If it’s true that what’s bad for Fox News must be good for America, then at least we have some tasty schadenfreude to distract us from the Republican FailParade in DC. Yesterday, the Guardian (may its shadow never grow less!) shared the plaints of the upper-crust former-WSJ-owners who are shocked, shocked to discover that Mr. Rupert Murdoch is a silky-tongued liar (they already knew he wasn’t a gentleman), and painted an untender portrait of the would-be-patrician clan “descend[ing] from deal to disaster: political and public backlash raises doubts over the family’s hold on its empire”.
This morning, they have good news for sane people on this side of the Atlantic:
Members of Congress from both major parties have waded in to the affair with warnings of “severe” consequences if a report in the Daily Mirror that the News of the World attempted to access the voicemails of victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks or other Americans is true.
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Two New York members of the US House of Representatives, Pete King and Louise Slaughter, demanded an immediate justice department investigation of whether US laws were broken, particularly in relation to any attempt to hack in to the phones of terrorist victims.
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King, who is the Republican chairman of the House homeland security committee, said in a letter to the FBI director, Robert Mueller, that journalists should face felony charges if evidence is found. […] __
The calls for an investigation come as Murdoch faces pressure from a group of American shareholders, including pension funds and banks, who have taken legal action saying it is “inconceivable” that the News Corp’s board was unaware of the phone hacking and other illicit practices, and accusing him of using the company for “personal and political objectives”.
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Senator Frank Lautenberg has asked the securities and exchange commission and the justice department to investigate whether US laws against the payment of bribes abroad were broken by Murdoch’s parent company.
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In a letter to the attorney general, Eric Holder, Lautenberg said allegations that NoW journalists bribed UK police officers are potentially a breach of the US’s Foreign Corrupt Practices Act which bars American companies from paying bribes abroad…
Our old friend Rep. Peter ‘The Mucker’ King, scourge of all anti-American foreign terrorists (with whom he doesn’t share a close ethnic affinity)!
It’s one thing to have wimpy Democrats like toothless old Jay Rockefeller whining about “offensive” invasions of privacy, but GOPers like King have no truck with pious phrases about looking forward, not back.
The sharks have scented blood in the water now. Surely when Tina Brown’s sensitive celebrity antennae permit her to unleash Howie Kurtz, foremost of all proud media courtiers, upon the legendary indiscretions of Murdoch’s American outlets, it portends trouble even for the previously impregnable Roger Ailes…
"Fair and Balanced" Dave
Someone must have told Peter King that Murdoch has Muslims on his payroll…
alwhite
While I will take some pleasure from this bastards downfall does anyone really think it will end FAUX News reign of error? I doubt it, the brand is making money. Some other Master O the Universe will gladly continue the milking of the slow. And, of course, it won’t do a thing to repair the disaster that is our current media. The sycophants that pose as reporters and pundits will naturally tut-tut these low brutes poor behavior but go on as before.
So enjoy the show as News Corp becomes News Corpse but don’t get your hopes up for any real improvement.
R-Jud
My brain went:
impregnable–>
pregnant–>
sex–>
SEX WITH ROGER AILES
My brain hates me.
Aside from that, this is actually starting to worry me a little. The noises coming from Clegg and Cameron make it sound as if they’re going to use this situation to clamp down really, really hard on the whole of the press in Britain, to the point that it has a further chilling effect on journalists.
The Tories who’re being quoted on this, and who spoke during the Commons debate last night, pointedly said that the inquiries should look at not just News Corp but also at Trinity, the Mirror, and Guardian Media.
Britain was just beginning to make some headway against the more ridiculous libel laws, too.
ETA: @alwhite: “News Corpse” is what Nick Clegg called News Corp. this morning on Radio Four. More than once, if I remember correctly.
WereBear
King is the kind of guy who wades into the last minutes of the bar fight to kick the comatose.
So to me, this is a “tell” that Murdoch is seen as vulnerable; and all the impotent steaming over his blackmail will drive some payback.
Live by the personal and petty sword; and eventually you’ll see it swinging back your way.
JamieB
It gets better: UK media reporting that former NOTW executive editor (ie Andy Coulson’s immediate deputy) Neil Wallis was arrested this morning by Operation Elveden — Elveden being the one that’s looking into police corruption. (The phone hacking enquiry is Operation Weeting.)
scav
JamieB: Guardian issued a correction:
I can’t get rid of the impression that those are placenames out of LOTR.
Comrade Mary
Can someone clear up for me the route of investigations and journalism that led to the current state of things? I know that Hugh Grant wrote that article for the New Statesman a while back, and good for him, really, but were professional journalists already working on this story before that, or did they pick up on his revelations and get the rest of the scut work done?
