Rupert Murdoch Denies Reports He May Sell Newspapers

The Daily Telegraph and the Financial Times have reported that Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation is looking for ways to separate from its British newspapers in order to quarantine the phone-hacking and related scandals from the rest of the media conglomerate. But Murdoch is denying the claims.

The Guardian reports:

The Daily Telegraph and the Financial Times newspapers said executives at the company were looking into ways to split off the Sun, the Times and the Sunday Times, published by its News International unit.

However, Murdoch, the chief executive of News Corp, said in a statement: "News Corporation remains firmly committed to our publishing businesses, including News International, and any suggestion to the contrary is wholly inaccurate. Publishing is a core component of our future."

Murdoch's protege and former chief executive of News International was charged this week, along with several other News International personnel, with perverting the course of justice by conspiring to conceal evidence in the phone hacking scandal.

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patrick tolle commented 2012-05-20 16:41:17 -0400 · Flag

@ Mark Jeffries will confirm your analysis. Ask some Vietnam veteran about the Times since it was, and was perceived as, one of the major cheerleaders for that misfortune. I know several guys,myself included, otherwise liberal who developed a deep dislike for their editorial policy and overall reporting.

Mark Jeffries commented 2012-05-20 11:51:14 -0400 · Flag

@MIke: Not to defend Murdoch, but the Times is pretty much the same serious paper it’s always been—and it was conservative in a lower and upper-case sense long before Murdoch bought it. This isn’t an instance of turning a respectable liberal paper like the NY Post into a screaming tabloid (if anyone here still remembers what the Post was before Murdoch).

theMike 62 commented 2012-05-19 20:11:22 -0400 · Flag

one thing i’ve noticed about murdoch’s publications are all the “un-big” words they use and the unusual amount of oddly out of place comic characters that appear big enough to be used as a coloring book. but then i remember their target audience…

truman commented 2012-05-19 19:42:09 -0400 · Flag

Wrinkled Rupert: “News Corporation remains firmly committed to our publishing businesses…” Translation: I’m dumping these newspapers and terminating my employees as soon as I can find a suitable sucker.