Procedure.

      • The Voice of Reason 9.1.1
        8 July 2011 at 11:20 am

        I don’t see any benefit in doing this now. The hacking was done five years ago and the cops got all the records then. The current staff of the News of the Screws have little or no connection with the Coulsen era and nothing to hide. Interestingly, domains names associated with the words Sunday and Sun were registered a few days ago, so NI appear to be ditching the tarnished NOW brand in favour of a 7th day edition of the Sun tabloid.

        • travellerev 9.1.1.1
          8 July 2011 at 11:25 am

          No conspiracy here then? Eh?

          • The Voice of Reason 9.1.1.1.1
            8 July 2011 at 11:31 am

            Yep, that’s right. It’s just a cynical commercial decision to sink one title in order to launch another. NI’s hope will be that closing the News of the World will appease the public and that the new Sunday Sun will pick up the bulk of the 7 million readers.

        • Gina 9.1.1.2
          8 July 2011 at 12:04 pm

          A quote from David Rockefeller’s autobiography ‘Memoirs’
          page 405, 2002 paperback edition

          “For more than a century, ideological extremists at either end of the political spectrum have seized upon well-publicized incidents to attack the Rockefeller family for the inordinate influence they claim we wield over American political and economic institutions. Some even believe we are part of a secret cabal working against the best interests of the United States, characterizing my family and me as ‘internationalists’ and of conspiring with others around the world to build a more integrated global political and economic structure – one world, if you will.
           
          If that’s the charge, I stand guilty, and I am proud of it.”

          And of course the Rockefeller’s John Key’s mates fund and are prominent members of groups such as CFR own the controlling share in Exon the worlds biggest Oil company and are bankers who have  shares in the US federal reserve.

        • Draco T Bastard 9.1.1.3
          8 July 2011 at 12:57 pm

          The current staff of the News of the Screws have little or no connection with the Coulsen era and nothing to hide.

          You sound bloody sure about that considering that they haven’t been investigated. They could, and probably still are, doing exactly what they were doing before. After all, they got away with it last time.

          Interestingly, domains names associated with the words Sunday and Sun were registered a few days ago, so NI appear to be ditching the tarnished NOW brand in favour of a 7th day edition of the Sun tabloid.

          That wouldn’t surprise me. Standard operating procedure for corporations these days if their “brand” tarnished is a re-branding. Allows them to hide the fact that they’re corrupt.

          • The Voice of Reason 9.1.1.3.1
            8 July 2011 at 1:15 pm

            I got it from two seperate interviews on the BBC overnight, DtB. Both were with current NOWT journo’s and both men made the point that the crooked Coulsen era staff were all moved on by the current editor at the time the two hackers were jailed. That’s about 3 years ago, from memory. One of them estimated that there were only 3 journalists left from that time.
             
            Not surprisingly, both of the interviewees were extremely pissed off to be losing their jobs as a sop to public opinion. The subs desk at the sister paper, The Sun, walked off the job in protest at the treatment of the NOWT workers overnight as well. It seems to me to be thoroughly unfair to blame the current staff for the sins of the previous regime.

            • Colonial Viper 9.1.1.3.1.1
              8 July 2011 at 2:40 pm

              Hope they go have a cry to Mr Murdoch.

              • The Voice of Reason …
                8 July 2011 at 3:04 pm

                Fuck you, CV. That’s working people, union members for the most part, who you are so mindlessly dismissing. They are not responsible for the sins of Murdoch and his management team and were employed well after the phone hacking was exposed. It’s not their fault that they work for a company owned by a ethically challenged tyrant anymore than any other worker in the world employed by a capitalist is responsible for their bosses’ behaviour. 
                 
                They are to lose their jobs so Murdoch can save face, save the BSkyB bid and continue to build his empire. The are just pawns.
                 
                Geddit, now?
                 

              • rosy …
                8 July 2011 at 5:58 pm

                200 workers have been ditched to take the pressure of a deal for BskyB. It’s worth remembering that this hacking scandal was passed off as a rogue reporter and one P.I. a few years ago. And there it would have rested if it wasn’t for the Guardian being tenacious in their investigation and reporting of it. The current staff would, presumably, have had no belief that hacking was so widespread – especially not the the clerical staff, cleaners, production etc, etc …..

                • Vicky32 …
                  9 July 2011 at 2:43 am

                  I read a book “Flat Earth News” (by Nick Davies) about a fortnight ago, and he talked about this very thing! He has quite a few instances, many of which have got to court, and also pointed out that it’s behaviour not limited to NOTW!
                  http://www.flatearthnews.net
                   

              • Colonial Viper …
                8 July 2011 at 6:13 pm

                VoR, if Rupert Murdoch’s empire is to be hurt and hurt bad there will be many more job losses.

      • ianupnorth 9.1.2
        8 July 2011 at 4:03 pm

        The texts will have a foot print elsewhere on Vodafone, etc… they won’t be able to rid themselves of much at all. Indeed there is probably legislation that states they cannot shred any docs – not that Murdoch would be bothered, they’d soon find a patsy.

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