Media bosses are defending themselves over erroneous, potentially life-ruining reporting during Boston Marathon bombing coverage this week. The biggest culprits are News Corp. boss Rupert Murdoch and CNN’s Jeff Zucker, with both sticking up for themselves over a couple of pretty glaring flaps.

CNN is still trying to find itself since Zucker took the reins, and a part of that process apparently involves painful media mishaps that were once again the subject of scrutiny during the developing Boston Marathon bombing. CNN had reported that an arrest was made in the early days of the story, even though no moves were made on the bombing suspects until late Thursday/early Friday.

“When we made a mistake, we moved quickly to acknowledge it and correct it,” Zucker said in a statement.

“As events unfolded in Boston, and then in Texas, and as they continue to unfold at this very moment in both places, CNN has been there for our audience in every possible way – on television, online and on our mobile platforms,” he said.

Zucker concluded by lauding CNN’s staff for their tireless reporting efforts.

“I wanted to express my deep gratitude and admiration. You have worked tirelessly, around the clock, to share these stories. And our audiences have responded, making it clear that they rely on us in ever increasing ways. In front of the cameras and behind the scenes, you have shown the world what makes us CNN. With my thanks and appreciation.”

But the bigger media mishap in Boston bombing reports belongs to The New York Post, a News Corp. publication owned by Rupert Murdoch. Their story showed a photo of two innocent men, implying that they were the prime suspects in the bombing.

The controversial move was universally condemned, with even The Inquisitr running a damage-control story to exonerate the men pictured.

Murdoch defended the Post on Twitter, shifting blame to the FBI:

All NYPost pics were those distributed by FBI.And instantly withdrawn when FBI changed directions.

— Rupert Murdoch(@rupertmurdoch) April 20, 2013

Even President Obama criticized erroneous reporting Friday, arguing that it can jeopardize public safety.

“In this age of instant reporting and tweets and blogs, there’s a temptation to latch on to any bit of information, sometimes to jump to conclusions. But when a tragedy like this happens, with public safety at risk and the stakes so high, it’s important that we do this right,” he said.

What do you think? Should media outlets be more careful with unconfirmed reports, or do the demands of a 24/7 news cycle leave some room for error?

[Images via: David Shankbone, Wikimedia Commons]

Rupert Murdoch, Jeff Zucker Defend Themselves Over Boston Bombing Flaps is a post from: The Inquisitr

Alec Baldwin claims he’s done with interviews so — in what may well be his last one ever — the outspoken but invariably interesting actor made sure it was a doozy.

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter after a preview Broadway performance in Orphans, the actor elaborated on his previous comments about Shia LaBeouf’s decision to publicly post emails from him, Baldwin, Tom Sturridge and the play’s director Daniel Sullivan, after he abruptly left the production.

Asked if he was surprised at LaBeouf’s actions, the 55-year-old actor said:

“I was, yes. I was very surprised,” adding,”People, on occasion, leave films, TV shows. It’s unpleasant, but it’s unavoidable. He’s going through whatever he’s going through … and there does seem to be an inverse proportion to how much experience you have and how much you shoot your mouth off.”

Ouch.

Moving on. Baldwin, who is known for his highly critical views on conservatism was asked if her ever discussed politics with his brother Stephen, who is liberal.

“His politics have no relevance in my life whatsoever,” Baldwin said, bluntly. “I don’t say that, by the way, in a mean-spirited way or a reductive way.”

“Ultraconservatism is, to me, so illogical. Everywhere you go conservatives want to cut, cut, cut, cut — cut money for powerless people. So that’s the biggest problem I have with them.”

Jumping to the Oscars, the second time around father-to-be echoed Tina Fey and said he would never do the Oscars again, calling it a “thankless job.”

But things got really interesting when Baldwin poured forth on the subjects of Fox News, Page Six, the New York Post and the man behind them — Rupert Murdoch.

The actor’s run-ins with each of these are well documented — most recently he was accused of racially abusing a New York Post photog, which Baldwin denies — telling THR he didn’t think he would be a target if he was a conservative Republican.

“Page Six is kind of a stiletto for a rabidly conservative political operation.You know, Fox News, Rupert Murdoch — killing people of a certain stripe, that’s their goal. And I just happen to be the recipient of an abundance of that,” he said.

Then, came the money-shot comment.

“On any given day, I have other things to do, typically. But every now and then, spitting on Murdoch, Fox News, the New York Post and Page Six … I feel like I was born to do that.”

If this really is Baldwin’s last interview, well played.

[Image via Featureflash / Shutterstock.com]

Alec Baldwin Talks Shia LaBeouf, Spitting On Rupert Murdoch And Conservatives is a post from: The Inquisitr

Blood libel and slander against the Jewish people and the nation of Israel reared its ugly head in Britain last Sunda, when the Rupert Murdoch owned Sunday Times published a vile cartoon that portrayed a big nosed, hunchbacked Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu embedding helpless Palestinians in brick wall while using their blood for mortar. At the bottom of the cartoon was the caption “Israeli Elections. Will Cementing Peace Continue,” leaving no doubt about the target of the artist’s attack. Just for good measure, the disgusting cartoon was published on International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

After complaints about the cartoon poured in from offended readers, The Sunday Times bragged about their pro-Jewish credentials and tried to support the newspaper’s indefensible decision to publish the cartoon with the following comments:

“It is aimed squarely at Mr. Netanyahu and his policies, not at Israel, let alone at Jewish people. It appears today because Mr. Netanyahu won the Israeli election last week. The Sunday Times condemns anti-Semitism, as is clear in the excellent article in today’s Magazine which exposes the Holocaust-denying tours of concentration camps organised by David Irving.”

Rupert Murdoch, who seems to have abandoned the hands on style of corporate management that made him famous, tweeted his apologies for the cartoon:

“Gerald Scarfe has never reflected the opinions of the Sunday Times. Nevertheless, we owe major apology for grotesque, offensive cartoon.”

However, no amount of apologies will ever explain how any editor at a world famous newspaper could actually display the lack of judgement required to print this filth on the same day the world remembers the death of six million Jews in Adolph Hitler’s concentration camps.

While most of the modern civilized world accepts the reality of the Holocaust, many of the world’s younger citizens remain blissfully unaware that the Jewish people have been slandered and butchered for 1900 years since the Romans destroyed the Second Temple in 72 CE. After conquering Israel, the Romans banned Jews from Jerusalem, killed thousands, and enslaved hundreds of thousands. The population of Israel was scattered like dust to the four corners of the earth.

Despite the endless persecution and the tribulations of the Diaspora, the Jewish people never gave up their hopes to return to their homeland of Israel. Against all odds, Jews somehow managed to maintain a sizable continuous population in Israel for the next 1900 years until the nation was re-established in 1948.

Critics of Israel are quick to forget that Jews have been the majority in Jerusalem since the first recorded census in 1851 and long before that according to most historians. It is well past time to put an end to the lies that portray Israeli Jews as invaders with no historical roots in the Middle East who magically parachuted by the millions into Israel in 1948.

Blood Libel, as seen in cartoon in question, has been the source of untold suffering for European Jews over the centuries. They were burned alive or driven into exile over the lie that Jews killed Christian children and used their blood to make Passover Matzoh. Shouts of blood Libel led to terrifying pogroms in most European nations. Under the ruthless authority of the Czar and the Russian Orthodox Church, entire villages were ransacked. Jews abandoned their family homes and literally tried to walk to the borders of Russia in an attempt to escape the bloodshed.

As the Breitbart News website so aptly pointed out, ”blood libel against Jews, which incredibly claimed that Jews used the blood of Christians to bake their matzos for Passover, originated in Norwich, England in 1144. This was followed by England forcing the Jews to wear special badges in 1216, forcing Jews to attend conversion sermons in 1278, and being the first European country to expel their Jewish populations in 1290.”

There is a temptation in some quarters to dismiss the cartoon as an aberration or an example of bad taste, but sadly, another incident occurred on International Holocaust Remembrance Day that makes it clear Jews are being singled out for slander in Europe.

Former Prime minister of Italy, Silvio Berlusconi, showed up at a memorial to Italian victims of the Holocaust on Sunday and stunned the audience when he made an outrageous speech that praised Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini for “having done good.”

“It is difficult now to put oneself in the shoes of who was making decisions back then. Certainly the [Italian\ government then, fearing that German power would turn into a general victory, preferred to be allied with Hitler’s Germany rather that oppose it.

“Within this alliance came the imposition of the fight against, and extermination of, the Jews. Thus, the racial laws are the worst fault of Mussolini, who, in so many other aspects, did good.”

Everyone has the right to voice their opinion about the situation in the Middle East, but it is important to point out that Prime Minister Netanyahu has never advocated killing Muslims, Palestinians, or Arabs. He has never advocated wiping any Arab Nation off the face of the earth.

However, there are literally thousands of comments and speeches in the world’s media made by Palestinian and Arab leaders and clerics calling for the annihilation of Israel and genocide against every Jew on earth. Even Israel’s so-called partner for peace, Mahmoud Abbas, published a doctoral dissertation denying the Holocaust.

The time has come for the Sunday Times, and all the newspapers that dedicate so much space to attacking Israel every time a Jew builds a house to show the same dedication to providing honest coverage of the relentless Jew hate that pollutes the Arab media.

Europe’s Jews are afraid to walk down the street in most European cities wearing any item of clothing or Jewelry that indicates that they are Jewish. Jewish children were gunned down in Toulouse, France, and Jewish cemeteries throughout Europe are routinely defaced with swastikas and Arabic slogans supporting Palestine and calling for the death of Jews.

Every now and then some well meaning person will quote George Santayana, who wrote in Reason in Common Sense, The Life of Reason, Vol.1, ”Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Listeners will nod in agreement, or chuckle in disapproval, and promptly continue to repeat the mistakes of the past.

Last Sunday, history did repeat itself, and The Sunday Times published a horrifying Blood Libel on Holocaust Remembrance Day. Is anyone chucking dismissively or doubting the seriousness of this disgusting slander against the Jewish people and the nation of Israel? Perhaps now people will realize why Jews are so fond of saying  ”Never Again” when referring to the Holocaust.

Rupert Murdoch’s Sunday Times Commits Blood Libel: Publishes Vile Anti Jewish Cartoon is a post from: The Inquisitr

Hugh Grant has settled his phone hacking lawsuit against News International, publisher of the now defunct News of the World tabloid. The settlement yielded positive results for the actor, with Grant receiving an undisclosed but purportedly hefty amount.

The deal was made with Rupert Murdoch’s News Group Newspapers which serves as parent company to News International. Mark Thompson, legal representation for the star, confirmed the settlement on December 21, according to The Guardian.

Although Thompson did not reveal the amount of the settlement agreement, he did say Grant plans to donate the monetary award:

“Hugh Grant has today settled his claims for damages and other legal remedies arising out of the unlawful activities of News of the World journalists and others over a number of years. News Group Newspapers have agreed to pay him a substantial sum by way of damages. He has instructed us to donate all of his damages plus an additional payment from him to the Hacked Off Campaign for a free and accountable media. This will be done as soon as payment is received.”

Grant is a staunch supporter of the Hacked Off campaign, a media reform group that is pushing for stricter oversight of Britain’s press practices.

According to an article in The Huffington Post, when the Murdoch scandal rocked Britain, the actor was one of the first celebrities to come forward. News of the World was found to have hacked the phones of numerous high profile individuals in an effort to gain access to possible news stories. A full-blown scandal ensued revealing a history of illegal practices within the British newspaper industry.

How much do you think Hugh Grant should be awarded in the settlement of his phone hacking lawsuit?

Hugh Grant Settles Phone Hacking Lawsuit, Gets ‘Substantial Sum’ In Damages is a post from: The Inquisitr

It’s time to ban automatic weapons, according to Rupert Murdoch.

