Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Fish Stinks from the Head. Bye Bye Rupert Murdoch



In Naples they say "fish stinks from the head". In the case of, Rupert Murdoch, the saying could not be more true.  This morning, a powerful, parliamentary committee in London announced  that Rupert Murdoch, was " unfit to run a major international company."  At last-- somebody has noticed that the Emperor is naked! It's about time.....

 The 85 page report went on to say, among other things,

"News International and its parent News Corporation exhibited willful blindness, for which the companies' directors -including Rupert Murdoch and James Murdoch - should ultimately take responsibility," 
and
"Their instinct throughout, until it was too late, was to cover up rather than seek out wrongdoing and discipline the perpetrators,"

 For all  the details and a complete rundown, Read the entire Reuters article here

 If you hate the fear-mongering of Fox News and the influence peddling and disinformation that epitomizes Murdoch's American holdings as much as I do, you will feel a sense of relief that finally the truth is on the table and justice will probably be done. Cliches are cliches because they contain a germ of truth. Fish stinks from the head.  It really does-- and that applies to media empires as well as individuals.

There's another old saw I'm rather fond of.  It's the one that goes " What goes around, comes around"
The Brits have a particular fetish about fair play,or at least the appearance of it (stiff upper lip and all that )   There will be no Latin shrug of the shoulders or pragmatic American handshake over this mess in London, and that is fine with me.  To quote another old saying: " The Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton." Not for nothing did the Brits rule an empire the sun never set on.

 In an oh-so-civilized ( oops I mean civilised) court system, Rupert Murdoch, and the horse he rode in on ,are gonna be toast.  I can hardly wait.

Pass the popcorn  folks, the show is about to begin and it is gonna be good.

1 comment:

Nomad said...

To add another cliche: The fat lady hasn't sung yet. Already the spin is being formed along party lines in the UK. The British are a principled people, unfortunately the principles are remarkably flexible based on the situation and the potential rewards of one principle over another.
I will be interested in the final outcome. Hopefully, the stockholders will put enough pressure on the board of directors to give the Murdochs a handshake and the old heave-ho. Don't bet on that happening. One careful look of the names on the board and you can see how much the BOD are in bed with the Murdochs.
In any case, the inquiry puts to shame the US and the failure of the Department of Justice to investigate and to prosecute Murdoch based on Foreign Corruption charges.