Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Friday, July 05, 2013

Rupert Murdoch Tape Reveals Angry, Dismissive News Corp Chief

A secret recording of Rupert Murdoch reveals that the News Corp chief was angry and dismissive about investigations into corruption at his British newspapers.

The recording, which was obtained by the British network Channel 4, was taken behind Murdoch's back during a meeting he held with staffers at The Sun, his biggest UK title, earlier in 2013. The paper has been beset by a string of arrests in connection with an inquiry over illegal payments to police officers. Murdoch has been blamed for many of the arrests because, in the wake of the phone hacking scandal, he set up a special committee that has handed over information about potential illegality at his company to the police.

In March, Murdoch made a trip to London to soothe some of his reporters who had been arrested, and to ensure them that he was on their side. The recording is taken from one of those meetings.

In it, Murdoch rails against the arrests, and says they are over "next to nothing."

"I mean, it's a disgrace," he says. "Here we are, two years later, and the cops are totally incompetent ... why are the police behaving in this way? It's the biggest inquiry ever, over next to nothing."

One journalist chimes in, "It would be nice to hit back when we can," to which Murdoch says, "We will."

Gawker highlighted a different portion of the conversation, in which Murdoch said that News Corp was being "picked on" even though it had done nothing that "wasn't being done across Fleet Street and wasn’t the culture."


Original Article
Source: huffingtonpost.com
Author: Jack Mirkinson

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