How much power does Rupert Murdoch have?

The investigation into the widespread hacking by Murdoch's newspapers continues in the UK. The conservative estimate of 4,000 people targeted may turn into over 10,000 such victims.

Murdoch has been busy buying shares in his own company and is considering selling the rest of his newspapers in the UK. What he really wants is the BSkyB deal. This deal must be worth an amazing amount of money (and power).

The puppetmaster

Considering that every Prime Minister since Margaret Thatcher has had strong links with Murdoch and that more recent ones needed his approval to go for that job, the results of the Weeting Inquiry could be very interesting, if conducted properly. One thing I find really interesting is that Tony Blair doesn't appear to have been targeted for snooping as Gordon Brown has. If anybody has blood and dirt on his hands, that would be Blair. Any information about his private dealings would have been far juicier than anything about Gordon Brown... Also, he was in power when the investigation into the hacking started and didn't go very far.

Murdoch and Tony Blair

Rebekah Brooks with Tony Blair

Murdoch with his protegee Rebekah Brooks

What we have so far is a story about Murdoch's organisation employing very unethical practices to gain information about a great number of people, either to sell newspapers or as ammunition against politicians and other people in positions of power. We have a number of Prime Ministers who had to ask Murdoch's permission to run for office (the protocol is to ask the Queen permission to form a government). The investigation was swept under the carpet for a number of years and the orders to disregard much of the evidence must have come from somebody very high up.

The story only started to cause some outrage when it came to light that a young murder victim, victims of terrorist attacks and dead soldiers were all targeted by Murdoch's unscrupulous organisation.

Milly Dowler (left) with her family

London bombings

British troops in Afghanistan

9/11

Murdoch has interests on both sides of the pond and it's highly unlikely that the same modus operandi wasn't employed in the US. Does he have the same clout and as much dirt on Americans as he does on the British? Will he be able to suppress any investigations in the US? He has many British politicians in his pocket, but ironically, a TV station like Fox News would fall foul of the broadcasting regulations in the UK.

Murdoch appears unconcerned, seen here reading the last
edition of the News of the World

If this man comes out of this scandal unscathed and still able to call the shots, we may have underestimated his power and influence. That's a very frightening thought indeed.

Forget ethics, forget the law, forget the Constitution, forget Democracy. Murdoch rules.

Murdoch and British politicians

I found some discussions and coverage of the News International scandal in the UK.









If things are not swept under the carpet with the cynical closure of News of the World, if they're not allowed to continue to destroy masses of evidence, if somebody in the UK does their job properly, maybe, just maybe, this scandal will affect Rupert Murdoch. And if the US media do their job properly, it may affect Fox News.

Here's to hoping!

(There are further videos from the Question Time program on Youtube. I couldn't embed them all, the loading of the page would slow down to a crawl... There's an interesting PBS video about it, worth watching.)

Should Sarah Palin worry?

Yes, if I were Sarah Palin, I would start to worry...

Murdoch scandal - UPDATE

Looking at things at face value, it appears Rupert Murdoch's empire is under threat in the UK. I'm afraid the closing down of the News of the World (printed with sh*t) is an attempt at whitewash so Rupert won't jeopardize his bid for BSkyB.

Vincent Cable had his number. He's the MP for Twickenham (my former constituency) and I had the opportunity to see him sipping coffee at my local cafe on many occasions. Unfortunately, Vincent has been removed from the decision making process on Murdoch's bid because he was a bit too candid in his opinions.

[A bit of trivia about Vincent Cable: He's a very keen ballroom dancer and could outdance Bristol Palin at the age of 68... any day.]

I started disliking Rupert Murdoch many years ago, when he took on the printers union in 1986, aided and abetted by Margaret Thatcher.

David Cameron has ordered a public inquiry into the fiasco, but I wouldn't hold my breath about it. Cameron has a lot at stake here, as the former news of the World editor Andrew Coulson was a member of his government until January this year and there are strong allegations against him.

The problem with public inquiries in the UK is that they often let the culprits off. Tony Blair (George Bush's poodle) ordered one such inquiry about the death of a man who dared blow the whistle on the weapons of mass destrution that justified the invasion of Iraq. We believe Dr David Kelly was bumped off by the secret service, but the inquiry painted a very different story...

David Kelly

Rupert Murdoch is a very clever weasel who has the establishment on his side.

Let's hope the American media will do their job for a change and that the true nature of this beast comes to light at long last.

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UPDATE

The plot thickens...

