By Mark Langabeer, Newton Abbot Labour member
A dramatic new three-part series, televised by BBC 2 and narrated by Kate Fleetwood, looks at the rise and (relative) fall of Australian media mogul, Rupert Murdoch. “For over 40 years”, the BBC blurb points out, “no British Prime Minister has won an election without enjoying the support of Rupert Murdoch”.
Murdoch’s business empire spans the world and it is so big that he is even credited with having ‘revolutionised’ journalism, although some would doubt that it is ‘journalism’ at all. It has certainly been at the forefront in the introduction of new technology, at the cost of jobs, in the printing industry and in bringing in innovative means of dressing up propaganda, dross and pap as “news”. Murdoch’s TV stations and newspapers have been credited with helping Donald Trump become US President, helping to bring about Brexit and helping Boris Johnson into Downing Street.
Corrupt nature of press/police relationships
The programmes describe Murdoch’s family as a “dynasty”. There used to be a TV series called Dynasty, and as one critic said at the time, it ought to have been named Dysentery. I think Murdoch and his associates should be viewed in a similar vein.
One thing that is exposed in this Murdoch series is the corrupt nature of the relationship between newspaper proprietors, police chiefs and many leading political figures. Kate Fleetwood interviewed Nick Davies, a journalist for the Guardian, whose investigation into telephone hacking by Murdoch’s News of the World, brought this scandal to public attention.
Davies pointed out that the wedding of Rebecca Wade, then Chief Executive of Murdoch’s News Corporation which owned the News of the World, was attended by many well-known political leaders. The newly-weds were personal friends of Tory Leader, David Cameron and the then Prime Minister, Gordon Brown. Murdoch’s main daily paper in Britain was the Sun, with the largest circulation of any newspaper and political leaders running scared of criticism from that rag sought to get support from Murdoch.
Friend of Tony Blair
Murdoch historically has backed the Tories, and Thatcher in particular. But from 1997, he supported ‘New Labour’ and was a friend of Tony Blair, then in 2010, Murdoch went back to the Tories.
Murdoch’s sole interest throughout his career has been to build up his company and by using profits from the Sun, he sought and eventually gained control of B Sky B, the satellite broadcaster. Although he had 39% of the shares, he sought complete control, but needed support from Government for that to go ahead. If the sale of the whole company to Murdoch had gone through, he would have been the largest news broadcaster in the world. Davies made the point that if his exposure of telephone hacking achieved little else, it did prevent this take-over from happening.
Celebrities sued News Corp
Murdoch’s big mistake was to libel other wealthy people. Max Moseley, the head of Formula 1 and son of the British fascist, Oswald Moseley successfully sued News Corporation. Mosely was followed by many celebrities, costing Murdoch’s companies millions. Moseley even set aside £3 million for those who couldn’t afford to sue. John Prescott, the former Deputy Prime Minister during the Blair years, was one beneficiary of this ‘insurance policy’. Suing for libel is a rich person’s game, of course. Ironically, it was the Murdoch press that dubbed John Prescott, ‘Two Jags’, with the implication that he lived a high life; but compared to the likes of Murdoch and Moseley, Prescott was a pauper.
A decisive defeat for the Murdoch clan came through the revelation that News Corp journalists had tapped the phone of the murdered schoolgirl, Millie Dowler, leading her parents to believe, while Millie was only ‘missing’ that their daughter was still alive.
Outrage over phone-hacking
The public outrage over this phone-hacking led to the Leveson Inquiry, with even more revelations about the hacking of celebrity phones. It led to the jailing of some journalists, including the former editor of the News of the World, Andy Coulson, who had been at one time the Director of Communications for the Tory Party. There was a general feeling at the time, however, that Coulson was a willing scapegoat and that many other top News Corp figures had known about the practice of phone-hacking but subsequently escaped punishment. The actor Hugh Grant, for one, believed that many others, including Murdoch and his younger son, James, should have also been charged.
In the event, the News of the World, a Sunday tabloid, was closed down with the loss of 200 jobs, so all the blame was passed down the chain of command well away from the Murdoch family and their acolytes. By opening a new Sunday paper, the Sun on Sunday, Murdoch effectively reinstated the same tabloid, with the same gutter-journalism methods and ethics.
Leveson recommendations never implemented
The Leveson Inquiry in the end recommended that the press should be accountable to an independent regulator, but despite the outcry over hacking and the publicity given to this inquiry, it is a measure that has never been implemented. A subsequent investigation into journalists paying police for information was cancelled, so effectively the scandal has been brushed under the carpet. Not mentioned in this programme was the revelation that other tabloids were also hacking phones and were responsible for a variety of other illegal acts.
After Leveson, Murdoch was, for a time at least, no longer the darling of the political establishment and his ambition to be the biggest media mogul was blunted, at least in Britain. He is still a big player in the international scene, however, with newspapers, radio stations and TV channels pumping out his bile on a daily basis in many parts of the world. One of the most notorious is Fox News, the US station so much admired by Trump. Like most of the Murdoch outlets, Fox journalists and newscasters live in an alternative reality, never letting the truth stand in the way of a good story, as it broadcasts lies and disinformation on a daily basis.
Climate-change denier
The third programme highlights Murdoch’s support for the likes of Trump and Farage and his rehabilitation with a section of the Tory Party around its extreme right wing. This might well be his undoing because Murdoch, ever the opportunist, is standing on the wrong side of history. He is a climate change denier, is strongly anti-trade union and is naturally hostile to socialism or any hint or radicalism. He, along with the other handful of billionaire media moguls, vilified Corbyn relentlessly because under his leadership Labour represented a threat to the power and privileges of the billionaire-class. Even Tom Watson described the Murdoch organisation as something which has similarities to the Mafia.
According to Forbes, Murdoch is still the 34th richest person in the US and the 96th richest in the world, with a net worth of US$13.1 billion as of February 2017. The BBC programme makers describe the rise and fall of Murdoch, but his demise, unfortunately, still seems a long way off. Yet in the present political climate, many workers and young people are waking up to the reality of an economic system rigged against ordinary people, and they are more willing than ever to question the garbage dished out in daily newspapers like Murdoch’s. Whole groups of workers – the city of Liverpool being the notable example – have very effectively boycotted the Sun. We can only hope that this is a trend that continues.
August 6, 2020
