Rupert Murdoch, Paper Tiger

[madokie]

http://www.slate.com/id/2298807/

Rupert Murdoch, Paper Tiger
The phone-hacking scandal undoes the media mogul.
By Jack ShaferPosted Friday, July 8, 2011, at 7:05 PM ET

Rupert Murdoch. Click to expand image.Don't fear Rupert MurdochBlaming "the press" for the phone-hacking scandal, as Prime Minister David Cameron did Friday in a press conference, and calling for a new regulatory apparatus to govern the press, which he also did, ignores the obvious: It has been the press—make that the Guardian—that uncovered the phone-hacking scandal, payments by the press to the police, the various cover-ups by the police and Rupert Murdoch's enterprises, the possible destruction of crime evidence, and the obstruction of justice. The press—not the police or a government inquest.

The belief that the U.K. press will magically improve if the government appoints new regulators to replace the current self-regulators who man the Press Complaints Commission* is made laughable by the fact that Cameron personally hired journalist Andy Coulson as his director of communications in 2007, just six months after he resigned as News of the World editor in the wake of the first phone-hacking scandal.
PRINTDISCUSSE-MAILRSSRECOMMEND...REPRINTSSINGLE PAGE

Coulson, as you may have read today, was arrested Friday morning by police investigating illegal payments to police in the phone-hacking affair. He has repeatedly claimed that he knew nothing of the unscrupulous and illegal practices of his editor—who went to jail for his phone-hacking offenses—or of the private detective who helped the paper plunder the voicemail boxes of celebrities. He was forced to leave Cameron's service this past January as news of the phone-hacking scandal made him a political liability.

The revolving door between Rupert Murdoch's house of crime and 10 Downing Street tells us all we need to know about giving the government additional oversight of the press. Cameron, like Tony Blair before him, has proved himself eager to snuggle with Rupert in return for future political support. So if it's the press that's gone corrupt in the U.K., whose fault is it? Murdoch's or that of his allies, Blair and Cameron?

[Sarah Ibarruri]

1. Money makes a lot of politicians horny, doesn't it? Otherwise why snuggle with a greedy, criminal?

I hope this gets Blair and Cameron in enough hot water to visit a jail, and not as a tourist.

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. I'm not convinced by Shafer's argument that he's a paper tiger

He claims it by pointing to China facing him down. Um, yeah, China, authoritarian government, controller of a significant chunk of the world's economy (and a real controller, unlike western democratic governments which don't actually control their own economies), and ruthless punisher of opponents, is a little different to governments and politicians who have to get re-elected and depend on a good image in their countries' media.

Murdoch may not be as powerful as Wen Jiabao, but that doesn't mean he's not more powerful than most western politicians. And having a government-appointed body in charge of regulating the press will still be a lot better than the press-appointed PCC. When we say (and we have, frequently, over the years) that the PCC is a toothless poodle of a watchdog, the press has just shrugged its shoulders and said "so what? What can you do about it?" If we think the new body is not doing it job because the government appointed some cronies to it, we can at least use it against the government in the next election.

"So if it's the press that's gone corrupt in the U.K., whose fault is it? Murdoch's or that of his allies, Blair and Cameron? "

Yes, Murdoch, Blair, Cameron, all 3 - but Murdoch mostly. For why politicians are afraid to take on the press, and the low quality of the mass market papers, you can add Lord Rothermere and Paul Dacre of the Daily Mail, Richard 'Porn Baron' Desmond of the Express, and some bit players like Rebekah Brooks, Kelvin Mackenzie, and Piers Morgan - and the 'Great British Public', of which a sizeable part laps up the celebrity gossip and bile that sells these papers.

[malaise]

3. 100% correct

Good morning! :hi: