Het Rupert Murdoch imperium in het nieuws-topic

quote:

News Corp scandal divides US along party lines

Claims of illegal attempt to gain 9/11 victims' numbers bring outrage from Democrats and caution from Republicans

The battle over Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation is splitting American politics along party lines, with senior Democrats calling for investigations into the company while some senior Republicans play down the crisis.

Allegations that News International reporters may illegally have attempted to obtain the phone numbers of 9/11 victims have prompted an FBI probe into the company, which this week launched a preliminary investigation into the allegations. But a backlash has begun, focusing on the source of the claim: a single story in the Daily Mirror.

The former Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain has criticised the decision to investigate, saying there is little evidence so far that the problem of phone hacking had spread to the US and the probe was unjustified. "It seems to me that this is a British issue that needs to be resolved first," he told Sky News. "I've heard of no evidence or allegation yet of anything being done in the United States of America."

His defence is significant not only because he is a senior Republican but also because he has criticised News Corp in the past. In 2001, he publicly questioned its plans to take over the satellite television service DirecTV, citing concerns over media consolidation.

On Saturday, the Washington Post criticised the Mirror report, saying it "appears to be based on a shaky foundation. The Mirror names no specific sources in its reporting, and it relies on a single anonymous second-hand source for its account."

More predictably, support has also come from News Corp's right-leaning cable channel Fox News, where there has been a reluctance to devote as much time to the story as other outlets, especially the left-leaning MSNBC network. A recent episode of the show Fox and Friends featured a media consultant, Robert Dilenschneider, who said that the scandal was being overplayed and Murdoch had "done all the right things".

Though one Republican congressman, Peter King, has been influential in calling for probes into News Corp, the bulk of the anger has come from Democrats. Four Democratic senators have written letters to the department of justice and the securities and exchange commission asking for investigations. They include powerful figures such as California senator Barbara Boxer and West Virginia senator Jay Rockefeller, who chairs the influential senate commerce committee.

At the same time John Podesta, a former Clinton chief of staff who is close to Obama, has come out swinging against News Corp. In an interview in Canada this week, he attacked Fox News and declared that the company might have broken US laws if it paid bribes to police in Britain. "This is not one rogue editor. This is an empire that was built on a set of journalistic ethics that's beginning to explode and unravel," he said.

Liberal campaigning groups have mobilised against News Corp: a protest was organised this week outside Rupert Murdoch's New York apartment, and there is a petition drive calling for an official investigation into the company. There has also been a focus on the company's political contributions, notably to the Republican Governors Association and the US Chamber of Commerce. That issue may prove less suitable for clear-cut campaigning, however, because News Corp has given money to politicians from both parties in the past.

quote:

Op zaterdag 16 juli 2011 22:08 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:
Bigger and bigger:

[..]

quote:

Op zondag 17 juli 2011 16:05 schreef Lyrebird het volgende:

[..]

Wat vind je hier nu van, PV? Ik neem aan dat je staat te juichen dat Rupert Murdoch en consorten dit soort technieken gebruiken?

quote:

Volgende ontslag in afluisterschandaal: Londense politiecommissaris

Ook Paul Stevenson, politiecommissaris van de Londense Metropolitan Police Service, heeft zijn ontslag ingediend naar aanleiding van het afluisterschandaal bij News of the World.

Stevenson werd bekritiseerd voor het in dienst hebben van Neil Wallis als pr-consultant. Wallis is voormalig adjuct-hoofdredacteur van de krant en werd afgelopen week gearresteerd.

Stevenson ontkent iets verkeerd te hebben gedaan. Hij zei dat hij zijn functie naast zich neerlegt omdat hij niet wil dat de kritiek effect heeft op de veiligheid op de Olympische Spelen, die volgende zomer in Londen plaatsvinden.

quote:

Afluisterschandaal: Wall Street Journal (van Murdoch) kiest de tegenaanval

The Wall Street Journal, een van de Amerikaanse kranten in handen van mediamagnaat Rupert Murdoch, kiest vandaag de tegenaanval. In een (anoniem) commentaar veroordeelt de krant de afluisterpraktijken waar de Britse krant News of the World uiteindelijk aan ten onder ging, maar tegelijkertijd bekritiseert de krant de rol van media die het hacken van telefoons en voicemails aan het licht brachten: The Guardian en de BBC.


