The British Watergate: A Backgrounder on the Murdoch Hacking ScandalThe London-based journalist Richard Gizbert, host of the Al Jazeera program The Listening Post, chronicles how the Murdoch phone-hacking scandal has shaken the British government, media system and public. A must-watch interview on how the scandal has unfolded and what it means for people in the United States.Amy Goodman - DemocracyNow
July 21, 2011
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AMY GOODMAN: So, it’s great to have you on this side of the pond talking about what’s going on over there, talking about the biggest story in Britain right now. And it is the—well, who knows what it’s going to mean for the Murdoch empire? But the British empire is also reeling. Tell us the significance of this story. Give us the media landscape in Britain.
RICHARD GIZBERT: Well, I think—I think when all is said and done, if this story is fully investigated—and I think that’s a very big "if" because there are a lot of powerful people who have got reason not to want to see this thing investigated—I think if you take it and compare it to Watergate in the U.S.—granted, London is not Washington, but Watergate—I think this is bigger in the U.K. than Watergate ever was in the U.S., if it’s fully investigated. And the reason I say that is that Watergate—Woodward and Bernstein and Bradlee took down an administration, and some people went with that administration—Haldeman, Ehrlichman, Mitchell, those people. But then the Ford administration came in, and a lot of the cabinet members stayed the same. So there was a change at the very, very top and amongst some cabinet members, but apart from that, it was business as usual in Washington, a slight change of culture.
If this thing is fully investigated, I think what we will see is that Nick Davies, the lead reporter on this for _The Guardian, Alan Rusbridger, who is the Ben Bradlee in this story, is the editor of The Guardian, I think there’s a real possibility that they can significantly reshape the British political establishment as it has existed over the last quarter-century—the relationship between News Corp., Murdoch, that runs through Thatcher, Major, Blair, Brown and now Cameron, with implications for Parliament, because parliamentarians were afraid to ask about this because they fear the investigative powers of News Corp., with investigations for the cabinet—with implications for the cabinet, and also with implications, significant implications, for British policing, and, by extension, the justice system. I think it’s a mega-story. It is difficult to overstate the implications.
And This...
AMY GOODMAN: She (Rebekah Brooks) claimed she heard about it just a few weeks ago.
RICHARD GIZBERT: Again, the News International version of this story has been what the British call a "moveable feast." They’re all over the shop, insofar as what they knew and when they knew it. But Rebekah Brooks, a couple of years ago, was asked at a party by somebody, "Where does this phone-hacking story end?" And she said, "This story will end with Alan Rusbridger, the editor of The Guardian, on his knees in front of me, begging for mercy." It hasn’t worked out that way. But she’s an interesting figure, and a lot of people felt that the Murdochs held onto her too long. The feeling was that they needed a human shield between the story and James Murdoch, and obviously the story and Rupert Murdoch. Eventually, they ended up letting her go.
Plus THIS BOMBSHELL:
AMY GOODMAN: Were they afraid?
RICHARD GIZBERT: They were absolutely afraid. Tony Blair—you’ve got to remember, Amy, in 1993, John Major won the election. Nobody thought he would. The polls showed that he would lose that election. The Sun supported him. All the Murdoch papers supported him. And The Sun had a famous headline that said, "It Was The Sun What Won It." In other words, it was The Sun that won it. Some people have disputed, that maybe The Sun was just marketing itself. But for a newspaper to claim that it can win a—that it can win an election for a politician is extraordinary.
And I’m not sure I believe it, but Tony Blair seemed to believe it, because two years later, he was on a plane to a News Corp. conference with two of his staff members, and he flew to Australia to meet with Rupert Murdoch. I mean, Rupert Murdoch did not come to London to meet with Tony Blair. Optics matter in these situations, right? He flies there. Two years later, Murdoch’s papers all support Tony Blair. Tony Blair becomes the first Labour leader elected since Thatcher. People sit in the U.K., and, to this day, they try to figure out, why did Tony Blair go to war in Iraq? Was it some quasi-religious thing as he was converting to Roman Catholicism? Was he dazzled by George Bush in Washington? Did he want to strategically link London and Washington for the next century as the new power axis? I don’t think it’s that complicated. Rupert Murdoch has 172 newspapers. They all supported the Iraq war. He has Fox News. That supported the Iraq war. And I just happen to think that Tony Blair, having been the first Labour prime minister elected in so long, didn’t want to go against Murdoch. I mean, that’s my theory. This investigation probably won’t reveal any of that. That’s just my feeling.
AMY GOODMAN: So you’re alleging he wasn’t actually George Bush’s poodle, but Rupert’s poodle?
RICHARD GIZBERT: I mean, I don’t think he ever flew that far to see George Bush. He just flew to Washington. That’s a seven-hour flight. He was on the plane for like 22 hours to go see Rupert Murdoch. And there’s a picture of Tony Blair that has him smiling that Cheshire Cat grin of his with The Sun in front of him, this newspaper, saying that it supports Labour. Job done by Tony Blair. And, I mean, I don’t think it’s a stretch to put a lot of this war and the decision to go to war, you know, not necessarily on the Murdochs, but the Murdochs are not far from the reason why.
Link (w/audio/Video/Transcript):
http://www.democracynow.org/blog/2011/7/21/the_british_watergate_a_backgrounder_on_the_murdoch_hacking_scandalPlus:
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/7/21/murdoch_empire_pummelled_by_phone_hackingAnd:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/interactive/2011/jul/21/phone-hacking-what-happened-when:wow:
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