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You are here: Home / Politics / Media / An enjoyable and rewarding use of your time

An enjoyable and rewarding use of your time

by Tim F|  July 11, 201110:10 pm| 59 Comments

This post is in: Media

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Have a minute? Your Congressperson or Senator could use a gentle reminder that Rupert Murdoch’s business empire probably did not just tap phones in England. Did they tap the phones of 9/11 victims? Did they expose leading Americans to blackmail the way they did Gordon Brown and the British royal family?

Somebody with subpoena power should probably find out. Though Boehner’s Congress will investigate one day after hell freezes over, it will be fun to know exactly how far your Republican Member’s staff will go to defend papa Rupert. They have no more idea how far this story will go than you do.

Do you ever wonder what exactly Roger Ailes would say under oath to a Senate Committee? I do.

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59Comments

  1. 1.

    The Dangerman

    July 11, 2011 at 10:16 pm

    Boehner’s Congress won’t have time even after hell freezes over; they will be too busy impeaching Obama after he invokes the 14th Amendment after Congress can’t pass a debt ceiling increase.

  2. 2.

    piratedan

    July 11, 2011 at 10:16 pm

    but this will interfere with Issa’s plans to hamstring the Obama administration with stupid hearings and threats of impeachment!!!!

  3. 3.

    beltane

    July 11, 2011 at 10:20 pm

    Rupert Murdoch is the soul of the Republican party; they would all happily commit ritual suicide rather than expose him to any form of legal jeopardy. I mean this literally, by the way.

  4. 4.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    July 11, 2011 at 10:22 pm

    When (this) Congress investigates Murdoch, I’ll be 5’10”, blonde, and svelte. Oh, and 30 and rich, also too.

  5. 5.

    Cat Lady

    July 11, 2011 at 10:23 pm

    I think we’re somewhere between Act III and Act IV of a Shakespearean dramedy. The deus ex machina appears to be a long dead British teenage girl named Millie.

  6. 6.

    redshirt

    July 11, 2011 at 10:24 pm

    “Plead the 5th”?

    Do I win a prize?

  7. 7.

    TooManyJens

    July 11, 2011 at 10:28 pm

    Speaking of contacting our Congresscritters, I’m still trying to figure out how to tamp down my rage long enough to contact my Republican representative about the debt ceiling nonsense without coming across like a spittle-flecked loon. It’s not really going well so far.

  8. 8.

    LGRooney

    July 11, 2011 at 10:29 pm

    Blackmail is the key reason why there would not be a real investigation. We have been taken over by a foreign enemy.

  9. 9.

    jh46inaz

    July 11, 2011 at 10:29 pm

    @redshirt — Yup, “I refuse to answer that question on the grounds that it may tend to incriminate me” wash, rinse, repeat ad infinitum . . .

  10. 10.

    Jim C.

    July 11, 2011 at 10:31 pm

    I’d pay large sums of money to see Dennis Kucinich cross-examining Roger Ailes under oath just for the pure lulz value of the experience.

    To hell with with actually learning the truth of how disgustingly corrupt and soulless everyone at Fox is, having to watch them sit and and squirm like the common criminals they are would be schadenfreude enough to last me at least a couple of years.

  11. 11.

    sukabi

    July 11, 2011 at 10:33 pm

    Do you ever wonder what exactly Roger Ailes would say under oath to a Senate Committee? I do.
    Share

    Yep… he’d likely invoke his 5th amendment rights to not incriminate himself… after he called the committee members soshialist nazis, and gently reminded them of their tenuous positions as members of congress….

  12. 12.

    beltane

    July 11, 2011 at 10:33 pm

    Congress will do nothing to inconvenience their Lord and Savior. That said, Rupert’s empire is in a far weaker state today than it was just a week ago. This alone will give his many enemies and victims the courage to speak out and fight back. Maybe the rest of the media will not be as severely cowed with Murdoch crippled as he is. His 30 year reign of terror may well be over regardless of how much the Republicans cover for him.

  13. 13.

    James E. Powell

    July 11, 2011 at 10:33 pm

    Do you ever wonder what exactly Roger Ailes would say under oath to a Senate Committee?

    He would ignore the questions and respond with rants and diatribes against leftist enemies. If anyone pressed him for an answer, he would brazenly lie, confident that if any fools try to do anything about it, his friends will crush them. And he’s be right about that.

  14. 14.

    beltane

    July 11, 2011 at 10:37 pm

    @Jim C.

    Roger Ailes would not squirm like a common criminal. First, he has no conscience. Second, he would be every bit as smug and pompous as all the Bush administration officials who testified before Congress, secure in the knowledge that the laws of this country do not apply to the rich and the right-wing.

