Will this pushback will be sustained and will Murdoch’s chokehold be broken? I seriously doubt it. Even the most immediate possibility, the BSkyB transaction, is most likely just being delayed in the hope that this will blow over. But it shouldn’t be.That deal should be killed outright. If the events of the last five years haven’t shown the perils of media consolidation, nothing will.
This story is now out of Murdoch’s control. He and his people have miscalculated in the last few years—not unreasonably, but presumably out of hubris, too—that their political power would enable them to sweep this under the rug with minimal damage.
They almost pulled it off. Scotland Yard had policemen on the take, it feared damaging its symbiotic relationship with News International, and the guy who headed its pathetic “investigation” left and went straight onto Murdoch’s payroll as a Times columnist. News of the World editor Andy Coulson, who Murdoch’s folks now say authorized police bribes, landed in 10 Downing Street as Conservative David Cameron’s top flack, something like Obama coming into office with Jayson Blair—a joke, but it happened. A News International journalist, meantime, became top flack for Labour’s Ed Miliband, the opposition leader, and ordered Labour MPs to go easy on Murdoch and News International. Oborne on that:
But until this week, Ed Miliband had made the pragmatic decision to ignore the phone-hacking story — explaining privately to confidants that he had no choice because the alternative would be ‘three years of hell’ at the hands of the Murdoch press.
Murdoch’s people undertook to destroy or hide evidence and have executives stonewall inquiries. It paid large sums of money to its scapegoats, the former royal editor Clive Goodman and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, after they went to prison—presumably to buy their silence. It has misled the press, Parliament, the press’s self-regulatory body, and the public many, many times. By owning The Wall Street Journal, he has prevented it from bringing its still-flickering investigative might to bear on this scandal (while diluting that might more generally). This is no small thing. Go back and read some of the paper’s many excellent page one Murdoch stories before he took it over.
Their miscalculation lay in underestimating The Guardian and Nick Davies, who have pulled off one of the greatest newspaper investigations of all time. Full stop. This one will go up there in the pantheon with Watergate. And while it’s still unfolding, now, finally, they’ll have a little help.
This scandal has shown how important newspapers are (in ways both good and bad), but it’s worth noting in conclusion here that The Guardian is being hammered by the collapse of the newspaper industry. It loses tens of millions of dollars a year. In a few years it will almost certainly not have the institutional muscle that enabled it to face down News Corporation and its collaborators.
Then what?
Further Reading:
News of the World and U.S. Media Culture. I don’t think it would happen here, but…
News Corp. and Murdoch Swamped By Hacking Scandal News. Revelations come fast and furious in the twenty-four hours after a Guardian bombshell.
Why News Corp. Can’t Cover the U.S. Business Story. It is the story.
Murdoch’s Hacking Scandal Gets Much Worse. The Guardian shows News Corporation at an all-time low (and that’s saying something)
Murdoch’s Hacking Scandal. Two stories cover the political, police, and press angles on the News Corp. coverup
The News Corp. Coverup. Memory-impaired execs, payments to key figures, and Keystone Kops
Anybody There? Why the UK’s phone-hacking scandal met media silence
A Times Must-Read on the News Corp. Hacking Scandal
Journalism Scandal at News Corp. A peek into Murdoch’s news culture.
Audit Notes: News Corporation Hacking Scandal Edition
Money quote from the Guardian's Alexander Chancellor:
"...it is worth pointing out that, however ghastly journalists may be, nobody would know anything about anything without us – not even the extent of our own ghastliness."
#1 Posted by murph, CJR on Thu 7 Jul 2011 at 04:31 PM
So hacking is not a form of journalism after all. A shocking revelation in this era of Wikileaks.
#2 Posted by Cecil , CJR on Thu 7 Jul 2011 at 07:37 PM
CJR et al. need to stop inverting reality — stop painting govt as eternal victim — and admit that the State is the eternal enemy of peace, liberty, prosperity, humanity. Murdoch, unethical as his journalism may be, can not legally force govt employees to do anything, whereas governments, by definition, legally force people to do things against their will.
#3 Posted by Dan A., CJR on Thu 7 Jul 2011 at 08:10 PM
I hope it is plain to all that someone who lacks any conscience as does Rupert Murdoch, his sole purpose in closing News of the World is to secure his TV deal. I urge all the powers that be to deny him yet another opportunity to control the news. You should what he's done with Fox News here in the US. PLease do not let this media monster devour anything else.
#4 Posted by Wordwiz, CJR on Thu 7 Jul 2011 at 09:23 PM
So hacking is not a form of journalism after all. A shocking revelation in this era of Wikileaks.
#2 Posted by Cecil on Thu 7 Jul 2011 at 07:37 PM
------------------------------------------------------
Above you can see a line between your text and mine.
If you can not see that line, don't worry, glasses will help and nobody will think the worse of you.
But can you see the line; between hacking into a celebrety's or a politician's or a criminal's phone; and hacking in to the phones, of horribly murdered girls, or the victims of terrorist bombs, or dead war heroes, or their families?
That kind of blindness to the line, will make you be seen as either evil or stupid.
#5 Posted by walker, CJR on Fri 8 Jul 2011 at 08:31 AM
Excellent series of articles.
I am curious about one thing re Cameron's role in this whole thing.
If Coulson is put on trial and accused of authorising or having knowledge of phone hacking (or payments to police even) it really brings into question a lot more than the Prime Ministers 'lack of judegement'.
One would have thought that the most senior political figure in any country would want to carefully vet who his employees are.
One would have thought a simple security check would have thrown up questions. After all the UK has a strong security apparatus.
So if this was not done why not?
This is either gross neglicence at best or at worst - well what?
It is questions like this I hope to hear being asked too.
And lastly - the links to show that Milliband was also 'courting' the Murdoch press is good journalism.
It really shows the state of the UK political scene - And the power that a press baron yields.
Especially one who knows that if he can control the minds of people through the media he can also control their wallets
Frightening in a way and the stuff that conspiracy theories are normally so 'laughingly' based on'
#6 Posted by Andrew Sampson, CJR on Fri 8 Jul 2011 at 07:04 PM
Please keep on top of the "Murdock Story". His influence on and control over American politics needs to be investigated.
He presently provides his handpicked candidates for the Republican nomination for the Presidency with TV time under the guise that they are providing commentary on the news of the day.
His Fox news network is strictly a propaganda dispenser for Rupert and the Republcan Party .
#7 Posted by Bob Fleming, CJR on Tue 12 Jul 2011 at 09:00 AM