American journalism to be saved from Rupert Murdoch by…Charles and David Koch?

No, not April Fool’s. Connor Simpson, The Atlantic Wire (via FAIR):

This could get very ugly, very fast. The Koch brothers are reportedly [by the LA Weekly] considering a bid for the Tribune Company newspapers — focusing on the crown jewels of the L.A. Times and Chicago Tribune, or at least what jewels of power are left in the flailing newspaper industry — but they may face stiff competition in the form of a debt-free, full pocketed media power player named Rupert Murdoch.
…
If the notoriously free-spending political heavyweights and brothers in industry choose to go for the whole company — and, importantly, if their offer is taken seriously and ends up bailing out the papers — their purchase would also include 20 television stations along with the eight papers.

Simpson thinks the report is unlikely. What seems beyond doubt is that the LA Times and the Chicago Trib–and six other papers and 20 television stations–are going from being owned by reactionaries to being owned by delusionaries.

Everyone was doing it, but the boss didn’t know about it: Murdochgate continues

Josh Halliday, Lisa O’Carroll, Sandra Laville, and Mark Sweney, The Guardian:

The Sunday People editor, James Scott, has become the first serving newspaper editor arrested over alleged phone hacking, relating to his time at the Sunday Mirror a decade ago.

Scott was one of four former Sunday Mirror senior journalists arrested in dawn raids on Thursday on suspicion of conspiracy to intercept voicemail messages. Tina Weaver, the ex-Sunday Mirror editor who is seven months pregnant, was also arrested on Thursday morning.

The other two were Nick Buckley, the deputy Sunday People editor, and Mark Thomas, the former People editor, who also both formerly worked for the Sunday Mirror.

Murdochgate expands again

Lisa O’Carroll and Josh Halliday, The Guardian:

Six former News of the World journalists, two of whom now work for the Sun, have been arrested by Scotland Yard officers investigating a new line of inquiry in relation to phone hacking.

In a dramatic new twist to the phone-hacking scandal on Wednesday morning, the Metropolitan police said in a statement that it had identified a further suspected conspiracy to intercept voicemail messages by three men and three women that is alleged to have taken place between 2005 and 2006.
…
“Detectives on Operation Weeting have identified a further suspected conspiracy to intercept telephone voicemails by a number of employees who worked for the now defunct News of the World newspaper,” the Met said.

Unfortunately, Murdoch has managed so far to tourniquet off the British tabloid side of his empire, and continues to buy up American communications. He and James have so far escaped prosecution for what was pretty obviously a scheme ordered from on high. The only bright spot is that FOX News may have belatedly recognized that no one believes their political propaganda except the zombie right, which means that their audience is dying off.

Murdochgate grinds forward

Lisa O’Carroll, The Guardian:

News International has agreed to settle 130 civil damages claims for News of the World phone hacking with individuals including Cherie Blair, David Beckham’s father, and actor James Nesbitt, at a cost to the company expected to run into millions.

The publisher of the now-closed Sunday tabloid faces 167 phone-hacking damages claims filed by September from almost 180 individuals, after settling more than 50 earlier in 2012 from individuals including Lord Prescott, Jude Law and Sienna Miller.

“…expected to run into millions”

Oh the pity of it! The News of the World was a 130M pound (annually) business. Murdoch upends the lives of over a hundred people and he has to sacrifice perhaps 10% of the proceeds of one year?

Where is the deterrence in this?

Privatized presidency

It could have been so much fun. And now most of the media won’t even touch it.

Carl Bernstein, The Guardian:

So now we have it: what appears to be hard, irrefutable evidence of Rupert Murdoch’s ultimate and most audacious attempt – thwarted, thankfully, by circumstance – to hijack America’s democratic institutions on a scale equal to his success in kidnapping and corrupting the essential democratic institutions of Great Britain through money, influence and wholesale abuse of the privileges of a free press.

