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.