In language more strident than anyone had anticipated, the House of Commons’ media select committee have this to say about Rupert Murdoch:
“We conclude, therefore, that Rupert Murdoch is not a fit person to exercise the stewardship of a major international company.”
Damning.
Murdoch senior’s testimony to the Leveson Inquiry might have finished, but that doesn’t mean the fun has to! Scrapbook presents a new and up-to-date version of the Ask Murdoch search engine, guaranteed to be helpful to government ministers looking to ingratiate themselves with the NewsCorp boss.
Warning: may be prone to convenient memory lapses.
Rupert Murdoch’s written evidence to the Leveson Inquiry reveals that News International planned to launch a Free School with the support of Michael Gove.
The documents reveal Murdoch planned to discuss founding the school with Gove after News International’s plans to fund an Academy in East London fell through against a backdrop of protest.
Opposition to the development centred around News Corporation’s ownership of education technology provider Wireless Generation — and fears that students would become guinea pigs for the testing of profit-making technology. NewsCorp executives have claimed:
“Today’s classroom looks almost exactly the same as it did in the Victorian age …The key is the software.”
Murdoch met with Gove – twice at the press baron’s home — on four occasions throughout 2010 and 2011, with education reform being a principal topic of discussion. News International also met with Gove and Boris Johnson to visit the proposed site of the new school.
The Leveson evidence also show that News International were in contact with staff at the Department of Education to discuss plans for the school project.
Michael Gove took to the airwaves yesterday to heap lavish praise on beleaguered culture secretary Jeremy Hunt.
He may need his colleagues to return the favour before the end of play.
Tom Watson and Martin Hickman’s new book reveals a lot about the machinations of News Corporation, but we weren’t expecting this: James Murdoch used to keep a gun under his desk.
According to Dial M for Murdoch James dropped out of Harvard to found a hip-hop label, Rawkus Records, where he kept a firearm in his office – supposedly to protect himself from his more violent business associates.
The book delves into James’ rebellious days at high school, where he bleached his hair, got himself a tattoo and brandished a range of piercings:
“James had long been a rebel … He dyed his hair blond, got a tattoo and pierced his ears and an eyebrow. Subsequently he dropped out of Harvard to found a hip-hop label, Rawkus, keeping a gun under his table to deal with some of its Uzi-carrying stars.”
It seems Jonnie Marbles got off lightly.
While The Guardian published the claims of TV smartcard hacking last September, Panorama has a former TV pirate on record pointing the finger at News Corporation.
Lee Gibling, who ran a hacking website, said he received illegal codes used to break encryption from Murdoch company NDS:
“We wanted people to be able to update these cards themselves, we didn’t want them buying a single card and then finding they couldn’t get channels. We wanted them to stay and keep with [ITV Digital], flogging it until it broke.”
No wonder James Murdoch scarpered to New York.
While the timing of James Murdoch’s defenestration has taken the establishment by surprise — was the writing not on the wall two weeks ago? Lest we forget, Rupert was accompanied on his newsroom tour of The Sun not by James but by his older brother Lachlan.
As the New York Times reported:
“The presence of Lachlan on the tour signaled to observers of the Murdoch family’s internal dramas that James — the overall head of British newspaper operations and the heir apparent until the phone hacking scandal that erupted last summer — may have ceded his place to his older brother.”
Institutional investors might not be so keen, however.
A 73 year-old woman braved the cold and rain yesterday to confront Rupert Murdoch on the hacking of her phone while she was fighting cancer. Alice Sheridan was targeted by the News Of The World as the mother of Scots politician Tommy Sheridan – but the pensioner was brushed aside by Murdoch’s entourage, with the billionaire refusing to acknowledge her.
And while the media are transfixed by revelations on the corrupt relationship between the Met Police and News International, legal developments in Scotland could yet bring the Edinburgh-based Lothian and Borders Police into the frame.
While the East of Scotland force still refuses to release details of meetings with Murdoch’s journalists, press reports suggest that a News International witness could have perjured herself in a criminal trial after coming under pressure from News Of The World.
In an article mysteriously missing from their website, Scotland’s Daily Record reveals an escort girl has given new evidence to the police investigating News International which “paints an entirely different picture” to that she gave during the prosecution of Tommy Sheridan.
Fiona McGuire reportedly said:
“I have done right by Tommy. Read into into that what you like … I have tried to set the record straight.”
Ms McGuire says that she was pushed into making the claims against Sheridan by The News of the World, who she alleges paid her money and threatened her with photos that did not exist.
Sheridan was convicted of perjury after a libel case against defunct tabloid. Ms McGuire’s interview with the paper was the central issue of that libel case, and thus amongst the principle issues of the perjury trial.
There are now five active criminal investigations into Murdoch’s companies.
After hundreds (more than a thousand according to Google News) of articles on Rupert Murdoch and his wife Wendi joining Twitter, it has emerged the account of the Chinese-born media executive was actually a spoof.
So why on earth did Twitter verify the account as authentic?
