London: Few seem to be enjoying the management meltdown at the venerable BBC more than Rupert Murdoch, the News Corp. chief whose rival British newspapers have been caught up in their own lengthy, embarrassing and expensive phone-hacking scandal.
But the troubles for both media organizations highlight that the news industry in Britain is at rock-bottom in public esteem, and could face increased restrictions from the government of Prime Minister David Cameron, which appears convinced it has been unable to police itself.
The British Broadcasting Corp. has moved into full-bore damage control since it retracted mistaken allegations by its marquee news program that a politician sexually abused children. That serious mistake followed the BBC's earlier failure to report on widespread child sex abuse allegations against one of its biggest stars, the late Jimmy Savile.
"BBC mess gives Cameron golden opportunity (to) properly reorganize great public broadcaster," Murdoch tweeted gleefully Sunday....
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01:30 AM, Nov 13, 2012
London: Rupert Murdoch said Britain's Prince Harry should be given a break, days after his Sun tabloid added to the 27-year-old's embarrassment by printing pictures of him cavorting naked in Las Vegas, in defiance of appeals from Royal lawyers. "Prince Harry. Give him a break. He may be on the public payroll one way or another, but the public loves him, even to enjoy Las Vegas," the media mogul said...
07:31 AM, Aug 27, 2012
London: News Corp's Rupert Murdoch has stepped down from a string of boards overseeing the Sun, Times and Sunday Times newspapers in Britain, the company said in an internal memo on Saturday. The company described the news as a "corporate housecleaning exercise" linked to the announcement in June that News Corp would split into two separate companies: a smaller publishing division and a much larger entertainment and TV group. But...
02:59 AM, Jul 22, 2012
Los Angeles: Rupert Murdoch's News Corp said on Thursday that its board has approved a plan to split into two companies, one containing struggling newspaper and book publishing businesses and the other comprising faster-growing entertainment operations. Murdoch will serve as chairman of both new companies and CEO of the entertainment company. The Murdoch family, which controls nearly 40 percent of the voting shares in News Corp., is expected to maintain...
09:12 AM, Jun 29, 2012
Los Angeles: Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. is preparing to spin off its newspaper business into a separate company, an acknowledgement that the printed page that gave rise to a media empire will never again be central to its future. Murdoch's plan to split his company represents a break from the past. The 81-year-old billionaire built the company from a single Australian newspaper he inherited from his father. And through the...
08:59 AM, Jun 27, 2012
London: A lawyer for Rupert Murdoch's British newspaper group says the company could face 500 lawsuits from victims of tabloid phone hacking -- far more than have so far been filed. Michael Silverleaf told a court hearing on Friday that "we are dealing with 500 claims, potentially" from people who say their voicemail messages were intercepted by the now-defunct News of the World. Murdoch's News Group Newspapers has paid millions...
12:21 AM, Jun 02, 2012
London: Rupert Murdoch has reportedly told staffers at his UK newspapers that his business can emerge "better and stronger" following the phone-hacking scandal, even as a panel of British MPs on Monday branded the news baron "unfit" to run his global media empire. In his email shot to his employees in the UK, the 81-year-old Australian-American Chairman of News Corporation, the world's second-largest media conglomerate, has also said that some...
11:46 AM, May 02, 2012
London: British Prime Minister David Cameron has denied allegations of striking a deal with media baron Rupert Murdoch or his son in return for favourable coverage before his government came to power in 2010. The ties between Cameron's government and Murdoch's News Corp are under scrutiny after an inquiry into media ethics raised questions. The inquiry had raised questions about a minister's decision on whether the company should be authorised...
09:09 AM, Apr 30, 2012
London: Once his father's heir apparent, James Murdoch stepped down on Tuesday as chairman of British Sky Broadcasting, surrendering one of the biggest jobs in the Murdoch media empire in a bid to distance the broadcaster from a deepening phone hacking scandal. James Murdoch's credibility and competence have come under severe questioning because of the phone hacking crisis and alleged bribery by British newspapers while he was in charge, and...