Rupert Murdoch, the chairman of News Corp. and owner of Fox News, said that the tragic events in Newtown, Connecticut this week made it clear that it is time to ban automatic weapons in the United States.

Murdoch wrote on Twitter: “Terrible news today. When will politicians find courage to ban automatic weapons? As in Oz after similar tragedy.”

Murdoch may be urging politicians to ban automatic weapons but several pundits on Fox News have taken the opposite stance. Mike Huckabee recently said that there was no point to change the gun laws in the United States. Huckabee, who blamed the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting on a lack of God in the classroom, said that changing the gun laws wouldn’t make America a safer place.

Huckabee said:

“People want to pass new laws… but this is a heart issue, laws don’t change this kind of thing … We ask why there’s violence in our schools, but we’ve systematically removed God from our schools,” Huckabee said. “Should we be so surprised that schools would become a place of carnage?”

Ann Coulter went a step further to say that America needs to make guns more accessible to deter future shootings. Coulter said that if America had more “concealed-carry laws” then school shootings like the one in Newtown, Conn. would be less likely to happen.

Coulter said:

“Only one policy has ever been shown to deter mass murder: concealed-carry laws …  more guns, less mass shootings.”

Critics of Fox News may be surprised to hear Rupert Murdoch advocating for stricter gun control laws but Murdoch has pushed the issue in the past. After the shooting in Aurora, Colorado, Murdoch wrote on Twitter:

 ”We have to do something about gun controls. Police license okay for hunting rifle or pistol for anyone without crim or pscho record. No more.”

Do you think gun control laws need to be changed in America?

Rupert Murdoch On Gun Control: It’s Time To Ban Automatic Weapons is a post from: The Inquisitr

News Corp’s The Daily, an iPad only news reading app, is being shuttered as part of a larger corporate split into two independent, publicly traded companies.

News Corp released a press statement this morning addressing the closure of The Daily, noting some parts of the title would live on outside its current auspices.

But the loss of The Daily is no surprise given its poor showing, with the title going ”on watch” in July 2012 and losing an estimated $30 million each year due to low readership and poor usage stats.

In the larger changes, the publishing arm of the two companies will remain “News Corp,” while the entertainment aspects will become the “Fox Group.” The Daily‘s founding editor Jesse Angelo is scooting over to the property’s New York Post.

The release details other management shuffles due to the shuttering of The Daily and the split between the two entities, and, in the release, Chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch commented:

“This is an incredibly exciting time, for me personally, and for our companies’ ambitious futures … The challenges we face in the publishing and media industries are great, but the opportunities are greater.”

Murdoch added:

“Under [Robert Thomson’s] leadership at News Corporation, we will build on our traditional mission to inform, entertain and enhance the lives of readers and viewers around the world, and relentlessly drive global growth by promoting excellence and investing in our businesses.”

Full text of the press release regarding The Daily‘s planned closure on December 15 as well as News Corp’s larger changes is below.

NEW YORK – December 3, 2012 – News Corporation (NASDAQ: NWS, NWSA; ASX: NWS, NWSLV) today announced that Dow Jones Editor-in-Chief and Managing Editor of The Wall Street Journal Robert Thomson will become the CEO of the new proposed publishing entity, following the Company’s intended separation into two independent, publicly traded companies.

In keeping with the company’s 60-year heritage of bringing news to the world, the publishing entity will retain the name News Corporation. The media and entertainment company, which began in earnest when Chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch acquired 20th Century Fox and launched the Fox Network more than 25 years ago, will be named Fox Group.

As previously announced, Rupert Murdoch will serve as Chairman of the new News Corporation and Chairman and CEO of Fox Group. Chase Carey will serve as President and Chief Operating Officer of Fox Group, with James Murdoch continuing in his capacity as Deputy Chief Operating Officer. Under their collective leadership, Fox Group will continue to strengthen its creative content businesses and distribution assets, including enhancing its sports portfolio through key investments in Asia, Europe and Latin America.

“This is an incredibly exciting time, for me personally, and for our companies’ ambitious futures,” said Rupert Murdoch. “The challenges we face in the publishing and media industries are great, but the opportunities are greater.”

Murdoch continued, “Under Robert’s leadership at News Corporation, we will build on our traditional mission to inform, entertain and enhance the lives of readers and viewers around the world, and relentlessly drive global growth by promoting excellence and investing in our businesses.

“At Fox Group, what began with the acquisition of a modest film studio over 25 years ago has grown into one of the world’s most successful media companies of all times, defying conventional wisdom at every turn by pursuing excellence in creativity and innovation. Fox Group is perfectly positioned to deliver even more inspiring stories that engage audiences through film, television, sports and digital platforms, driving not only financial results but a lasting imprint on the millions of people who enjoy our various services, in every corner of the world.”

LEADERSHIP OF THE PUBLISHING COMPANY

Robert Thomson, who has served as Editor-in-Chief of Dow Jones and Managing Editor of The Wall Street Journal since 2008, will begin his work as incoming CEO to the publishing company on January 1, 2013.

“From the moment we made the decision to split the company, I could think of no one better suited to be CEO of our publishing company than Robert Thomson. Robert has been an outstanding leader for the The Wall Street Journal, making it the dominant newspaper in the U.S. and greatly expanding its global reach through WSJ.com, which now publishes in eight languages. More than that, Robert is a person of unmatched integrity, whose passion and commitment to excellence have gained him the confidence and trust of his colleagues all around the world.”

Thomson commented, “Rupert has been the driving force behind the renaissance of The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones – which have enjoyed readership and revenue growth in a complicated and evolving media market — and we intend to lead a broader revenue renaissance for quality content. I am looking forward to working with him and our colleagues around the world to use the company’s esteemed past as a platform for the future. The global value of content is growing as the means of digital distribution multiply, providing us with a remarkable opportunity to profit from our employees’ ingenuity and integrity. We have a collection of extremely successful companies, and our goal is to make the new News Corp far more than the sum of its distinguished parts.”

Mr. Murdoch and Mr. Thomson are pleased to announce the following key executives joining the publishing Company:

• Bedi Ajay Singh, who most recently served as President, Finance and Administration & CFO for MGM Studios, will assume the role of Chief Financial Officer. Previously, Mr. Singh served as CFO at Gemstar-TV Guide, Novartis Pharmaceuticals and SONY Pictures Entertainment. Prior to 2000, he held a number of positions at News Corporation, including senior finance roles at News International and 20th Century Fox. Mr. Singh is a Fellow of the UK Institute of Chartered Accountants and started his business career with Arthur Andersen in London.

• Paul Cheesbrough, currently News Corporation’s Chief Technology Officer, will serve in the same capacity for the new publishing company. Mr. Cheesbrough was previously the Chief Information Officer at News International, where he was responsible for the organization’s technology strategy, delivery, transformation programs and digital products. Before joining News International, Mr. Cheesbrough served as Chief Information Officer at the Telegraph Media Group, and prior to that was Controller of Digital Media for the BBC.

• Keisha Smith will serve as director of Human Relations. She previously served in various management roles at Morgan Stanley, most recently as the Global Head of Recruiting and Chief Diversity Officer for the Firm. Prior to Morgan Stanley, Ms. Smith worked at the Financial Times where she led the staffing initiative for the launch of the FT.com venture.

In addition, Gerson Zweifach, currently General Counsel of News Corporation, will serve in a dual role as both General Counsel of Fox Group, and, for a period of one year following the separation, also of the new News Corporation.

FURTHER ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGES IN NEW YORK

News Corporation also today announced that Gerard Baker, currently Deputy Editor-in-Chief of The Wall Street Journal, will succeed Robert Thomson as Editor-in-Chief of Dow Jones and Managing Editor of The Wall Street Journal, effective January 1, 2013. Following a thorough review and interviews with news staff and Company executives, Mr. Baker’s appointment was unanimously endorsed by the Dow Jones Special Committee.

Robert Thomson commented, “Gerry has had a distinguished career that included a stint at the Bank of England, and a celebrated journalistic past at the BBC, the Financial Times and The Times, and I expect him to have an even more successful future as Editor-in-Chief of The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones. His international experience and his background in broadcasting will both be crucial editorial assets as the Journal and Newswires continue their ambitious global and digital expansion.”

Before joining Dow Jones, Mr. Baker was the U.S. editor and an assistant editor of the Times of London, where he wrote news, commentary and columns for Britain’s longest continuously published newspaper and oversaw U.S. coverage for the paper and online editions. From 1994 to 2004, Mr. Baker worked for the Financial Times, first as Tokyo Correspondent, where he wrote about the country’s financial crisis, and then, from 1998 to 2002, as Washington Bureau Chief, where he led a team of 10 correspondents and provided extensive reporting and analysis of the Federal Reserve. From 2002 to 2004 he was the FT’s Chief U.S. Commentator and an Associate Editor. He began his career as a news producer and correspondent at the BBC.

News Corporation also announced that effective immediately, Jesse Angelo, the founding Editor-in-Chief of The Daily and long-time Executive Editor of The New York Post, will assume the role of Publisher of The New York Post. As part of a digital restructuring initiative, the company will cease standalone publication of The Daily iPad app on December 15, 2012, though the brand will live on in other channels. Technology and other assets from The Daily, including some staff, will be folded into The Post.

Mr. Murdoch said: “From its launch, The Daily was a bold experiment in digital publishing and an amazing vehicle for innovation. Unfortunately, our experience was that we could not find a large enough audience quickly enough to convince us the business model was sustainable in the long-term. Therefore we will take the very best of what we have learned at The Daily and apply it to all our properties. Under the editorial leadership of Editor-in-Chief Col Allan and the business and digital leadership of Jesse, I know The New York Post will continue to grow and become stronger on the web, on mobile, and not least, the paper itself. I want to thank all of the journalists, digital and business professionals for the hard work they put into The Daily.”

Paul Carlucci, who has served as Publisher of The New York Post since 2005 will focus exclusively on his role as Chairman of News America Marketing where he continues to generate important profits.

Greg Clayman, Publisher of The Daily, will oversee the Company’s global digital strategy, new digital investments and distribution partnerships, working with CTO Paul Cheesbrough.

ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGES IN LONDON

As previously announced, Tom Mockridge, who has served as CEO of News International since July 2011, will leave the Company at the end of the year to pursue other opportunities. Mr. Mockridge will be replaced by Mike Darcey, who has served as Chief Operating Officer of BSkyB since 2006.

“I’m delighted that Mike Darcey has agreed to take the reins as News International’s new CEO,” said Rupert Murdoch. “Mike is a world-class executive with unprecedented strategic and commercial experience and I look forward to benefiting from his many talents. His broadcasting background will provide important leadership in the development of our already impressive suite of digital products at News International.”

NEWS CORPORATION SEPARATION

On June 28, 2012, News Corporation announced that it intends to pursue the separation of its publishing and its media and entertainment businesses into two distinct publicly traded companies. The global publishing company that would be created through the proposed transaction would consist of the Company’s publishing businesses, its education division and other Australian assets. The global media and entertainment company would consist of the Company’s cable and television assets, filmed entertainment, and direct satellite broadcasting businesses. The global publishing company that would be created through the proposed transaction would consist of the Company’s current publishing businesses, as well as its education division. Following the separation, each company would maintain two classes of common stock: Class A Common and Class B Common Voting Shares. The separation is expected to be completed in approximately one year from the date of announcement. In addition to final approval from the Board of Directors and stockholder approval, the completion of the separation will be subject to receipt of regulatory approvals, opinions from tax counsel and favorable rulings from certain tax jurisdictions regarding the tax-free nature of the transaction to the Company and to its stockholders, further due diligence as appropriate, and the filing and effectiveness of appropriate filings with the SEC. There can be no assurances given that the separation of the Company’s businesses as described will occur. The Company expects to make preliminary filings regarding the proposed separation with the SEC shortly.

