If you live in Britain, and have taken 2 weeks holiday somewhere where you were completely disconnected from the news, you will not feel home when you come back. All this is because of the media storm caused by the phone hacking scandal of the News of the World in specific, and about Rupert Murdoch’s media empire in general; unbelievable the coverage and fast sequence of events.
Rupert Murdoch owns some big household names in the publishing and media sectors; these include 20th Century Fox, Fox Television Stations, BSkyB and Sky News (39%), The Times, The Sun, Wall Street Journal, and many many many others! This scandal has claimed until now the jobs of CEOs, executives, and a Head of the Met Police (mind you I heard bigger allegations against the head of the Lebanese police himself, and he never cared).
This caricature summarizes the reaction of the politicians in Britain to the scandal, with Ed Miliband (opposition leader) sticking his neck out by calling for Murdoch’s empire to be ‘dismantled’. Never mind politicians, I came across some cross comments from The Economist readers on its website, keeping in mind they are not the readers of Daily Mail!
This is what they had to say about Rupert Murdoch, which I found fair (or extreme in some cases - I don’t want the man to die!):
Konker wrote: “Murdoch may look like a decrepit, shrivelled old prune but underneath he is a thug and has encouraged a culture of low-life thuggery among his employees, which has won him many enemies. Politicians have turned a blind eye to this debasement of junk journalism press to gain his favour. Many people will be very pleased to see this scandal run”.
Muggeridge wrote: “Rebekah (Brookes) turned down the MP’s expenses scandal (another scandal in UK) because there was no sex scandal to feed the great British working classes. (Rupert) Murdoch is not there for real news…In fact, he prefers to protect the ruling classes with favours”.
Muffer wrote: “There is on time, there is late and there is admitting guilt. News Corp. is dead as a worldwide operation. This is about corporate corruption, not about newspapers. The world will look at how the rich access, and abuse their access to politicians. Murdoch sounds and looks like Nixon just before he was forced to resign”.
Underwun wrote: “Personally, I believe as Bin Laden radicalized Islam (with Murdoch’s help) so Murdoch has radicalized Capitalism. Do we think the US would have such deep partisan division over financial issues, if the radical right of American politics didn’t have Fox News support? He is at the heart of polarized conflict and the lack of support for the increasing number of social issues, issues that would not have grown to such proportions without his negative influence, the quicker he dies the better off the world will be”.
If you want to know more about the phone hacking scandal of the News of the World, you can check this Q&A brief sheet by the BBC
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