Comments on: Brand and crisis management, Murdoch style

By: RalfW

RalfW — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 13:35:24 +0000

I wouldn’t mind terribly if this BSkyB obfuscation and flimflammery brought down both Murdoch and Cameron. They’re in cahoots as it is.

By: Krisp

Krisp — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 09:59:40 +0000

In a highly conspiratorial world maybe the whole saga has been carefully engineered over a long, long time by a group/cabal who would see real business and media control gains in bringing down Rupert Murdoch and his business empire and picking over the pieces.

Glasses maybe clinking over the weekend in the Far East, Europe, the US and – heaven forbid – some quiet and highly discrete corner of Whitehall. Where lies the truth.

By: DrFuManchu

DrFuManchu — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 09:51:18 +0000

Felix, I think you have misread what Murdoch is doing. This is primarily an opportunity for News International to make some very, very large payouts to people who have information that News International would rather not see come to light, and do so in a way that does not look like hush money.

By: johnband

johnband — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 07:59:57 +0000

I suspect some of the reason for Murdoch Sr’s loyalty to Brooks is to protect James. If Brooks ends up sacked, then that’s an admission not only of her wrongdoing, but – given James’s role as her direct boss for the last four years of cover-up, obfuscation and outright lying about reports of the hacking scandal – an indicator that James is also either dishonest or not up to the job. Which kills the Murdoch dynasty, with neither Lachlan nor Elisabeth having anything like the required experience to take over from Dad.

By: TinyTim1

TinyTim1 — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 07:54:55 +0000

While it might cost him nine figures to relaunch News of the Sun, he could save ten figures on the cost of Sky…

I want to know if Cameron’s links to Rebekah Wade/Coulson/Murdochs etc… take him down too.

By: whocaresnow

whocaresnow — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 06:26:14 +0000

people will always want bread and games….
At the end as people will buy this stuff others will make it!

By: ottorock

ottorock — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 04:25:56 +0000

So nice to see the word ‘redound’ in a blog post.

By: Margot3

Margot3 — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 03:43:49 +0000

I agree with jomiku’s post. Murdoch tends to be in control of his empire, he encourages the way they operate.

I also strongly disagree that the now unemployed NOTW journalists are the “innocent victims” in the story! What a ridiculous and offensive thing to say in light of the real victims of the CRIMES committed by their paper. Were they involved in these crimes? No. Did they work for a shady joke of a paper known around the world for exploiting people, publishing utter rubbish and lies and infringing on human rights? Hell yes.
They have even come out in support of the senior staff responsible for the mess they’re in. They deserve every bit of it. No self-respecting journalist would have worked for NOTW in the first place.

My sympathy will remain with the victims of these hacks. This is what the UK gets for constantly feeding this reckless tabloid culture. Others take note, it’s time for serious media reforms. Powerful people need oversight and accountability – this includes all forms of media. Don’t let them hide their dodgy activities behind freedom of speech and freedom of the press

By: jomiku

jomiku — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 02:16:24 +0000

I don’t agree with much of the start of your story. You assume something: that Murdoch and his top people didn’t know or at least weren’t really involved in this stuff. Why believe that? This behavior gave them a competitive advantage. They continued to do it because they didn’t want to give up this advantage. I’d say odds are Murdoch and his top people placed a bet that this would blow over, that really awful stuff wouldn’t come out, and they did this for the age old reason: money. NOTW has big numbers.

Note the Irish edition of NOTW was doing the same thing. This is from the same Paul McMullan in the Hugh Grant clip you link to. This says to me one thing: this was how NOTW operated and that means it chose to operate that way. That implicates Murdoch and all his top people because no entire newspaper enterprise, especially one within the Murdoch brand, would run off on its own like that.

This then is why he shut the paper, not only because it was tainted as a brand but to try to draw a line between it and himself and the other senior people and the rest of his media empire.

By: gileschimp

gileschimp — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 02:03:25 +0000

Shut them all down. Wade should stand up and speak for her self, it would do her some good beacause frankly she’s looking like an arsehole in the present situation. A public enquiry must be made and it should be whiter than white… It couldn’t be worse but of course we the public like a bit of gossip… we’ve funded these rags for decades and now we learn the cost of that. The police are in on the whole scandal too? Shock! Well lets clean those grubby bastards up too.