The Guardian:

Andy Coulson, the prime minister's former press spokesman, has been arrested and is being held in custody at a police station in south London.

The arrest came after Operation Weeting officers were handed further information from News International three weeks ago which detailed allegedly illegal payments to a handful of officers at the Yard.

He will be questioned on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications, contrary to Section 1 (1) Criminal Law Act 1977 and "on suspicion of corruption allegations" contrary to Section 1 of the Prevention of Corruption Act 1906.



The Independent:

Former News of the World editor Andy Coulson and one of his former top reporters were being questioned about alleged corruption today after a dramatic double arrest by Scotland Yard.

Mr Coulson, the ex-Downing Street communications chief, was also being questioned over phone hacking during his time at the paper.

Police sources later confirmed that former royal editor Clive Goodman - who was jailed in January 2007 over the scandal - had been rearrested in connection with alleged payments to police.

Officers investigating Operation Elveden - the inquiry into payments to police by the News of the World - and Operation Weeting, the long-running hacking investigation, are questioning the pair.

The moves by Scotland Yard pile further pressure on the Prime Minister, who gave Mr Coulson a job at No 10 despite his association with the scandal.

Please read more on The Guardian and The Independent.

God talks to Glenn Beck, Rupert Murdoch loves Communists, Comedy and a Volcano - UPDATE: Sara Hickman sings "Palin' By Comparison"!

UPDATE!

Texas strikes back!

Some citizen's of Sarah Palin's "favourite state in the lower 48" are sick and tired that Sarah seems to spend more time in Texas these days than with Trig. ;-)

Sara Hickman, the reigning "State Musician of Texas", created an awesome song: "Palin' By Comparison". The video has just been published on youtube a few minutes ago - we received the message via speed dial from Texas! ;-)

Enjoy!

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Start of main post:

So many things are happening right now in the USA and the rest of the world, that there is no shortage of material for Palingates - which is reflected in the various topics I intend to touch in this post.

First of all, Glenn Beck found God, finally. "Media Matters" reported yesterday that in an emotional message to his listeners of his radio show, Glenn explains that God has given him a plan, that there are no coincidences etc. etc., and he basically says that from now on only God will rule his world. Unfortunately, Glenn Beck in this clip doesn't go on to thank God for the $ 32 million he earned last year, which I think would have been an appropriate thing to do.

This clip really is worth listening to. Glenn Beck sounds like the "male Sarah Palin".

Well, maybe Glenn Beck should now start to pray with THIS MAN...

...as this apparently is Glenn's "gig" now.

By the way: I don't know exactly when the above picture showing Sarah Palin's new friend James Dobson and some of his followers was taken. I found it once on a blog where it was posted in 2006.

Please don't miss Phil Munger's excellent post about Sarah Palin's highly controversial comments regarding the separation of church and state - a separation, which, in Sarah's opinion, shouldn't exist.

Interestingly, the Palinbots over at creeps4palin were apparently not happy at all that one of their own fans had posted Sarah's complete "Women of Joy" speech on the internet, which partly caused the controversy. After all, if Queen Sarah bans the media, she knows what she is doing! (Which is, of course, trying to conceal her REAL extremist views from the general public.)

From the C4P comments:

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Or maybe we shouldn't take Glenn Beck too seriously?

After all, he recently said to Forbes magazine: "I could give a flying crap about the political process. We are an entertainment company."

If you also would like to become a right-wing demagogue on Fox News and then as a result hopefully as stinking rich as Glenn Beck, you should obey the following rules:

