Tag Archives: rupert murdoch

Tim Farron MP writes… EU referendum: the Conservatives are not acting out of patriotism

By Tim Farron MP | Published 24th October 2011 - 12:53 pm

This is not likely to win me any votes, but I am proudly pro-Europe and in favour of our continued membership of the EU. That doesn’t make me an apologist for every aspect of the EU: the EU could definitely operate more transparently, efficiently and effectively, and we as Liberal Democrats should say so more often and with more conviction.

Nevertheless, our main challenge has to be to win hearts and minds in favour of our broader membership of the EU, and reverse the completely poisonous anti-European narrative. So many of those who were so indignant this summer about Mr Murdoch’s …

Posted in Europe / International, Op-eds | Also tagged av referendum, conservative party, referendum | 36 Comments

Murdoch faces rough ride from shareholders

By The Voice | Published 21st October 2011 - 8:17 pm

So reports the BBC:

Posted in News | Also tagged journalism | Leave a comment

Opinion: Do we really want to risk another media mogul running the country?

By John Roffey | Published 30th July 2011 - 1:21 pm

If there is one thing that the Murdoch affair has confirmed it is that politician’s lust for power knows no bounds. The acquisition of power has been likened to a heroin rush and judging by the extent that Blair, Brown and Cameron, particularly, have been prepared to jump to Murdoch’s commands – we must believe this to be true.

Although it is likely that an attempt to clean up politics will take place over the next few years, now that it has been made so clear that a media giant can have such an impact on the government of a nation …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged david cameron, gordon brown, referendum, tony blair | 27 Comments

LibLink | Vince Cable: My brush with the Murdochs – and the lessons I learned

By Helen Duffett | Published 24th July 2011 - 10:23 am

Business Secretary Vince Cable writes today at the Mail on Sunday on his own reaction to the “Murdoch mania” press coverage and his experiences of News International during his first year as a Cabinet Minister:

My own direct experience was as the Minister with responsibility for competition and takeovers.
I had to take a decision on whether to approve or refer the bid from News International to acquire the remaining (just over 60 per cent) shares in BSkyB that it did not already own.

My involvement started with a courtesy call from James Murdoch last summer telling me of the bid

…

Posted in LibLink | Also tagged news international, strictly come dancing, vince cable | Leave a comment

Opinion: A good/bad day for Parliament

By Paul Walter | Published 19th July 2011 - 7:19 pm

Some initial reflections on the Culture select committee hearing today:

Is this the most humble day of Rupert Murdoch’s life, as he claimed? I very much doubt it. I suspect the most humble day of his life will come when he is finally removed from his News Corp’s Chairman’s office, no doubt kicking and screaming, with his finger nails screeching along the expensive wallpaper.

One of most significant moments, for me, came when Rupert Murdoch was asked if he felt personally responsible for what went on at his company and he answered “No”.

That seemed very strange, for me. The normal answer is …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged culture select committee, news corporation, news of the world, rebekah brooks, wendi deng | 16 Comments

LibLink | Vince Cable: I declared war on Murdoch… now everyone agrees with me

By Helen Duffett | Published 16th July 2011 - 5:56 pm

Business Secretary Vince Cable has an interview in the Evening Standard, in which he discusses his declaration of “war” on Rupert Murdoch, his referral of the BSkyB takeover bid to Ofcom and Murdoch’s role in the phone hacking scandal:

…the Business Secretary also reveals for the first time that he considered resigning from Cabinet during the furore when he said he was “at war” with the media tycoon.

“I certainly felt rather low at the time because I was heavily criticised,” he said at the end of a week that has seen the tables comprehensively turned between the two men.

“And I

…

Posted in LibLink | Also tagged bskyb, ofcom, Phone hacking, vince cable | 26 Comments

So, Rebekah Brooks has finally resigned

By Richard Morris | Published 15th July 2011 - 10:53 am

This is obviously a good thing, and the right thing. Her position was untenable, and as I’ve blogged before – whether she knew what was going on in the newsroom when she was editor of the News of the World is irrelevant. She was in charge, and needed to take responsibility.

However, I can’t help but worry that this is a still all part of a bigger tactical game being played by News Corp. Wait til Friday to resign – fewer journalists working over the weekend, less time to make more of the story. Time it for the morning the …

Posted in News | Also tagged fbi, jean charles de menezes, metropolitan police, news corporation, rebekah brooks | 18 Comments

Hughes, Farron and Foster write to Rupert Murdoch – full text of letter

By Helen Duffett | Published 13th July 2011 - 6:53 am

Simon Hughes, Tim Farron and Don Foster have written to Rupert Murdoch about the proposed take-over of BSkyB by News International.

They ask Murdoch to respond to public opinion by changing his commercial strategy in the UK: withdrawing his News Corporation bid for BSkyB and concentrating all his efforts on cleaning up News International.

The letter in full:

Proposed take-over of BSkyB by News International

Ever since the report of our Information Commissioner ‘What Price Freedom?’ and the conviction and imprisonment of Goodman and Mulcaire in 2006, there has been growing concern about the policy and practices of UK newspaper titles owned

…

Posted in News | Also tagged don foster, gordon brown, james murdoch, news international, news of the world, simon hughes, the sun, the sunday times, tim farron | 3 Comments

Opinion: Liberal Democrats didn’t just avoid Murdoch, we tried to cut him down to size

By James Percival | Published 12th July 2011 - 1:53 pm

In my last post for Lib Dem Voice, I pointed out that Nick Clegg and the Lib Dems had never courted Murdoch and his cronies.

