Triangulating Murdoch

Michael Hedges January 3, 2011 - Follow on Twitter

Triangulation is a deft message management strategy, useful when touchy subjects prevent easy outcomes. It’s a creation for and of the media. Anybody with a gamblers nerve can play. Stakes in the News Corp BSkyB deal have moved to a new level.

UK media and political watchers and workers continue to be captivated by Rupert Murdoch’s every breath and word. Owning five newspapers that regularly boost or end politicians’ careers with editorial endorsements and slant as well as controlling a hugely successful television franchise News Corporation has undisputed clout. With zestful assurance News Corporation, through its subsidiary News International, announced its intention to acquire shares in pay-TV company BSkyB it doesn’t already own within minutes of Conservative Party leader David Cameron, endorsed by News Corporation newspapers, becoming UK Prime Minister after parliamentary elections.   

The howling has never stopped. Major UK newspaper publishers – Telegraph Media Group, Guardian Media Group, Associated Newspapers and Trinity Mirror – sent a strong letter (October 11) to State Secretary for Business, Innovation and Skills Vince Cable urging rejection of the News Corp BSkyB deal as bad, very bad. Telecom BT chief executive and Channel 4 chief executive David Abraham signed the letter. So did BBC General Director Mark Thompson.

"We believe the proposed takeover could have serious and far-reaching consequences for media plurality," said the letter arguing News Corp’s UK media empire would dwarf the BBC and everybody else.

It was only slightly surprising that the BBC’s Mark Thompson signed the critical letter. Rupert Murdoch and son James Murdoch, News International’s chairman, have long spoke of shrinking the UK’s public broadcaster to the size of a town library, an aspiration endorsed by now-ruling Conservative Party politicians. A bit more than a week after the letter was sent, Thompson was forced to apologize to media regulator OFCOM, not for the contents of the letter but for not informing BBC Trust chairman Sir Michael Lyons.  Thompson “stated his regret” at the October 21 meeting of the BBC Trustees. Sir Michael said he’d have “no further comment.”

At the annual MacTaggart Lecture (August 27) Thompson said the result of News Corp’s complete takeover of BSkyB would lead to an unacceptable “concentration of cross-media ownership.” At the 2009 MacTaggart Lecture James Murdoch railed at the BBC’s “chilling” influence. Thompson responded, saying BSkyB – James Murdoch being Chairman – should pull “its weight by investing much, much more in British talent and British content.” No love lost here.

Independent and Independent on Sunday owner Alexander Lebedev did not sign that letter. Being Russian and knowing something about oligarchs, Mr. Lebedev praised Mr. Murdoch in a Society of Editors speech (November 14) as “a phenomenon” for upholding press freedom. He observed, “We need 15 Rupert Murdoch’s rather than one.” It was not the only example of rhetorical triangulation.

“Rupert Murdoch's News Corp is not just anyone,” wrote The Independent’s David Prosser (November 4). “It is a business with a 37 per cent share of Britain's national newspaper market. It has a record of aggressively targeting its rivals with loss-leading tactics such as price wars and cross-subsidy, and it has clear and significant political influence.”

News Corporation’s lawyers informed the European Commission (EC) of the takeover bid November 3rd. DG Competition would look at anti-trust issues related to advertising, film and program rights and subscription bundling in a ‘phase one’ investigation lasting a mere 25 working days. The next day (November 4) Secretary Cable referred the News Corp BSkyB deal to media regulator OFCOM. “The independent experts at OFCOM will now investigate and report to me on the media plurality issues that may arise from this proposed acquisition,” said the Secretary’s statement.

“News Corporation is confident that the proposed investment will not adversely affect media plurality in the United Kingdom and looks forward to discussing any substantive issues with the relevant authorities,” said the official statement. Speculation – some idle, some not – ran rampant that Mr. Murdoch would be willing to jettison Sky News, the unprofitable all-news channel, but probably not a UK newspaper. Sky News, which operates under News International, drew heat from some quarters fearful it would morph into something like News Corporation’s veracity -challenged, teabagger-supporting US all (sort of) news channel Fox News.

In perhaps another triangulating moment, BBC DG Thompson remarked in a seminar on media impartiality (December 16) that the moment to scuttle strict rules on opinion-driven news channels in the internet era may be near. “In the future, maybe there should be a broad range of choices?” he asked. “Why shouldn't the public be able to see and hear, as well as read, a range of opinionated journalism and then make up their own mind what they think about it? But why not entire polemical channels which have got stronger opinions? I find the argument persuasive.”

The EC gave its approval December 21st, saying “the transaction would not significantly impede effective competition in the European Economic Area (EEA) or any substantial part of it.”

“I am confident that this merger will not weaken competition in the UK,” said EC Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia in the official statement. “The effects on media plurality are a matter for the UK authorities.” Had DG Competition found the hint of nasty stuff for consumers a more detailed four month ‘phase two’ investigation would have followed, the kind that always finds something.

Almost at the same moment the European Commission began releasing statements clearing News Corp of anti-trust entanglements – sending News Corp shares higher – political tangles in the UK over the deal went into absolute fandango. The Telegraph released a story about Secretary Cable telling two young people he thought were constituents that he’d “declared war” on Rupert Murdoch. In the finest tradition of UK newspaper journalism, they weren’t constituents at all but reporters armed with recorders. Gotcha!

PM Cameron and Deputy PM Nick Glegg, in the midst of holding together a fragile political coalition, pulled the News Corp BSkyB file from Secretary Cable and threw it to Culture, Media and Sport Secretary Jeremy Hunt.  Shortly after News Corporation announced it intended to buy the BSkyB shares it didn’t already own, Secretary Hunt had special, undocumented meetings with James Murdoch. Secretary Hunt has unabashed “respect” for the Murdoch Clan.

James Murdoch had his own triangulating moment a month earlier when he warned the UK government (November 17) to approve the BSkyB deal or he’d take his toys and go elsewhere. “The Government needs to assess the benefits of having a digital TV business that is a world leader centered in the UK marketplace, with all the things that brings, versus potentially jeopardizing an £8bn investment in the UK with a prolonged plurality process,” he said at an investment conference.

OFCOM analysts and, certainly, lawyers fiddled late into 2010’s last day, the statutory deadline, to deliver the report on “the public interest considerations” of News Corporation’s intended BSkyB buy-out. Secretary Hunt has a few days to ponder his options. He can accept the report or reject it. The report’s contents will remain confidential until his decision is published in mid January.

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