  15. 15.

    burnspbesq

    July 11, 2011 at 10:37 pm

    Frankly, we’d all be better off, entertainment value aside, if Ailes did his testifying in front of a grand jury. After being given immunity.

  16. 16.

    burnspbesq

    July 11, 2011 at 10:40 pm

    @James E. Powell:

    He would ignore the questions and respond with rants and diatribes against leftist enemies. If anyone pressed him for an answer, he would brazenly lie, confident that if any fools try to do anything about it, his friends will crush them.

    That strategery seems to have worked exceedingly well for Roger Clemens.

  17. 17.

    Tim F.

    July 11, 2011 at 10:46 pm

    I’m still trying to figure out how to tamp down my rage long enough to contact my Republican representative about the debt ceiling nonsense without coming across like a spittle-flecked loon.

    Don’t worry about it. I’m sure that they speak spittle-flecked loon there.

  18. 18.

    James E. Powell

    July 11, 2011 at 10:47 pm

    @burnspbesq:

    That strategery seems to have worked exceedingly well for Roger Clemens.

    The executives of the tobacco companies also too.

  19. 19.

    dead existentialist

    July 11, 2011 at 10:50 pm

    @ #1 Dangerman, you missed the opportunity to post “Fifth!”

  20. 20.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    July 11, 2011 at 10:54 pm

    Do you ever wonder what exactly Roger Ailes would say under oath to a Senate Committee?

    Oh god, the verbal blow jobs he would get from the Republicans and Lieberman. And Manchin. And….

  21. 21.

    TooManyJens

    July 11, 2011 at 11:01 pm

    @Tim F.: Fair point.

  22. 22.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    July 11, 2011 at 11:07 pm

    Senator Franken chairing a committee to investigate Rupert Murdoch and NewsCorp. I’d be concerned about Bill O’Reilly. Can a human face actually explode like in a Warner Brothers’ cartoon?

  23. 23.

    JCT

    July 11, 2011 at 11:08 pm

    Why am I envisioning the Jabba the Hutt scene with Orange Julius at the end of his chain?

  24. 24.

    jrg

    July 11, 2011 at 11:10 pm

    If Fox News isn’t guilty, they have nothing to hide. Wasn’t that the talking point du jour when they were shitting their pants over the librul San Fransisco islamofacists after 9/11?

    I’m guessing they won’t be singing that tune again for a while.

  25. 25.

    MikeJ

    July 11, 2011 at 11:16 pm

    @jrg:

    If Fox News isn’t guilty, they have nothing to hide.

    I think a little waterboarding might be in order.

  26. 26.

    scav

    July 11, 2011 at 11:17 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    Senator Franken chairing a committee to investigate Rupert Murdoch and NewsCorp. I’d be concerned about Bill O’Reilly. Can a human face actually explode like in a Warner Brothers’ cartoon?

    Today either got immeasurably better or I’m going to have to move into your imagination.

  27. 27.

    Chad N Freude

    July 11, 2011 at 11:22 pm

    We’ll be back in a moment, but first, this: New allegations besiege Murdoch media empire.

    ETA: And you thought it was bad before.

  28. 28.

    Martin

    July 11, 2011 at 11:25 pm

    Senator Franken chairing a committee to investigate Rupert Murdoch and NewsCorp.

    This is on an endless loop in my head.

  29. 29.

    beltane

    July 11, 2011 at 11:27 pm

    Murdoch’s people actually hacked into Scotland Yard’s phones. Did they hack into the FBI’s system too? Also, Peter Mandelson, former British cabinet minister alleges that he was a victim of News Corps’ blackmail.

    Does the British justice system have more integrity than our own? Everything depends on this.

  30. 30.

    piratedan

    July 11, 2011 at 11:33 pm

    @beltane: probably the only way to be sure would be to pull an “Untouchables” moment and switch juries just before the trial begins.

  31. 31.

    The Other Chuck

    July 11, 2011 at 11:34 pm

    @jrg:

    I’m guessing they won’t be singing that tune again for a while.

    What on earth makes you think that? These folks could run cognitive dissonance on a split screen. Their chyrons could read “Black Is White”, and their viewers will take it as revealed truth.

  32. 32.

    Suffern ACE

    July 11, 2011 at 11:34 pm

    Regarding Brown – doesn’t any liberal of any stripe know how to push back in any country where they appear? He was the prime minister for pete’s sake.

  33. 33.

    Fluffy

    July 11, 2011 at 11:35 pm

    Does the British justice system have more integrity than our own?
    It could hardly have less.

  34. 34.

