MAJOR NEWS CORP INVESTORS PREPARE TO BATTLE MURDOCH

The reported decision by News Corp to name James Murdoch to run the company’s Fox TV operations after he was strongly censured by OFCOM, the British broadcasting regulator, for his failure to take action in the British hacking scandal, is being seen as an unconscionable act of defiance by some News Corp shareholders. Julie Tanner, […]

U.K. REGULATOR SLAPS MURDOCH’S WRISTS

OFCOM, Britain’s TV regulator, will not yank News Corp’s license to operate BSkyB, the British satellite TV service. In a ruling issued today (Thursday), OFCOM said that while some of former News International Chairman James Murdoch’s actions were “ill-judged,” there was no evidence to date that he had “deliberately engaged in any wrongdoing.” The regulator […]

MURDOCH EXPLAINS WHY HE’S SPLITTING NEWS CORP

Rupert Murdoch spent much of Thursday discussing his decision to split his News Corp media empire into two companies, one for entertainment, the other for newspaper and book publishing, but denied that it was “in any sense a reaction to anything in the U.K.” It was about as far as he would come to mentioning […]

CAMERON: NO DEALS WITH MURDOCH

British Prime Minister David Cameron has dismissed as “nonsense” the suggestion that he had reached an agreement with Rupert Murdoch to push through Murdoch’s plan to take over full ownership of satellite broadcaster BSkyB in return for support from Murdoch’s newspapers in the general election. In testimony before the Leveson committee, which is looking into […]

U.K. BUSINESS SECRETARY EXPLAINS HIS “WAR ON MURDOCH” COMMENT

Britain’s business secretary, Vince Cable, claimed today (Tuesday) that he had heard “veiled threats” that Rupert Murdoch would retaliate if he did not approve Murdoch’s bid to take over complete ownership of BSkyB, the British satellite operator. It was in that context, he indicated in testimony before the Leveson hearing into journalistic ethics, that he […]

NEWS CORP SCANDAL THREATENS BRITISH PRIME MINISTER

Only weeks before he was appointed Culture Secretary with the remit to assess the consequences of Rupert Murdoch’s bid to take over complete ownership of BSkyB, the British satellite TV service, Jeremy Hunt sent a message to Prime Minister David Cameron urging that the government approve the deal. The message was disclosed today (Friday) during […]

WILL THE FCC YANK MURDOCH’S TV LICENSES?

A report by a parliamentary committee on Monday calling Rupert Murdoch unfit to oversee his media empire has inevitably touched off demands in the U.S. that he be stripped of his Fox TV broadcast licenses in this country. Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said in a letter to […]

INVESTOR STORM BUILDS AROUND MURDOCH

A day of testimony about the telephone hacking scandal by James Murdoch and two days by his father, Rupert Murdoch, in which they acknowledged that they allowed subordinates to dupe them about the extent of the matter have riled News Corp shareholders. Britain’s Guardian newspaper reported today (Friday) that they are particularly concerned about how […]

HACKING SCANDAL CONTINUES TO SPREAD AT NEWS CORP

When Rupert Murdoch tweeted — seemingly from out of the blue — “I have nothing to do with Sky News” in February, one of his “followers” asked him to explain, given the fact that Sky News’s parent is News Corp-controlled BSkyB. Murdoch never did. But he may be compelled to do some explaining if, as […]

JAMES MURDOCH RESIGNS AS CHAIRMAN OF BSKYB

James Murdoch, the embattled son of News Corp Chairman Rupert Murdoch,has stepped down from his post as chairman of the British TV satellite service BSkyB, saying that he did not want the company to be “undermined by matters outside the scope of this company.” He acknowledged that his chairmanship of the company “could become a […]

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