[Update] The News Corp scandal

[Ignitionnet]

Originally Posted by Hugh

*probably is true, IMHO......

Agreed - the Murdochs feel besmirched and are airing some politicians' dirty laundry for them.

From their point of view I'm guessing they have nothing to lose from doing so now, so for them there's no downside and a not inconsiderable amount of satisfaction to be derived from it.

Where it doesn't serve them to lie it's pretty much guaranteed they haven't.

Tomorrow and daddy's appearance should be good.

[Sirius]

It would be interesting to see what skeletons the BBC have hidden in a cupboard somewhere, I am referring to the fact that everyone seems to have been hacking ether phones or emails so they can get a march on there competition ???

I'm definitely hoping bridges are going to be burned..Maybe we can get back to government keeping the press at bargepole length instead of on speed dial.

Originally Posted by Sirius

It would be interesting to see what skeletons the BBC have hidden in a cupboard somewhere, I am referring to the fact that everyone seems to have been hacking ether phones or emails so they can get a march on there competition ???

Not 'everyone'. Quite a few organisations have had nothing proven against them, which includes most of the broadsheets and The Daily Mail. I don't see why the BBC should be presumed to be complicit.

Anyway today is going to be good. I wonder if Rupert has any more dirt on the current or previous government. I wonder if Hunt will survive this, it looks very bad.

Damn! it's live on the Leveson Inquiry website and live on the TV but not on the Beeb website and so no tweets to leaven the proceedings.

Originally Posted by Damien

Not 'everyone'. Quite a few organisations have had nothing proven against them, which includes most of the broadsheets and The Daily Mail. I don't see why the BBC should be presumed to be complicit.

Anyway today is going to be good. I wonder if Rupert has any more dirt on the current or previous government. I wonder if Hunt will survive this, it looks very bad.

Oh he will ,one thing that is apparent is that if the government are going to try and bring the most powerful media bosses in world to book then they have to make sure that their own skeletons are well and truly buried

[BenMcr]

Originally Posted by Maggy J

Damn! it's live on the Leveson Inquiry website and live on the TV but not on the Beeb website and so no tweets to leaven the proceedings.

Yes it is http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17836469

Originally Posted by BenMcr

Yes it is http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17836469

At last thanks!

---------- Post added at 11:37 ---------- Previous post was at 11:09 ----------

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17835770

Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt's special adviser is quitting, amid a row over contact between his office and News Corporation over the BSkyB bid.
Emails released on Tuesday showed Adam Smith had been in contact with the company about its takeover bid.

Hmmm! Another falling on his sword to protect his boss?

sky breaking news

Jeremy hunts special adviser has stepped down

Another day of I can't remember,I don't know,I'm not sure.That he doesn't remember certain meetings.Outright denial that he has any influence through his papers.

Complete denial of what former colleagues and ex -have written in book form or in evidence.

Pretty much what I expected.

---------- Post added at 15:19 ---------- Previous post was at 14:34 ----------

Finished for today..more tomorrow at 10 am.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012...iry?CMP=twt_fd

The plan clearly was for Castle Murdoch to be defended with well-constructed walls of obdurate denial, reinforced by occasional bouts of forgetfulness. Certainly, the denials never shifted – and these were big, tough denials: "I've never asked a prime minister for anything in my life … We have never pushed our commercial interests in our papers … I don't know many politicians."

In the case of Murdoch's relationship with Blair, Jay quoted Murdoch's former editor, Andrew Neil, that there had been "an implicit understanding – never openly talked about between the two men – but an understanding nevertheless".
Murdoch duly put up his well-rehearsed denial – "I never asked Mr Blair for anything, nor did I receive any favour" – and then proceeded to volunteer that he had been in the habit of seeing Blair two or three times a year, as though that were an annual average for most voters to see a national leader. He described how he had once spent an afternoon at Chequers, telling Blair how much he opposed Britain joining the euro, as though the prime minister had nothing better to do than to listen to the opinions of a passing Australian.

Yes he did slip up on more than one occasion and I found myself holding my breath..