The Wall Street Journal neemt het op voor haar eigenaar News Corporation, het bedrijf van Murdoch. 'Het is aan onze lezer om te beoordelen of we een betere krant zijn dan vier jaar geleden. Maar onze buitenlandverslaggeving is robuuster, onze weekendkranten substantiëler, en wat onze digitale uitbreiding betreft, liggen we voor op de rest. (...) We gaan er vanuit dat onze lezers de commerciële en ideologische motieven van onze critici (de BBC en The Guardian - red.) doorzien. De blijdschap om de reputatieschade van Murdoch en News Corporation is zo dik dat je hem met een kettingzaag nog niet doormidden krijgt. De journalistieke lezing over journalistieke normen van media die WikiLeaks en Julian Assange een platform geven, zijn verwerpelijk. Ze willen dat hun lezers zonder enig bewijs aannemen dat de tabloidexcessen van News Corporation de werkzaamheden van andere journalisten werkend voor dat bedrijf hebben bezoedeld.'

En verder: 'We zouden er niet aan moeten denken wat The Wall Street Journal zou zijn als de krant niet was verkocht aan News Corporation in 2007.'

Was getekend: The Wall Street Journal. Een antwoord van The Guardian, een van de Britse kranten die de afluisterprakrijken bij News of the World en andere kranten van Rupert Murdoch aan het licht brachten, is er vooralsnog niet. Wel haalt de krant fijntjes een twitteraar aan, die zich afvraagt wat de beste kwalificatie is voor het commentaar van The Wall Street Journal. 'Waanvoorstelling, Oedipaal (naar de Griekse mythe van Oedipus die zijn vader zal ombrengen, om dat te voorkomen wil de vader zijn zoon vermoorden), hielenlikkerij of laf'?

Afluisteren
De afgelopen maanden (en jaren) bleek dat News of the World, een van de tabloids in handen van Murdoch, regelmatig Britse politici en bekende Britten illegaal afluisterde. Beschuldigingen van dezelfde praktijken zijn ook geuit aan het adres van andere Murdoch-kranten. Ook zouden politie-ambtenaren en -agenten zijn omgekocht. News of the World verscheen vorige week zondag vanwege het schandaal voor het laatst. De Amerikaanse uitgever van Dow Jones, Les Hinton, stapte vrijdag op, het hoofd van Scotland Yard trad gisteren af. Morgen verschijnen Murdoch en Rebekah Brooks voor een commissie in het Britse parlement. Brooks, de voormalig hoofdredacteur van News of the World, werd dit weekend gearresteerd, maar is op borgtocht weer vrij.

quote:

De blijdschap om de reputatieschade van Murdoch en News Corporation is zo dik dat je hem met een kettingzaag nog niet doormidden krijgt. De journalistieke lezing over journalistieke normen van media die WikiLeaks en Julian Assange een platform geven, zijn verwerpelijk. Ze willen dat hun lezers zonder enig bewijs aannemen dat de tabloidexcessen van News Corporation de werkzaamheden van andere journalisten werkend voor dat bedrijf hebben bezoedeld.'

quote:

Op maandag 18 juli 2011 14:03 schreef Weltschmerz het volgende:

[..]

Niveautje hoor. Moeten we nou een lokaal sufferdje serieus gaan nemen omdat er in die buurt veel geld gegraaid wordt?

quote:

Op maandag 18 juli 2011 19:37 schreef Darklight het volgende:
Hey wat toevallig

News of the World-klokkenluider dood gevonden
http://www.nu.nl/afluiste(...)r-dood-gevonden.html

quote:

Op maandag 18 juli 2011 19:37 schreef Darklight het volgende:
Hey wat toevallig

News of the World-klokkenluider dood gevonden
http://www.nu.nl/afluiste(...)r-dood-gevonden.html

quote:

Media moguls body discoverd

Rupert Murdoch, the controversial media mogul, has reportedly been found dead in his garden, police announce.

Murdoch, aged 80, has said to have ingested a large quantity of palladium before stumbling into his famous topiary garden late last night, passing out in the early hours of the morning.

"We found the chemicals sitting beside a kitchen table, recently cooked," one officer states. "From what we can gather, Murdoch melted and consumed large quantities of it before exiting into his garden."

Drug chemicals found in house
Chemicals found in house

Authorities would not comment on whether this was a planned suicide, though the general consensus among locals and unnamed sources is that this is the case.

One detective elaborates. "Officers on the scene report a broken glass, a box of vintage wine, and what seems to be a family album strewn across the floor, containing images from days gone by; some containing handpainted portraits of Murdoch in his early days, donning a top hat and monocle."

Another officer reveals that Murdoch was found slumped over a particularly large garden hedge fashioned into a galloping horse. "His favourite", a butler, Davidson, reports.

