(Repeats analysis filed July 13)
* Three US senators call for investigation into News Corp
* Media pundits debate whether FCC license at risk
* Former Dow Jones stakeholder fears for WSJ reputation (Adds Christopher Bancroft comment) NEW YORK/WASHINGTON, July 13 (Reuters) - When Rupert Murdoch swooped in to buy the Wall Street Journal in 2007, it sparked fears that the venerable newspaper brand would suffer by being housed under the same roof as News Corp's (NWSA.O) tabloids. Those concerns have again arisen as the widening scandal over phone-hacking at Murdoch's British newspapers threatens to spill over to U.S. shores.
"I think the UK hacking scandal has the potential to damage the Wall Street Journal's reputation," said Jay Ottaway, whose family owned 6.2 percent of Wall Street Journal publisher Dow Jones & Co before it was sold to News Corp.
"However, I think it would be unfair since the quality of the people and reporting at the Wall Street Journal is much higher (than) at other News Corp newspapers and television properties," he told Reuters by email. The Ottaway family had voted against the sale of Dow Jones to Murdoch.
Beyond fears about contaminating the brand of one of the most-respected newspapers in the United States, the controversy could also taint Murdoch's broader media business in the United States, which ranges from print to television to films.
Three U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday urged the Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission to look into whether News Corp broke a U.S. law banning payment of bribes to foreign officials.
And some media pundits, including CourtTV founder Steve Brill, have raised questions over whether News Corp's U.S. broadcast license could be revoked, given that federal communications law requires owners of TV stations to be "of good character."
News Corp owns the Fox television stations and cable network Fox News.
Another former Dow Jones owner, Christopher Bancroft, has no regrets about selling the Journal to Murdoch.
The Bancrofts were one of the newspaper industry's most storied stewards until they sold Dow Jones for $5.6 billion to News Corp after an internal battle that pitted family members against one another.
"I have to thank Rupert for persisting and for buying the paper," said Bancroft. "The paper is still very, very good and it's growing...He hasn't sullied up the paper or changed it to the point that is unrecognizable and he's protected the franchise."
SMEARED REPUTATION
Analysts say it's too early to tell if there will be serious damage to Murdoch's U.S. business, but these calls raise the specter that his smeared reputation in Britain could have ramifications stateside.
"It wouldn't surprise me at all if others call for hearings and investigations, and perhaps they may even be held. There's going to be a lot of activity around this issue," said Jeffrey Silva, analyst with Medley Global Advisors.
"Because News Corp's Fox network is associated with the political right, any sort of revocation proceedings would be presented by Republicans as politically motivated and an attack on free speech," he said, noting the issue is particularly sensitive ahead of the 2012 U.S. presidential race as Democratic President Barack Obama seeks re-election.
"It will continue to be controversial and it will fuel existing partisan fire fights, but I don't think it will lead to revocation hearings. I don't think it will go that far," he said.
News Corp's British newspaper arm has been the focus of a widening investigation into phone-hacking that has roiled the British political establishment.
The scandal began at the 168-year-old News of the World, which News Corp shuttered on Sunday, after allegations that it bribed police officers for information and its journalists hacked into the voicemail of thousands of people, including a murdered teenage girl and families of British soldiers killed in combat.
News Corp on Wednesday pulled its bid to buy the 61 percent of British broadcaster BSkyB (BSY.L) it didn't already own, as outrage grew. [ID:nLDE76B1RA] On Tuesday Sen. John D. Rockefeller called for an investigation of News Corp. He said that he was concerned that "the admitted phone hacking" may have extended to 9/11 victims or other Americans.
Senators Barbara Boxer and Frank Lautenberg joined in the call for an investigation of News Corp.
"The reported allegations against News Corporation are very serious and indicate potentially thousands of victims and a pattern of illegal activity," Rockefeller and Boxer wrote in a letter to the Justice Department and SEC.[ID:nN1E76C1L9]
News Corp and Dow Jones declined to comment.
Analysts said the U.S. Federal Communications Commission was unlikely to revoke News Corp's licenses for now.
