Murdoch News Notwithstanding

Michael Hedges March 1, 2011 Follow on Twitter

It was a dreadful week. All that stirred was a constant buzz inside the head. There’d been no Murdoch news. Not a Tweet. Then, just as the drugs kicked in, a torrent.

Misery compounded by fear enhanced the feeling that something was lost. During the week-long onset of flu, pneumonia, plague or some other rattling searches under the influence of legal pharmaceuticals sent no satisfaction. The Murdoch’s had gone missing. Dread filled the air, stronger than the steeping chicken soup.

Then, as the fever was peaking, the New York Times laid on a long, feathered piece about James Murdoch (February 19). PR flacks were dancing in the head. James, said the article, saved BSkyB and other creatures of the realm plus the environment. Missing were loose cranial blips about BSkyB CEO Jeremy Darroch deftly leading the pay-TV giant to billions and how the entire BSkyB take-over has been mired in one PR error after another. But James has lead the charge against Silvio Berlusconi.

Succession at News Corporation, the mother ship, is and will be an obsession among those duly authorized to observe such things, particularly those too young to remember those early years landing from Australia. Yes, Rupert Murdoch will turn 80 March 11th.  Good to him. American media mogul and Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone has put in twice as many years at the office and nobody’s concerned.

Sunshine arrived shortly thereafter (February 21) as the company announced that Elisabeth Murdoch will join the board as soon as News Corporation buys up her television production company Shine. Everybody loves Liz almost as much as everybody wants to see a bit of competition for that Big Job someday. She knows everybody, has a trophy husband and gives great parties. Like every good daughter she borrowed a considerable amount of money buying up truly outstanding small production companies. When this deal is done, about the time the Easter bunny jumps, Liz can pay the bills, including partner Sony, and have about £200 million in company stock making her the richest Murdoch sibling.

Less noted was Lachlan Murdoch, the errant son who mostly vacated the News Corporation realm in 2005, taking a leading role in Australia’s Ten network as acting CEO (February 23) after firing CEO Grant Blackley. Lachlan has assembled his own set of billionaires to buy up a significant stake in Ten Group, which has fallen on hard times. No doubt, there’s no job like your own job. Lachlan has kept his seat on the News Corp board, mostly to snarl at James, but hasn’t made any motions about leaving Australia, maintaining it was a quality of life move.

The phone hacking story plaguing News International owned UK tabloid News Of The World (NoW) reared again as more celebrities filed or threatened lawsuits. A court ruled (February 25) that a phone hacker once employed by NoW must, in excellent tabloid tradition, tell all. “The proliferation of legal actions generated by complaints against the News of the World is also in danger of congesting the courts,” reported The Guardian (February 25).

By the end of the week, Independent columnist James Hanning (February 27) was asking the question everybody else had asked. Would the tawdry practices of the world famous tabloid, including allegations of powerful people interceding, bring pain and suffering to News International chief executive Rebekah Wade Brooks? When visiting London earlier in the month to squeeze out the final details of the BSkyB take-over, Rupert Murdoch was reportedly incensed that nobody seemed able to douse the stench of the phone hacking story. It’s cost a fortune and Our Ms Brooks ain’t family.

Another piece of stench from across the Atlantic drew a tiny bit of notice. An unsubstantiated rumor from “some guy in the Barbados airport” and flowing swiftly through the Twitteratci (February 25) suggested Roger Ailes, CEO of News Corp owned veracity-challenged Fox News, could be indicted by a New York court for encouraging News Corp owned HarperCollins publisher Judith Regan to lie to federal investigators about a seamy story involving Bush administration officials and Republican candidates. She was fired in 2007, the pay-off including a promise to keep quiet. She says she has a tape recording. Mr. Ailes ain’t family, either.

Ruling Conservative Party politicians in the UK have been eager to approve the BSkyB take-over, less concerned with popular reaction than Mr. Murdoch’s revenge. Each day last week were reports of imminent approval by one agency or another. Apparently, the bone thrown to the chattering masses will be BSkyB’s news channel Sky News, perhaps placed in a trust, perhaps sold off. Concerns have been raised that should News Corp take full control of BSkyB, Sky News would morph into something more similar to Fox News. As it would happen, the Royal Television Society awarded (February 24) for the second time its news channel of the year award to Sky News and correspondent Alex Crawford was named television journalist of the year.

Ah, spring is coming and I feel much better.

See also in ftm Knowledge

Rupert Murdoch and News Corporation

News Corporation has a global, multi-media footprint. Whether on paywalls or pay-TV Rupert Murdoch has the ear of the media industry. Update includes Sky Europe ups and downs, competing with Google to Berlusconi. 144 pages PDF (July 2010)

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