WILL HACKERGATE COST MURDOCH BSKYB?

Labor MP Tom Watson, who has been leading the attack in Britain’s Parliament on News Corp and its British subsidiary News International over the phone hacking charges, has lashed out at Rupert Murdoch, his son James, and the News Corp brass and has suggested that their license to operate BSkyB, the country’s largest commercial broadcaster, be revoked. “It is a company sick with corruption and criminality from top to bottom,” the BBC quoted him as telling a Labor Party conference. “That much has been proved. The Murdochs and their minions have consistently and blatantly lied to our courts and our Parliament.” Watson predicted that News Corp will not be able to keep the scandal contained to News of the World, the Sunday tabloid that it was forced to shut down in the wake of the hacking allegations. “Ask the editor of the Sun,” Watson said, referring to another News Corp-owned newspaper, “and if he gives you an honest answer, he will tell you that it is only a matter of time before we find the Sun in the evidence file.” Also on Monday, Deadline.com disclosed that Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger may star as a Murdoch-like character in a movie titled Tabloid that appears to be based on the News of the World shenanigans. The movie, written by Josh Olson (A History of Violence), is being produced by Jagger’s Jagged Films production company and by Steve Bing’s Shangri-La Entertainment, which is financing the project.