02:36 AM, Apr 04, 2012
London: James Murdoch has severed all ties with News Corp's British newspaper business, which is at the centre of multiple investigations over phone and computer hacking and bribery, according to regulatory filings. Murdoch is under scrutiny for his role in failing to uncover systematic illegal interception of phone calls at the News of the World newspaper, which was shut down last July, and stepped down as chairman of News Corp's...
11:59 PM, Mar 24, 2012
London: James Murdoch is stepping down as executive chairman of News Corp's UK newspaper arm, the company said on Wednesday. News Corp said James, the son of 80-year-old media scion Rupert Murdoch, has relinquished his position at News International to focus on the company's international TV business. He will remain deputy chief operating officer of News Corp. James and his role at News International have come under scrutiny amidst Britain's...
08:14 PM, Feb 29, 2012
London: Rupert Murdoch vowed to launch a Sunday edition of his scandal-hit Sun tabloid on Friday in a bid to win over angry staff mounting one of the biggest challenges to his more than 40 years as a proprietor in Britain. Murdoch was in London to reassure employees after the company supplied information to police which led to the arrest of some of the most senior journalists on the paper...
03:39 AM, Feb 18, 2012
London: Rupert Murdoch will face hostile and angry staff when he arrives in Britain this week seeking to face down a growing rebellion within his newspaper business and end the talk that his flagship Sun could close following a string of arrests. Those close to the media mogul expect the 80-year-old to show far more composure and calculation when he addresses journalists on a hostile newsroom floor, compared with his...
04:20 AM, Feb 14, 2012
London: Britain's biggest-selling newspaper was fighting to contain the damage after five employees at The Sun tabloid were arrested on Saturday in an inquiry into the alleged payment of bribes to police and other officials. Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, which owns the newspaper, said police had searched their homes and the group's London offices, potentially deepening the scandal over British tabloid wrongdoing. The Sun's deputy editor Geoff Webster, picture editor...
12:02 PM, Feb 12, 2012
London: British police on Saturday arrested five senior members of staff at News Corporation's flagship newspaper The Sun, the company said, as part of investigations into alleged payments to police by journalists for information. The payments investigation, dubbed Operation Elveden, is part of a wider probe into illegal news gathering practices that have rocked Britain's political, media and police establishments and last year prompted the closure of News Corp's Sunday...
11:44 PM, Feb 11, 2012
London: British Police arrested four current and former staff of Rupert Murdoch's best-selling Sun tabloid plus a policeman on Saturday as part of an investigation into suspected payments by journalists to officers, police and the newspaper's publisher said. Police also searched the paper's London offices at publisher News International, News Corp's British arm, in a corruption probe linked to a continuing investigation into phone hacking at its now closed News...
07:09 AM, Jan 29, 2012
Los Angeles: Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. is launching a Spanish-language broadcast TV network that aims to bring the flavor of the Fox network to Hispanic audiences in the US. The move is touted as a bold entry into a market dominated by top-ranked Univision and No. 2 Telemundo, in the same way that Fox rattled broadcasters ABC, CBS and NBC with its debut a quarter century ago. The company said...
12:04 PM, Jan 24, 2012
London: As inquiries continue at various levels into the phone-hacking row, News International chairman James Murdoch on Tuesday admitted that he had received an email in 2008 that detailed phone-hacking at the News of the World tabloid, but claimed he did not read it in full. The email is a key factor in the row, and Murdoch's defence before the Culture, Media and Sport Committee has been that he did...
07:28 AM, Dec 14, 2011
London: James Murdoch, the son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, was on Tuesday re-elected chairman of British broadcaster BSkyB even though a fifth of shareholders voted against his reappointment. Several key shareholders of BSkyB voted against James Murdoch at the company's annual general meeting on Tuesday. News Corp, which owns 39 per cent of BSkyB, is also the parent company of News International (NI), of which Murdoch is also the...
05:02 AM, Nov 30, 2011
London: A scandal engulfing Rupert Murdoch's News Corp threatened to spread to more than one title on Friday as sources said a journalist at the Sun newspaper had been arrested over allegations of police bribery. Police investigating events at the News of the World tabloid after a phone hacking scandal said they had arrested a 48-year-old in connection with payments made to police. A spokesman for News Corp's British newspaper...
01:33 AM, Nov 05, 2011