R-Jud
Comrade Mary, here’s a summary from the Guardian:
2003-2010: How The Scandal Unfolded
RossInDetroit
@R-jud;
I doubt that even a hard fall for Murdoch could have a chilling effect on the UK’s vigorous press. They have a long history of attacking those in power and people seem to like a ruthless and confrontational press to keep government in check.
But the long knives are out for Rupert. He overstepped his role for years, actively interfering with individual politicians. They want him gone.
kay
Good. I require an arrest a day. I love the thought of Rupert Murdoch rushing back there to control this, and he can’t. I picture some luxurious “war room” filled with his disgusting amoral cronies frantically making phone calls.
It’s not working.
mistermix
That story about the sellers of the WSJ is hi-fucking-larious. Murdoch offered a stupid-high price for that paper, the stockholders took the money and ran, yet they wouldn’t have sold if they had known that old Rupert was a slimeball?
RossInDetroit
It’s impossible to know what effect Rupert’s problems in the UK will have on Fox and the WSJ, but if it causes them to back off on the right wing mouth frothing just a little it would be a big improvement.
kay
Does Peter King have any authority, moral or otherwise, on personally and politically profiting off tragedy? That’s a bad joke, right?
What an embarrassingly poor spokesperson for that idea. He should sit down, and let someone else speak for Republicans. It’s cringe-worthy.
dr. bloor
I’d love to see Murdoch and his whole corrupt enterprise come down, but King is a toothless grand stander and Ailes has chunks of people like Brown and Kurtz in his daily constitutional. It’s going to take a lot more than the likes of them.
jcgrim
@werebear
“So to me, this is a “tell” that Murdoch is seen as vulnerable; and all the impotent steaming over his blackmail will drive some payback.”
So true! King can keep his distance from Murdock slime if the 911 widow hacker story gets legs over here.
PurpleGirl
mistermix @ 11: the sale had nothing to do with making money for the stockholders. The Bancroft family wanted out of the business and wanted to pull out as much profit for themselves as possible. The sale would have happened no matter what Murdoch character is because they wanted their money. No one else but Murdoch would have paid them as much and they know it.
Ash Can
@kay: The value of Peter King complaining publicly is that the useless boobs in the media can point to him and say “Even the conservative Peter King is calling for investigations.” Voila — it’s a “bipartisan issue,” and no longer an “attack from the left.”
Personally, I suspect they turned King down for some cushy Fox “News” gig, and he wants to get back at them.
Pococurante
Someone will remind the congress critters that Murdoch owns Fox and they’ll quietly slink away…
birthmarker
I suggested on DKOs a day or two ago that “Murdoch-owned” preceding any mention of NewsCorp entities would be nice.
A list of assets controlled by NewsCorp is available on Wikipedia.
Examples??
Murdoch-owned American Idol
Murdoch-owned New York Post
Murdoch-owned HarperCollins
Murdoch-owned Dow Jones Newswire
Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal
WereBear
To kill a king, you must not miss.
That’s enough to keep cowards at bay. However, if the king is seen as weak and vulnerable, this draws the cowards in droves.
I’m hoping we are at this stage.
Frapalinger
Here’s a question (that’s probably already been asked here): given that Murdoch’s press supported Cameron and, from my genuinely poor knowledge of the events in this scandal, may have shared hacked information with Cameron’s chief of staff, does this scandal have the potential to bring down the government in Britain? All the Brits on our corporate media were blaming Gordon Brown for the fact that his son’s medical records were hacked by Murdoch’s people, but I’m wondering what the sentiment is over there.
Karen S.
The Bancroft family should go back to wallowing in their Murdoch money and be quiet. As someone mentioned up thread, they wanted out of the newspaper biz and knew no one else would give them as much as Rupert offered so they took the money and ran. No pillars of integrity to see there.
Nemesis
To my knowledge, the identity of source for the alleged 9/11 families phone hacking has yet to be made public.
Hmmm… We have political leaders, from Rockefeller to Mueller speaking openly about the possibility that the allegation is true and calling for hearings. Politicians dont like being made to look foolish.
One would think that these two high ranking persons in the intelligence field would know something regarding the hacks BEFORE going public with the calls for hearings. My money is on the fact that there is more here than has yet to be revealed.
If high profile individuals were being blackmailed in some way, it may be difficult to get those stories to go public.
Cat Lady
Even if Fox doesn’t cease operating like it is, the damage has been done, and it taints the whole industry. We here at BJ have all given up our credulity regarding what’s reported and how, but these stories of the extent of the corruption of the political class by the tabloid press is shocking even to me, the most cynical person I know. Why wouldn’t it happen here?
Ash Can
@mistermix: I agree. They didn’t know Murdoch was a shitheel? Really? And they call that due diligence?
