James Murdoch to be Called out by News of the World Attorney?

Earlier this month, when James Murdoch sat in front of Parliament to explain what he knew and when he knew it, the predictable defense ensued. Appearing very contrite, the younger Murdoch explained that at his level in Newscorp, he simply didn't know about what was going on under his nose. He sought plausible deniability and some may have been inclined to give it to him. That number may be on its way toward a sharp decrease if what former attorney for News of the World, Tom Crone says is true.

Via WSJ:

LONDON—Tom Crone had insight into how the dirt was dug—and defended—at the News of the World, the now-closed tabloid at the center of the U.K. phone-hacking scandal.

Now he may be on a collision course with James Murdoch, the deputy chief operating officer of News Corp.

Mr. Crone, who was the top lawyer at the tabloid, joined forces last week with its former editor, Colin Myler, to challenge the testimony Mr. Murdoch gave at a parliamentary committee hearing two days earlier.

The two men said that in 2008 they had informed Mr. Murdoch—who was then overseeing News Corp.'s European and Asian operations—of a key 2005 email that suggests that interceptions of voice mails at the paper went beyond a single reporter and a private investigator.

Mr. Murdoch, who is News Corp.'s deputy chief operating officer, said last week he first saw evidence of that in late 2010.

Mr. Crone served for more than 25 years as a lawyer for the News of the World and its sister paper the Sun, earning a reputation as a shrewd hand in defending the racy British tabloids.

As the paper's in-house lawyer, he met with the News of the World editor on close to a daily basis, regularly attended editorial meetings and would typically read controversial stories before they ran, a person familiar with the matter said.

"Tom would be at the center of a lot of matters, the equivalent of a cabinet secretary," said Graham Shear, a partner at law firm Berwin Leighton Paisner LLP, who often faced off against Mr. Crone in legal disputes.

News Corp. also owns The Wall Street Journal.

Mr. Crone, who left the company earlier this month when the News of the World was shut down, didn't respond to requests for comment.

A stickling point for James in this scandal has been his signature on checks that, in effect, bought the silence of those who knew of NOTW's wrongdoing.

The dispute over how early Mr. Murdoch knew about the email could boil down to what was said in the spring of 2008, when Mr. Murdoch met with Messrs. Crone and Myler to discuss settling a suit filed by Gordon Taylor, former head of a U.K. soccer union. According to a person within News Corp., the discussion occurred in a single meeting that lasted less than 30 minutes, where no minutes were taken, and the company has found no documents exchanged with Mr. Murdoch related to the meeting's discussion.

The 2005 email contains transcripts of more than 30 voice-mail messages related to Mr. Taylor. The email—sent from a junior News of the World reporter to a private investigator, mentioning a senior reporter in the text—suggests that two tabloid employees other than the one who had been convicted in 2006 for phone hacking knew about the tactic. Mr. Murdoch says he authorized a roughly £700,000 ($1.1 million) settlement without being aware of the email, which was the key piece of evidence driving the lawsuit.

The existence of Mr. Taylor's settlement, and the e-mail with his hacked voice mails, didn't become public until a July 2009 article in the Guardian. That marked a key moment in the long-running phone-hacking saga, because it suggested evidence that contradicted News Corp.'s long-held contention that phone hacking had been an isolated occurrence.

Signing checks for such large amounts while denying knowledge of the details surrounding what they were for strains credulity but proof that James Murdoch had been informed of the scandal as long ago as 2008 would be much more difficult to explain away.

h/t Drudge

Will James Murdoch be Arrested?

The NewsCorp empire appears to be crumbling at breakneck speed. Both Rupert and his son, James, will be in front of British Parliament today to explain what they knew and when they knew it. Rupert is likely to come off as the older, top guy who was quite removed from the details of the hacking scandal. James, on the other hand, is in charge of NewsCorp's Europe division and appears to have been intricately involved, even signing checks made out to victims of the hacking scandal, checks that ostensibly were to buy those victims' silence. The pen James used to sign them may be a smoking gun.

Via ABC News:

The Murdoch dynasty may be coming to an end.

James Murdoch, considered the heir apparent to his father Rupert Murdoch's media empire, may be forced to resign or, worse, could face arrest as News Corp's phone hacking scandal continues to unravel.

"I don't see how he can survive," Howell Raines, former executive editor of The New York Times told ABCNews.com. "Seems to me that the movement both politically and legally is ominous."

As for Rupert Murdoch, Raines said, "I think he's seriously wounded."

Raines resigned from the New York Times in 2003 amid the newspaper's own scandal after a reporter, Jayson Blair, had committed plagiarism and fabricated stories.

Father and son are expected to appear before a committee in the British parliament today to tell what they knew about News of the World employees illegally eavesdropping on the phone messages of celebrities, politicians, royal staffers and, as recently revealed, terror and murder victims.

