In less than a week the News of the World Wiretapping and Bribery Scandal has quickly metastasized into a Multi-Headed Dragon of Death for Murdoch Empire and simply lopping off one head, doesn't seem to be enough - the infection has already spread.
Allegations that Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation bribed police officers and tapped phones, both abroad and potentially in the U.S., may violate U.S. law. ThinkProgress has drafted a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder and SEC Chair Mary L. Schapiro demanding a full and immediate investigation into any potential illegal acts by News Corporation and their subsidiaries.
And Thinkprogress isn't alone - Sen Jay Rockefeller has also asked the Justice Deptartment to look into this:
This evening, Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) expressed his concern that the “admitted phone hacking in London by the News Corp. may have extended to 9/11 victims or other Americans.” Rockefeller is the first senator to suggest that American authorities investigate the scandal. Although Rockefeller stopped short of calling for a congressional investigation, he did voice his support for “appropriate agencies” to look into the illicit tactics of Rupert Murdoch’s company.
Further:
Much more importantly, the facts already pretty well established in Britain indicate violations of American law, in particular a law called the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The Justice Department has been going out of its way to undertake FCPA prosecutions and investigations in recent years, and the News Corp. case presents a pretty simple test for Attorney General Eric Holder: If the department fails to open an immediate investigation into News Corp.’s violations of the FCPA, there will have been a major breach of enforcement at Justice.
On top of this News Corps own share holders have sued them for mismanagement and nepotism.
(Reuters) - The board of News Corp (NWSA.O) has been sued by shareholders for agreeing to buy a business owned by Chairman Rupert Murdoch's daughter for about $675 million, according to a lawsuit filed on Wednesday.
A trustee for several retirement funds said the board of News Corp approved the "unfairly" priced deal without questioning or challenging the elder Murdoch, who founded the company and is also chief executive.
Another set of share-holders have also sued them over the Hacking Scandal Itself!
NEW YORK (AP) — A group of News Corp. shareholders has sued the media conglomerate over a phone-hacking scandal at its now-closed News of the World tabloid in London.
The lawsuit accuses News Corp. (NWS) of large-scale governance failures surrounding the British hacking case. News of the World employees have been accused of hacking into the phone of a missing 13-year-old girl, who was later found murdered, as well as those of other crime victims.
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The lawsuit is part of an amended complaint that was filed this year. The shareholders are also challenging News Corp.'s acquisition of Shine Group, founded by the daughter of News Corp. Chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch. The suit says that Rupert Murdoch "habitually uses News Corp to enrich himself and his family members at the company's and its public shareholders' expense."
Here Keith asks John Dean "How Much Like Watergate is this"?
A question that is hard to ignore after top execs at News of the World deleted millions of emails.
Police are investigating evidence that a News International executive may have deleted millions of emails from an internal archive in an apparent attempt to obstruct Scotland Yard's inquiry into the phone-hacking scandal.
The archive is believed to have reached back to January 2005, revealing daily contact between News of the World editors, reporters and outsiders, including private investigators. The messages are potentially highly valuable both for the police and for the numerous public figures who are suing News International (NI).
If some still thought this scandal would stop at the water's edge of the Atlantic, well - that hope has already been dashed.
The skeletons in the closet of the now defunct News of the World just keep escaping. The Daily Mirror is reporting that staffers for the paper contacted a New York police officer about hacking into the phones of 9/11 victims. The report in the Monday edition says a source told the Mirror that staffers from News of the World contacted a former New York police officer, now a private investigator, and asked him to attempt to hack into the phones of British victims to retrieve information on outgoing and incoming calls from the days before the attack that could help hack into the victims' voice mail accounts.
As we look at this behavior we have to recognize that much of this isn't legitimate journalism, what it really is - is counter-intelligence gathering. Digging up dirt on celebrities is one thing, but doing the same thing with former Prime Minister Gordan Brown as to whether his son had Cystic Fibrosis by using phone hacking - then blackmailing him goes much further.
A report in the British press indicates, News Corp. chairman, Rupert Murdoch, illegally wiretapped and hacked, former Prime Minister, Gordon Brown and used the unlawfully obtained items to blackmail him. Not only is Murdoch being accused of blackmail, it is also being stated he used derogatory information gleamed during the illegal spying, to negotiate a better tax rate for News Corp. and its subsidiaries.
Murdoch doesn't really make all that much money on his media ventures, but what he does get is information that he can use to threaten, bribe and control the public policy debate to make his other businesses more profitable.
Blackmail is how they operate, as Keith explains.
So they got a hold of private health information about Keith, then turned around and used that information to threaten him and shove him off the air by attempting to make his health situation even worse.
Olbermann: I took the deal, I had no choice they were blackmailing me about my health. At Fox BlackMail works. And that's the way it works. Lord only knows, it worked so well on someone with resources and a high profile like mine, how often was it used against lesser figures in the company?
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When the worm turns and the truth bursts from around the edges like ten title waves at once, as it has at News of the World, and The Sun, and Times at London, it will all come out at once. And when the water recedes there will be nothing left. Not a News Corp, not a Fox News. Not a Rupert Murdoch. All of those bailing out now while the water is only waist high, start talking only the first 500 Whistle-blowers will be served
As if to prove Keith's point from last night that Murdoch's Empire appears to be coming apart at the seems. Murdoch attempted to amputate the infected media limb by shutting down News of the World - but that didn't work. They've dropped their bid to buy BSkyB, and now they're attempting to sell their entire British Division News International - but haven't found any takers.
With the current head of the Murdoch's Wall Street Journal caught directly in this scandal - it won't be long before they start shedding those assets as well, and yes, Fox News too - as it's been obvious for a long time they are a Criminal Enterprise just like the rest of his media empire. Possibly one of the worst since Murdoch didn't buy them as an existing enterprise - He built it from the Ground Up, which means the rot has always been part of it's core.
It's only a matter of time now.
Vyan