When a media mogul has more power than government

Oh my. Democracy is so threatened that some have become fearful of a former Australian media man who trades smears for a living: Senior parliamentarians declined to give evidence in court against a News of the World journalist for fear of upsetting News International, the deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats said today. Simon Hughes,…

Taking on Murdoch bullying front and centre

Australian Greens leader Bob Brown, as recounted by Australian Financial Review journalist Laura Tingle: [Murdoch’s Australian newspaper] sees itself as a determinant of democracy in Australia. It believes it has replaced the people and it’s time to bell the cat. It’s stepped out of the role of the fourth estate to think it’s the determinant…

Spluttering gasps of Murdoch’s British power

New Statesman examines the worsening problems for David Cameron’s spin doctor, Andy Coulson, former editor of Murdoch’s News of the World: I ask another former Met commander if the New York Times allegations of a “long-term” relationship between News International and Scotland Yard are true. “I couldn’t possibly comment,” he tells me with a chuckle,…

Murdoch mantra; whatever it takes

This just gets better and better and proves once again the essential need for a vibrant, non-Murdoch press. Such illegality rather neatly matches Rupert’s belief in illegally bombing and occupying nations. That’s his legacy: A former senior News of the World journalist has gone public to corroborate claims that phone-hacking and other illegal reporting techniques…

Come bow down to the Murdoch King

Who ya Daddy? They are unlikely to lay on a private jet to whisk him to the Med, but David Miliband has been given the seal of approval by the Murdoch empire after being invited to dinner next week by the media baron’s son James. Rebekah Brooks, chief executive of News International, is also due…

Standing up to Murdoch’s dodgy tactics

Who’s afraid of the Murdoch press? Most political leaders in the West seem incapable and unwilling to take on the old man’s institution, a collection of bigotry, contradictions and pro-war sentiment. Such nobility in great wealth. Every day brings new gory details in the News of the World scandal: The Home Office abandoned plans to…

Just how many in government are in the pocket of Murdoch?

Thank God for the non-Murdoch press because without them we would never have known about the ongoing scandal at the News of the World. Ethics at News Limited? Somewhere in the offices of the Crown Prosecution Service, there is a file that will be of great interest to any independent inquiry that attempts to tell…

Murdoch’s love of illegality in the pursuit of hacked calls

A stunning piece of investigative journalism by the New York Times on the News of the World in the UK and its sordid relationship with Scotland Yard: In November 2005, three senior aides to Britain’s royal family noticed odd things happening on their mobile phones. Messages they had never listened to were somehow appearing in…

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