Could Murdoch deputy Hinton take the fall?

[bloomington-lib]

Source: Reuters

Les Hinton was adamant. Asked in 2007 by a British parliamentary committee whether the News of the World had "carried out a full, rigorous internal inquiry" into the use of illegal phone hacking by the newspaper and was "absolutely convinced" it was limited to a single reporter, Hinton did not hesitate.

"Yes, we have," the then-executive chairman of News of the World's owner News International told the select committee, "and I believe he was the only person, but that investigation, under the new editor, continues."

Four years on, Hinton may have serious reason to regret those words. In the middle of a voicemail hacking scandal that has killed the 168-year-old mass-circulation paper and threatens further damage to Rupert Murdoch's media empire, much of the public anger so far has focused on Rebekah Brooks, editor of News of the World between 2000 and 2003 when some of the most high-profile hacking occurred, and her successor Andy Coulson, under whom it continued.

But attention is now turning to Hinton, 67, who headed up News International during Brooks's and Coulson's editorships and now runs the New York-based Dow Jones & Co., another arm of Murdoch's sprawling News Corp. Murdoch's long-time lieutenant, some News Corp watchers say, could end up being a high-profile casualty in the scandal.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/09/us-newscorp-hacking-hinton-idUSTRE7682QU20110709

[aquart]

1. Twitter is saying decision to kill NOTW was made last November.

As part of the BSkyB deal.

[dipsydoodle]

3. I think its actually Sky News

which would need to come out of the group as part of the BSkyB deal. News Corporation already owns 39% of BSkyB anyway. The Sun is more significant than the News of the World so if a tabloid was to come out it would have been the Sun.

What I don't know is how much of News Corporation, which is a public company, the Murdoch's actually own. :shrug: The significance of that being whether or not they hold a majority sufficient to stop themselves being voted off the board.

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. There are non-voting Class A shares, and voting Class B shares

Of the voting shares, at the time of last year's statement, the Murdoch family trust owned 38.4%, and Rupert Murdoch personally owned 39.7%.

http://apps.shareholder.com/sec/viewerContent.aspx?companyid=NWS&docid=7441011

Looking at the large PDF of the annual report, I think there are about 2 non-voting shares for every voting one. So the Murdoch family owns about 26% of the company as far as rights to profit goes, but has 78% of the voting rights (presuming the family has secure control of the family trust - which I think Rupert is canny enough to have ensured).

[tsuki]

7. Less than 50%. He needs Saudi Prince Al-Waleed's shares to

retain control. The last time I saw anything, it was between 42-43% with the majority of the share in the Murdoch Family Trust.

[tishaLA]

2. it keeps getting closer and closer to old Rupe himself

Let's hope it makes it all the way.

[aquart]

4. Would you put a shriveled old man in jail?

I know I would.

[tsuki]

8. In a California minute, whatever that mean. Mom used the expression. nt

[salin]

6. ssss... crrrrack... (another fissure in the murdoch media empire pops open)

not just the story - but that it appears in the US - and takes serious aim (with legit questions) at US Based Newscorp.

toward the end of the article suggests what to expect to see if this development becomes damaging : Author Burden believes that Murdoch's desire to protect his beloved Wall Street Journal will help dictate his next moves. "Rupert is very proud of the Wall Street Journal and that's why he wouldn't want to see it being damaged by Les Hinton being smeared," Burden said.

That, said the former Dow Jones employee, might mean Hinton has to fall on his sword: "I wouldn't be surprised if Hinton was the fall guy. He would take one for the team."

If Hinton takes a fall down the line, then the US side of the murdoch-media empire is feeling very threatened/damaged.

[tsuki]

9. Fox is attacking Media Matters like a junkyard dog. I read one

report where it was said that Fox was feeling the heat from Media Matters. I think, OTOH, that attacking is what Rupert Roo does when he feels threatened. He attacks MM over here so the Fox viewer will be tied up in that story and skip the hacking scandal.

And the Australian Green Party has called for an investigation.

He's got some problems now.

[salin]

10. I agree per the MM attack as a distraction.

the biggest problem for Murdoch, imo, is the pace at which multiple revelations are occuring at once make them nearly impossible to manage/control. No telling what the end fall out will be.

[KharmaTrain]

11. Breaking Up Is Hard To Do...

The key in this scandal is not old Rupert but his son James who is his heir apparent. If he ends up being indicted or convicted that could make the future of the Murdoch family control of the corporation is a lot of doubt. That said, the larger this scandal grows, the more damage it does to the News Corp name and ability to generate advertising revenues. NOTD became "box office poison" as the center of this scandal and add the fact that newspapers have seen their advertising revenues go other places, the future looked bleak as it will for anything else in Great Britain that is associated with the Murdoch brand.

How does losing his British media empire affect the rest of Murdoch's empire, including faux? Hard to tell at this point. While some may connect dots that say the same antics were used here, there's still no proof and Murdoch's holdings here are different than they are in the U.K. While Faux Noise is a propaganda outlet for the rushpublican party, the rest of the Murdoch media group tends to be apolitical...only focused on making money. A collapse of the Murdoch empire in Britain may have no affect at all on what happens here.

The fun will be when Rupert goes to that big country club in the sky and the family decides what's worth keeping and what's not.

[salin]

13. I would have agree with your assessment as recently as 3 days ago.

However, the speed with which this is unraveling - with tendrils going in umpteen different directions make this really hard to predict (per how limited the damage could be.) What snowballed as an ick factor reaction to revelations - and a clamoring by the public for more and more information (ironic - given that is one of the claimed causes of the bad behavior in the first place) quickly moved NoTW into toxicity - already spread to NewsInternational - and the "internal containment/investigation/spin" responsibility moved out of the UK to New York under Joel Kline (and Rupert).

There are fissures in the UK story appearing all over the place that are revolting and garnering great attention internationally. It has moved from an ick factor story of hacking - to series of corruptive actions that implicate the police and indeed the govt.

I think there is a long way to go before anything might touch US NewsCorp directly, aside of now likely losing the BSkyB deal. But unless Rupert keels - I think the fireworks starting some little explosions in US operations will happen before there is a family fight for control per Rupert's passing.

I am finding this unraveling very interesting (and somewhat, I have to admit, morbidly entertaining.)

BTW, always nice to see you!

[KharmaTrain]

14. Truly Morbidly Fascinating...

Always good to see you...I do more lurking than posting around here these days.

The situation has really become fluid so it's hard to say what affect it will have here. I prefer a drip, drip, drip situation that eats away at the company's resources and "goodwill" and erodes both its financial power and ability to liquidate. For those who think this could be the beginning of the end of Faux noise, I see some rich right wing mogul (Kochs) who would buy the network just to keep it as a functionary of the GOTB. Just like the Moonie Times, it would be a loss leader for another billionaire who would use it to continue to polute the body politic.

The hacking side of this story is interesting but remember this is a country where at least 1/3rd of the populace favors the government tapping our private conversations and where little outrage happens when millions of accounts are hacked or compromised and personal data flies all over the innertoobs. Maybe if its found they had something to do with Caylee Anthony or rigged the voting on American Idol (ooops...they did that already) that there'd be a similar reaction in this country.

Cheers...

[spanone]

12. murdoch's money will insulate him completely