Butler Davidson has since been taken into custody for additional questioning.

Read more: http://www.new-times.co.uk/sun/#ixzz1SUh3ushr

quote:

Op maandag 18 juli 2011 23:20 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:
Wie heeft deze site gehacked?

[..]

quote:

Op dinsdag 19 juli 2011 16:17 schreef Breekfast het volgende:
Je zou een mooie drinking game kunnen maken bij elke keer dat de woorden 'I have no knowledge of that' valt

quote:

Politiechef onthult nauwe banden tussen politie en News Corp

De opgestapte Britse politiechef Paul Stephenson heeft vandaag verklaard dat 10 van de 45 perschefs van zijn departement in het verleden hebben gewerkt voor het mediaconcern News Corp. Hij zei dat tegenover een Britse parlementscommissie die is begonnen met het ondervragen van betrokkenen bij het afluisterschandaal dat Groot-Brittannië in zijn greep houdt.

De Lagerhuiscommissie onderzoekt de omvang van de misstanden bij de zondagstabloid News of the World, terwijl er ook een onderzoek is ingesteld naar het mogelijk betalen van agenten door journalisten.

Stephenson ontkende dat de banden tussen de politie en de krant News of the World ongepast zouden zijn. 'Ik heb begrepen dat er tien medewerkers zijn die in het verleden werkten voor News International (een onderdeel van News Corp. waar onder meer de tabloid News of the World onder viel, red.). In sommige gevallen waren dat journalisten.' Stephenson zei niets verkeerds te hebben gedaan en zou niet hebben geweten dat de krant telefoons afluisterde.

De politiechef noemde het genant dat de politie de vroegere adjunct-hoofdredacteur van NotW heeft aangenomen als PR adviseur. Hij had geen reden om Wallis in verband te brengen met het aftappen van telefoons toen hij werd aangenomen, aldus Stephenson. In 2009 werkte Wallis tijdelijk als communicatieadviseur voor de politie, in een periode dat Stephenson een nieuw onderzoek naar afluisterpraktijken bij de krant niet nodig achtte.

Ook plaatsvervangend commissaris John Yates, die net als Stephenson zijn ontslag heeft ingediend, ontkende voor de commissie iets verkeerd te hebben gedaan. Wel zei hij dat het achteraf gezien een verkeerde beslissing was geweest om het onderzoek naar de afluisterpraktijken af te blazen.

Op dit moment worden Rupert Murdoch, de baas van het mediaconcern News Corp, en zijn zoon James ondervraagd door de commissie. Zij moeten antwoord geven op de vraag wat zij wisten van illegale praktijken door journalisten die voor hen werkten. Later op de middag is Murdochs rechterhand Rebekah Brooks aan de beurt.

quote:

Anonymous To Release Sun, News of the World Emails

"After having hacked Rupert Murdoch's flagship news website, thesun.co.uk, and redirecting its readers to a spoof front page and pilfering its email servers, Anonymous' unofficial mouthpiece, Sabu, has revealed that the group is 'sitting on [the sun's & NOTW's] emails' with a press release from Anonymous & possibly more coming in a few hours. While that website has already been taken down, the email bounty is likely to be potentially more damaging with Sabu releasing details of two of the Sun's top three employees, Rebekah Wade and Bill Akass, the former editors of the Sun and News of the World respectively as well as Lee Wells & Danny Rogers, Editorial Support Manager at News International and Sun Online Editorial Manager respectively, as a taster of what's coming next."

quote:

Op dinsdag 19 juli 2011 18:27 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:

[..]

quote:

Op dinsdag 19 juli 2011 18:24 schreef Frutsel het volgende:
Is er al iets bekend over de laptop van Rebecca Brooks? of d'r vent?
Die had ze weggeflikkerd ofzo? Beetje dom om dat opzichtig te doen op zon moment

quote:

Op dinsdag 19 juli 2011 18:37 schreef Aether het volgende:

[..]

Over een paar minuten wordt ze verhoord.

quote:

Choosing a bad password, the Rebekah Wade way.

Twitter user and LulzSec member AnonymouSabu also announced that they had access to usernames and passwords and posted a couple, including one belonging to Rebekah Wade. There they show the password hash, tell you that the salt used is the username 'rebekah' and that her password was 63000.

quote:

First, it's easy to verify that the password hashing scheme is md5(username . password):

$ echo -n "rebekah63000" | md5sum

62dd0bd92bf4fafae73c531ee5108c77 -

That's a simple and not uncommon scheme but the use of MD5 means that if they've got the complete password file they'll be able to attack the passwords very, very fast using something like John the Ripper.

