On Rupert, and self image... as well as very well comptarmentalized

[nadinbrzezinski]

companies.

Here I am listening to the replay, and it struck me... News Corp is so compartmentalized that indeed there is a chance that old Rupert did not know what was going on.

There are two reasons for that.

1.- When you run a company on a need to know basis... not all goes up to the top.

2.- Rupert is rumored to have run the place like a feudal empire. In this case, if you want to keep your job, how much do you tell the Emperor? I mean the Emperor might not want to hear it.

If nothing else this will be a textbook example, like Enron, of how you can sink a company... willful blindness was rampant.

And yes, this old man probably did not know all that was going on in his company... that does not excuse it. But for any of you paying attention to how business is done... textbook example... of how things can and do go wrong.

[Ruby the Liberal]

1. Yep. Plausible Deniability.

Of course, as the MPs invoked (via Enron) the counter to that is Willful Ignorance.

If you didn't get to the part where the female MP (blonde - name escapes me) hits Lil Jimmeh Murdock with that one, it is must see. The look on his face was priceless.

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. Yep it was, he was not familiar with the term

but this will be a textbook example for bidness students everywhere.

[tsuki]

3. Hinton knew, so Rupert Roo knew. nt

[Warpy]

4. Rupert gave the game away when he said they didn't investigate

any of the obvious illegalities like bribing police, that it never occurred to him to do so. If he didn't approve them specifically, he certainly gave his tacit approval after the fact by not investigating why people thought breaking the law was a good idea.

Fish rot from the head down and so, apparently, has Rupert's organization.

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. Oh absolutely but the lesson here is

running this the way it was leads to ENRON like problems... as we saw.

It also puts a lie to something else, he is suposed to be a hands on person... in a smaller company probably he was... also 20 years ago, or forty. A company this size is like running a country. It opens a whole slew of different cans and puts a lie to the too big to fail canard.

By the way, monopolies are bad... which is the other thing this is a textbook example off. Enron was, to a lesser degree.

[malaise]

5. Did you know

that Rupert's father died in a boating accident and his body was never found.
Rupert was on the boat...just saying

[HipChick]

6. Hmmm..just like Maxwell...his biggest rival died mysteriously on a boat..

Things that make you go hmmm...

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. Still this is a textbook example on HOW to sink a company

I liked the use of Willful Ignorance by the MPs... that is charitable... and I am being charitable in the same way...

Either he knew, or did not... latter will be the defense, but legally he is just as screwed if this goes all the way.

[malaise]

9. It's a fascinating textbook case

He'll croak before the investigations are over

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. He is at the point where they might go after his son

and leave him alone... The brits are better about that. It has nothing to do with billions.

At this point there is blood in the water and a take over is coming... he will be pushed out. That will be far more punishment than any jail time, if I am readying his personality right.