23
   

Is this the beginning of the end of Rupert Murdoch's media empire?

 
 
msolga
 
  1  
Reply Tue 29 May, 2012 02:23 am
@McTag,
Quote:
Blair gets heckled by protester at Leveson inquiry
Posted May 29, 2012 08:39:14

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair gets heckled by a protester who burst into the Levenson inquiry while he was giving evidence.

ABC News


Video:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-05-29/blair-gets-heckled-by-protester-at-leveson-inquiry/4039006
izzythepush
 
  1  
Reply Tue 29 May, 2012 02:37 am
@msolga,
What was wonderful throughout the whole incident was Jay's reaction.
0 Replies
 
McTag
 
  1  
Reply Thu 31 May, 2012 04:45 am

Now Coulson is charged with perjury by the Glasgow police, concerning false evidence he gave (about News International phone-hacking activities) in Scotland in the Sheridan trial.

Oh what a tangled web.....
0 Replies
 
msolga
 
  1  
Reply Fri 1 Jun, 2012 06:56 am
I noticed that Jeremy Hunt/Leveson Inquiry articles were all over the place in the Guardian today.
Just one of them:

Quote:
Earlier on Thursday, Hunt told the Leveson inquiry it was "entirely appropriate" for him to have a mobile phone conversation with James Murdoch in November 2010 despite being given legal advice not to become involved in News Corp's BSkyB bid.


Jeremy Hunt congratulated James Murdoch on BSkyB deal bid progress:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/may/31/jeremy-hunt-james-murdoch-bskyb

Sounds pretty damning to me!

A question to British posters: How much strife is Hunt actually in now, do you think? Also Cameron?
izzythepush
 
  1  
Reply Fri 1 Jun, 2012 07:56 am
@msolga,
What is absolutely incredible is that David Cameron made a big fuss about cleaning up politics. Now Hunt is clearly in breach of the ministerial code, Cameron has refused to refer him to the appropriate bodies.

Hunt lied to parliament about the amount of contact his office had had with Michel, we only found out recently because of Leveson.

There's also been a flurry of activity during the Whitsun break, three budget U turns on pasty taxes, static caravans and tax relief on charitable donations, all when parliament isn't sitting.

There will be a vote on this, and Osborne and Cameron's competence and impartiality have both been brought into question.

Quote:
Ms Harman said Mr Hunt had clearly breached the rules.

"Jeremy Hunt has broken the ministerial code and misled Parliament", she said.

"It is not acceptable that these rules have been broken and we will call a vote insisting that Jeremy Hunt's breaches of the code are referred to the Independent Adviser on Ministerial Interests."

She added: "The ministerial code sets the standards which secretaries of state must live up to. When David Cameron came into power, he upgraded the code and he said he was going to have higher standards in public office. Today those words ring hollow - he has just torn up the code.

"Even if the David Cameron thinks it is acceptable for a minister to break the code he drew up, we do not and will call a vote."



Quote:
What does the ministerial code say?
The code sets out the standards which ministers are expected to live up to in office
It was revised in May 2010 by David Cameron
It says ministers are expected to uphold "the highest standards of propriety"
The PM is the "ultimate judge" of a minister's behaviour and decides what happens to anyone who breaches the code
Labour think Mr Hunt has breached the code in two ways
Firstly, that he misled parliament by telling MPs all correspondence with News Corp had been published
The code says: "Ministers who knowingly mislead Parliament will be expected to offer their resignation to the prime minister"
Secondly, that he has not taken responsibility for the actions of his special adviser who quit over inappropriate contact with News Corp
The code says: "Individual ministers will be accountable to the prime minister, Parliament and the public for their actions and decisions in respect of their special advisers"



http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-18293214
spendius
 
  1  
Reply Fri 1 Jun, 2012 08:12 am
@msolga,
It's not easy to say Olga. It depends how you look at these matters.

I start with The Dirty Digger taking a position that Gordon Brown was unelectable. His next idea is what's in it for me. So he cons Mr Cameron that switching his support to the Tories will win him the election and thus he can trade the switch for favours to his companies. Mr Cameron falls for it, shakes hands on the deal which has no witnesses, and, despite failing to win the election, finds himself in Downing Street.

The BSkyB is launched and Vince Cable is given responsibilty for smoothing it through but sensing that he might get himself in the **** with it he arranges for a journalist to tape record a statement about him being at war with Murdoch and frees himself from the risk of ending up Mr Cameron's fall-guy. Mr Hunt is chosen for the role having previously expressed his support for the bid in public and in a memo to Mr Cameron. His bias is the opposite of the bias Mr Cable had taken pains to express and thus avoiding responsibilty for the bid.

Mr Hunt now realises that he is the mug in the middle so he gets his special adviser, the unfortunate Adam Smith, to do the dirty work on his behalf so that his hands are kept clean in case things go wrong. He claims that he could exercise his "quasi-judicial" ministerial function by setting his bias to one side. Every time he claimed this in his evidence, which was often, he placed his hands to one side of the witness desk as if to demonstrate how the trick was done. When he referred to his support of the bid he placed his hands to the other side of the desk. It was very amusing I thought.

