Rupert Murdoch not fit to run a major company, says a British panel

By Karla Adam, Updated: Tuesday, May 1, 11:20 AM The Washington Post

LONDON— Rupert Murdoch “is not a fit person to exercise the stewardship of a major international company,” a British parliamentary committee said on Tuesday in a scathing report over News Corp.’s handling of the phone hacking scandal.

The report culminates months of investigation by a select committee and was far more condemning of the 81-year-old media titan than expected, saying the chairman and chief executive of News Corp. had “turned a blind eye and exhibited wilful blindness” over the widespread malpractice at his now-closed News of the World tabloid.

“This culture, we consider, permeated from the top throughout the organization and speaks volumes about the lack of effective corporate governance at News Corporation and News International,” the report said.

The committee approved the report on a majority of six votes to four, with the four members from Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservative party staunchly objecting to the description of Murdoch as an unfit proprietor.

“The issue in which no Conservative member thought they could support the report itself is the line put in the middle of the report that said that Mr. Rupert Murdoch is not a fit person to run an international company,” said Louise Mensch, a Conservative MP and panel member at a press conference in central London on Tuesday.

The 121-page report includes a catalogue of criticisms, accusing three senior figures at News International, the British arm of News Corp., of misleading the committee, including Les Hinton, the former head of News International, who the panel said was “complicit” in a cover-up. They also said that Colin Myler, the former editor of News of the World and now editor at the New York Daily News, and Tom Crone, a former lawyer at News of the World, “answered questions falsely” to the committee.

News Corp. said on Tuesday that it was “carefully reviewing,” the report and “will respond shortly.”

“The Company fully acknowledges significant wrongdoing at News of the World and apologizes to everyone whose privacy was invaded,” the firm said.

Broadcast media regulator Ofcom said in a statement on Tuesday that it was reading the report “with interest.” Ofcom recently announced that it is expanding its investigation into whether BSkyB, a satellite network partially owned by News Corp., is a “fit and proper” owner under its licensing rules.

While the committee said that there was no evidence that either Murdoch or his 39-year-old son, James Murdoch, the former head of News International, misled the committee, they faulted James for what they called his “lack of curiosity,” and said it was “astonishing” that James only realized that the crisis extended beyond “one rogue reporter” in late 2010.

For years, News Corp. maintained that phone hacking at News of the World was limited to its royal editor Clive Goodman, who was briefly jailed in 2007, along with a private investigator, for tapping in to the voice mails of aides to Prince William.

Murdoch closed the News of the World last summer following the revelations that its reporters had hacked into voice mails on an industrial scale, including those of a teenage girl who had been murdered.

The panel said it was now up to the House of Commons to decide on what “punishment should be imposed" on those it says are guilty of contempt.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world...ritish-panel/2012/05/01/gIQApey9tT_story.html

 

The man is scum. Aside from the E mail thing, he also knows global warming is real but he aides the spread of AGW disinformation through his media outlets simply because of his greed for money. He should be charged for crimes against humanity. Imagine how public opinion would change if Fox News ran a segment that was truly fair and balanced about GW. Most of the deniers would wake up and stop denying. Of course they would lose viewers so they won't do that. And that Saudi oil prince who owns 7% of Newscorp might not like it either.

 

So we have a partisan report issued by a committee after a split vote along party lines but somehow it is reported as the truth and a big scandal. I'm reasonably sure a republican dominated committe of the House would report that Obama is not fit to govern this country. So what?

As if to confirm the utter politicization of this minor imbroglio, one of ET's resident loons suggests that denunciation of the 82 year old Murdoch is not enough. No, he should be indicted for crimes against humanity no less.

I wonder what he would do with Rush Limbaugh? Boil him in oil maybe?

The left is tolerant of everything except for disagreement with its agenda. Then it's no holds barred.

 

That's pretty funny, kinda like a bunch of water-boys dissing the quarterback of the team that employs them.

 

Shouldn't you be busy fetching water?

 

He's always been a sewer rat. I allowed my subscription to Barron's to expire when he took over Dow Jones, and I have never, to the best of my knowledge, deliberately bought anything owned by him. I'm sure it's happened by accident though, and sometimes without choice, as in the fee my cable company pays to Fox for their bottom-feeding version of reality.

 

First off there is nothing minor or trivial about tampering with the private lives of others or for that matter soliciting information about and interfering in ongoing criminal investigations. As for for this being a partisan affair maybe you should take a look at the composition of the committee with five Conservative, one Liberal Democrat and four Labour so we some sort of representative political demographic rather than the left wing firing squad you imagine.

 

Four conservatives voted against the report, correct? That makes it look partisan. I suppose they had been paid off or blackmailed by Murdoch.

I don't minimize the wrondoing that ocurred, but I do think it is a stretch to attack personally a global media baron over the actions of a few people at a local paper. I have no doubt that murdoch's sponsorship of conservative media had a huge role in the intensity of the attacks on him. He is loathed by the global left for infringing on their monopoly of major media.

 

One conservative and the Liberal Democrat voted for the report that makes this less black and white. Your claim it was "a few people at a local paper" is plain nonsense as the publications involved were national though any proof to the contrary will be greatly welcomed but I have a feeling I will be waiting a while. Labour have sand in their crack over Murdoch abandonment of their cause (remember his largest publications backed Labour) so they are looking for retribution, the Conservatives however are still grateful for his outlets editorial swing in their favor and need his continued support.