Actually, that was just the half of it.

We didn’t just avoid him. We have tried, in different ways over a number of years, to cut the media mogul down to size and clamp down on the sort of abhorrent media practices that have been exposed of late.

As far back as 1994, the year before Tony Blair chose to fly to Oz to lick Rupert Murdoch’s boots, we were calling for the OFT …

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged bskyb, communications bill, competition bill, ipcc, lord mcnally, press complaints commission, the times, tony blair, vince cable | 38 Comments

Clegg urges Murdoch to reconsider BSkyB bid

By Helen Duffett | Published 11th July 2011 - 2:08 pm

(Video also available on the BBC website here.)

Nick Clegg met this morning with the family of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler, whose voicemails were allegedly accessed by the News of the World. Immediately after this, he told the BBC:

Listening to Bob, Sally and Gemma Dowler, it reminds you that it’s innocent families like them who have paid a very heavy price for truly grotesque journalistic practices which are simply beneath contempt.

So we owe it to the Dowlers, and other innocent victims of

…

Posted in News | Also tagged bskyb, milly dowler, nick clegg | 16 Comments

In (partial) defence of Labour’s so-called ‘Lay Off Murdoch’ instruction to party’s MPs

By Stephen Tall | Published 10th July 2011 - 5:28 pm

‘Lay off Murdoch’ — that was the ever-so-quotable paraphrase that the New Statesman used to accompany this article by Dan Hodges, revealing how the Labour Party press team had issued a circular ‘to all shadow cabinet teams warns Labour spokespeople to avoid linking hacking with the BSkyB bid, to accept ministerial assurances that meetings with Rupert Murdoch are not influencing that process, and to ensure that complaints about tapping are made in a personal, not shadow ministerial, capacity.’

In reality, Labour’s communications chief Tom Baldwin — yes, himself a former Murdoch employee — did not use the phrase, ‘Lay off …

Posted in News | Also tagged ed miliband, labour party, les hinton, media, news international, rebekah brooks, tom baldwin | 13 Comments

The Lib Dems on ‘Hackgate’ and Murdoch: Ashdown, Huhne, Hughes, Farron, Oakeshott all join the fray

By Stephen Tall | Published 10th July 2011 - 4:25 pm

It’s been a frenzied week in British politics, with attention for once focused less on the mis-deeds of politicans than the criminality practised by many journalists, both at the News of the World and beyond. Here’s a brief round-up of what the Lib Dems have been saying…

BSkyB takeover: Lib Dems hint at backing Labour motion to delay deal (Guardian)

The Liberal Democrats have indicated they could back a Labour move in parliament to delay the Murdoch takeover of BSkyB until after the police investigations into phone hacking. …

[Simon] Hughes told Sky News: “We have to be careful and I would

…

Posted in News | Also tagged chris huhne, matthew oakeshott, media, news international, nick clegg, paddy ashdown, simon hughes, tim farron | 8 Comments

‘Yates of the Yard’ should have listened to Huhne on ‘Hackgate’

By Stephen Tall | Published 10th July 2011 - 12:05 pm

Today’s Telegraph carries an interview with the Metropolitan Police’s Assistant Commissioner John Yates with a full mea culpa for his failure to get to grips with British journalism’s criminal free-for-all. As the paper notes:

Mr Yates had the opportunity to reopen the case in 2009 but chose not to do so after just eight hours’ consideration, including consultations with other senior detectives and Crown Prosecution lawyers. … In his interview, Mr Yates addresses last week’s revelation that Glenn Mulcaire, a private investigator working for the News of the World, had allegedly hacked into teenage murder victim Milly Dowler’s mobile phone

…

Posted in News | Also tagged chris huhne, john yates, media, news international | 1 Comment

Ed’s learning: he’s done a Dave over Murdoch

By Stephen Tall | Published 10th July 2011 - 9:15 am

Credit where it’s due, fair’s fair, and well-played.

As Paul Walter noted here on LDV on Wednesday, Labour leader Ed Miliband is having a good war, sticking up for clear and proper principles — a judge-led public inquiry, referring News International’s BSkyB bid to the Competition Commission, and the public call for the resignation of Rebekah Brooks — that resound well with the public.

By contrast, David Cameron is on the back-foot over the unravelling scandal at News International, compromised both by having hired former News of the World editor Andy Coulson as his director of communciations (despite warnings), …

Posted in News | Also tagged david cameron, ed miliband, media, news international, rebekah brooks | 13 Comments

LDVideo: Vince and Shirley’s war on Murdoch, while Nick savages PCC as “busted flush”

By Stephen Tall | Published 9th July 2011 - 5:20 pm

There’s no doubt about the big story this week: Rupert Murdoch being forced to close the biggest-selling British newspaper in a brazen bid to ride out the illegal hacking story that threatens his media empire.

Vince Cable’s prophetic powers first came to prominence during the economic storm that came close to collapsing the banking system. Last December, he accidentally went on the record to make clear his wish to clip Rupert Murdoch’s wings. Ironically, it was the Telegraph’s widely condemned subterfuge which stopped Vince in his tracks, and prevented his ability to hold to account the company where illegal hacking was …

Posted in YouTube | Also tagged media, nick clegg, rebekah brooks, shirley williams, vince cable | 15 Comments

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