"It's possible that more facts could surface. For example, someone could bring a complaint to the FCC that News Corp management knew about the campaign, but even so, it would likely just be a sideshow," said Rebecca Arbogast, analyst with Stifel Nicolaus and a former division chief at the FCC.
Arbogast said the standard for revoking a license on character grounds is high and rarely invoked. "There's no precedent whether a British conviction would count."
TARRED WITH THE SAME BRUSH?
Most of the spotlight has been on Rebekah Brooks, who was editor of News of the World between 2000 and 2003, when some of the most high-profile hacking occurred.
While some companies are contemplating pulling advertising from Murdoch's British papers, there is little proof that they are doing the same in the United States. The Wall Street Journal is the top U.S. paper by circulation and one of the most respected.
But attention is now turning to Les Hinton, who headed up Murdoch's British newspapers during the scandal, and is now chief executive of Dow Jones. [ID:nL6E7I909A]
"How could it not be a concern?" asked Doug Arthur, a long time newspaper analyst now with Evercore Partners, about the potential impact to the Wall Street Journal brand.
"I think the benefit of the Journal is it's above the fray. It's carved out such a strong reputation for so long," he said, but added, "You cannot completely separate it from the muck." (Reporting by Jennifer Saba and Jasmin Melvin; Editing by Tiffany Wu)
Rupert Murdoch, Bilderbergs, Council on Foreign Relations, Seizing The World!
How do I begin a post that can include seemingly limitless resources of information?
You may say that this is a continuation of the post I wrote earlier this week about the North American Union, globalization of government, and the New World Order theories.
Do you know who Rupert Murdoch is? If not, you need to do your
homework because he is THE major force in globalizing the media sources you and I enjoy.
That's right GLOBALIZATION of media.
A little about Rupert Murdoch
"Murdoch bought the New York Post in 1976, making that paper famous for its salacious coverage of grisly crime. Murdoch decided to move into television, but US law mandated that only Americans could own US television stations; thus he was naturalized in 1985, and in 1986
purchasedJohn Kluge's Metromedia, using it to start America's fourth television
network, Fox Broadcasting. In 1996 he started the Fox News Channel, delivering a staunchly conservative perspective on the news, as overseen by former Republican campaign wizard Roger Ailes. Murdoch's British papers solidly backed
Margaret Thatcher, John Major, and
Tony Blair, and his American mouthpieces have vocally backed Republicans since Ronald Reagan.
During the 2002 and 2003 build-up to the invasion of Iraq, all of Murdoch's 175 newspapers editorialized for war."
"His companies' labor relations have sometimes been brutal, especially in England, where he led the industry in modernizing the printing process, laying off thousands of workers in the process. In 1999, The Economist
reported that despite billions in profits,
News Corporation had paid no corporate taxes for more than a decade, thanks to its complex international structure and the extensive use of offshore tax havens. In 2004, Murdoch purchased a penthouse condominium in New York City for $44-million. His net worth is estimated at about $7-billion."
GLOBALIZATION seems to be his goal...
Murdoch's Financial Media Assault
"...part of Murdoch's ambitions to build a global financial media powerhouse in print, the Internet and TV."
Investigation Into Murdoch's Operations
"investigation of Murdoch's operations in Australia, Britain, the USA and the Chinese People's Republic, amounts to this: as an international operator, Murdoch offers his target governments a privatized version of a state propaganda service, manipulated without scruple and with no regard for truth. His price takes the form of vast government favors such as tax breaks, regulatory relief, monopoly markets and so forth. The propaganda is undertaken with the utmost cynicism, whether it's the stentorian fake populism and soft porn in the UK's Sun and News of the World, or shameless bootlicking of the butchers of Tiananmen Square."
Not only does media globalization seem to be his goal, but he has aligned himself with powerful players in major areas of world domination or a New World Order.
He is a reported member of the CFR...