---------- Post added at 20:46 ---------- Previous post was at 20:08 ----------

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17843752

Ex-Labour Prime Minister Gordon Brown has denied News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch's claim that he threatened to "make war" on the media company.
Mr Murdoch told the Leveson Inquiry Mr Brown had phoned him in 2009 after the Sun moved to back the Conservatives.
He quoted Mr Brown as saying: "Well, your company has declared war on my government and we have no alternative but to make war on your company."
But later, Mr Brown responded by saying the allegation was "wholly wrong".
Mr Murdoch had claimed that Mr Brown had not been in a "balanced state of mind" when he made the phone call.
Mr Brown said he did not phone, meet, or write to Mr Murdoch about the Sun's decision to support the Conservatives.

How does anyone prove or disprove this? It's just the sort of thing that The Sun might claim and of course it's just hearsay.

Another day at the Leveson Inquiry.Another day of forgetfulness and vivid imagination.Another day of outright denial and not quite remembered meetings.

---------- Post added at 10:15 ---------- Previous post was at 10:06 ----------

Meanwhile.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2...ws-corp-emails

The stock market watchdog, the Financial Services Authority, is looking at whether a series of emails from the office of the culture and media secretary to News Corporation representatives broke rules on insider trading, the Guardian understands.
Emails disclosed on Tuesday during the Leveson inquiry into the media, appear to show that News Corp's public affairs executive Frédéric Michel was given a unique insight into decisions being made by the culture secretary Jeremy Hunt into News Corp's £8bn bid for BSkyB by Hunt's special adviser, Adam Smith. Michel then relayed the information to his boss, James Murdoch, a News Corp executive and chairman of BSkyB at the time.

In one of dozens of messages, Michel appears to have been informed in advance of the details of Hunt's decision to refer the BSkyB bid to Ofcom. Dated 24 Jan 2011, while markets were still open in London and Europe, Michel wrote to his boss, James Murdoch, that the information he had received from Hunt's office was "absolutely illegal". Murdoch has since said the reference had been a joke.
There is no allegation that any trading on information took place. But unlike the US's Securities and Exchange Commission rules on insider trading, the FSA need not show that beneficial trades have been made under their "market abuse" rules in order to press charges.

Now that is far more interesting..

---------- Post added at 11:44 ---------- Previous post was at 10:15 ----------

Aha Now they have him against the ropes..
He's admitted he has not read comments by Justice Eady in judgement on Max Mosley case in which he referred to blackmail by NoW journalists to the women involved.Who in the hell can believe that?

---------- Post added at 11:51 ---------- Previous post was at 11:44 ----------

Breaking News Downing Street insist Mr Cameron "is confident he had no inappropriate discussions about the BSkyB bid and he at no time sought to influence the process".

there you go..Another denial.

It seems to be getting rather heated. You think Murdoch might lose it 'A Few Good Men' style at some point.

Originally Posted by Damien

It seems to be getting rather heated. You think Murdoch might lose it 'A Few Good Men' style at some point.

He seems to just catch himself just in time so far. We can only hope..

---------- Post added at 12:37 ---------- Previous post was at 12:13 ----------

Someone seems to have calmed him down during the break.

---------- Post added at 12:39 ---------- Previous post was at 12:37 ----------

Breaking News The Culture Select Committee will give its long-awaited report on phone hacking next Tuesday, chairman John Whittingdale tells the BBC's Daily Politics.

Well we can only hope that it makes interesting reading.

[devilincarnate]

Seems to be spreading to arms of News Corp?

The broadcast regulator Ofcom has asked News Group newspapers for more documents relating to phone hacking.

It wants the papers as part of its ongoing inquiry into whether BSkyB is a "fit and proper" owner of a broadcasting licence.

Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation is the parent company of both News Group, which owned the News of the World newspaper, and part-owner of BSkyB.

Ofcom wants to see documents disclosed in the civil cases over phone hacking.

The BBC's business editor, Robert Peston, said it was the first confirmation that the malpractices at the News of the World are material to Ofcom's decision about whether BSkyB, which is 39%-owned by News Corp, is fit and proper to hold a broadcasting licence.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-17860707