• First of all, you have to be white. You can't be a black or a Mexican and become a right wing radio TV zealot for Fox News. You must be white, the whiter the better. So white, you practically glow in the dark.
• Next, you need to be chubby. You need to have the kind of face that looks like chipmunks are storing acorns in your cheeks. In a medium that stresses slimness, beauty and glamour, you need to be pudgy. Don't ask why. Just over-eat.
• You must never serve in the military. In the history of Fox, no right wing zealot commentator has ever served in the military. You don't need to, after all, you'll be accusing everybody else of treachery and subversion, while at the same time promoting war, the ultimate perversity. Time in the military is time wasted, a sucker game, not for you, making it harder for you to work your way up from that obscure radio station to the big time as a professional broadcast fanatic on Fox News. Instead, stay in college and get started broadcasting over the college radio, spewing lies about the alleged perverted sexual practices of fellow students. This will develop in you a thick hide and a disregard for the suffering of others and the truth, necessary attributes to be a right wing zealot commentator at Fox.
• Next, learn to ignore history, while twisting the little you actually know. I didn't say study history. Just twist it to suit your ends. This is simple to practice in your college dorm room. Simply stand in front of a mirror, and verbally rehearse disagreeing. Have someone say to you, "the sun came up yesterday." Now say, "No it didn't." Now say, repeat after me, "black is white, square is round, up is down." Look if not forceful, then mean. This will scare some people in your future audience and convince them you know what you're talking about.
• Develop a prospectus, a list of lightning rod issues where it's legitimately one argument against the other, but that you can exploit to whip up fear and hatred, like abortion, or gun control. Write out and memorize mindless statements that condemn the opponents of your position by idiotic inaccurate historical comparisons that seem profound, but really aren't, such as, "Hitler believed in gun control, and so does Obama, so Obama is Hitler." The more of these moronic parables you can commit to memory, the better.
• Never agree to appear on any TV or radio show that is not your own and with someone you know to be intelligent, glib and in opposition to your views. Never, but never.
• Practice looking smug. Fat white cheeks, and smug. Look in the mirror. Are you smug? Remember, as smug as you think you are, you're not that smug on camera. You have to be really smug. Practice it over and again.
• Even though you feel like it, never use the N word to refer to African Americans. Instead, call them the safer "socialist, communist, Al-Qaeda-lover, traitor, subversive, liberal, Bush-Cheney-hater." Constantly be on the lookout for new smear labels. This deflects from the issue at hand and keeps the focus on you and your personality.
• Once you become a success, if you reach a saturation audience rating, in other words, a lot of angry 22-year-old white men named Billy Bob Ray Floyd are listening to you, ask Rupert Murdoch for a raise.
• These are but a few of the principles I outline in my new CD kit and booklet, You Too Can be An Ass. Only $79.95 while supplies last.

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Speaking of Glenn Beck's employer Rupert Murdoch: Are we too harsh on him? Isn't he just a businessman, doing his job?

Well, yes, he is. He loves his company so much that on the other side of the globe, in China, Rupert Murdoch has no problems whatsoever to snuggle up to Communists, if it helps his profits. He even goes so far as to condone the Communist party's censorship.

Esquire reports:

However, there is still one powerful American who has extensive connections with communists — not just some communists, but some of the most powerful communists in the world. According to an extensive report in the New York Times, this man has "flattered Communist Party leaders and done business with their children," met repeatedly with senior members of the communist Politburo, "cooperates closely" with communist censors and propaganda networks, and "cultivates political ties" with communists in the hope that they will "insulate his business ventures." Not only that, but he "often supports the policies" of communist leaders and "attacks their critics."

It gets worse. This powerful American has control of a large number of media holdings, and he attempted to curry favor with said communists by ordering one of his book publishing units to release a volume of communist propaganda glorifying Deng Xiaoping, the heir to Chairman Mao.

Another time, he killed a book deal with the last British governor of Hong Kong because of rumors that it would be critical of his communist business partners. When the story broke, the businessman denied it. Then Business Week uncovered internal memos that spoke of "corporate worries" that the book would threaten his business interests in China.

And it gets worse still. This powerful American businessman also owns a Chinese television network called Star TV. Once it carried news programming from the BBC. But after the famous incident when communists attacked unarmed civilians in Tiananmen Square, Star TV's BBC affiliate repeatedly showed the spectacular video clip of a man facing down a tank alone. The communists complained. And the powerful American businessman — who makes a great deal of noise on these shores about being a champion of freedom and free speech and the free market — asked the BBC to stop showing it so often. But the BBC kept airing the clip and the communists kept complaining and finally the businessman ordered his Chinese network to drop the BBC news channel altogether. He insisted this was a business decision and that politics had absolutely nothing to do with it, of course — and, also, the BBC reporters really wanted to spend more time with their families. But subsequently, the supreme leader of the communists praised him for his "objective" approach to Chinese political news.

As I said, this American businessman is a vocal champion of freedom in this country. He owns the Weekly Standard, which supports Bill Kristol and many other influential neoconservatives who are passionately committed to spreading democracy to all oil-producing countries. He put all of his media power behind the Iraq War. He cheered George W. Bush as "a man of great character and deep humility." And he's famously touchy about any criticism of his politics — when The Simpsons ran a parody of Fox News that included headlines like "Do Democrats Cause Cancer?" he threatened to sue the creators of the most successful show in the history of his network.