    MGB

    July 11, 2011 at 11:37 pm

    So, gaining information about the Royal Family, and their movements illegally. Not that I’m an expert in British law or anything, but wouldn’t that actually be treason? You know, the Queen being Head of State and all.

    I’m really curious to see how this all turns out.

    EDIT: Real actual legal treason, not hyperbolic treason that is.

  35. 35.

    hilts

    July 11, 2011 at 11:39 pm

    Fox News programming is a 24/7 super-sized, putrid, steaming pile of excrement.

    What’s worse, with each passing day some MSM outlets are becoming more and more like Fox News.

    Washington Post headline worthy of Fox and Friends

    Michelle Obama orders 1,700-calorie meal at Shake Shack
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/44/post/michelle-obama-has-1556-calories-meal-at-shake-shack-outing/2011/07/11/gIQAgwPE9H_blog.html

  36. 36.

    Karen

    July 11, 2011 at 11:39 pm

    I think it would take finding out that Murdoch paid someone to kill Casey Anthony’s daughter AND Natalie Holloway AND got Jaycee Dugard pregnant before Congress would do anything. And only because the public would demand it.

  37. 37.

    Brachiator

    July 11, 2011 at 11:54 pm

    Your Congressperson or Senator could use a gentle reminder that Rupert Murdoch’s business empire probably did not just tap phones in England

    Could be a fun exercise. However, keep in mind that UK papers compete against each other more fiercely than do the papers here, and there is also the chance that Murdoch is the worst, but not the only offender.

    And what may have laid the groundwork for this was the hacking of celebrities’ phones. Many celebs becamed resigned to this, not only because the press was venal, but because many ordinary folks on both sides of the pond seem to think that an utter lack of privacy is just the price of fame.

    Over here some hospital employees recently got sentenced and fined for selling celebs’ medical records to the press, and yet it has caused nary a ripple, nor any shout that the offending media companies be identified and punished.

  38. 38.

    MikeJ

    July 12, 2011 at 12:07 am

    @Brachiator:

    Many celebs becamed resigned to this, not only because the press was venal, but because many ordinary folks on both sides of the pond seem to think that an utter lack of privacy is just the price of fame

    There was one fuckwit who was on a panel show with Steve Coogan (Alan Partridge) and said, hey, you make a million quid per movie and you get upset because somebody listens to your phone messages?

    None of my friends thinks this is a reasonable excuse, but it’s amazing that it would be put forward at all. Of course it wouldn’t work here, since it smacks of class warfare.

  39. 39.

    No one of Importance

    July 12, 2011 at 12:17 am

    you make a million quid per movie and you get upset because somebody listens to your phone messages?

    Literally what Paul McMullan said in response to Hugh Grant’s criticism over the phone hacking:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14052690

    I don’t see the connection at all. Now if McMullen had said that Grant and his then partner Liz Hurley had cynically used their relationship and gossip regarding it to promote their careers, so it was a bit rich for them to squeal about intrusion into their privacy, then he might have had a point. But what the hell has anyone’s income got to do with their right to a private life – or indeed, the illegality of phone hacking? McMullen is a man worthy of his master.

  40. 40.

    MikeJ

    July 12, 2011 at 12:24 am

    @No one of Importance: Even the gruaniad has put the word victims in scare quotes.

  41. 41.

    No one of Importance

    July 12, 2011 at 12:25 am

    Even the gruaniad has put the word victims in scare quotes.

    Murdoch’s lawyers scare people, duh.

  42. 42.

    RalfW

    July 12, 2011 at 12:27 am

    Two important headlines:

    News Corp may be at risk for U.S. probe over bribery (Reuters)

    and

    Long-time Murdoch associate gets drawn into newspaper scandal
    (WaPo — I know, I know…)

    The first means there may be Obama admin investigation already happening, and the second is that the current head of Dow Jones (WSJ) was at the helm of all the British Murdoch papers during the spying. He testified twice to Parliament that the NotW case was a lone-wolf.

    Now it looks like three papers are implicated: NotW, Sun and the Times. This is blowing up like crazy over there, and I am hopeful that there will be some major questions asked here as well.

  43. 43.

    dogwood

    July 12, 2011 at 12:31 am

    What’s going to be interesting is to see what this does to Murdoch’s bid to take full control of BSkyB. Parliament was expected to approve the take-over this week. They’re putting it on hold until September. Murdoch must have taped conversations of half these MP’s who are hoping to delay until it blows over. No idea how this plays out, but it’s a great story. Gotta wonder though what Murdoch has on every other network exec. in America. A nation who watched non-stop royal wedding coverage for days would totally be into this story. It involves Royals, Hugh Grant, terrorism victims, a suspected ax murderer and missing white girls. That should be advertising gold.

  44. 44.