But even more interesting is the fact that her password was 63000. At first I wondered if it might be a randomly generated default password, or something interesting on a phone keyboard, or something interesting in hex, but it's much worse than that.

63000 is the phone number of The Sun's tip line.

quote:

US senator invokes website-hacking trial in call for Murdoch inquiry
Attorney general asked to consider evidence of hacking into site of small firm, which News Corporation later bought outright

In July 1999, two brothers called George and Richard Rebh, the founders of a small start-up company called Floorgraphics, were invited to lunch with the dominant firm in their new area of business. The brothers were excited: they had invented a new product that involved sticking giant adverts on the floors of supermarkets, and were keen to show it off to the market leaders and talk about possible joint promotions.

They met the two top executives from the big firm, News America Marketing, in a Cantonese restaurant called A Dish of Salt in midtown Manhattan. Over hors d'oeuvre, News America's chief executive Paul Carlucci said: "So, I understand you're here to sell your company?"

According to transcripts of a trial that took place 10 years after the lunch, the Rebh brothers were astonished. No, they replied, they only wanted to talk about working together and had no intention of selling. George Rebh told the jury that Carlucci then said: "From now on, consider us your competitor and understand this: if you ever get into any of our businesses, I will destroy you. I work for a man who wants it all, and doesn't understand anybody telling him he can't have it all." News America is owned by News Corporation, whose chief executive is Rupert Murdoch.

The 2009 trial of Floorgraphics versus News Corp was invoked on Wednesday by Frank Lautenberg, a New Jersey senator who has called for an official inquiry into News Corporation behaviour in the US. He has written to the attorney general Eric Holder, asking him to take into account evidence thrown up during the trial that News America had engaged in computer hacking and to incorporate it as part of the ongoing justice department and FBI investigation into News Corporation practices.

The Floorgraphics case, also recalled this week by the New York Times, is being seen as revealing the lengths to which Murdoch's American companies are capable of going in attempting to neutralise competition. When the startup decided to stand firm in the face of News America's alleged threat to destroy them, the Rebh brothers claim they experienced at first hand the empire's competitive instinct at its most intense.

As the lawyer acting for the Rebh brothers summarised it to the jury: "What this case boils down to is, one small startup business that grew successful being crushed by a very, very large powerful competitor who didn't want competition."

The most controversial element of the trial was the evidence presented by Floorgraphics to the jury that its website, protected by password security, had been broken into without authorisation. The computer breach, which Floorgraphics discovered in 2004 and had taken place 11 times over four months, was traced back to an IP address registered to News America's offices in Connecticut.

The unauthorised access of the firm's computer from a News America address became the subject of a 2005 FBI and US secret service investigation. The outcome of those inquiries is not known.

The computer hacking, the jury at the Floorgraphics trial was told, gave News America access to information that could be used to damage its rival including details of every sale Floorgraphics had made, its client list and projections.

Soon after, the jury was told, Floorgraphics began to lose crucial contracts with key clients – Safeway, Winn-Dixie, the South Carolina retail chain Piggly Wiggly and others – many of whom defected to News America.

The defence lawyer at the trial, in an opening statement, said that the computer breach had occurred at a crucial time and gave access to "private, confidential, proprietary business information that they could use against Floorgraphics in negotiations for getting bids in retail contracts ... After that, one retailer, then the next retailer, then the next retailer fell."

By the time of the trial, the firm had had to lay off 60 of its 85 employees.

News America's lawyer confirmed in his opening statement that someone using one of the company's computer addresses had indeed accessed a password-protected Floorgraphics website. But News America told the jury that the site was available to hundreds, if not thousands, of Floorgraphics retailers, representatives of consumer packaged goods companies and Floorgraphics's own employees.

A News Corp spokeswoman said: "There is considerable employee movement within this industry, and we believe it was someone with an authorised password. News America Marketing condemns such conduct, which is in violation of the standards of our company."

The spokeswoman added that News Corp "categorically denies" any suggestion raised in the trial that it bullied and threatened a startup company. The company's lawyer also disputed during the trial George Rebh's account of the conversation at A Dish of Salt. News America claims that over the years Floorgraphics had approached them about selling the company.

After only a couple of days of testimony, the trial was halted without prejudice as part of a deal in which News America bought Floorgraphics outright in return for Floorgraphics dropping the case. The New York Times put the cost to New Corp at $29.5m (£18.2m).

During the trial, the jury heard from a former News America manager, Robert Emmel, who recalled the chief executive Carlucci telling his staff: "If there were individuals concerned about doing the right thing – bed-wetting liberals in particular – then he could arrange for them to be out-placed from the company."