By all accounts, James is a leftwing ideologue who has a cozy relationship with Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal. Those things don't seem to be getting any media attention.

Phone-Hacking Scandal Getting Closer to James Murdoch

The previous post has greater detail about why it may not be a bad thing for James Murdoch to be implicated in the NewsCorp scandal. This post is more about how much closer he seems to be to being ensnared by it. The big news yesterday was that Rupert Murdoch's right hand man, Les Hinton had been forced out after Rebekah Brooks went. Now, the big news is that Brooks has been arrested over her role in a scandal that involved the hacking of phones and voicemails.

The Guardian is reporting that Brooks' arrest appears to be an indicator that the younger Murdoch will soon be the subject of investigations.

The arrest of Rebekah Brooks in relation to phone hacking and corruption drags News Corporation deeper into crisis.

It must surely mean that the police investigation is edging closer to James Murdoch, who has been head of all News Corporation's businesses in Europe and Asia since 2007. He personally approved payments to civil litigants against the News of the World in settlement of their cases – deals that involved gagging clauses that appears to have prevented them discussing potential criminal activity in public.

There are two other important things to note from the arrest of Brooks. It is a personal blow for Rupert Murdoch, who had invested so much in the career of Brooks, promoting her though the Wapping ranks at lightening speed and describing her as the "daughter he never had." (he actually has four).

It must also set nerves on edge in Downing Street – only on Friday, it was revealed that David Cameron had hosted Brooks twice at Chequers, the only guest to be granted a second visit in his premiership. They also met socially over Christmas.

The leftwing media continues to lick its chops, smelling NewsCorp blood in the water; Rupert Murdoch is the target they simply cannot refrain from attacking. Unwittingly, they may be helping to sink Rupert's very leftwing son from taking the reigns.

Telegraph has more.

Left Needs to be Careful What it Wishes for in NewsCorp Scandal

It's been assumed for quite some time now that Rupert Murdoch's son, James Murdoch, is the heir apparent to the empire. At 80, Rupert's ability to lead the corporation is indeed increasingly finite. A disturbing reality prior to this scandal is the cozy relationship between James and Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, the same prince whose check was rejected by Rudy Guiliani in the days after 9/11. Increasingly, this scandal seems to be getting closer to James than it is to Rupert. The epicenter for the phone hacking scandal is in the UK.

In an article that appeared in the Guardian, significant doubt was raised about James Murdoch's ability to survive the scandal. Via The Guardian:

"The whole thing has been an absolute crisis management disaster," says the former Labour spin doctor Alastair Campbell. Max Clifford, another old hand at averting PR catastrophes, reflected an increasingly common view when he told this paper on Monday: "I get the feeling James Murdoch is out of his depth."

Last year, Diana West relayed another interesting quote from Alastair Campbell, who wrote about a visit James made to 10 Downing Street:

The elder “Murdoch was at one point putting the traditional very right-wing view on Israel and the Middle East peace process and James said that he was ‘talking f- nonsense.’ [Rupert] Murdoch said he didn’t see what the Palestinians’ problem was and James said that it was that they were kicked out of their f- homes and had nowhere to f- live,” Mr. Campbell recorded, adding that the News Corp. chairman was “very pro-Israel, very pro-Reagan.” ...

It would seem that the younger Murdoch may have a bit of a problem with anti-Semitism, which leads back to Saudi prince Talal, who appeared on Charlie Rose's show in January of 2010.

Here is an excerpt of bin Talal's interview with Charlie Rose:

CHARLIE ROSE: Is James Murdoch the successor to Rupert?

ALWALEED BIN TALAL: James is now managing Europe and Asia. And I don`t believe he appointed him yet, but frankly speaking, if he doesn`t appoint him, I`ll be the first one to nominate him to be the successor of Mr. Rupert Murdoch, god forbid if something happens to him.

CHARLIE ROSE: So he`s your candidate?

ALWALEED BIN TALAL: There`s no doubt, because I know him, I have full confidence in him, full trust in him, and he`s capable. He`s really Rupert Murdoch in the making, and he`s almost there now.

CHARLIE ROSE: That`s some kind endorsement coming from you.

ALWALEED BIN TALAL: No doubt. And I told Mr. Murdoch, if you don`t nominate him, I`ll nominate him, because, at the end of the day, Rupert Murdoch`s company is the only global company that covers over five continents.

There is growing sentiment that as this scandal explodes, James Murdoch could be one of its biggest casualties. In addition to Saudi Prince Talal standing to lose a substantial amount of wealth as the second largest shareholder at NewsCorp, he may have invested quite a bit into a future scenario in which James Murdoch takes over for Rupert.

