It may be one of the biggest American holidays today but something tells me naturalized American citizen Rupert Murdoch may not be in much of a celebratory mood. Besides reports that his soon-to-be ex-trophy wife Wendi Deng has moved on to her third meal ticket, now a secretly recorded meeting with employees caught up in the phone hacking scandal strongly hints that Murdoch’s hands in News Corporation's tabloid scandals are far dirtier than when he made himself out as the victim of wrongdoing by his underlings. (H/T David P. and Tony M.)
Back in March, Murdoch met with a group of employees of his British tabloid paper, The Sun. You may recall that The Sun is smack dab in the middle of the so-called phone hacking scandal, which also includes bribes to police and public officials, that has plagued News Corporation. According to the Guardian, those employees feel they’re paying the price for their employer’s wrongdoings and they’re mad as hell. In the meeting between them and Murdoch, somebody secretly recorded the proceedings and leaked the recording to the British investigative news site, Exaro.
Exaro’s transcript is behind a paywall but, fortunately for us, Gawker spent the money so we didn’t have to. The excerpts are eye-popping.
For one thing, Gawker notes:
The Sun staffers were irate over Murdoch’s decision to supply mass internal communications to the police “that had betrayed confidential sources, some of whom were public officials who received no payment for information,” reports ExaroNews.
The journalists felt that News Corp. had turned them into “scapegoats.”
According to the transcript, the employees relayed in heart-wrenching detail, the psychic and other costs of their participation in journalistic practices that they claim to have thought were standard and legal.
But here’s the kicker. While Murdoch played the victim, he also suggested that he knew all along what was going on. From Gawker again:
“I’m just as annoyed as you are at the police, and you’re directing it at me instead, but never mind,” Murdoch responded, with no small bit of sympathy for himself. From the transcript:
… I guarantee you that [medical support] will continue. And I will do everything in my power to give you total support, even if you’re convicted and get six months or whatever. I think it’s just outrageous, but—and I don’t know of anybody, or anything, that did anything that wasn’t being done across Fleet Street and wasn’t the culture. And we’re being picked on.
This, from the guy who claimed to be appalled and contrite and whose lieutenant son, James Murdoch, claimed to be hugely regretful over the company’s actions – that he had blamed subordinates for hiding from him.
But that may depend on what the definition of “hidden” is:
RM: We’re talking about payments for news tips from cops: that’s been going on a hundred years, absolutely. You didn’t instigate it....
I remember when I first bought the News of the World, the first day I went to the office… and there was a big wall-safe… And I said, “What’s that for?”
And they said, “We keep some cash in there.”
And I said, “What for?”
They said, “Well, sometimes the editor needs some on a Saturday night for powerful friends. And sometimes the chairman [the late Sir William Carr] is doing badly at the tables, (laughter) and he helps himself…”
But wait, there’s more. After standing by his father’s side during the scandal, it looks like James Murdoch is no longer the heir apparent. In the recordings, Murdoch says another son, Lachlan Murdoch, or chief executive Robert Thomson, will succeed him.
“…it’s clear that Wrinkled Rupert is an evil corrupt old man. After the Brits finish with him, the US DOJ should file foreign corrupt practices act charges.”
Hmmmmmmmmmm, if I’m not mistaken, if Herr Goebbels II (i.e. Murdoch) IS found guilty of these charges, he would lose his U.S. broadcasting licenses, would he not? But alas, I know very well that is a HUGE longshot, because let’s face the basic facts: Herr Goebbels II has PLENTY OF $$$$ to hire high-priced mouthpieces for a VERY LONG AND VERY EXPENSIVE court fight — and he KNOWS DAMN WELL he has a VERY SYMPATHETIC Supreme Court in his corner.
IS THE POPE CATHOLIC??
:^)
’Nuff said.