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Having received some comments that I appear to be backing some sort of "party line" and looking for excuses for Murdoch, I should like to set that record straight and say that I am perfectly happy to see an anachronistic old-style privateer chancer/bully/bruiser get a richly deserved comeuppance while he is still sufficiently sentient to feel the shame if not the contrition.
But equally I am not happy to see crudely subjective score settling (Tom Watson) and sanctimonious hypocrisy (Milliband-Guardian-BBC) spewing forth from those with "agendas" and that Murdoch foolishly "befriended" in expedient and cynical denial of his own political values and judgement. For all Rupert's pleas for clemency in light of "media plurality", a tomcat raking through bins in an alley would be embarrassed to have his moral compass compared to that of the "dirty digger".
The BBC reports plough on with the headline - and only mention that this is a split decision by the DCMS committee some time after telling their audience that "an influential committee of MPs has decided that Murdoch is not fit to run BSkyB". 6-4 is not exactly a "sound" verdict, but hey, we're the BBC and we're on a roll... also keep in mind that nearly ALL of the naughty stuff happened during the time before the last election when Labour was desperate to retain Murdoch's endorsement, and all gazes were averted. Talk about tacky.
For the sake of short term smugness, a partisan committee split now hugely devalues the next step because of Brown's declaration of War. Murdoch dropped hints during Leveson, and would be unlikely not to immediately seize on the Brown War declaration, and trace from that the process by which a collection of "power at any price" Labour politicians had once sucked up to all things Murdoch, and turned blind eyes as required.
What Murdoch's Israeli-based black ops did in TV - and that was exposed in Panorama a few weeks ago - is far more serious, since with this action they were not part of any great herd of others, all doing the same things on a nod and wink from the politicians. In many ways Murdoch (and the rest of the as yet untagged press) were beneficiaries - but are now victims - of the same laissez faire approach to public probity and marginal legality that did for MP expenses.
So then, how do we all feel about hasbeen Prime Ministers declaring and then orchestrating "wars" - apparently because one morally bankrupt organisation stopped supporting another?
There are many scores to be settled, and now Murdoch has almost nothing to lose by letting off every one of the many concealed IEDs lurking around the world of press, media and politics. How long does it take to relocate a call centre from Glasgow to Moldova?
Thing is, the Torygraph is equally strident:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/phone-hacking/9238358/MPs-phone-hacking-report-Rupert-Murdoch-not-fit-person-to-run-News-Corp.html
It's a perfectly legitimate quote. It's also legitimate to say 6-4 is a majority. Yes, some sources have overstated it.
Many also have a problem with the Torygraph proprietors, who are a couple sanctimonious and reclusive old blokes whose "agent's" outrageous antics on the Isle of Sark are now widely known and the efforts of the Barclay family to deny knowledge of what goes on at their publications have already been questioned at Leveson.
ReplyDeleteThey appear to lead a very sheltered life, shielded by fabulously well paid lawyers, and it is possible to get the impression that they actually believe that they are carrying on some sort of crusade. And then you also need to be aware of their antics with London hotel deals.
And then you end up concluding that maybe any national newspapers (and the Sark Newsletter qualifies!) are now probably just too important given the way information travels at the speed of light - and once out there inevitably remains out there - to be held under the influence by any sort of unaccountable individual or individuals. At least Murdoch has never apparently resorted to legal gagging in the way that Maxwell and the Barclays seem fond of doing.