One half of the Watergate investigators who hasn’t spent the last decades fawning before power, Carl Bernstein, writes in Newsweek that the current Murdoch controversy has historical reverberations: But now the empire is shaking, and there’s no telling when it will stop. My conversations with British journalists and politicians—all of them insistent on speaking anonymously…
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Strong reasons Murdoch should be shunned from decent society
One: Throughout his years in power, Blair had regular secret meetings with Murdoch, many abroad, and was in regular telephone contact. Price has gone as far as to claim that Murdoch “seemed like the 24th member of the cabinet”. Blair insisted no record was ever kept of the meetings or calls, so they were totally…
Rupert cares about family and power; ideology always comes second
Andreas Whittam Smith in the Independent reminds us what the Murdoch empire is really about: At its heart, News Corporation, for all its immense global interests, is a family company. The Murdochs may not control all the voting rights in the group, but they run it as if they did. It is not a place…
My Al Jazeera English interview on Murdoch’s excessive global power
As Rupert Murdoch’s empire faces unprecedented pressure in Britain over phone-hacking, criminality, ethical breaches and romancing of the political and media elites, it’s time to assess how one man and one family has amassed so much power in countless Western democracies. It should be challenged. Here’s my interview on Al Jazeera English yesterday:
Murdoch only powerful because our elites allowed themselves to be seduced
Handy reminder from the New York Times on the kind of political and media culture that exists in Britain (and Australia, too) that allows a war mongering media mogul to exercise so much power: When David Cameron became prime minister in May 2010, one of his first visitors at 10 Downing Street — within 24…