News Corp’s ‘The Daily’ Bites Dust After 2 Years, iPad-Only App Killed is a post from: The Inquisitr

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch has apologized for a tweet sent Sunday that accused the “Jewish-owned press” of displaying an anti-Israel bias after the microblogging site post was deemed by many to be itself biased and anti-Semitic.

Rupert Murdoch’s sent the controversial tweet on November 17 as the situation on the ground in Israel intensified and turned deadly. While rockets volleyed in the region, Murdoch decried what he believed is media bias; however, in doing so, he revived and gave credence to old and damaging anti-Semitic stereotypes that “Jews control the media” and thus, the message being parlayed by international news outlets on any given situation.

Murdoch had said:

“Why Is Jewish owned press so consistently anti- Israel in every crisis?”

The comment made by Rupert Murdoch is a puzzling indictment as well, considering his own vast and wide-spanning stake in worldwide media outlets. News Corp., the company at which Murdoch is chair and CEO, owns several prominent news titles and properties including the Wall Street Journal and Fox News, which itself is the constant target of allegations of bias.

When contrasted with the fact Murdoch owns the second largest media conglomerate on the planet Earth, his comment seems even more offensive. The New York Times reported on the reaction to Murdoch’s original tweet, commenting:

“Twitter users instantly unleashed criticism calling Mr. Murdoch’s message anti-Semitic. Other Twitter users implied that the comment could taint coverage in Mr. Murdoch’s own newspapers, including The Wall Street Journal and The Times of London, which are reporting on the continuing Israel-Gaza conflict.”

After receiving a large amount of backlash, Murdoch offered up a half-sincere apology, saying:

“,Jewish owned press” have been sternly criticised, suggesting link to Jewish reporters.Don’t see this, but apologise unreservedly.

— Rupert Murdoch(@rupertmurdoch) November 18, 2012

Here is Murdoch’s original tweet:

Why Is Jewish owned press so consistently anti- Israel in every crisis?

— Rupert Murdoch(@rupertmurdoch) November 18, 2012

The controversy did not stop Rupert Murdoch from weighing in on the conflict in Israel, and he later commented on President Obama’s reaction to the Israel situation, noting it was “getting ugly.”

Rupert Murdoch Apologizes For Tweet Blasting ‘Jewish-Owned’ Press is a post from: The Inquisitr

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has received a lot of heat for stepping up to the plate and partnering up with President Barack Obama to provide relief to the east coast in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. First Rush Limbaugh criticized the partnership, and now media mogul Rupert Murdoch is telling Christie to break off his “bromance” with Obama.

Though Christie and Obama are normally political rivals, with the former vocally supporting GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney, the two set aside their differences to answer the crisis of Hurricane Sandy.

While the friendly pairing is primarily earning both politicians high marks from the media for showing Americans a clear example of how politics can fall to the sidelines in favor of cooperation, other high-profile figures have criticized the two.

A majority of the criticism has been from Conservatives to Christie, with Rush Limbaugh the first to criticize the acerbic New Jersey governor. Now, controversial News Corp. head Rupert Murdoch has warned Christie as well: Distance yourself from Obama, reaffirm support for Romney, or face the consequences.

Thanks Bloomberg right decision.@now Christie, while thanking O, mustre- declare for Romney, or take blame for next four dire years.

— Rupert Murdoch(@rupertmurdoch) November 3, 2012

Take blame for what exactly? Bipartisanship? Cooperation? Being American in the face of disaster? There isn’t even a final death toll from Hurricane Sandy yet, and the power is still out in a lot of places, and we’re already back to politics?

Many disagree with Murdoch and Limbaugh. In fact, several outlets have defended Christie’s cooperation with Obama as simply the right thing to do. Furthermore, if we must talk politics, several others have speculated that Christie’s partnership with Obama is setting him up for a 2016 bid for President. The Governor is demonstrating real leadership on the east coast post-Sandy, something that other Governors seeking a national seat don’t often get a chance to show.

I wonder what Rupert Murdoch will tweet if Chris Christie is on the Republican ticket in 2016.

We’ll put it to you simply: Do you think that Chris Christie and President Obama’s cooperation is good or bad for the country?

Rupert Murdoch Tells Chris Christie To Break Up With Obama is a post from: The Inquisitr

Hey, wouldn’t it be cool if more news was like Fox News?

News Corp. (parent company to Fox News) media mogul Rupert Murdoch is reportedly looking to buy out two major US publications: The L.A. Times and The Chicago Tribune. The controversial news boss has been in preliminary talks regarding the purchase of both papers and Tribune Co., according to executives at Murdoch’s media company, News Corp., and the L.A. Times itself.

According to Newser, Murdoch’s media empire already includes the Wall Street Journal, the New York Post, and Fox News, all of which are considered right-leaning news outlets, while the L.A. Times and Chicago Tribune are a bit more middle-left.

Murdoch will likely have some competition when the Tribune Co. emerges from bankruptcy late this year. Others have expressed interest in acquiring it, with some opining that a return to local ownership would be the best move for each paper. What’s more, Murdoch could find himself on the business end of regulators since he already owns Fox stations in Chicago and LA.

Furthermore, News Corp. investors may cry foul over Murdoch’s interest in acquiring two big papers in an increasingly digital age. But Murdoch is the boss, and is said to have “an irrational love of newspapers,” according to one analyst. “He is the last of the press barons … a red-blooded, swashbuckling, stop-the-presses kind of character.”

So, Rupert Murdoch is Citizen Kane.

What do you think? Would you still read the L.A. Times or The Chicago Tribune if it read a bit more like Fox News? Remember, Murdoch’s ownership wouldn’t necessarily mean a change in editorial, but you could at least call it likely, right?

Rupert Murdoch Looks To Acquire ‘LA Times’ And ‘Chicago Tribune’ is a post from: The Inquisitr

The Donald isn’t the only one who’s been busy on Twitter this week. News Corp. boss Rupert Murdoch had his own Twitter meltdown, criticizing several celebrities in a tirade thought to be partially inspired by the fallout over his media company’s phone hacking scandal. This morning, Murdoch reached out to Hugh Grant, one of the celebrities he targeted, to apologize for accusations that the actor had abandoned his “love child’s.”

According to the Business Insider, Murdoch went on a Twitter-attack spree on October 13, during which he referred to actor Hugh Grant, singer Charlotte Church, and TV presenter Jacqui Hames as scumbags after he had attended a meeting with British Prime Minister David Cameron and reps of Hacked Off, a lobby group for victims of phone hacking.

Church and Hames were reportedly present at the meeting while Grant is reportedly a supporter of Hacked Off.

Accusations against Grant are thought to have entered the picture after a reply by a disgruntled Twitter follower to Murdoch’s initial “scumbag” tweet read: “Scumbags? And your journalists and executives are what?” The media mogul shot back: “They don’t get arrested for indecency on major LA highways! Or abandon love child’s.”

Guardian reports that Murdoch walked back his comments thought to be aimed at Grant, issuing an apologetic tweet: “Hugh Grant states that he is deeply involved in his daughter’s life – I accept that,regret tweet on the matter. Apologies to both parents.”

Furthermore, Murdoch clarified his original remarks on Wednesday evening: “I did not say all celebrities were scumbags. Check my tweet. And apology to any who misunderstood.”

Here are Rupert Murdoch’s tweets slamming “scumbag” celebrities and then apologizing to Hugh Grant. Feel free to reply or re-tweet right here:

Told UK’s Cameron receiving scumbag celebrities pushing for even more privacy laws.Trust the toffs!Transparency under attack. Bad.

— Rupert Murdoch(@rupertmurdoch) October 13, 2012

I did not say all celebrities were scumbags.Check my tweet. And apology to any who misunderstood.

— Rupert Murdoch(@rupertmurdoch) October 18, 2012

Hugh Grant states that he is deeply involved in his daughter’s life – I accept that,regret tweet on the matter. Apologiesto both parents.

— Rupert Murdoch(@rupertmurdoch) October 18, 2012

Do you think that Hugh Grant should accept Rupert Murdoch’s Twitter apology?

Rupert Murdoch Apologizes To Hugh Grant Over Insulting Tweet is a post from: The Inquisitr

In 2009 News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch shut down the London Times from the prying eyes of Google search spiders. Murdoch at the time believed the publication could survive with a paypall in place that requires a subscription to access content without first being discovered by Google search participants.

Fast forward 3 years later and the London Times has decided to open up its pages to Google spider crawling. The company hopes to attract more than the 200,000 approximate users who current pay for its services, although PaidContent places that number closer to 130,000.

While Google spiders will be able to pick up stories they will only gain access to the first two lines of each post, ensuring indexing occurs via leads but nothing else.

With such little content being provided its hard to believe that the London Times will receive any type of proper SERP (search engine results page – ‘placement’). Google spiders typically examine the full content of an article and then index that article based on its relevance to a search. While content focus is only one part of the search indexing equation it is a rather significant consideration.

The biggest change for customers will be that they can now see what type of stories the London Times is running during Google searches and then decide if they want to pay for full viewing capabilities.

With billions of pages in news content readily available on the web with no access fees it’s hard to believe that the London Times will lure in readers who can already find the stories they want via thousands of free sources.

London Times Will Allow Partial Google Search Indexing, Still Retain Paywall is a post from: The Inquisitr

News Corp. owner Rupert Murdoch may have been personally involved in the decision to publish photos of Prince Harry naked but he is also urging everyone to give the royal a “break.”

Rupert on Saturday night tweeted:

Rupert Murdoch Shows Support For Naked Prince Harry is a post from: The Inquisitr

Elisabeth Murdoch called on television executives to abandon the “profit at all costs” approach her brother James Murdoch adopted at News Corp, delivering a speech that many see as her attempt to distance herself from the Murdoch family scandal.

Murdoch said in her address that profit without purpose will lead to ruin for the media, and that the phone hacking scandal that hurt her father Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp empire is evidence of that, Reuters reported.

“News (Corp) is a company that is currently asking itself some very significant and difficult questions about how some behaviours fell so far short of its values,” Elisabeth Murdoch said at the television industry’s MacTaggart lecture.

Though her words were intended to set her apart from her brothers, it is also being seen as her bid to prove that she could run News Corp more effectively.

“There’s only one way to look at this,” Elisabeth Murdoch biographer Michael Wolff told Reuters. “This is part of a strategic repositioning of Liz Murdoch within the media world, with the business world and within the family.”

Speaking before the assembly of top-ranking executives, she drew applause for saying that one of the biggest lessons of the past year is the need for any organization to discuss, affirm and institutionalize a rigorous set of values based on an explicit statement of purpose.”

Elisabeth Murdoch has been a successful television producer, but was passed over for top posts at News Corp. for brothers Lachlan and James. The company was rocked by scandal last year when it was revealed that journalists at News of the World had hacked the voicemails of a number of people, including crime victims.

Elisabeth Murdoch’s remarks were bold and followed up on comments she made last year that “James and Rebekah [Brooks] f—ed the company,” The Daily Beast reported.

She also used the speech to pick apart her brother’s platform and approach, the report noted. James Murdoch delivered the MacTaggart lecture in 2009, and in doing so ripped the BBC for providing a state-sponsored approach to news. Elisabeth Murdoch instead chose to praise the BBC‘s outgoing director.

Then Elisabeth Murdoch turned for a more direct attack, recalling James Murdoch’s argument that  “the only direct and perpetual guarantor of independence is profit.”

“He left something out,” Elisabeth Murdoch said. “Profit without purpose is a recipe for disaster.”

Elisabeth Murdoch Calls Out Brother James, News Corp In Speech is a post from: The Inquisitr

In a very uncharacteristic move, News Corp owner and Media Baron Rupert Murdoch tweeted about the need for America to tighten its restrictions on guns.  News Corp is the owner of Fox News and the Wall Street Journal who tend to be very pro 2nd Amendment.  Murdoch released his pro gun control tweet in the wake of the shooting in Aurora, Colorado on Friday in which 12 people were killed.

