Guardian UK: Will the last person to leave News Corporation turn off the lights?

[marmar]

Les Hinton sacrificed, but the worst is yet to come for News Corp
Every time Murdoch ditches a key executive, the flames of scandal flick ever closer to him, writes Matt Wells

Matt Wells
guardian.co.uk, Friday 15 July 2011


No relationship is safe, no loyal bond strong enough for Rupert Murdoch who – looking more than the sum of his 80 years – is mounting a final battle to save the company he built from nothing.

His decision to throw Les Hinton to the wolves is his most dramatic move yet. For more than 50 years, as a journalist and then an executive, Hinton loyally served the Murdoch empire from its roots in Australia to the height of its power in New York.

Now, in a desperate effort to save News Corporation's most valuable assets – its 27 US broadcast licences and the 20th Century Fox movie studio – Murdoch is prepared to sacrifice one of his closest allies.

The problem for Murdoch is that every time he ditches a key executive, the flames of scandal flick ever closer to him. .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jul/15/les-hinton-news-corp

[aquart]

1. Tra la!

[nxylas]

2. This is about the point in the movie that the villain usually kills a henchman

If I were a senior Murdoch employee being called into his office, I'd be very careful about where I stood, particularly if I saw his finger edging towards a big red button on his desk.

[Stuart G]

3. Perhaps this time when the big red button is pushed......

Murdoch and his son will be jettisoned out of the airplane and left with to fall, the way they left others to fall.

[Prometheus Bound]

4. He didn't exactly build the company from nothing did he?

I thought he inherited a newspaper. If so, that's not exactly nuttin.

[MedicalAdmin]

6. If inheriting 100 million and a major newspaper is starting from scratch...

... sign me up.

Self made man my ass. Daddy gave him the papers and real estate daddy inherited. Self made. Snort.

[Moosepoop]

5. Ooh... love this line!!

The departure of Hinton suggests that News Corporation has finally got to grips with the global significance of this story, but the worst is yet to come. The FBI has launched an investigation into accusations that News of the World journalists asked a former New York police officer for the phone records of relatives of 9/11 victims. If that toxic allegation is shown to have been true, one thing is certain: Fox News is finished, along with the rest of News Corporation as we know it.

Just the idea of this makes me smile! :)

[SkyDaddy7]

7. I find myself trying not to get too excited...

I still think Murdoch has way too many friends in high places for him to lose FOX "News" or any of his prized companies in the US. I just hope I am wrong but it is way too easy to be cynical as it seems the bad guys always win in the end.