Things went wrong when it was found that poor Milly Dowler's phone had been hacked which led to the Leveson Enquiry. The phone hacking business was being fairly quietly buried due to pressures caused by the police being too busy preventing terrorist action and going to parties. But the hacking of Milly's phone outraged the nation's sense of decency and Mr Cameron panicked and set Leveson in motion much to the Murdoch's disgust.

Mr Osborne meanwhile had planted a very controversial tax change into his Budget concerning "charities" so that he could take some of the heat off Mr Hunt by announcing the cancellation of it while Mr Hunt was giving evidence.

Mr Cameron then decided that no further action was needed relating to breaches of the Ministerial Code presumably knowing that Labour had also engaged in the same sort of things, indeed perfected them in the deal between Mr Blair and Mr Murdoch, and that a few indignant outbursts from Harriet Harman were manageable with the Queen's Diamond Jubilee festivities in the immediate offing.

Mr Kenneth Clarke told the Enquiry that the influence of the newspapers in deciding election results is grossly exaggerated and that Labour won in 1997 because the Tories were hopeless and lost in 2010 because Labour was hopeless and that Murdoch had nothing to do with either result and merely talks up his influence for commercial reasons and conned both Mr Blair and Mr Cameron into giving him something for nothing. Mr Clarke is, of course, the Prime Minister we should have had in place of the two spinning machines aforementioned.

Her Majesty has Her own way of letting the participants know what She thinks of their sordid activities.

As a matter of some interest it came out in the Enquiry that Mr Blair never owned a mobile phone while in office and nor did he personally send any e-mails or text messages which could be traced to him.

It's better than going to the zoo to see the monkeys.

What we are eagerly awaiting is Rebekah Wade/Kemp/Brooks' exercising her right to a fury hell cannot match in return for being scorned.



izzythepush
 
  1  
Reply Fri 1 Jun, 2012 11:02 am
@spendius,
You're giving the politicians way too much credit. Osborne, Cameron and Hunt aren't so much Machiavellian, as incompetent.
spendius
 
  1  
Reply Fri 1 Jun, 2012 01:42 pm
@izzythepush,
I don't underestimate these guys. That's an indulgence for those uneducated in the difficulties of modern politics.

For example--in view of the difficulties of the single currency in the Eurozone do you think the Tories were right to reject Heseltine and Clarke as leaders? I think they would both have had us in. With my support. Which has wavered a bit recently.

I think it will happen. Our choice is being made to have it happen to us or to take the initiative. It was the skilful management of decline which incensed that silly old bat Thatcher termagant.
spendius
 
  1  
Reply Fri 1 Jun, 2012 01:48 pm
@spendius,
One of the things those who watch the hearings have been told is that Paul Keating would tell anybody who would listen that Mr Murdoch's top ten priorities were Mr Murdoch (1--9) and his family in 10th place so he could claim to have a spark of humanity.

There's a story that he pinned Mr Blair to a wall to tell him that. I deleted the expletives in deference to the sensitive viewers.
0 Replies
 
izzythepush
 
  1  
Reply Fri 1 Jun, 2012 01:51 pm
@spendius,
It won't happen for a bloody long time.

I keep forgetting you're a Europhile. I think we should stay in as well. If UKIP get their way, we'll be fucked.
spendius
 
  1  
Reply Fri 1 Jun, 2012 03:07 pm
@izzythepush,
I'm a northern Europhile.

We have a single currency in the UK. People often forget that.
0 Replies
 
msolga
 
  1  
Reply Fri 1 Jun, 2012 03:42 pm
Thank you for your responses, Izzy & spendius.
I haven't time to read them properly as I'm on the run. (leaving soon to head off to the country for the day.
Will read them later, when I have the time.
spendius
 
  1  
Reply Fri 1 Jun, 2012 04:55 pm
@msolga,
If you have not the time to read our two posts properly Olga you are far too busy. I mean from medical point of view.
0 Replies
 
msolga
 
  1  
Reply Sat 2 Jun, 2012 06:21 pm
@izzythepush,
Quote:
What is absolutely incredible is that David Cameron made a big fuss about cleaning up politics. Now Hunt is clearly in breach of the ministerial code, Cameron has refused to refer him to the appropriate bodies. ...

Yes, (admittedly from a long way away from the UK), I can't see how Cameron cannot see Hunt's actions as a clear breach of the Ministerial Code.

Ministerial Code (United Kingdom):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ministerial_Code_%28United_Kingdom%29

For Hunt to be allowed to "cling on" to his position following his evidence to the Inquiry is pretty amazing. He should have been immediately stood down by the prime minister, surely?

Hunt was clearly biased in favour of Murdoch's bid for BSkyB. I can't see any other possible interpretation of his evidence & his actions. (but then, living in Oz which has a far longer history of Murdoch & News Ltd than any of you, none of this comes as a surprise. It's just Murdoch business as usual .... that's how News Ltd came to own & control 70% of Australia's newspapers. With a little help from obliging Oz government/s. Neutral )

Quote:
A defiant David Cameron stood by his beleaguered culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt on Thursday evening, insisting that he had handled News Corporation's bid for BSkyB fairly despite a day of gruelling evidence at the Leveson inquiry in which it was disclosed that Hunt repeatedly contacted James Murdoch about the bid.

