Welcome To Zelo Street!

This is a blog of liberal stance and independent mind

Tuesday 29 December 2015

Broadcaster Calls Out Murdoch

After the twinkle-toed yet domestically combative Rebekah Brooks was reinstated as CEO of the Murdoch empire’s UK print and online operation, and faithful retainer Trevor Kavanagh was gifted a seat on the board of alleged press regulator IPSO, it was obvious to all that not only was Rupert Murdoch unaffected by the furore over phone hacking, he wanted to make sure we could all see him giving us the finger.
That's what I think of youse Al bladdy Jazeera bladdy investigation, ya bladdy Pommie drongoes!

There would be no corporate charges over all that less than totally principled behaviour that saw some of his senior staff spend time at one of those exclusive hotels run for the pleasure of Her Majesty, there was now a majority Conservative Government in place, the hated BBC was having cuts imposed on its budget, Channel 4 was threatened with being sold off, and ITV faced falling advertising revenues. And that meant one thing.

The broadcasters would be going relatively easy on Don Rupioni and his fellow Mafiosi for the foreseeable future - or so they thought. Fortunately, just across the way from the Baby Shard bunker, which is now officially called The News Building - an oxymoron to savour - the people at al-Jazeera looked at these goings-on from their vantage point in The Shard and decided that they would say something about it.

The result was an item in the Listening Post strand, which you can view HERE. The meetings between George Osborne and Rupert Murdoch prior to the BBC being effectively forced to perform budget cuts are discussed, as is the appointment of Kavanagh to the board of IPSO. There is also some mention of the Murdoch press managing to forget that the country’s biggest broadcaster by revenue is Sky - not the Beeb.

Here is the promo blurb: “Concerns are growing that the UK's Conservative government is trying to reshape and influence Britain's media landscape as it continues to befriend media mogul Rupert Murdoch's empire … Shortly after David Cameron's outright election victory in May, his government announced a review of finances at the BBC, an organisation some Conservatives had denounced for harbouring a liberal agenda, slashing one-fifth of the publicly owned broadcaster's annual budget”. There is more.

Just weeks before making that announcement, Rupert Murdoch - a long-time critic of the BBC and owner of News Corp, which includes pro-Tory newspapers The Sun and The Times as well as SKY TV - met senior members of the government twice”.

There was a scrupulous balance in talking heads: two of the four you see making their case are Matt Tee, CEO of IPSO, and Charlie Beckett of the LSE, who is not averse to the idea of what he calls “reform” at the BBC. Giving the counter argument are Natalie Fenton, who is a director of campaigning group Hacked Off, and another bloke called Fenton, who is, says he performing full disclosure, me.

This edition of Listening Post is worth watching not because I happen to be on it, but because there are too few broadcast voices speaking up against the machinations of the Murdoch empire. Here’s hoping the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 follow up on the subject.

10 comments:

Mr Kemp said...

Things were starting to get very rough in our marriage so......

I just got outta there!

Anonymous said...

Congratulations, Tim, on your restrained language on this subject.

However, as a private citizen with an individual opinion, I don't need to hold back.

Murdoch and his employees (existing and former), the tories and IPSO, together constitute the well nigh perfect example of why this country has become as corrupt, fucked up and mobbed up as the USA. This is merely the latest stop on the road to a neofascist/organised crime government of organised hypocrisy and theft. Until they are cleaned up and cleaned out the stench will hang in the air everywhere.

Watching that excuse-ridden IPSO puppet spout the usual cockney barrow boy shite - especially the bit about equal exposure of a "correction" - tells you all you need to know. What a gang of tenth rate cowards they all are!

Congratulations too to Al Jazeera for a straightforward journalist job well done. They and RT are the ironic exposers of all that is rotten in the Disunited Kingdom, its disgusting Parliament of Scoundrels and yellow media.

Brit mainstream media hacks of course will go nowhere near the story. They're too busy gibbering in fear inside the protection racket. Which is why they are loathed by everyone with a sense of common decency.

So well in, Tim. Once again a breath of fresh air.

SteveB said...

Slightly off topic, but nice to see that Leeds Utd have locked Sky TV out of the ground today in protest at the way they are corrupting the game. Who would have thought it, Leeds Utd setting a moral standard for everyone else!

Anonymous said...

Unfortunately a bit premature. Cellini's Italian tanks now in reverse gear. No change there then.

Anonymous said...

^^^^^^^^^^^^^
That. Absolutely that. Agreed.

Sam Best said...

The Emperor of The Evil Empire will never be brought to account so hopefully age will do it. And I have never in my life wanted someone to drop off the twig but in his case I make an exception. It cannot come too soon and when he does the empire will disintegrate in the hands of his two idiot sons.

Anonymous said...

The bigger they are, the harder they fall.
He'll leave this world being known as one of the biggest bas***** that ever walked it.

Unfortunately for him.

Anonymous said...

Sam Best:

I wish this was true. Unfortunately his junior rats are even worse than him. Media and its hacks they own will get much, much worse as they get more and more desperate. As matters stand we are but a few steps away from openly proclaimed fascism and the demise of democracy.

If you think this an exaggeration check out junior rat James Murdoch speeches and verbal attacks. The fellow is a clear and present danger to society.

If democrats will not organise and oppose everything the Murdoch rat pack stands for, the only longer term hope is that the junior rats are so hopelessly inept even their Wall Street/Canary Wharf backers decide to dump them.

Tom Watson got it only partly right when in public he told Senior and Junior Rats they run a mafia organisation. The fact is they are worse than the mafia. Much, much worse. They represent everything evil in Western culture.

aidan said...

Hope that Fenton bloke you mentioned gets stuck in

Anonymous said...

Great piece from the States on Murdoch:

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/rupert-murdoch-is-deviant-scum-20151013