Murdoch grip on reins comes under fire in hacking

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Breitbart:

LOS ANGELES (AP) - As investors punished News Corp.'s stock again on Monday, questions arise anew about the leadership abilities of its chief executive, Rupert Murdoch.

The phone hacking scandal in Britain now threatens to engulf top executives, and has hobbled the company's stock, which has stagnated for a decade.

If News Corp. operated like many corporations in the midst of scandal, the CEO's job would be in jeopardy. But the media conglomerate runs more like a family dynasty, and analysts suggest Murdoch, its 80-year-old patriarch, is likely to maintain his grip for now.

As the company's chief executive, Murdoch presides over an empire with a wide array of media assets, including the Fox broadcast network, cable channels such as FX and Fox News, TV stations, the 20th Century Fox movie studio and newspapers around the world, including The New York Post and The Sun in the U.K.

He controls the company through a family trust that owns 40 percent of the voting stock and the largest chunk of News Corp.'s shares at 12 percent. One observer even praised his ability to parachute into the crisis as he did this past weekend, pulling a maneuver that allowed the British government to put the issue on the backburner while public outrage subsides.

Last week, a public outcry ensued over the years-old hacking scandal when it emerged that, along with the phones of celebrities and politicians, News of the World tabloid reporters had broken into the phone messages of a murdered girl, crime victims and the bereaved families of soldiers.

Murdoch took two key actions to stem the fallout from endangering News Corp.'s proposed $12 billion acquisition of the 61 percent stake of British Sky Broadcasting that it does not already own.

One was to shutter the 168-year-old tabloid at the center of the crisis, News of the World, which published its last edition on Sunday. The second move was to withdraw a key concession in the BSkyB deal that would have allowed for more competition in the market, the sale of Sky News.

The withdrawal of the concession allowed the government on Monday to contest the deal on competition grounds, the least damaging way to appease an outraged public, and avoid a government probe into whether News Corp. was legally "fit and proper" to be a media company owner at all.

"The government no longer has to resort to the `fit and proper' test to prevent the takeover—something that Murdoch would want to avoid at all costs," said Louise Cooper, markets analyst for London-based BGC Partners. "It's probably the (lesser) of the bad options really."

Still, many observers point to the crisis as indicating a problem at the top echelons of the company.
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Did Murdoch finally get too big for comfort here?

[Sabre86]

The libs are absolutely foaming at the mouth. They think this will mean the end of Fox News and even conservative talk radio because it will be the excuse to bring back the fairness doctrine.

 

The MSM is pushing for Holder to open a criminal probe of Fox News, the WSJ, NYP, and the rest of News Corp if for no other reason than to make them back off Obama until after the 2012 election.

[Pepper]

Sabre86

The MSM is pushing for Holder to open a criminal probe of Fox News, the WSJ, NYP, and the rest of News Corp if for no other reason than to make them back off Obama until after the 2012 election.

 

They can do that after Holder gets hauled up on obstruction of justice and perjury charges. Then haul in Obama while they're at it.