This is one of those instances when the person doing the complaining is obviously either stupid or dishonest — stupid if they genuinely were unaware that Murdoch was like this, and dishonest if they were aware, and feigning innocence now.
scav
Frapalinger: I’m not an expect on Brit politics but my gut understanding is that most to all of the parties in power since his darling Thatcher have had very close relationships with Murdoch. That means New Labour as well as the Conservatives and the current Conservative/LibDem coalition. And I think none of the current crop of party leaders is entirely without connections, although the LibDem has the least tight one and that’s mostly because the they were usually too small to be worth keeping in the boat. So it’s not as though there’s a squeaky pure alternative govt waiting in the wings. Cameron’s tight ties with the Murdoch/Brooks/Chipping North crowd certainly doesn’t strengthen his govt. in as much as it is solidly his (NB: I don’t know if there are any allegations of information flow from NI/NofW back to Coulson, it’s more a question of the political judgement of having him in an official govt position at all given his dodgy history and ties.) Edging still further out into my lack of knowledge, I guess that Cameron is more in political danger from how badly he’s managing this (being consistently a step behind the Crusading Milliband and the Oh Look I’m Relevant Again Clegg). Everyone political is tainted, but do they really need someone inept and with poor judgement as well? Please remember this is armwaving from someone on the wrong side of the Atlantic and balanced precariously upon bugger all except a willingness to give it a stab. At least this will give something for the more knowlegable people to rant at and correct.
Poopyman
I vote for both stupid and dishonest, although naked greed will blind you to a lot of things.
And
Well, there goes breakfast.
R-Jud
Frapalinger:
Unless there are more revelations to come about what Cameron knew about Andy Coulson when he hired him, I doubt this will bring down the coalition. From my read of my social circle here, which includes a number of middle-class Tory types, it is adding to the general feeling of discontent with Cameron. Also, Ed Miliband has actually sort of kind of managed to capitalize on the situation and make Labour look good. Ish.
Brown: From what I’m reading, UK conventional wisdom seems to be that Gordon Brown was legitimately wronged by the Sun. However, in true GB style, he then squandered that good will by opening his yapper.
His speech in the Commons last night infuriated a lot of people. He painted himself as a lifelong enemy of the Murdochs and Rebekah Brooks, when in fact he courted them just as hard as any other PM in the last thirty years.
Frapalinger
R-Jud
@ 28
Thanks for explaining all that, I’ve been curious about it for a couple days, but I’ve been following the debt business here much more closely.
R-Jud
Frapalinger: No problem. True Brits may chime in with more detailed explanations.
I’d follow the debt business, but I promised my husband I wouldn’t, because it was making me rant-y. This Murdoch business is sunshine ‘n’ bunnies, comparatively speaking.
terraformer
I don’t know. I think the rending of garments, even by those on the right, is only because this has reached a level that even they cannot ignore it – as would be their preferred option – so they must appear to be outraged and astonished.
They might hold a hearing or two, but they’ll drag it out and before long another Casey Anthony story’ll show up to cleanse our collective short term memories. Murdoch et al. have so much money and influence I would be very surprised if anything more than “a few bad apples” comes of this; certainly not anyone really powerful. If there’s one thing the neo-feudalists know how to do, it’s circle the wagons while appearing to exhaustively investigate.
scav
R-Jud:
says a lot there, doesn’t it. Though there may be Brits following our pratfalls using the same logic.
R-Jud
@terraformer:
I sort of agree: I really doubt this is The End for Rupert. James Murdoch, however, seems pretty heavily implicated in this, at least in having made false statements to Parliament. There’s also an issue with police corruption in play.
Frapalinger
@scav
Thanks to you also for you answer.
Xenos
@Karen S.: re: Bancroft family. I knew a couple scions a few decades ago. Very smug, insular, incurious, self-satisfied folk. Nowhere near the sort of energy and brilliance that must have been needed 100 years ago to build Dow Jones. See, also, Bush, W.
Lawnguylander
@Kay
I’ve been having similar thoughts but have been picturing the setting as the bunker in Downfall (must go research on YouTube next). I’ve also been thinking it would be horrible for a lot of people who wouldn’t deserve the embarrassment, but also darkly comical, if they’re thinking of threatening to turn over all their dossiers on prominent Brits to WikiLeaks. Another possibility that’s not comical in any way, Murdoch might threaten to cancel the Simpsons.
Nutella
@Lawnguylander:
What I think is strange is that by shutting down NotW and laying off 200 tabloid journalists, News Corp made 200 well-trained enemies.
Not that the laid-off journalists will come out with anything publicly since they’d all like to work again in a Murdoch-dominated press, but there’s a lot of leaking they can do. Rebekah Brooks’ announcement to the newsroom that she was closing the paper was secretly recorded by someone there and the recording provided anonymously to the Guardian.
I expect more of that.