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.

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.