One of the biggest scandals in the history of journalism. Murdoch suffers a mere "reputation hit."

[pepperbear]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/phone-hacking-scandal-is-biggest-pr-disaster-of-murdochs-career/2011/07/07/gIQALAKm2H_story.html?hpid=z1


oh, and did I mention it's in the "lifestyle" section?

[LiberalAndProud]

1. That's what happens when you have money and connections.

He's golden.

[JHB]

7. He's also made a lot of enemies, who now see an opportunity for payback

...not to mention an entire newspaper's worth of people who will very abruptly no longer be receiving paychecks from a Murdoch organization. They might be inclined to be talkative.

Murdoch's "golden"ness came from his ability to retaliate against people without consequence. That lever has gotten a lot shorter over the past week. Not gone, but less intimidating than it was.

It's not over yet.



http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/davidhughes/100095530/ed-miliband-has-declared-war-on-rupert-murdoch-this-could-get-interesting/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-boehlert/murdochs-watergate-unrave_b_892200.html
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/press/tears-then-rage-as-journalists-are-told-that-they-face-the-sack-2308953.html
http://thestandard.org.nz/murdoch-could-lose-big/

[madokie]

2. The single most dangerous man to our democracy is he

Should never have been allowed to own anything that even resembles a 'news' program here or in England. He's an Aussie for criss sakes. A spreader of propaganda, an arm of the retillican party.

[MADem]

3. That's not what they are saying in UK.

They're talking Crime And Punishment for his henchmen, er, reporters who hacked those phones.

[eShirl]

4. It's only just begun.

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. Govt decision on full Murdoch takeover of BSkyB delayed

11.30am: The culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has made a statement confirming what everyone anticipated - that the decision on the BSkyB deal will be delayed because of the volume of submissions received relating to it. As has been noted previously, it saves him having to give it the green light, assuming that is the decision he will take, in the midst of a media storm surrounding News Corporation. Hunt said:

The consultation on undertakings in lieu offered by News Corporation in relation to their proposed merger with BSkyB closes at midday today. The secretary of state has always been clear that he will take as long as is needed to reach a decision. The secretary of state will consider carefully all the responses submitted and take advice from Ofcom and the Office of Fair Trading before reaching his decision. Given the volume of responses, we anticipate that this will take some time. He will consider all relevant factors including whether the announcement regarding the News of the World's closure has any impact on the question of media plurality.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/blog/2011/jul/08/news-of-the-world-phone-hacking-scandal#block-26

Yeah, it's more than a 'reputation hit'.

Ofcom has the ability to declare News Corp not a 'fit and proper' controller of a broadcasting company. 'Media plurality' is something that the proposed selling off of the Sky News Channel was said to have solved; if Murdoch didn't start producing a Sunday edition of The Sun, to replace the News of the World, that would probably help him there too.

My guess is Murdoch will throw Rebekah Brooks overboard, so that there are less ex-News of the World executives hanging around in his organisation that would have control over BSkyB.

[sarge43]

6. And his reputation was shining before? Uh huh. n/t

[Schattie]

8. The hell with this Murdoch jerk.

The hell with him.

[SpiralHawk]

9. Truer Headline: Evil Occult Machinations of Republicon PuppetMaster Exposed

Republicon Vamily Values Revealed as Skankulous Scuzzbucketry...