But his friendly relations with overseas communists have proved lucrative. After killing Star TV's BBC affiliate in order to ingratiate himself with China's communist propaganda ministers, he established a contract to help design a Web site for CCTV, the giant official Chinese TV network that Time magazine called "the key propaganda arm of the Communist Party." He also helped launch the Web site of the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party, The People's Daily. He helped the communists develop a television encryption system, which will doubtless prove useful in suppressing dissent in the future. His Chinese version of MySpace obeys all communist censorship laws, even including a built-in link for reporting "inappropriate information" to the authorities. And to smooth the skids on his new ventures, he signed employment contracts with the son of the national propaganda chief and the leadership committee of the Communist Youth League.

Oh, and he also does business with the communist nation of Cuba, which harbors one of the many tax havens where he has hidden cash to avoid American tax laws.

This powerful American friend of communists is, of course, Rupert Murdoch — the man who signs Glenn Beck's paychecks.

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Thanks to the constant propaganda, manipulations and lies of Rupert Murdoch's Fox News network, the polls in the USA are starting to look pretty ugly. In a recent large survey, the participants were asked what they think about President Obama. These were the results of ALL participants:

The actual percentages of adults who believe these things are true about President Obama are as follows:

* He is a socialist (40%)
* He wants to take away Americans' right to own guns (38%)
* He is a Muslim (32%)
* He wants to turn over the sovereignty of the United States to a one world government (29%)
* He has done many things that are unconstitutional (29%)
* He resents America's heritage (27%)
* He does what Wall Street and the bankers tell him to do (27%)
* He was not born in the United States and so is not eligible to be president (25%)
* He is a domestic enemy that the U.S. Constitutions speaks of (25%)
* He is a racist (23%)
* He is anti-American (23%)
* He wants to use an economic collapse or terrorist attack as an excuse to take dictatorial powers (23%)
* He is doing many of the things that Hitler did (20%)
* He may be the Anti-Christ (14%)
* He wants the terrorists to win (13%)

Well, of course there is always a certain portion of the population that is poorly educated. However, when 20% of all Americans think that Obama is doing many things that Hitler did, when 25% think that he is not eligible to be President and when even 40% believe that he is a socialist, then you know that there is something seriously, seriously wrong.

By the way:

Did you know that pre-nazi Germany, the "Weimar Republic", had their very own Rupert Murdoch? His name was Alfred Hugenberg, he was a fanatical right-winger who built up a huge media conglomerate in Germany in the 1920's. With newspapers, magazines, news agencies and Germany's largest film studio this man heavily manipulated German public opinion and proved invaluable in bringing Adolf Hitler to power - it was Hugenberg's publications which made Hitler, "the nobody", known to the general public. I found an excellent overview in English language HERE.

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After so much depressing news, we need a good laugh! The comedian Dorothy Bishop published very funny parody clips about Sarah Palin. The first one is a parody of Madonna's song "Vogue" and the second one is also a real treasure: The mockumentary "Sarah Palin lost in New York".

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BONUS:

A reader sent me this unbelievably beautiful collection of pictures, published by the "Boston Globe", regarding the vulcano eruption in Iceland that has been disturbing us so much here in Europe. Planes finally took to the air again today after a break of about one week. TAKE A LOOK!

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Sarah Palin and the Discovery Channel - Connecting the dots

By Helen (nailinpalinnow)

When Palin, and $$$ and media are involved, Murdoch can't be far away, can he?

Here is a connect-the-dots exercise which explains why Discovery Channel has shocked its mild mannered and thoughtful audience by acting like a real hussy and selling out her good name and reputation to the likes of $ister $arah.

1. Discovery Channel is owned by Discovery Communications, Inc.

2. Sometime late 2009, a Mr. Peter Liguori was named COO of Discovery Communications, effective January, 2010. He replaces Mark Hollinger, who did not leave the organization but was named president and CEO of Discovery Networks International.

3. Next up comes the Hong Kong connection, the city where Murdoch reigns - at least as much as any other Westerner in the world. Dec 7 2009 – “Discovery Communications has announced that Chief Operating Officer and long-time Discovery executive Mark Hollinger has been named President and CEO of Discovery Networks International. Hollinger joined Discovery Communications in 1991 as Vice President and Deputy General Counsel. In 1994, he was named Acting General Manager for Discovery Channel Asia. Based in Hong Kong, Hollinger was responsible for overseeing and coordinating all activities related to the launch and operation of Discovery Channel Asia."