In 2005 Carlucci was rewarded for his stewardship of News America by being appointed publisher of the New York Post, Murdoch's prime tabloid newspaper in America. News Corp said the promotion, despite the allegations of tough-guy tactics, was "entirely appropriate".

quote:

Rupert Murdoch's Fox News ran 'black ops' department, former executive claims

Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News television channel had a “black ops” department that may have illegally hacked private telephone records, a former executive for the station has alleged.


Dan Cooper, who helped launch Fox News as managing editor in 1996, said that a “brain room” carried out “counter intelligence” on the channel’s enemies from its New York headquarters.

He was threatened after it found out he spoke to a reporter, he claimed.

Another former senior executive said the channel ran a spying network on staff, reading their emails and making them “feel they were being watched”.

The channel, which has come under pressure amid allegations that outlets owned by Mr Murdoch might have attempted to hack the voicemail messages of September 11 victims, firmly denies all the allegations.

Mr Cooper, who left Fox News soon after its launch, provided a quote for a 1997 article about Roger Ailes, Fox News’s president, by the journalist David Brock in New York magazine.

The quote was not going to be attributed to him, but he alleges that before the article was published, Mr Cooper’s agent received a telephone call from Mr Ailes threatening to withdraw Fox’s business from all his clients.

“There are only two possible ways Ailes found out,” Mr Cooper said. “Either Brock told him or they got hold of Brock’s phone records and saw I spoke to him.”

He first alleged that the records were obtained by researchers in the “brain room” in 2005 in an article on his website about the launch of the channel.

“Most people thought it was simply the research department of Fox News,” he wrote. “I knew it also housed a counter intelligence and black ops office. So accessing phone records was easy pie.”

Mr Cooper said yesterday that he helped to design the high-security unit. “It was staffed by 15 researchers and had a guard at the door. No one working there would engage in conversation.”

Mr Cooper said he was “willing to consider the possibility” that Mr Brock named him, but added: “I assume he operates under journalistic ethics and protected a confidential source. Brock told me at the time that Ailes told him he would never work again if he wrote the article.”

Mr Brock now runs Media Matters, a Left-leaning American media watchdog. A spokesman for the group said: “He declines to comment.”

Another former Fox News senior executive, who did not wish to be named, said staff were forced to operate under conditions reminiscent of “Russia at the height of the Soviet era”.

“There is a paranoid atmosphere and they feel they are being watched,” said the former executive. “I have no doubt they are spying on emails to ensure no one is leaking to outside media.

“There is a unit of spies that reports up to the boss about who was talking to whom. A lot of people are scared that they’re going to get sidelined or even that they’re going to get killed.”

A Fox News spokesman said: “Each of these allegations is completely false. Dan Cooper was terminated six weeks after the launch of the Fox News Channel in 1996 and has peddled these lies for the past 15 years.”

The FBI is investigating allegations that journalists on a British newspaper may have tried to have September 11 victims’ phones hacked. Both former Fox News executives said they thought Mr Ailes would never have let his reporters do likewise.

quote:

News Corp-schandaal breidt zich uit naar Nederland

News Corp, het mediabedrijf van Rupert Murdoch, is na het afluisterschandaal bij tabloid News of the World opnieuw in opspraak. De Europese uitgever van de Wall Street Journal, Andrew Langhoff, is opgestapt na een intern onderzoek naar een dubieuze deal met een in Nederland gevestigd bedrijf. Dat heeft de Europese editie van de krant vandaag gemeld.

Langhoff had een deal gesloten met het bedrijf Executive Learning Partnerships (ELP). De Wall Street Journal beloofde positief over het bedrijf te schrijven. In ruil daarvoor kocht ELP een groot deel van de Europese oplage van de krant voor een eurocent per stuk. Op deze manier werd de oplage kunstmatig hoog gehouden. De Europese oplage bedraagt officieel in totaal 75 duizend stuks.

De Europese editie van de zakenkrant werd in 1983 opgericht. In 2007 kocht Rupert Murdochs mediabedrijf News Corp het dagblad op. In een redactioneel commentaar verzekerde toenmalig uitgever Louis Gordon Crovitz dat zowel de nieuws- als de opiniepagina's redactioneel onafhankelijk zouden blijven van de nieuwe eigenaar.

quote:

Op dinsdag 12 juli 2011 04:00 schreef Linkse_Boomknuffelaar het volgende:

[..]

Eens.

Walgelijke man die Murdoch.