    Dennis SGMM

    July 12, 2011 at 12:47 am

    How many constituent letters does it take to offset one lunch with a deep pocketed lobbyist? That goes for either party.

    For the Republicans, Murdoch could skull fuck a kitten on live TV and they’d swear that the whole thing was a frame up carried out by ACORN and George Soros.

  45. 45.

    Felanius Kootea

    July 12, 2011 at 12:48 am

    I read Roger Cohen’s defense of Murdoch earlier today and began to wonder whether Murdoch has dirt on every human being in the press and political world in three countries.

  46. 46.

    El Cid

    July 12, 2011 at 12:48 am

    They should just argue that they were using PATRIOT act powers to pursue warrantless roving electronic wiretaps on sources they believed which might have indirectly been connected with terrorist communications.

    Investigating an outgoing publication will make a horrible precedent, virtually ensuring that the next publication will face demands for investigation the moment it is inaugurated into top circulation figures.

    Look forward, not back.

  47. 47.

    Martin

    July 12, 2011 at 12:51 am

    Shit.

    Cisco Systems Inc. (CSCO), the largest networking-equipment company, may cut as many as 10,000 jobs, or about 14 percent of its workforce, to revive profit growth, according to two people familiar with the plans.

    Cisco reported $1.5B in profits last quarter. That was down from $1.9B a year before, but the company is still quite profitable. Revenues are still roughly $10B per quarter. Rather than build their way to growth, they’re cutting jobs solely to prop up the stock price.

  48. 48.

    pjcamp

    July 12, 2011 at 12:51 am

    No.

    I wonder what he would say to a grand jury, where 5th amendment protections are much weaker.

  49. 49.

    Steeplejack

    July 12, 2011 at 12:55 am

    @Martin:

    Yeah, that is some sad shit right there.

    Same thing happened recently with a tech company that I used to work for. I wouldn’t have believed 20 years ago that I would be reading stuff like this in the industry.

  50. 50.

    Villago Delenda Est

    July 12, 2011 at 12:59 am

    I think it would take finding out that Murdoch paid someone to kill Casey Anthony’s daughter AND Natalie Holloway AND got Jaycee Dugard pregnant before Congress would do anything.

    OK, this is over the line.

    Murdoch would NOT pay someone to kill Caylee. I wouldn’t put it past Nancy Grace, though.

  51. 51.

    dogwood

    July 12, 2011 at 1:26 am

    I read Roger Cohen’s defense of Murdoch earlier today and began to wonder whether Murdoch has dirt on every human being in the press and political world in three countries.

    Not just three countries, he’s opening up shop in India now. I hope the Indians understand the price of moving up to the big leagues.

  52. 52.

    Calouste

    July 12, 2011 at 1:34 am

    Do you ever wonder what exactly Roger Ailes would say under oath to a Senate Committee?

    “Senator McConnell, thank you for your kind words of apology. I do agree with you that my forced appearance here is a politically motivated prosecution by the Democrat party.”

  53. 53.

    Yutsano

    July 12, 2011 at 1:52 am

    @hilts: They removed the article, even though they have links up for it still. Ratfuckers.

  54. 54.

    bob h

    July 12, 2011 at 7:41 am

    If they hacked 9/11 victims and their families, then hopefully large damage suits will be filed against the very deep pockets of Murdoch. That is a pleasing prospect.

  55. 55.

    sublime33

    July 12, 2011 at 9:35 am

    I have always been convinced that someone was tapping John Kerry’s phones during the 2004 election campaign.

  56. 56.

    Sloegin

    July 12, 2011 at 12:13 pm

    A tenner on him not even complying with a subpoena.

  57. 57.

    rapier

    July 12, 2011 at 5:37 pm

    Everybody seems to forget that Rupert is a US citizen. He was handed US citizenship so he could run Fox tv. At the time there was a requirement that station owners must be citizens. I think that no longer applies as it was a leftover from broadcast TV and that is dead in all but name only.

    How his citizenship plays or will play in this I can’t guess.

  58. 58.

    Tone In DC

    July 12, 2011 at 6:02 pm

    Dennis SGMM – July 12, 2011 | 12:47 am · Link

    How many constituent letters does it take to offset one lunch with a deep pocketed lobbyist? That goes for either party.

    For the Republicans, Murdoch could skull fuck a kitten on live TV and they’d swear that the whole thing was a frame up carried out by ACORN and George Soros.
    ____________________________________________________
    Eesh. Funny as hell, but, dayum.

  59. 59.

    niat holder

    July 16, 2011 at 10:57 am

    Makes one wonder about the legitamacy of the Pvt.Bradley Manning wikileaks charges. Was he a set up? Was there a hack to set up a fall guy?

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