Murdoch & CFR
"The most powerful clique in these elitist groups have one objective in common – they want to bring about the surrender of the sovereignty of the national independence of the United States. A second clique of international members in the CFR comprises the Wall Street international bankers and their key agents. Primarily, they want the world-banking monopoly from whatever power ends up in the control of global government.
"Former Congressman John R. Rarick warned:
"The CFR, dedicated to one-world government, financed by a number of the largest tax-exempt foundations, and wielding such power and influence over our lives in the areas of finance, business, labor,
military, education and mass communication media, should be familiar to every American concerned with good government and with preserving and defending the U.S. Constitution and our free-enterprise system. Yet, the nation's right to know machinery – the news media – usually so aggressive in exposures to inform our people, remain conspicuously silent when it comes to the CFR, its members and their activities.
"The CFR is the establishment. Not only does it have influence and power in key decision-making
positions at the
highest levels of government to
apply pressure from above, but it also finances and uses individuals and groups to bring pressure from below, to justify the high-level decisions for converting the United States from a sovereign constitutional republic into a servile member of a one-world dictatorship.
"Who are some of the
past and present members of this anti-American operation? Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell, Donald Rumsfeld, Porter Goss, Alan Greenspan, John Bolton, Paul Wolfowitz, Gen. Richard B. Myers, Henry Hyde, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, George Bush Sr., Sandra Day O'Connor, George Soros, Christopher Dodd, Diane Feinstein, Gerald Ford, Bill Frist, Newt Gingrich, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Katherine Harris, Teresa Heinz, Antonia Hernandez – President of Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Gen. John P. Jumper – current Air Force chief of staff, Joseph Lieberman, John McCain,
Rupert Murdock, David Rockefeller, Diane Sawyer and Tony Snow."
Additionally, he has affiliations with the Bilderberg Group. What is the Bilderberg Group?
Bilderberg Group
"The Bilderberg Group or Bilderberg conference is an unofficial annual invitation-only conference of around 130 guests, most of whom are persons of influence in the fields of business, media and politics."
"The original intention of the Bilderberg Group was to further the understanding between Western Europe and North America through informal meetings between powerful individuals. Each year, a "steering committee" devises a selected invitation list with a maximum of 100 names.
Invitations are extended only to residents of Europe and North America. The location of their annual meeting is not secret, but the public and press are strictly kept at distance by police force and private security guards so the group can work their agenda. The contents of the meetings are kept secret and attendees pledge not to divulge what was discussed. The group's stated justification for secrecy is that it enables people to speak freely without the need to carefully consider how every word might be interpreted by the mass media."
Bilderberg Attendees
Notice that Rupert Murdock is among the list of Bilderberg attendees.
If belonging or associating with these organizations is not enough to convince you that he means to dominate the world media and means to cultivate world views, the following may help you understand this further...
Murdock Admits He Tried to Shape Public Opinion on Iraq
Must Watch The Video!
More Murdoch
Rupert Murdoch is supporting the Clinton campaign.
Rupert Murdoch is a major supporter of Iraq.
Rupert Murdoch Loves Hillary Clinton
"Conservative media mogul Rupert Murdoch will host a fundraiser for liberal New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, the Financial Times reports."
Well, he has recently made a new acquisition...
Rupert Murdock, Wall Street Journal Takeover
"NEW YORK – Rupert Murdoch completed his $5 billion-plus deal to acquire Dow Jones & Co. Thursday, adding The Wall Street Journal to his global media conglomerate News Corp. and ending a century of control by the Bancroft family."
"The deal places Dow Jones into the fold of News Corp., which also owns the Fox broadcastnetwork, Twentieth Century Fox, Fox News Channel,
satellite TV businesses in Europe and Asia, MySpace, the New York Post, as well as a large group of newspapers in Murdoch’s native Australia."
This is someone we all must stay aware of.
Additionally, regarding mainstream media...they only give you the information they are told to give. The trust is disappearing quickly regarding the actual facts-vs-fiction covered on the news regarding topics, even as broad as Iraq. At this point, I'm not a paranoid person, but who do you trust to give you the whole truth?...The only answer is to go through multiple resources and to KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN.