Murdoch said via his Twitter account,

“We have to do something about gun controls. Police license okay for hunting rifle or pistol for anyone without crim or pscho record. No more”

In the wake of the shooting there has been increased calls throughout the political world calling for increased controls over firearms.  New Jersey Senator Frank Lautenberg says he plans to introduce legislation soon which will curtail the sale of firearms.  While the Senator’s head may be in the right place the legislation is sure to meet its death in a Republican controlled House of Representatives with an almost perfect record on 2nd amendment rights.

During a midnight showing of the new move The Dark Knight Rises, lunatic James Holmes threw a smoke bomb into the crowded theater and shot at movie goers with a variety of weapons as they fled out the door.  Police said he had more than 6000 rounds of ammunition on him at the time and that he planned to kill way more than 12 people.

Holmes had even gone as far as to booby trap his apartment with explosives and accelerators in order t kill as many law enforcement agents as he could.

Rupert Murdoch Tweets Support For Gun Control is a post from: The Inquisitr

Rupert Murdoch’s Twitter attack on Scientology may have seemed shocking and out of place, but those close to the media titan said he still harbors resentment at the church for trying to court his son Lachlan, even dispatching Tom Cruise personally to recruit him.

Murdoch inserted himself into the Tom Cruise-Katie Holmes divorce battle with a tweet Sunday bashing Scientology that read, “Scientology back in news. Very weird cult, but big, big money involved with Tom Cruise either No. 2 or 3 in hierarchy.” He followed with another tweet, “Watch Katie Holmes and Scientology story develop. Something creepy, maybe even evil, about these people.”

The church, which has gained a reputation for suing and harassing its enemies, does not seem to scare Murdoch, a close friend told The Daily Beast.

“He has a long memory and no love for Scientology,” the ally said.

Scientology officials reportedly had their sights on Lachlan, using Tom Cruise and Lachlan’s friend James Packer to try to recruit him into the religion, The Daily Beast said. Lachlan and Packer, who were partners in a failed telecommunications company, became friends with Cruise and then-wife Nicole Kidman, spending time with Cruise on his private jet.

Friends of the Murdochs said the Scientologists were only interested in the money. Packer is from one of the richest families in Australia.

“It would have been Scientology’s biggest ‘get’ to have Lachlan Murdoch, then the heir apparent to Rupert, in the fold,” the source told The Daily Beast.

Lachlan held out and soon cut his ties with Cruise.

Rupert Murdoch’s comments earned scorn from Scientologists and a flurry of angry responses on Twitter. Some of them pointed out that Murdoch made millions of dollars from Cruise, who starred in 20^th Century Fox films like “Minority Report.”

The fracas with Scientology hasn’t seemed to hurt Rupert Murdoch financially, Forbes reported. The billionaire made $136 million on Monday after shares of News Corp. stock shup up after word that it would spin off into two separate companies.

Rupert Murdoch’s Scientology Grudge: Church Allegedly Went After His Son is a post from: The Inquisitr

Inquisitr reported last week when Rupert Murdoch sent out a barrage of tweets aimed at Mitt Romney and his presidential campaign asking when he is going to start looking like a challenger. However, according to recent tweets it seems as though the media mogul is still fully on board with Romney and even continuing to offer up advice, according to the LA Times.

“Met Romney last week,” Murdoch said. “Tough O Chicago pros will be hard to beat unless he drops old friends from team and hires some real pros. Doubtful.”

Many Romney supporters questioned whether or not the conservative associated mogul was implying that he was instead leaning towards a Obama victory by calling out the Republican campaign. However, he laid those concerns to rest, tweeting:

“Romney people upset at me! Of course I want him (Romney) to win, save us from socialism, etc but should listen to good advice and get stuck in!”

This attempt to counsel the Romney campaign wasn’t his first, as last week he tweeted:

“When is Romney going to look like a challenger? Seems to play everything safe, make no news except burn off Hispanics,” adding,

“Easy for Romney to spell out restoration of the American dream and bash incompetent administration. But not a word!”

As appreciative as the Romney campaign is for the advice of Murdoch, Senior campaign adviser Eric Fehrnstrom says that they can’t pay attention to every tweet and that they are very happy with the state of the race right now.

“We like the way things are right now,” he said.

“We’re happy with the state of the race. I can’t respond to every tweet that Mr. Murdoch sends out, but we like the way things are.”

Whether or not Romney’s campaign decides to adhere to the recommendations of Rupert Murdoch remains to be seen, but it doesn’t appear as though he will be laying off the tweets any time soon as he informs his followers, “see you next weekend perhaps.”

Do you think the Romney campaign should listen to Rupert Murdoch and his tweets? Or should he just run his race and not worry about them?

Rupert Murdoch Still Wants Romney To Win Despite Harsh Criticisms is a post from: The Inquisitr

Everyone seems to have an opinion on the Tom Cruise / Katie Holmes divorce. Media mogul Rupert Murdoch even put his two cents in today calling the church of Scientology “evil” and “creepy.”

Reports of Cruise and Holmes getting a divorce started circulating earlier this week and slowly more details have become available. The latest claim is that Holmes decided to leave Cruise because she could no longer put up with the Church of Scientology. 

A source close to Holmes said:

“Katie has never been fully committed to Scientology, even though she has had ties with the church… The couple had been arguing over Suri — that she’s now of the age where Scientology becomes a significant part of her life.”

Scientology has had a pretty negative effect on Cruise’s career, and apparently, his love life.

The LA Times reports that in 2006, Viacom’s Paramount Pictures (which produced the Mission Impossible movies) cut ties with the actor after he got into a public spat with Matt Lauer over prescription medication. Cruise found a home at Murdoch’s 20th Century Fox, who recently produced Knight And Day. 

But it looks like Murdoch is also a little skeptical out by the Church of Scientology. Murdoch wrote on Twitter today:

Watch Katie Holmes and Scientology story develop. Something creepy, maybe even evil, about these people.

— Rupert Murdoch(@rupertmurdoch) July 1, 2012

Murdoch has reportedly received a little bit of backlash after he bashed the Church of Scientology.

@rupertmurdoch you calling somebody else creepy and evil? Pot have you met kettle?

— Paul McAllister (@PaulieMc94) July 1, 2012

But McAllister’s tweet appears to be on the nicer side of the messages that Murdoch has received. The media mogul said that he’s received several “attacks” on Twitter since his comments and he’s worried that they’ll become violent.

Since Scientology tweet hundreds of attacks.Expect they will increase and get worse and maybe threatening.Still stick to my story.

— Rupert Murdoch(@rupertmurdoch) July 1, 2012

Rupert Murdoch Calls Scientology Creepy And Evil After Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes Divorce is a post from: The Inquisitr

News Corp. will soon be divided into two companies. The company announced today that it will separate its entertainment holdings from its publishing business. Rupert Murdoch will still be the chairman of both companies.

The Huffington Post reports that Murdoch will be the CEO of the entertainment segment of News Corp. but someone else will be taking control of the publishing arm. News Corp. has not announced who will take over the newspaper business.

The Washington Post reports that one company will publish newspapers and books. The other company will control 20th Century Fox, the Fox TV network, and Fox news. It could take up to a year for the transition to be made.

Murdoch, who started News Corp. with a single Australian newspaper, said:

“We’ve come a long way in our journey that began nearly 60 years ago with a single newspaper operating out of Adelaide… Each of these new companies would have the potential to continue that journey and prosper as an independent entity long into the future. We will wow the world as two, as opposed to merely one.”

Investors in the company seem to agree that it’s a good idea to split up the company. The company’s Class B stock has shot up 10 percent since rumors of the split started circulating earlier this week.

Murdoch insists that splitting up News Corp. will not diminish his focus on the publishing industry.

Murdoch said:

“No doubt there will be those nay-sayers who see the announcement as an indication of concern about the long-term potential of the publishing industry. That could not be further from the truth.”

News Corp. To Split Into Two Companies is a post from: The Inquisitr

It looks like Russell Crowe may have another Oscar on his hands. The actor is set to play the scandalized mogul Rupert Murdoch in a new film called Good Times Bad Times, which is said to be based on a memoir by London Times editor Harold Evans, who spent a great deal working under  Murdoch. As for other roles in the film, it’s rumored that British actor Colin Firth might take the role of Evans.

Harold Evans no longer works at the London Times, and resigned from working at the paper in 1983 due to “unacceptable pressure” from Rupert Murdoch on how the paper should be run. Leon Lecash, who is acting as the creative director of the company that is producing what is to be a scandalous film, said the movie will highlight a discussion about a meeting between Murdoch and Margaret Thatcher, who at the time of Evans employment was the Prime Minister.

In his book, Harry Evans alludes to the fact that there was an intimate relationship carried on between Murdoch and Thatcher, “with late-night whiskey drinking,” said Lecash. During that time Murdoch agreed to buy the Times if Thatcher agreed on political publicity for the party.

The film is said to cover not only Harry Evans’ times at London Times, but also touching on the big scandal of News of the World, which resulted in News of the World journalists hacking into prominent people’s voice mails for celebrity tips and gossip-y news.

It is not yet stated when filming will start and who else will be added to the cast.

Russell Crowe Takes on Rupert Murdoch in Film is a post from: The Inquisitr

Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney has received some campaign advice from News Corp big-boss Rupert Murdoch. The media mogul sounded off on the 2012 election on Sunday afternoon, criticizing President Obama’s opponent via Twitter.

Murdoch’s opinion of Romney thus far is basically that the Republican Party candidate is weak-sauce and needs to step up his game if he has a popsicle’s chance in hell of beating incumbent President Obama, reports Mediaite. “When is Romney going to look like a challenger?” asks Murdoch. “Seems to play everything safe, make no news except burn off Hispanics.” Further criticizing Romney’s campaign strategy Murdoch tweeted, “Easy for Romney to spell out restoration of the American dream and bash incompetent administration. But not a word!”

The pot-shots ended there, and it’s not entirely clear what inspired the News Corp CEO’s tirade, says USA Today. Murdoch hasn’t been sparing his words lately, though. In the past week, he denounced the G-20 economic summit of world leaders, throwing the entire gathering under the bus and implying that it was a colossal waste of time, saying that the “result [was] as expected and as useless.”

Though Murdoch has pretty much steered-clear of U.S. politics (media empire and conservative news channel Fox notwithstanding) he has voiced praise and support for former candidate Rick Santorum, calling him the “only candidate with [a] genuine big vision for [the] country.”

Maybe Murdoch thinks he’s helping Romney get his act in gear. Maybe he’s just a cantankerous old dude. We can’t say for sure, spokespersons for Romney’s campaign and News Corp were not available for further comment, says TPM.

Rupert Murdoch Tweets Harsh Campaign Advice To Mitt Romney: Quit Playing It Safe is a post from: The Inquisitr

A committee of British lawmakers ruled today that Rupert Murdoch is “unfit’ to run a major international company.

Reuters reports that the cross-party parliamentary committee approved the report by a majority of six to four. The committee said that Rupert, James Murdoch, and News Corp. exhibited ”willful blindness” about the phone hacking scandal.

The committee writes:

“News International and its parent News Corporation exhibited willful blindness, for which the companies’ directors -including Rupert Murdoch and James Murdoch – should ultimately take responsibility… This culture, we consider, permeated from the top throughout the organisation and speaks volumes about the lack of effective corporate governance at News Corporation and News International…. Their instinct throughout, until it was too late, was to cover up rather than seek out wrongdoing and discipline the perpetrators…  We conclude, therefore, that Rupert Murdoch is not a fit person to exercise the stewardship of a major international company.”

The CS Monitor reports that the report doesn’t carry any legal weight of its own but it will be examined by British Media regulator Ofcom. The AJC reports that OfCom is currently investigating whether BSkyB, which is partly owned by News Corp, is a “fit and proper” owner of a broadcast license.

The scandal could also have implications for Murdoch’s media empire in the United States. Murdoch, who owns the Fox television network, 20th Century Fox, publisher Harper Collins, Dow Jones Newswires, The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post, is currently being investigated by the U.S. Department of Justice. Several shareholders are also asking Murdoch to step down as chairman due to the “lax ethical culture” of News Corp.

Rupert Murdoch Is Unfit To Run Company, According To UK Lawmakers is a post from: The Inquisitr

While giving evidence before the Leveson Inquiry at the High Court in London today, James Murdoch – son of Rupert Murdoch – said he resigned his chairmanship of BSkyB, to avoid becoming a “lightning rod” for the ongoing phone hacking scandal.

The Leveson inquiry, set up to investigate press ethics in the UK in the wake of that scandal, is presided over by Lord Justice Leveson (hence its name). From November 14, 2011 to the present day the inquiry has heard from various high profile celebrities and public figures such as Hugh Grant, J.K. Rowling, Sienna Miller and Steve Coogan, as well as journalists, editors, private individuals and the police.

The British public and the Establishment are still reeling from last year’s revelations that murdered British teenager, Milly Dowler’s, mobile voicemail was accessed by private investigators hired by the now defunct News of the World newspaper. Since then, there has been something of a reversal of fortune for James Murdoch.

No longer executive chairman of News International, the UK arm of News Corp, or BSkyB which he quit this month, he is however still deputy chief operating officer of News Corp and remains a director at the company.Under intense questioning at the hearing today, Mr  Murdoch denied he knew the full extent of emails sent to him by then, NOTW editor, Colin Myler (appointed after former editor Andy Coulson resigned in 2007) and head of legal affairs, Tom Crone, during negotiations with one high profile victim of phone hacking – former football union head – Gordon Taylor. Those negotiations led to News International paying Mr Taylor a settlement of £ 350, 000.

Mr Murdoch said Myler and Crone gave him “assurances” that phone hacking was not endemic at News International, and went no further than Clive Goodman – NOTW’s former Royal Editor – jailed in January 2007 for phone hacking. This version of events is disputed by both Myler and Crone, both of whom claim Mr Murdoch has been “disingenuous” in his recollections.

In direct contradiction of Myler and Crone’s statements at a parliamentary select committee in 2011 , Mr Murdoch denies ever seeing the “for Neville” email. This is the name given to the infamous email sent by a junior NOTW reporter to former private investigator, Glenn Mulcaire. It contained details of the illegally obtained transcript of Gordon Taylor’s voicemail messages.

Throughout the hearing Mr Murdoch was keen to distance himself from key events along the phone hacking timeline. Telling the inquiry that he was first told phone hacking claims were part of a smear attack and had been adequately investigated ‘in house’,  Mr Murdoch said neither Myler or Crone gave him “sufficient information” to go and “turn over a whole lot of stones.”  Mr Murdoch did however admit that the subsequently disproved ‘Max Mosley Nazi sex-orgy’ story published by the NOTW in 2008,  ”shouldn’t have been run.”

Mr Murdoch was also questioned in the hearing about conversations and meetings he had with the, then, leader of the opposition David Cameron in the run up to the May 2010 elections in the UK, and after Cameron was elected Prime Minister. Mr Murdoch told the inquiry he had a “tiny, side conversation”about News Corp’s  BSkyB bid with Cameron, at a dinner party held at the home of former chief executive of News International, Rebekah Brooks.

This apparent blurring of the lines between politics, media, ethics, police enforcement and impartiality – in light of the failed $ 12 billion News Corp bid to buy 61 percent of BSkyB (News Corp still owns 39 %) – has seen the resignations of police chiefs, journalists, Andy Coulson (director of communications for David Cameron’s administration), Rebekah Brooks and numerous others, since the scandal exploded with the Dowler revelations on July 4, 2011.

Only yesterday, head of Sky News, John Ryler, told the Leveson inquiry that Sky broke the law at least twice when  reporters were authorized to illegally hack email accounts. OFCOM, the UK’s broadcasting regulator is currently investigating Sky.

Mr Murdoch’s 81 year old father, Rupert, long-standing chairman of News Corp, is due to appear before the Leveson inquiry tomorrow.

Footage of James Murdoch at the hearing today

James Murdoch Tells Leveson Inquiry He Wanted To Avoid Becoming A Lightning Rod is a post from: The Inquisitr

Leave it to a Rupert Murdoch owned company to twist the facts into something that doesn’t even closely resemble the truth. Sky News on Thursday admitted to accessing computers illegally, but then turned around and said its actions were fine because it ultimately helped the greater good.

Reporters for Sky News had breached the email protocols for Anne and John Darwin, better known as the “canoe couple” who became notorious after John Darwin faked his own boating accident death.

According to workers at Sky News, they intercepted the couple’s emails and then wrote stories about their actions. After they were done bastardizing the stolen information they then graciously turned over the couple’s emails to police and insisted that their actions were 100 percent fine because they helped law enforcement.

In a statement regarding the companies illegal actions Sky News’ chief said:

“We stand by these actions as editorially justified and in the public interest. We do not take such decisions lightly or frequently.”

What might be most shocking is that the story wasn’t uncovered until recently, despite the fact that a report several years ago clearly stated in a July 21, 2008 post:

“We discovered an email…”

If anyone had taken a moment to question how Sky News “discovered” that e-mail this case could have been blown wide open a long time ago.

In the meantime this most recent round of accusations could lead to complications in Rupert Murdoch’s attempt to purchase satellite broadcaster BSkyB as that business decision is sure to come under even more scrutiny based on the Sky News hack and the companies weird justification for breaking the law.

Sky News: But We Hacked In The Public’s Best Interest is a post from: The Inquisitr

If Rupert Murdoch has his way News Corp. under the leadership of Fox could soon be running its own national sports network that rivals the likes of Walt Disney Co.’s ESPN.

According to sources News Corp. officials are already working on rights from pay-TV carriers and sports organizations which would allow them to cover various sporting events while competing against ESPN. That same source claims that the company may convert its Fuel action-sports network into a national network.

News Corp. already owns 20 regional sports networks and in 2011 they secured access to Pac-12 Conference and Big-12 Conference games. The company also secured World Cup rights for 2018 and 2022.

In the meantime it will be hard for any network to overtake ESPN which already owns the rights to Monday Night Football and various national baseball and basketball games.

Even if News Corp. doesn’t over take ESPN the money to be earned is potentially massive, for example ESPN will ask for $5.06 per subscriber per month this year from the likes of Comcast and DirecTV, the most of any cable channel.

In the meantime the Fuel sports network is already available in 36 million U.S. homes which could provide News Corp. with a great springing board for their efforts.

As it currently stands News Corp. is only entertaining the idea of a national sports network but the lucrative nature of the business likely means the company will move forward with its plans.

News Corp. Considering ESPN Rival Network, Contract Negotiations Already Being Discussed is a post from: The Inquisitr

According to ABC News, Brooks, a former editor of the News of the World tabloid, and her husband were among six people held on suspicion of perverting the course of justice following dawn raids by officers investigating hacking at the now-closed newspaper.

A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police, quoted by the Brisbane Times, said:

“The co-ordinated arrests were made between approximately 5 a.m. and 7 a.m. this morning by officers from Operation Weeting, the MPS inquiry into the phone-hacking of voicemail boxes.”

The News of the World phone hacking scandals, which have led to more than 40 arrests, broke into the open last year after allegations that the cellphone voicemail of a teenager, later found murdered, had been hacked by an employee of the tabloid.

This is not the first time Murdoch’s red-haired protégée has been arrested in connection with phone hacking. In July of 2011, just two days after she had resigned as CEO of News International — the U.K. arm of Murdoch’s News Corporation — Brooks was arrested on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications and of corrupting police officers.

At the time she was questioned for nine hours before being released on bail.

In the latest arrests, police would say only that a number of addresses connected to the suspects had been searched.

The Guardian says lawyers for News International and Brooks declined comment on the report of her arrest.

For more on Rebekah Brooks‘ latest arrest, watch the following video by CNBC:

via USA Today
Image: Vanity Fair

Rebekah Brooks Re-Arrested in UK Phone Hacking Scandal is a post from: The Inquisitr

The Daily, a news iPad app from News Corp., has hit 100,000 paid subscribers after being in existence a year. They celebrated their first birthday today with some good news. The iPad app was started shortly after controversy with Rupert Murdoch, CEO of News Corp., having quite the fit over services such as Google News and other outlets making it very easy to consume content online.

Ad revenue just doesn’t stack up and the CEO firmly believes in people paying for content which, if it’s absolutely exceptional and exclusive, that can be somewhat understood. Either way, their experiment into a completely mobile news experience, seems to be paying off for them.

Via Mashable:

“The publication has amassed more than 100,000 paid subscribers on the iPad, making it the third top-grossing iPad app in the iTunes Store last year. Of those 100,000, about half pay The Daily‘s $0.99 per week subscription fee, and the other half are annual ($39.99 per year) subscribers, according to publisher Greg Clayman.”

“Earlier this month, The Daily launched its first Android editionfor Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablets. Now the digital newspaper is gearing up to release versions for iPhone and Android smartphones “in the next month or two,” says Clayman, thereby making its content available to the millions of consumers who own smartphones but not tablets. It will also allow existing subscribers to more easily access The Daily‘s updates throughout the day.”

Not too shabby at all. And with the app coming to more Android tablets, as long as they keep delivering good content and a solid user experience, they can definitely look forward to seeing those numbers grow.

Have you checked out The Daily app yet?

The Daily iPad App Hits 100,000 Paid Subscribers is a post from: The Inquisitr

After NewsCorp’s infamous caught-with-your-pants-down scandal and resulting investigation, Rupert Murdoch’s News International (the umbrella under which 20th Century Fox comfortably rests) is paying the piper.

Specifically, they are reaching into Papa Murdoch’s deep pockets to settle scores (read: lawsuits) against the company by high profile celebrities and victims of crime. In case you were comatose, News Corp got a very public pie in the face several months ago when it was leaked that the company had been allegedly hacking into private voice mail accounts for juicy, personal bits of information that they would then use in their publications. Accusers explain:

“They are now saying they are satisfied with the settlement. It isn’t just about the money. It’s also about an acknowledgement of wrongdoing. They wanted the apology. They wanted the facts to come out into the open.”

One of the biggest names in Newscorp v. Hollywood is actor Jude Law, who reportedly walked away with a cool $200,000 for his troubles. He explained:

“I owed it to my friends and family as well as myself to do this. I believe in a free press but what News Group did was an abuse of its freedoms. … They were prepared to do anything to sell their newspapers and to make money, irrespective of the impact it had on people’s lives.”

The civil suits against the news conglomerate are mostly settled by now, but the criminal investigation is still on the horizon. British Labour MP Chris Bryant, who received a settlement of over 46,000 dollars, says trial isn’t the goal:

“The whole aim of bringing these cases in the first place was to try and get to the truth. The truth will now come out either in court when the criminal investigations are completed or in the Leveson inquiry.”

Full video story from our pals at Newsy:

Do you think that NewsCorp is picking from the buffet of just desserts?

NewsCorp Settles Civil Suits with Celebrity Victims is a post from: The Inquisitr

The SOPA wars continue. Google has hit back at Rupert Murdoch, after the media magnate and News Corp CEO called the search colossus a “piracy leader” that “streams movies free.” In a tweet dated 15 January, Murdoch wrote:

“Piracy leader is Google who streams movies free, sells adverts around them. No wonder pouring millions into lobbying.”

Earlier today, a Google spokesperson retorted, telling the BBC:

“Google respects copyright – and we’ve worked hard to help rights holders deal with piracy. Last year we took down five million infringing web pages from our search results and invested more than $60 million (£40m) in the fight against bad ads.”

Murdoch has been in combative mood over SOPA, a proposed law that would give content owners and the U.S. government the power to have websites shut down for the slightest link to any other site that shares copyrighted content. The 80-year-old CEO has been ranting against all who oppose SOPA – including the White House, which appeared to side with SOPA protestors in a statement released on Sunday. The White House statement ended with the line:

“We will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global internet.”

News Corporation has openly supported SOPA from the get-go, so it was no surprise when Murdoch accused the Obama administration of bowing to “Silicon Valley paymasters”.

Google has been an open critic of SOPA, as it believes copyright infringement can be tackled in less ham-fisted ways. Like many SOPA opponents, the company argues the proposed act is too broad, and will result in a clampdown on many of the freedoms and innovations we take for granted on the Internet.

SOPA Protests: Google Hits Back at Rupert Murdoch is a post from: The Inquisitr

News Corp. founder Rupert Murdoch may have just recently joined Twitter but his attacks against the British and now President Obama and Google have quickly become top trending topics on the social network.

Murdoch might be the only media based CEO is the world who doesn’t realize that internet users are turning away from companies that back the “Stop Online Piracy Act” known as SOPA. In his first Tweet he stated:

“So Obama has thrown in his lot with Silicon Valley paymasters who threaten all software creators with piracy, plain thievery,”

He then called Google a “piracy leader” since the site’s search engine can lead users to illegal downloading. In his Google attack Murdoch wrote:

“Piracy leader is Google who streams movies free, sells advts around them. No wonder pouring millions into lobbying.”

In response to the Tweet a Google spokesperson lashed back at the ridiculousness of Murdoch’s tweet:

“This is just nonsense,” said a Google spokesperson. “Like many other tech companies, we believe that there are smart, targeted ways to shut down foreign rogue websites without asking US companies to censor the Internet.”

For those not familiar with SOPA the bill would allow sites to be shut down completely if a copyright owner makes even simple complaints against any part of a websites content. Websites including Wikipedia, Craigslist and others have claimed that had SOPA existed when they were first founded they wouldn’t exist today.

It should be noted that Fox News receives millions of visitors from Google’s search engine and Google News platform.

Do you think Rupert Murdoch simply wants SOPA to be passed so his News Corp. can gain more control in the online space?

Rupert Murdoch Attacks Obama And Google In Weekend Twitter Attacks is a post from: The Inquisitr

Remember Myspace? It was a hotbed for teenagers to connect and chat with their friends, and had some popularity with the adult crowd. Recently, Rupert Murdoch joined Twitter and he’s been fairly active.

Being that he is the main guy behind News Corp., the company that bought Myspace back in 2005 for $580 Million, a lot of people have been asking him about the social network. Murdoch came clean and said, “Many questions and jokes about My Space.simple answer – we screwed up in every way possible, learned lots of valuable expensive lessons.”

Quite the statement, but seeing how quickly Myspace dropped to the bottom after being at the very top, many mistakes were definitely made.

“Fast forward to June, 2011: News Corp dumps MySpace for pennies on the dollar to investors including Justin Timberlake, who in an unscriptable life-imitates-art moment portrayed Facebook co-owner Sean Parker in the hit film The Social Network.”

“Buy, don’t build” can make a sound strategy, and MySpace was even arguably the market leader until 2008. Murdoch’s initial instinct was correct — even though the execution was awful — and it’s good that a total disaster like MySpace didn’t make him gun shy about his not-quite-as-big best last year on The Daily.”

Everyone makes mistakes. Social networking at the time was a very exciting and powerful medium, as it is today. Before the likes of Facebook rolled around, Myspace was growing at a rapid rate and the possibilities were exciting.

While things didn’t work out, the best thing one can do is learn from it and move on.

Rupert Murdoch Comes Clean About Myspace is a post from: The Inquisitr

News Corp. founder and CEO Rupert Murdoch made his Twitter debut less than 48 hours ago and he’s already receiving negative publicity after posting a comment about British holidays.

In a Tweet on the site Murdoch wrote:

 ”Maybe Brits have too many holidays for broke country!”

Following his tweet his own wife who joined the website at the same time as Rupert wrote:

 ”RUPERT!! delete tweet!!”

It turns out one of the most powerful moguls in media had a weakness for listening to one person, his wife’s warning quickly led to the deletion of the message.

Murdoch said to his 40,000 followers:

“I’m getting killed for fooling around here and friends frightened what I may really say!”

In any case Rupert Murdoch’s move to the internet is a big step for the businessman who just in 2009 told Vanity Fair that the internet was nothing more than a having for “predatory” practices. Murdoch also said cyberspace was just a place full of “porn, thievery and hackers.”

You would think that a guy who is in the middle of a phone hacking battle with British lawmakers would have a little more sense. He might run a multi-billion dollar business but Mr. Murdoch definitely knows how to act like an entitled little brat when the time calls for it.

Rupert Murdoch’s Wife Makes Him Remove Twitter Bashing Tweet Against Brits is a post from: The Inquisitr

News Corp. has reached a settlement in one phone hacking scandal. The company has agreed to pay the family of a murdered girl at the center of the case the sum of $4.8 million.

Under the agreement the family of Milly Dowler will receive $3.2 million with the rest of  the settlement being donated to a charity.

Dowler’s phone was hacked by employees at the now defunct News of the World, a scandal that led to further accusations and investigations around the world, including in the United States where News Corp. is accused of hacking phones that belonged to 9/11 victims and their families.

In a statement released to the press News Corp. founder and CEO Rupert Murdoch said:

“When I met with the Dowlers in July, I expressed how deeply sorry I was for the hurt we had caused this family.”

Murdoch also revealed:

“The behavior that the News of the World exhibited toward the Dowlers was abhorrent and I hope this donation underscores my regret for the company’s role in this awful event.”

According to reports Murdoch was directly involved in arranging the settlement for the Dowler family.

The settlement also comes just as News Corp. holds their shareholders meeting in Los Angeles.

Do you believe that a $4.8 million settlement makes up for the company’s violation of trust with their readers? With more investigations launched, falling stock prices and distrust around the globe that sum is only a small part of what the company has and will lose in the future.

News Corp. Settles One Phone Hacking Scandal For $4.8 Million is a post from: The Inquisitr

In an attempt to avoid another News of the World incident News Corp. has setup an internal whistleblower hotline. The 24-hour “alertline” is meant to be used by employees who wish to report violations regarding the company’s ethics code.

In a document sent to all employees News Corp. has promised that even if the accusations end up being unfounded those employees will be protected from “retaliation” that could occur from their bosses.

The news of the hotline comes after both UK and US officials launched federal investigations over alleged payments that Murdoch employees made to police officers in order to obtain protected documents.

In the document News Corp. warns employees that bribery, especially against public workers in unacceptable, the document states:

“Gifts and hospitality that may be perfectly acceptable among private parties can be completely forbidden when the other party is a government official.”

No reward information or other benefits appear to be part of the memo which may scare many whistleblowers away for fear that retaliation will occur against them regardless of what a piece of paper states.

Do you feel that the News Corp snitch program can have any real effect on stopping illegal activities at the news agency?

News Corp. Sets Up Internal Whistleblower Hotline is a post from: The Inquisitr

If you’ve been paying attention to the musings of the Wall Street Journal lately you’re probably already aware that their conservative editorial board has been attacking Warren Buffett and his support for taxing the ultra-wealthy and now Buffett is firing back.

While attending the Fortune magazine conference Buffett was asked when he will release his tax return as the WSJ has requested:

“I think it might be a terrific idea if they would just ask their boss, Rupert Murdoch, and he and I will meet at Fortune, and we’ll both give you our tax returns and you can publish them.”

The move by Buffett leaves Murdoch with two choices, share his tax returns from 2010 or allow the Wall Street Journal to appear as a hypocritical news agency for attacking Buffett and his charitable ways while protecting Murdoch and his media conglomerate.

In the meantime News Corp., owners of the Wall Street Journal have failed to return requests for comments and Rupert Murdoch appears to be shying away from the Warren Buffett request.

Do you think both billionaires should open up their tax returns to scrutiny? Regardless of how Buffett’s tax return may look his charitable donations have far exceeded anything Murdoch could even come close to matching.

Warren Buffett Challenges Rupert Murdoch To Game Of Show And Tell “Tax Return Style” is a post from: The Inquisitr

Life just gets more unbearable and squalid for 80-year-old multi-gazillionnaire Rupert Murdoch and his 42-year-old wife Wendi Deng.

Fresh from the News Corp. hacking scandal, The Real Estalker reports that the media mogul has made a $5.7 million loss on his mansion in Long Island. The final sale price? $9.1 million.

Murdoch put the mansion, named ‘Rosehearty,’ up for sale on the open market in June 2007. Back then, it carried a price of $14.8 million. Four years later, that figure has collapsed.

So, what does $9.1 million get you nowadays? Well, Rosehearty is a stately 1900s Colonial mansion with 11 bedrooms, 7.5 bathrooms, a 950-square foot guest house, and a 50-foot swimming pool with pool house.

Measuring around 10,000 square feet, the mansion also comes with a 950-square foot guesthouse, a garage that’s big enough for eight cars, a beach cabana, and a floodlit tennis court.

The Real Estalker notes that the sale should still be considered a rumor for now, as it’s yet to appear on property records, but someone may have got themselves a bargain from poor old Rupert.

Hopefully Mr. Murdoch can be consoled while he reflects on his loss in his $44 million Fifth Avenue triplex. Or his 8,651-square foot Wallace Neff-designed mansion in Beverly Hills (11 bedrooms and 9 bathrooms). I hear either suffices.

If you’d like to see more pics of Murdoch’s modest pad, The Real Estalker has ‘em up.

Rupert Murdoch’s Long Island Mansion Goes For $9.1 Million is a post from: The Inquisitr

It looks like News Corp. and CEO Rupert Murdoch will be getting their U.S. based day in court sooner rather than later, Mark Lewis, a lawyer in Britain’s phone hacking scandal has announced that he expects the case to be filed with the next week.

Speaking to the Associated Press Lewis says his firm has hired Norman Siegel to take on News Corp. in the United States. Siegel represents the families of many people who were killed during the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centers.

Lewis also revealed that the case would be contested in New York.

It’s expected that this newest lawsuit will focus on the hacking of 9/11 victims and bribes made to foreign officials. There is also the possibility that the could turn into a class action lawsuit focusing on the FCPA.

In the UK Lewis represented the family of Milly Dowler, a 13-year old girl who was abducted and later killed only to have her phone records hacked and published by News of the World. Lewis is currently negotiating the biggest settlement yet from the phone hacking scandal.

Does it surprise you it took this long to have a civil case filed considering the fact that U.S. officials began probing into the matter so quickly and shareholders are already suing the company they are invested in?

News Corp. To Be Sued Next Week Over Hacking Scandal is a post from: The Inquisitr

Rupert Murdoch is watching as his News Corp. media conglomerate unravels and now word is surfacing that some of the company’s major shareholders have filed a lawsuit against News Corp. The suit alleges that board members knew for more than a decade that some of their US subsidiaries were engaging and even encouraging illegal hacking, not just on phones but also regarding competitor’s computers.

According to several different investment funds involved in the lawsuit, the News Corp. board “has not lifted a finger” to stop hacking attempts and therefore they have exposed investors to “undue legal risk.”

The specific lawsuit in question regards News Corps’ News America Marketing and NDS Group units. The former publishes advertising inserts for Sunday editions of newspapers and is already fighting five lawsuits for anti-competitive behavior, including computer hacking.

In one document a competitor alleges that the company’s CEO promised to “destroy” him if he got in News America’s way, telling the CEO “I work for a man who wants it all, and doesn’t understand anybody telling him he can’t have it.”

Since the News Of The World phone hacking scandal broke shares in News Corp managed to fall at one point by more than 25% while Rupert Murdoch and the rest of his family members continued testifying about their company’s practices in front of various investigative boards around the world.

Do you think shareholders should be suing News Corp. over their despicable business practices? The fact that this company is allowed to still exists amazes me beyond belief.

News Corp. Shareholders Sue Company Over Phone Hacking Scandal is a post from: The Inquisitr

More to report if this story develops any further. [Twitter]

Rupert Murdoch To Step Down As CEO of News Corp [Rumor] is a post from: The Inquisitr

Lulzsec and Anonymous Attack Rupert Murdoch and Rebekah Brooks is a post from: The Inquisitr

Police have arrested Rebekah Brooks – the 43-year-old former chief executive of News International – in connection with an investigation into phone hacking and bribery at News Corp’s News of the World.

Brooks, the loyal lieutenant of Rupert Murdoch and tenth person to be arrested in the scandal, turned herself into a London police station on Sunday afternoon and apparently didn’t believe she would be imprisoned upon doing so.

The ex-chief – she resigned on Friday – is scheduled to go before a committee of British Parliament this week that is investigating the allegations of hacking and bribery, however the arrest throws her planned testimony into uncertainty, because she wouldn’t have to answer questions from the committee that might sway the separate criminal investigation.

“My resignation makes it possible for me to have the freedom and the time to give my full cooperation to all the current and future inquiries, the police investigations and the CMS appearance,” Brooks said in her statement of resignation.

Brooks has consistently asserted that she had no knowledge of the phone hacking and alleged police bribery despite the fact that she was editor of News of the World from 2000 to 2003 – the period in which when the phone of a young girl, Milly Dowler, was hacked.

Update: Apparently Brooks has already been bailed out, according to a statement released to the AFP by her spokesperson.

“I can confirm that she (Brooks) was released earlier this evening and has been bailed until late October,” her spokesman David Wilson told AFP.

via Guardian

Rebekah Brooks Arrested in Murdoch Phone Hacking Scandal is a post from: The Inquisitr

Hustler founder Larry Flynt isn’t happy with the way Rupert Murdoch is running News Corp following the recent News of the World scandal and U.S. investigations into the company’s reporting practices regarding the attempting hacking of 9/11 victims phones along with the phone records of the victims family and friends.

In an op-ed piece for the Washington Post Flynt writes:

“Simply put, he publishes what he wants,” while going on to add, “apparently regardless of how he gets information and heedless of the responsibility associated with the power he wields.”

Flynt then compares News Corp. publications to his own Hustler adult magazine, giving himself the win by noting:

“No matter how offensive or distasteful some people may find Hustler magazine and my other publications, no one has appeared unwillingly in their pages. I do not create sensationalism at the expense of people living private lives.”

Love or hate Larry Flynt, he makes a great point, when your publications are full of more lies than an adult magazine you have big issues to deal with at the top levels of your organization. It was one thing when Fox News was simply making up the news, it’s something altogether more pitiful when they attempt to steal that news from victims of tragedies.

Larry Flynt Attacks Rupert Murdoch, News of the World is a post from: The Inquisitr

While News Corp. founder Rupert Murdoch may have closed down News of the World over their UK phone hacking scandal, investigations into the company’s practices have not ended and are hitting closer to home with U.S. officials now investigating the publication (owned by News Corp.) for attempting to hack into the cell phones of 9/11 victims and their families.

Various lawmakers including Rep. Peter King had called for an investigation in the U.S. almost immediately after the scandal broke.

The investigation comes after reports began surfacing last week in which News Corp. employees attempted to bribe a New York City police officer in order gain access to phone records of British victims who were killed in the attacks and the phone records of their families.

At this time it’s still unclear if the FBI is involved or if the issue may be even more broad in scope.

It’s still unclear what, if any information News Corp. employees were able to obtain from voicemails and other phone records.

News Corp Under Investigation, Attempted To Hack Phones Of 9/11 Victims is a post from: The Inquisitr

After a phone hacking scandal rocked the 168-year-old News of The World publication owner Rupert Murdoch has decided to close down the publication with Sunday marking the last edition for the organization.

Speaking to the Wall Street Journal James Murdoch noted:

“If recent allegations are true, it was inhuman, and has no place in our company.”

According to the younger Murdoch, the paper has “voluntarily given evidence to police” while he threw those responsible for the scandal rightfully under the bus, noting ”those who acted wrongly will have to face the consequences.”

168 years in business and all it took to close the paper was a phone hacking scandal, welcome to the new world of technology.

Rupert Murdoch Shuts Down “News Of The World” is a post from: The Inquisitr

Way to go Rupert.

Not only are your reporters pissed at the drop in traffic but your advertisers are leaving in droves. All because you knew better than the rest of the web and put everything behind a paywall.

As Rob Lynam told Ian Burrell at the Independent recently

Faced with a collapse in traffic to thetimes.co.uk, some advertisers have simply abandoned the site. Rob Lynam, head of press trading at the media agency MEC, whose clients include Lloyds Banking Group, Orange, Morrisons and Chanel, says, “We are just not advertising on it. If there’s no traffic on there, there’s no point in advertising on there.” Lynam says he has been told by News International insiders that traffic to The Times site has fallen by 90 per cent since the introduction of charges. “That was the same forecast they were giving us prior to registration and the paywall going up, so whether it’s a reflection on reality or not, I don’t know.”

He warns that newspaper organisations have less muscle in internet advertising campaigns than they do in print. “Online, we have far more options than just newspaper websites – it’s not a huge loss to anyone really. If we are considering using some newspaper websites, The Times is just not in consideration.”

I hate to be the one to say we told you so Rupert, but hey – we told you so and so did a whole bunch of really smart people. I realize that Rupert thinks that he is at war with new media and that like Julius Caesar he will triumph but damn man 90% of your traffic down the tubes, advertisers think your not worth consideration anymore.

How you call that winning any war is beyond me, but hey keep it up your competitors will enjoy the increase in visitors and profits.

The cost of Murdoch’s paywall experiment? 90% of The Times traffic. is a post from: The Inquisitr

If you ever needed a sure sign of how delusional the battle against new media from News Corp has become, news today suggests that Rupert Murdoch believes himself to be Julius Caesar.

Kara Swisher at AllThingsD details how the battle against new media at News Corp is known internally as “Project Alesia,” after the battle led by Julius Caesar against the Gauls in what is now France in September 52 BC. Read Kara’s post for the historical context of the battle, which the Romans won and ultimately led to Gaul becoming a Roman territory.

If News Corp though believes that its battle is one with parallels to Caesar, you need to look past the Battle into the shorter term following the battle. Although over a period of eight years, the comparison of the Roman time scale vs the News Corp one shouldn’t be equal: in an age where news and information travels at the speed of light, eight Roman years is generously eight months today, but in pure mathematics a lot less; it would take weeks for news from Rome to travel across the Empire, where as Rupert Murdoch has access to the internet and telephones.

So what happened after the Battle of Alesia? Well, as it turned out, the Roman senate refused to allow Caesar the honor of a triumph for his victory in the Gallic Wars, which eventually led, in part, to the Roman Civil War of 50–45 BC.

For those with a scant understanding of Roman history, the Civil War of 50-45 BC saw Caesar take full control over the Roman land, and saw the abolition of Republican Rome in favor of what is known today as the Roman Empire.

At this point, Caesar is winning, and perhaps in the short term Murdoch may as well. But it doesn’t take a Roman scholar to know what happened later, but it does help if you read Shakespeare at school, because you’d know the saying “Beware The Ides of March.”

In the end, Caesar dies, not of natural causes but at the hands of his own supporters who didn’t like the direction Rome was taking.

The Roman Empire though didn’t die with Caesar, but it did eventually die. As a side point, Caesar failed to invade Britain twice, I wonder if the parallel there is with Murdoch’s failed attempts at establishing News Corp online with failures such as MySpace and others?

If Murdoch is Caesar, and News Corp the Roman Empire, News Corp will eventually die as well; it might not be immediately, and it won’t be in 400 years, but it will happen because the same history they’re basing their new media battle on says that it will. History tells us that no empire lasts forever, and News Corp is the biggest empire in the media world today. The only question is how soon will they fall?

Murdoch Thinks He’s Caesar. Dare We Say Beware The Ides Of March is a post from: The Inquisitr

Well we’ve been calling for Rupert Murdoch to put up or shut up for sometime, as have others, and it would seem to some great digging by Zee over at The Next Web that News Corp may be doing just that.

Despite the fact that just about everyone in the industry with half a brain acknowledges the fact that Google or blogs are to blame for the problems that News Corp and other traditional media companies are having. As Duncan just posted here in his article about a study published by the Fair Syndication Consortium

A study published by the Fair Syndication Consortium, an industry body backed by major media outlets in the United States, has found that blogs aren’t primarily responsible for content theft.

The study found that blogs account for less than 10% of “reusing” sites online (that is, sites republishing media content without permission), which the report notes is despite blogs “often [being] cited as having the most reused content.”

Yet in the eyes of people like Murdoch Google is the great criminal and bloggers – well we’re just thieves. For which the solution in their eyes is to yank their content from Google and put it behind a paywall so use thieves can rewrite and post instead of doing honest work.

So for the past month or so we have been listening the blustering going on wondering if or when the Great Exodus would begin. This is where some fine digging into the numbers by Zee comes in

According to Trend Visualizor, the total number of NewsCorp pages (a sum of MySpace, IGN, RottenTomatoes, …) has today dropped from 192 million to 12 million. Although all Google web sites still indicate that e.g. MySpace has 179 million pages in the index, the Google Search API is currently returning another number for that: only 7 million.

Of course this may be a bug, something we’re contacting Google about as we speak. That said, a look back at Google’s previous API calls show very few sharp drops. Could Murdoch have found a way to drastically remove itself from Google?

Which sites are Newscorp?

Looking at Murdoch’s principle sites, the numbers are astonishing:

Myspace: from 179 mio to 7 mio
RottenTomatoes: from 4 mio to 100.000
IGN: from 4 mio to 300.000
Stats.com: from 2.4 mio to 50.000
News.com.au: from 1.2 mio to 70.000
Sky.com: from 1.4 mio to 85.000
I suspect the Fox, National Geographic, Daily Telegraph, and other sites will soon follow.

No kidding it’s astonishing. This is just little league drops in visitor traffic that one might expect over holidays. This is the kind of drop that would give any sane person pause to reconsider and re-evaluate but then this is Rupert Murdoch we’re talking about. Kind of puts the old saying “more money than brains” into a new perspective eh.

UPDATE: I had originally moved this post back to draft status because after a discussion with Duncan we were rather concerned that  the data collected by Zee at The Next Web might be flawed to a point, which Zee does in fact make reference to in his post.

But rather than leave it in limbo I am reposting in the hope that some other folks who are really good at digging out the real numbers might be able to verify – or refute – the basis of the numbers used in the post.

That said I’m still rooting for the number to be correct and hoping that Murdoch does oversee the demise of News Corp and finish his threat and pull everything from Google.

Has the Great News Corp Exodus from Google already begun? [UPDATED] is a post from: The Inquisitr

In July New Zealand’s National Business Review (NBR) decided to jump the curve and put all its content behind a paywall – the same thing that people like Rupert Murdoch and other news media moguls are recommending.

NBR it seems was betting on the idea that their content was unique enough that people would be willing to pay for access to the content. Well at least enough people that would make up for the drop in readership that they were expecting by the move. When it was happening New Zealand blogger Lance Wiggs wrote about it on his blog where he said

This is an indication that the NBR leaders don’t really understand the current news internet business model. The aggregators, such as google news, are driving traffic to the NBR site, and without them the NBR would be even worse of than it is. By locking them out of the subscription area NBR will dramatically reduce their ability to make their compelling, orginal and timely content available to the world. The writers behind the wall will lose relevance, and the newspaper itself will diminish.

Yesterday Lance posted another follow-up to his original posts that takes a look at how successful, or not, this move behind a paywall has been for NBR. The short of it as you can see in the graph is that this has definitely turned out to be not such a good idea.

NBR’s page impressions have clearly declined since the wall was erected, and we can expect that this was expected by them. It’s surprising to me that Interest.co.nz had not performed better versus NBR though:

Here are all of their key traffic statistics measures gathered into one chart. and all indexed from April 6 as above:

It’s not hard to tell that NBR definitely took a hit from the move to a paywall model and in most cases it doesn’t show any signs of abating. Sure NBR might be a ‘local’ news organization that some will say shouldn’t be used to forecast what might happen to big ‘global’ newspapers like The New York Times or other big brand papers. The problem is that NBR, much like the Wall Street Journal, is a specialized news publication and as such it should be able to sustain, or even grow, its revenue based on the fact tha tit is a unique provider in contrast to its competitors.

Yet we can see that its numbers are floundering and if it can happen to a niche paper like NBR how can people like Murdoch expect that the same thing won’t happen to their news properties that report the same news as their competitors who aren’t going behind a paywall?

Brand names in news – like The New York Times or Washington Post – may at one time been able to cash in on their brand recognition factor but that was before literally anyone could have the same type of recognition.

It’s a changing world out there in newspaper land where looking to the future doesn’t mean falling back on the past thinking it’ll save your ass – because it won’t.

What newspapers can learn from New Zealand’s NBR paywall – FAIL! is a post from: The Inquisitr

I am not sure if you can put a price on stupidity or not; but I am pretty sure that if you could weasel out of Steve Ballmer how much this possible getting into bed with the newspaper giants is going to cost you’d have a pretty good idea.

When the news broke late yesterday it quickly became the topic of choice for just about all the tech pundits out there. Even Duncan here at The Inquisitr has his say about the idea but while I wouldn’t go to the extreme of suggesting a boycott of Microsoft or Bing I will say that if this is indeed true this has to be the dumbest idea on so many levels that my neck hurts from shaking my head so much.

To understand just how stupid this inane idea is we need to look at all the players involved in a debacle just waiting to happen.

Google

The short end of this is that no agreement between Microsoft with News Corp, or any number of news organizations that are stupid enough to go this route, is going to have any longterm detrimental effects on Google.

When it comes to Google it has built its fortune around the Long Tail of the Web, not against the fluctuation of an ever decreasing time frame, or value, of the “news” cycle. The search giant knows that it is extremely hard to sell advertising against information that loses its relevancy almost as soon as it is posted.

Its recent rumblings within the real-time web isn’t so much as living up to their ethos of indexing all the information on the Internet as much as it is about not letting Microsoft have all the marbles in the playground. Unlike any deals being cut with newspapers; so that they can continue to prop up an industry in severe trouble, making deals with real-time web services is more of where the web is heading and as such it makes sense to Google to be in that space.

As Kent Newsome, along with a bunch of other smart folks, points out people are forgetting the power of the verb and human being’s general apathy and inertia.

Here’s the thing: people are going to use Google, that’s why it’s a verb.  If you take your content out of the Google search results, people won’t see it.  Merchants go where the people are, not the other way around.

Google knows this and it also knows that what ever is published to the web will eventually make its way into its search index. Real-time or Long Tail it doesn’t matter to Google as long as they can successfully sell advertising against any and all search results.

News Corp and the other desperate Susans of the News Industry

The whole argument being put forward by Rupert Murdoch and the other news industry barons that Google; and the other minor players in the search business, are nothing but bloodsuckers destroying the news business sounds like a bunch of whiny boys threatening to take their bat and balls and go home.

As much as they carry on about the evilness of Google nobody is listening, or caring, any more. We’re all too busy reading the news on sites that are trying to understand and deal with the new way of doing business. Along with that we are reading blogs, reading our Facebook pages and following links to interesting stuff just as we are also doing on Twitter.

And this is one of the major points that the news industry seems to have failed to understand. People don’t go to Google to search for specific news organization’s latest headline. People use Google, or other search companies, to search for ALL of the news about the latest breaking event; or they go to the actual news site itself.

The idea that this is some sort of salvation that will see newspapers finally lift the veil of disaster that is hanging over them is nothing short of delusional. The delivery of news is changing and it is no longer the private fiefdom of an exclusive bunch of rich pricks who think that can buy and sell the world.

Rupert Murdoch acting as the cheerleader of this idea of search engines paying for access doesn’t give a shit about the effect long term of any deals created using this idea. He doesn’t care one iota about the journalists who still don’t know half the time on a day to day basis if they are going to have a job the next day just because Murdoch and his ilk only care about making sure their bottom line isn’t endangered.

This is all about Murdoch being able to keep maintaining control over his media empire while he is alive and he doesn’t care about the survivability of his competitors beyond his opportunity to buy them. Being able to force Internet companies like Google, and Microsoft’s Bing, to pay him the ransom he wants is only a feather in Rupert’s cap – nothing more.

Microsoft

First off I can totally understand why Microsoft would even consider going down this road. That said I think it could be one of the most stupidest things ever conceived of at the company under Steve Ballmer’s stewardship.

As Duncan noted in his post Microsoft has come a long way since its days of being the epitome of evil in just about everyone’s eyes. If this is actually something that Microsoft is seriously considering they could wipe out just about all the good work that has been down to revitalize the company in the public’s eyes.

This whole thing strikes me as nothing more that Microsoft having to pay protectionist money in order to not become totally inconsequential in the search market. The problem is that once Microsoft hands over that first payment they are screwed on so many levels as it is a payment that they can’t take back and will only become the first of a non-stop stream of cash flowing out to the robber barons of news.

One of the biggest dangers that this move by Microsoft could create, as Alex Wilhelm at The Next Web notes, a dangerous precedent that we could never go back from.

Doing so would set a precedent that content should charge search engines for the right to be spidered. What you are doing is just that, attempting to buy exclusive rights to News Corp online. This is the proverbial slippery slope.

Openness is one of the most important concepts on the internet. If you create content, it is searchable. Google brought this revolution, and made the internet not just live up to its potential, but made it useable. Pre-functioning search, the internet was just an idea with potential. Search unlocked the dragon, in the best way possible.

By beginning to close search, by hitting other engines with a dollar-war, you, Microsoft, are going to destroy the open internet. If News Corp wants to not play, fine. Let them leave. They will suffer more than they are supposing. But by paying to get an exclusive, you are tearing the fabric of the free exchange of content and ideas that the internet stands on.

For a company that has been making great stride to change the perception of it this idea of buying search results on such a scale the effects would be disastrous. As many have pointed out the calls for a boycott of Microsoft and Bing would start faster than the ink could dry on any deals.

Us: the netizens.

The newspaper industry isn’t suffering this crisis for no reason. We have found new, and in some cases better ways to get our news and most of the time it has nothing to do with newspapers or even news television. We have also discovered that discovering our news doesn’t have to cost us money.

This would change that if only for a short period of time. We are already seeing calls for the return of the paywall with the deluded belief that people – in general – will pay to read the news and that this is the only way for the news industry to survive.

It has nothing to do with the survivability of the news because that will always be there but it has everything to do with big corporations playing power games with us stuck in the middle.

What these companies; Microsoft, Google, and the news industry on a whole, have forgotten is that the game is changing and we are a whole lot mouthier than we use to be. As major contributors to all these companies, whether it be with money or content, we have a say in this as well and for the first time we have the tools to make them listen.

While this is a bad idea for the search industry and most importantly for Microsoft and does nothing more than extend the period of life-support for the news industry it also is bad for us as the lifeblood of the Internet.

Sitting lurking and watching the disaster unfold isn’t an option. We need to tell Microsoft in loud voices that this isn’t an acceptable idea. Hell even if it means using Bing before any deals are made if only to show Microsoft that they don’t need to do this to be successful we need to speak up and stop this idea dead in its tracks.

If we don’t we are the only one’s who will pay the price. Not Microsoft, not Google, and most definitely not the news industry.

Microsoft once more proves you can indeed buy stupidity is a post from: The Inquisitr

Much has been written online over the last two days following News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch’s chit-chat with Sky News Australia (see our coverage here and here.)

There’s a ton a different points that can be dissected and debated in the interview, but there was one thing Murdoch said that has been bugging me since I heard him say it: “no web sites anywhere in the world make serious money.”

I don’t dispute that the statement is wrong, but it lacks context and a broader understanding of the space. The obvious point is the definition of “serious money,” which to Murdoch means the hundreds of millions that News Corp makes. He’s entitled to define serious that way, but in reflecting on that we need only to take a look at the rise of News Corp to see that the “serious” money he talks about was a short term aberration over the much longer period of media as a whole.

The News Corp story is one of those Australian fairytale stories that many in Australia know something about. But the best history I’ve read recently came from an American, in the form of Michael Wolff’s biography “The Man Who Owns the News: Inside the Secret World of Rupert Murdoch.”

The biography charts the rise of Murdoch from his inheritance of a single Adelaide newspaper through to the takeover by News Corp of the Wall Street Journal. The book places in context the newspaper (and broader media) industry as it was, and how Murdoch came to change the scene as part of the rise of the media barons in the late 70s and 1980s.

It details succinctly how newspapers were previously often small or family run affairs, often without huge profits or managed to their full potential. Couple to this was the stratospheric rise in newspaper advertising throughout the 1980′s, and the media consolidation as smaller outlets closed or sold out.

Indeed you could say that before the likes of Rupert Murdoch, no one was making serious money from newspapers. Where have we heard that line before?

Unlike newspapers, many with histories going back hundreds of years, the current crop of new media startups are often only years old. This is a time of immense competition online where new models are being experimented on, with the successful models being used as a basis to grow and expand (see AOL for one classic example.) Some are making money, others aren’t, but of course none are making “serious” money yet, just like newspapers once weren’t either.

Perhaps in old age, and combined with a self professed obsession with print, Murdoch can’t see the parallels starring him in the face?

Bronwen Clune told the Media140 conference in Sydney last week that she doesn’t like the label of new media because what we label new media really is just a part of the broader media landscape. Not only was she right, I’d extend that further, because although the online nature may make it new of sorts, the progression of the industry really isn’t anything of the sort, because what we’ve seen in the past with heritage media is now being reflected online, be it at a much faster pace.

Online media may not be making “serious” money yet, but what’s to stop a 21st century Murdoch buying up online outlets to create an entity that does make serious money, or for an existing conglomerate to grow and compete with the media of old? History can and does repeat itself, rich with the knowledge of those that have succeeded and failed before.

(Image: Department of the Internets)

What’s Old is New: Why Murdoch Doesn’t Get New Media is a post from: The Inquisitr

News Corp founder and CEO Rupert Murdoch has told an interview with Sky News Australia that News Corp will likely remove News Corp content from Google.

The revelation came early in the interview, after Murdoch claimed that Google and others are stealing News Corp content in response to a question about who he was talking about when he talked about plagiarists. “The people who simply pick up everything to run with, and steal our stories…they just take them..without payment. That’s Google, Microsoft, Ask.com..a whole lot of people.”

Murodch claimed that readers who visit News Corp sites via search offer little value to advertisers, and that News Corp would rather have fewer people coming to their websites, but paying. Asked why News hasn’t made its sites invisible to Google, Murdoch replied: “I think we will….but that’s when we start charging.”

Murdoch also claims that News Corp believes that the doctrine of Fair Use can be challenged in court and “barred altogether.”

As Mumbrella notes, many sites (including this one) have called on News Corp and others to use Robots.txt to take their content out of Google, a simple change that would put to bed the Google stealing our content argument once and for all.

The full interview as follows:

Epic Win: News Corp Likely To Remove Content From Google is a post from: The Inquisitr