There also seems to be a paper trail that allegedly includes cheques signed by James Murdoch that went to buying the silence of critics.

The Telegraph has more.

VIDEO: BECK POINTS FINGER AT SAUDI PRINCE

I really don't know what to think of this. On one hand, It was refreshing to see Glenn Beck start to identify the Islamic enemies of the United States. On the other hand, I'm still trying to sift through the inconsistency. While illustrating the point that Israel has a right to be skittish when flotillas of thugs bent on destroying them get close, Beck compared the reason for Israel's blockade with the same thing that caused Rudy Giuliani to turn down a check from Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal after 9/11.

It's an extremely fair point and a legitimate comparison. The only problem is that bin Talal is the second largest shareholder of the parent company of Fox News, which is who Beck works for. If Beck wants to use his platform to expose Talal, I guess that might be considered a greater good but if he doesn't, there might be a degree of perceived hypocrisy as Beck takes money from the same company that does business with the same Saudi prince he exposed as - at least mildly - someone who sanctioned 9/11.



For more on the Newscorp. / bin Talal relationship, click HERE.

SAUDI PRINCE AND RUPERT MURDOCH STRENGTHEN RELATIONSHIP

Making news recently was the fact that Saudi prince Alwaleed bin Talal has become the 2nd largest shareholder in Rupert Murdoch's NewsCorp, parent company of Fox News. It has now been learned that the purchase of stock in ownership is being reciprocated on the part of Murdoch. Talal has a media company as well - Rotana Media - and News Corp has bought a $70m stake in it according to the Financial Times:

The move will mark News Corp’s most significant investment so far in the Middle East, where faster GDP growth, a young population and maturing advertising markets have begun to draw US and European media groups facing slow growth in their home markets.

”This is a qualitative leap not just for Rotana but for the whole Arab world,” Prince Alwaleed told a press conference. ”We are set to gain deep experience from News Corp ... on television, movie production and technology,” he said. ”They own MySpace ... We can learn from this, the new media field.”

It has widely been acknowledged that along with Talal's interest in News Corp. has come the ability to influence content. Diana West at the Washington Examiner reported on Talal's boasting that he was able to contact Murdoch by phone during the Muslim riots in France and successfully got the news channel to change the banner identifying the rioters as Muslim.

Alwaleed has bragged that it only took a phone call to ensure that Fox coverage of Muslim rioting in France not be described as "Muslim" rioting in France, a boast News Corp. has never denied.

Even more telling is when Accuracy in Media's Cliff Kincaid, who is a News Corp. stockholder, questioned Murdoch about the incident at the 2006 annual meeting. Murdoch's answer was borderline absurd:

At the annual meeting of News Corporation, parent of Fox News, chairman Rupert Murdoch confirmed that a call from a Saudi Prince had resulted in a change in how the Fox News Channel covered the Muslim riots in France in 2005. Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal, a significant investor in News Corporation, told Murdoch he objected to highlighting the Muslim role in the riots. Murdoch said the change was made after it was determined that there was a Catholic role in the riots.

Yes, you read that right - "Catholic" car burners in France. Back to the piece in the Financial Times. Something increasingly worth paying attention to is the heir apparent to Rupert Murdoch, his son James.

The prince is not on News Corp’s board of directors, but last month anointed James Murdoch, head of News Corp’s European and Asian operations, as his father’s eventual successor.

“If he [Rupert Murdoch] doesn’t appoint him, I’ll be the first one to nominate him to be the successor of Mr Rupert Murdoch, God forbid if something happens to him,” the prince told Charlie Rose, a US television interviewer.

While Rupert has repeatedly shown that his allegiance to any form of conservatism is a distant second behind bottom lines, there has at least been a trace of the former. His son, according to the aforementioned piece in the Examiner, is...

a left-wing global warmist with virulently anti-Israel views

Considering the overwhelming anti-semitism toward Jews that exists in the Middle East, shouldn't this be a bit of a concern?

h/t to Free Republic

VIDEO: MARC LAMONT HILL FIRED BY FOX

You apparently won't be seeing Dr. Marc LaMont Hill on the Fox News Channel anymore. Cliff Kincaid of Accuracy in Media, who owns stock in News Corp. attended their annual meeting prepared to hold Rupert Murdoch accountable to keeping Hill on as a Fox News Analyst. There is a press release about his exchange with Murdoch on AIM's website (link below).

According to Kincaid, Murdoch stopped him before he was finished expressing his concerns about Hill and informed him that Hill had been fired last week. What's so bad about Hill? Nothing unless you find something wrong with his association with radicals and love of cop-killers.

h/t to NEW ZEAL BLOG

I blogged about this back on OCTOBER 3RD.

As always, Cliff Kincaid at ACCURACY IN MEDIA doing excellent work.