4. Back to Peter Liguori, the new Chief Operating Officer of Discovery - who do you think Mr. Liguori used to work for? Fox Television and Ol’ Murder himself... although on the surface it seems they didn’t get along so great. About a year ago, in March 2009, Murdoch “repositioned” Liguori out of Fox as head of its prime time entertainment schedule.

“The most surprising aspects of last week's News Corp exec shakeup, the ouster of Fox Broadcasting CEO (Peter Liguori) and the promotion of Fox Searchlight prez Peter Rice to head of entertainment for Fox TV, have now been explained. Liguori was never very close to Rupert Murdoch, making it easy for Rupe to get rid of him to keep Peter Rice - head of Fox's successful Searchlight studio - in the fold, Variety says.” Long story short, Rupert liked Rice personally as he was the son of an old friend of his - but that doesn’t mean he wouldn’t take a business meeting with Liguori wherever he landed next.

5. Now in March of 2010, just one year later, a Murdoch minion is caught publicly salivating over sweet and innocent Discovery Communications, Inc. according to the New York Times, March 2010 - "Rupert Murdoch’s deputy, Chase Carey, looked out on the cable televisions landscape last fall and found a rival he wanted to emulate. Discovery Communications, he said, is “a road map of where I’d like to be.”

That is a big endorsement of Discovery, especially considering that it is just one-ninth the size of Mr. Murdoch’s company, the News Corporation. It is a testament to the fact that Discovery, the owner of 13 cable channels in the United States, has become a favorite on Wall Street, and its chief executive, David Zaslav, has become the subject of envy in the television industry.

6. So Rupert has Palin as a product, Discovery Channel as a prize to be won, Ligouri as a useful contact and Hollinger in place as another possibly even older contact. Is Murdoch trying to wage war on The Discovery Channel with Palin as his beachhead?

All I can say is that it is pretty clear that because of the toxic combination of Murdoch/Palin/Discovery Channel Execs, $error now has the ability to chirpily squawk about how much she loves the land she despoiled to millions and millions of people all over the world, while forever tainting the Discovery brand and getting paid a whole lot to do so.



According to Wiki, Discovery Channel is currently the most widely distributed cable network in the United States, reaching more than 92 million households, part of its global audience of 431 million homes in 170 countries and territories. Versions of the channel are seen in Latin America, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Japan, Taiwan, India, Malaysia and other countries.

Someone commented here recently that big money was behind this newest Palin showbiz circus, and it looks like they were right. I’m not sure our earnest letters regarding Discovery Channel’s brand name or intentions will really make any difference at all. But we can try. Their offices are located in Silver Spring Maryland, and here is a corporate office phone number and the names of the chief executives.

Discovery Communications, Inc.
Discovery Place
Silver Spring, MD 20910
Phone: 240-662-2000
Fax: 240-662-1868

Chairman - John Hendricks
President, CEO, and Director - David Zaslav
COO - Peter Liguori

Another interesting discovery - The final dot?

It seems that Murdoch has more than a passing association with the Discovery Channel. In fact, a deeper look into the Grey Fox’s dealings for the past 15 years shows a disturbing pattern – one that hints at tax evasion on a high level and also gives notice to regular viewers that Murdoch is probably part owner of the “thinking man’s cable channel” already – but nobody knows for sure, including the IRS.

Any hour long internet search will reveal that Mr. Murdoch has a long time association with a certain John Malone, a mini-media mogul who serves at times as Murdoch’s partner, and at times as his arch-nemesis and rival. Strange as that may seem, it is a lesson to all of us lesser mortals (who are even now, sweating the fact that taxes are indeed due). Murdoch and Malone have played a decades long game of swapping media holdings, mostly to keep themselves amused, and with the side benefit of reducing or eliminating taxes on the businesses they exchange. How is that possible? The only way I can explain it is to say, if you can make the money trail extremely confusing, the best the IRS can do to keep up with you is to simply ask you what you owe, and trust you to pay at least that. One of the best examples of the business media sitting back and watching this display is given HERE.

So after many swaps and brinksmanship games with Malone’s Liberty Media which has held up to 20% shares of Discovery Channel Holding Co., it seems likely that Murdoch has a comparable interest in Discovery Communications today.

Certainly enough that a simple phone call could easily be made to Discovery Channel executives along the lines of, “Murdoch is calling, I’d like you to listen to his Palin proposal and be very open to his ideas about a show. Yes, you heard me, I said Palin.”

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"Sarah Palin's Alaska" is officially headed to Discovery Communication's TLC and they're proud of it.

(A petition to boycott the Discovery channels can be signed here)