What a week for British media
Raymond Snoddy: “Rupert Murdoch could say “to hell with it” – though those would not be the actual words used. He could close down Sky News and save the company an immediate £20 million a year. Worse still the entire future of News International could be called into question…”
By any standards it has been seven days that shook the British media to the core. The death of the News of the World, illegal phone hacking on an unprecedented scale, previously unsuspected large scale bribing of police officers and no less than two inquiries.
The future of News International, News Corporation and even BSkyB is under threat and the good name of journalism has been dragged through the mud.
And then for good measure, as MP’s prepared to vote for a motion calling News Corp to drop the takeover bid, Rupert Murdoch withdraws the 700p a share bid for the rest of the satellite broadcaster that he doesn’t already own.
So that’s why you are all called “hacks” says a smug friend about the events of the past week, thinking he is cracking an original joke. It’s the best silly season ever, notes another wag on Twitter.
But some oddities are starting to come to light with more than the hint of a lynch mob mentality starting to develop.
Before you can have a rational discussion about Rupert Murdoch, News International and BSkyB, and whether we are actually in danger of losing some valuable contributions to British society and the media, it is necessary to issue the obvious formal disclaimer.
All those who have broken the law on hacking, issuing and receiving bribes or trying to pervert the course of justice through cover-ups should be pursued by the full vigour of the law, be they ever so high, and jailed where necessary.
If jail wasn’t too good for former Daily Telegraph chairman Conrad Black…
But some things are still a little strange.
Why were MPs so keen today to denounce the BSkyB takeover deal when the matter has already been referred to the Competition Commission for a formal investigation on competition grounds?
At the same time communications regulator Ofcom is looking at the “fit and proper” rules to see whether from that perspective News Corp could own all of Sky or even the 39% it already holds.
The MPs have no power to impose their will so the session amounts to little more than wind and froth – the modern equivalent of sitting Murdoch in the stocks and throwing rotten fruit. Yet it clearly did its work with dramatic results.
Murdoch said he still believed the deal would have been good for both companies but in the present mood it was just impossible.
Now opponents will try to apply the “fit and proper” test to the 39% stake of BSkyB that News Corp does own. For the threat to be meaningful board members of News Corporation, and we are probably talking about Rupert and James Murdoch, would have to be convicted of serious criminal offences.
And although the story changes in a dramatic way from day to day we are a long way away from anything like that happening.
Now that Murdoch is in London, you might think rather belatedly, to manage the crisis NI is at last upping its game. Decisions are being taken quickly.
The decision to withdraw the undertakings given to protect the editorial independence of Sky News, thereby inviting a reference to the Competition Commission, and apparently parking at least one problem for at least six months, was a deft move by Murdoch.
It left culture secretary Jeremy Hunt no option but to respond immediately to the Murdoch move. Ironically here was Rupert Murdoch bouncing Hunt into the decision he should have taken months ago and spared us all a lot of trouble. Now the entire deal is dead at the cost of many millions.
The scandal intensified for News International this week as both The Sun and the Sunday Times seemed to be implicated in disgraceful intrusion into family and business affairs of former Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
How outrageous for The Sun to access the medical records of Brown’s son Fraser and reveal that he was suffering from cystic fibrosis. And surely quite disgraceful for the Sunday Times to get someone to pose as an accountant to try to get information on Brown’s purchase of a flat.
Except that in both cases there is a strong case for the defence.
The Sun said today it did not access medical records and that the source of the health story was the parent of a fellow cystic fibrosis sufferer who acted from the best of motives to highlight the plight of sufferers and has signed an affidavit to that effect. The Sun claims the story was also agreed with the Browns who supplied quotes.
As for the Sunday Times, it says it was investigating allegations that Gordon Brown may have paid lower than the market price when he bought the flat through a company in which Geoffrey Robinson had been a director.
Press Complaints Commission rules on the use of subterfuge had been followed.
Ah the PCC.
Baroness Buscombe, who chairs the PCC, is livid about how she has been treated by the Prime Minister David Cameron – she has been a long-term ally and angry about how she believes she was prevented from putting her case on Andrew Neil’s Daily Politics Show.
Reforms are already being discussed at the PCC, such as reducing the numbers of editors who are members and perhaps turning those who remain into advisors. The “public members” who are in the majority and include retired High Court judges, lawyers and professors also want to get their hands on appointments and the PCC code and have the resources to conduct independent investigations rather than merely responding to individual complaints.
The PCC also intends to come out fighting and defend its role in helping thousands of members of the public get redress for inaccuracies and intrusion. Indeed all the recent publicity has increased the number of people getting in touch.
It may all be too late because Prime Minister Cameron has already pre-empted any rational discussion about the future of the PCC in the forthcoming inquiry into the ethics and standards of the media by calling it a “failed” organisation.
But what could we all lose if legitimate anger is allowed to turn into mass hysteria?
Rupert Murdoch could say “to hell with it” – though those would not be the actual words used. He could close down Sky News and save the company an immediate £20 million a year.
Worse still the entire future of News International could be called into question. Investors in the US have always asked why News Corp insisted in investing hundreds of millions in new printing presses and maintaining loss-making titles. The reason was that Rupert Murdoch liked newspapers.
What would happen if News International were to be sold? Unless a sugar daddy of enormous wealth came forward that would spell the end of The Times – a loss-making paper, which has not been mentioned so far in any of the wrong-doing and almost certainly has not been involved at all.
The potential for permanent damage to the British media is great – although this afternoon Murdoch said he was still committed to BSkyB and all the signs are that Murdoch is more likely to stay and fight than cut and run.
Lord Justice Levison can also be counted on to investigate all the wrong-doing at News International with his new inquiry.
In the meantime it would be wise to try and avoid knee-jerk reactions and dangerous dog syndrome for fear of making things worse than they actually are – if that is possible.