In the American instance, Murdoch’s goal seems to have been nothing less than using his media empire – notably Fox News – to stealthily recruit, bankroll and support the presidential candidacy of General David Petraeus in the 2012 election.
…
Fox News’ inventor and president, Roger Ailes, dispatched an emissary to Afghanistan to urge Petraeus to turn down President Obama’s expected offer to become CIA director and, instead, run for the Republican nomination for president, with promises of being bankrolled by Murdoch

Just imagine if the bio-bimbo story had emerged mid-campaign.

You can hear Kathleen MacFarland of FOX deliver the offer here:

“The big boss is bankrolling it. Roger’s going to run it. And the rest of us are going to be your in-house”

By the way, I predicted that the Republicans would run Petraeus. This shows how close I was.

We can do this: oppose Murdoch gaining more control over US media

The FCC thinks there isn’t any opposition to Murdoch taking over US media and turning it all into the cesspool FOX is.

Murdoch has asked the FCC to change its rules to permit him to take over the Chicago Trib and the LA Times.

The FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski is about to give Murdoch what he wants.

But he hasn’t heard from you.

Let him know what you think here.

(via Ritholtz)

Murdoch lieutenants hit with new charges

Vikram Dodd, The Guardian:

Prosecutors have announced new criminal charges against the former News International editors Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson, this time over alleged illegal payments to public officials.

The Crown Prosecution Service announced on Tuesday that four former News International employees, and a defence official alleged to have been paid £100,000 for information, should stand trial.
…
Also charged are …the Sun’s former chief reporter John Kay, and the Ministry of Defence official Bettina Jordan Barber, who is alleged to have been paid £100,000 over a seven-year period.
…
Coulson also faces trial in Scotland over claims he committed perjury in a libel trial, which he denies.

Good news in media!

This is sure to improve the quality and diversity in journalism.

Guardian:

Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation is looking to bid for the Los Angeles Times, the paper has reported, adding Murdoch is also interested in buying its stablemate the Chicago Tribune from their parent company, the Tribune Company.

The paper said a deal might require a waiver of federal laws that block ownership of newspapers and TV stations in the same market. Murdoch’s Fox network has stations in Los Angeles in Chicago. Tribune also has interests in television stations, some of which carry programming from News Corp’s TV channels or operate as Fox affiliates.

A bid for the LA Times alone could be worth as much as US$400m, the paper said.

I’m sure that a few strategic campaign donations can gain him the waivers. But I wish he’d finish paying his fines from the latest wiretapping/computer hacking episode before further degrading our media.

The price of her silence: Rebekah Brooks pay-out about $10M in Murdoch scandal

Dan Sabbagh and Patrick Wintour, The Guardian:

Rebekah Brooks received a payoff worth about £7m after resigning as chief executive of News International at the height of the Milly Dowler phone-hacking crisis in July 2011.

The exact figure has never been disclosed by the Murdoch company – whose parent News Corporation holds its annual meeting on Tuesday – but one source said they believed it was between £6m and £8m.

If she gets convicted of her role in phone/computer hacking and cover-up, she has to pay some of it back. You could call it incentive pay–for lying.

It’s a date! Murdoch phone hacking prosecutions

Lisa O’Carroll, The Guardian:

Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson have been told at the Old Bailey that they are not due to face a full trial until …. 9 September 2013 by Mr Justice Fulford, who is presiding over two batches of charges against them and 12 others.
…
Coulson, Brooks and six others have been charged with conspiring to hack phones.

Brooks is also charged with three counts of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.
…
Apart from Coulson and Brooks, the others facing phone-hacking-related charges are Edmondson, Weatherup, Thurlbeck, former News of the World managing editor Stuart Kuttner, ex-news editor Greg Miskiw and a private investigator, Glenn Mulcaire.

Kuttner faces three charges, while Miskiw faces 10 charges. Edmondson 12 charges, Thurlbeck eight and Weatherup eight.