On 21 December 2010, hours before taking responsibility for the takeover, Hunt texted the News International chairman to congratulate him that the European commission did not object on competition grounds. Hunt texted: "Great and congrats on Brussels, just Ofcom to go!"

Even after receiving authority over the bid process, Hunt remained in contact with Murdoch via text, receiving one message on 3 March, when the culture secretary had just publicly announced he was "minded" to approve the bid, that said: "Big few days. Well played JRM." Two minutes later, Hunt replied: "Thanks think we got right solution!"

Hunt conceded that he had seen a successful takeover as vital to the future of British media, but claimed he had set this belief aside in deciding whether to grant the £8bn takeover.

Within minutes of Hunt's finishing six hours of evidence, No 10 announced David Cameron would not be referring Hunt's handling of the bid to his independent adviser on the ministerial code, a decision branded as "disgraceful" by the Labour deputy leader, Harriet Harman. The Liberal Democrats said it was "a matter for the prime minister alone to decide how to handle issues of discipline concerning Conservative ministers".

It is likely Hunt is now safe in office at least until a late summer reshuffle, but his authority in the media industry is severely damaged.


Jeremy Hunt clings on after Leveson inquiry ordeal:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/may/31/jeremy-hunt-leveson-inquiry?intcmp=239
msolga
 
  1  
Reply Sat 2 Jun, 2012 10:42 pm
@msolga,
Quote:
Nick Clegg refuses to back Jeremy Hunt as Lib Dems demand investigation
Toby Helm and Daniel Boffey
Guardian.co.uk, Saturday 2 June 2012 20.20 BST


Pressure mounts for culture secretary to face a fresh inquiry into whether he breached the ministerial code over BSkyB affair

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Observer/Pix/pictures/2012/6/2/1338655647141/Jeremy-Hunt-008.jpg
Jeremy Hunt leaves the high court after giving evidence at the Leveson inquiry. Senior Lib Dems want a new inquiry into the BSkyB affair. Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA

Nick Clegg, the deputy prime minister, has refused to give unequivocal backing to Jeremy Hunt over his handling of the BSkyB takeover controversy as senior Liberal Democrats broke ranks to demand a new investigation into whether the culture secretary has broken the ministerial code.

Hunt's chances of surviving in the cabinet appeared to have been boosted last week when David Cameron declared minutes after Hunt finished giving evidence to the Leveson inquiry that he would not order a further inquiry.

But that attempt to end the row looks like backfiring, with Lib Dem MPs and peers joining Labour to insist that Hunt is referred to the official adviser on the ministerial code, Sir Alex Allan.....<cont>


http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/jun/02/jeremy-hunt-nick-clegg-investigation
izzythepush
 
  1  
Reply Sun 3 Jun, 2012 02:34 am
@msolga,
The writing was on the wall on Thursday Night's edition of Question Time Mark Oaten the Lib Dem spokesman tore into the Tory Alan Duncan over his support of Hunt, contrasting it with the treatment of Vince Cable.

It does seem strange to suggest if you're biased against Murdoch you can't put that to one side when called on to make an impartial decision, but if you're biased in favour of Murdoch you can.

Both parties are doing badly in the polls. The Tory right wing a blaming the Liberals for holding them back, and the Liberals are desperate to claim 'non evil' policies as their own, such as raising the tax free allowance and rubbishing 'evil' policies such as tax cuts for the rich.
spendius
 
  1  
Reply Sun 3 Jun, 2012 04:17 am
@izzythepush,
There is an argument that the bid was a good thing for the country. Plenty of takeover bids have been encouraged by governments.

What were the anti-bid coalition up to if it wasn't the search for a featherbed.
msolga
 
  1  
Reply Sun 3 Jun, 2012 04:37 am
@spendius,
Quote:
There is an argument that the bid was a good thing for the country

And what's the basis of that argument, spendius?
How would it be good for your country, in your opinion?

Even if it was good ( which I seriously doubt. The more diversity of media ownership, the fairer & more democratic reporting of politics is, in my opinion), that still doesn't excuse Hunt's bias & complicity with News Ltd in the BSkyB bid, surely?
izzythepush
 
  0  
Reply Sun 3 Jun, 2012 04:43 am
@msolga,
Spendi bases a lot of it on the primacy of the premier league since Sky poured in a load of money.

It's another one of the things we don't agree on.
spendius
 
  1  
Reply Sun 3 Jun, 2012 04:56 am
@msolga,
The short answer is Sky News, Sky Sports 1,2,3 and 4 and Sky Arts 1 and 2.

If Mr Hunt was persuaded by such a powerful argument why shouldn't he help the bid succeed. He was freely elected as were the government of which he is a part.

What makes you think the anti-bid coalition had our interests at heart? Its opposition was entirely commercial.
 

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