Murdoch SagaThe scandal engulfing Rupert Murdoch's media empire in Britain is the perfect tabloid story. It has peculiar twists and phenomenal turns and a freakish parade of powerful people bent on petty if perverse agendas of aggrandizement. Murdoch's giant News Corporation is headquartered in the US.
Technically, News Corp could have run foul of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), a 34-year-old law that penalizes American companies for playing dirty overseas. If proved, that could technically dethrone the Murdochs, make it hard for News Corp to retain US broadcasting licenses and force it to pay fines running into hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars. But that's only if it's proved News Corp employees bribed foreign officials (in this case, British police) in order to gain business advantage, i.e. sell more copies of the now-shuttered News of the World on the strength of sensationalist stories.
The Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal and Fox News expressed disgust at the baying "political mob" and the way everyone is "piling on to News Corp".
Washington Post has already warned against reaction to the scandal going "too far, driven by... antipathy among the media and politicians for Murdoch.
America's foremost publisher of pornography Larry Flynt said he pursued free expression this way - "I test limits by publishing controversial material and paying people who are willing to...expose political hypocrisy. Murdoch's minions...pushed limits by allegedly engaging in unethical or criminal activity."
Some former, presumably disgruntled, Murdoch employees have also staged an attack against their old boss.
And former newspaper publisher Conrad Black, who is spending 29 months in jail, declared Murdoch to be a "great bad man" in the very mould of Napoleon. The media tycoon, said Black, "is not only a tabloid sensationalist (but)...an assassin of the dignity of others and of respected institutions, all in the guise of anti-elitism". Spitzer, meanwhile, said it was imperative to prosecute News Corp.
British parliamentary session witnessed an attack on 80-year-old Murdoch and contrition-on-camera by the great man himself.
In Australia, Prime Minister Julia Gillard's government made the sensational promise to ask "hard questions" of the Aussie arm of Murdoch's News Corporation. This had to be a tabloid-shocker, ranking with UFO sightings and two-headed babies because the Australian-born Murdoch is anecdotally said to rank with the US president, the British queen and the Pope on any Australian leader's list of international VIPs.
Murdoch is certainly embarrassed, if not ashamed. His business is information and paying a bribe overseas to secure a news advantage is criminal in America. But Murdoch has many powerful friends - here, just as much as anywhere else. The Obama administration is aware that the slightest misstep could rebound. So Murdoch shows sign of becoming the ultimate winner.
Technically, News Corp could have run foul of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), a 34-year-old law that penalizes American companies for playing dirty overseas. If proved, that could technically dethrone the Murdochs, make it hard for News Corp to retain US broadcasting licenses and force it to pay fines running into hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars. But that's only if it's proved News Corp employees bribed foreign officials (in this case, British police) in order to gain business advantage, i.e. sell more copies of the now-shuttered News of the World on the strength of sensationalist stories.
The Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal and Fox News expressed disgust at the baying "political mob" and the way everyone is "piling on to News Corp".
Washington Post has already warned against reaction to the scandal going "too far, driven by... antipathy among the media and politicians for Murdoch.
America's foremost publisher of pornography Larry Flynt said he pursued free expression this way - "I test limits by publishing controversial material and paying people who are willing to...expose political hypocrisy. Murdoch's minions...pushed limits by allegedly engaging in unethical or criminal activity."
Some former, presumably disgruntled, Murdoch employees have also staged an attack against their old boss.
And former newspaper publisher Conrad Black, who is spending 29 months in jail, declared Murdoch to be a "great bad man" in the very mould of Napoleon. The media tycoon, said Black, "is not only a tabloid sensationalist (but)...an assassin of the dignity of others and of respected institutions, all in the guise of anti-elitism". Spitzer, meanwhile, said it was imperative to prosecute News Corp.
British parliamentary session witnessed an attack on 80-year-old Murdoch and contrition-on-camera by the great man himself.
In Australia, Prime Minister Julia Gillard's government made the sensational promise to ask "hard questions" of the Aussie arm of Murdoch's News Corporation. This had to be a tabloid-shocker, ranking with UFO sightings and two-headed babies because the Australian-born Murdoch is anecdotally said to rank with the US president, the British queen and the Pope on any Australian leader's list of international VIPs.
Murdoch is certainly embarrassed, if not ashamed. His business is information and paying a bribe overseas to secure a news advantage is criminal in America. But Murdoch has many powerful friends - here, just as much as anywhere else. The Obama administration is aware that the slightest misstep could rebound. So Murdoch shows sign of becoming the ultimate winner.
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