Mashed Potato Bulletin

The Daily Scoop: UK MP’s – Murdoch ‘not a fit person’ to lead News Corp

11 Comments to “The Daily Scoop: UK MP’s – Murdoch ‘not a fit person’ to lead News Corp”

1. 
   junknfunk
   May 1, 2012 at 12:30 pm

   It seems strange that it has taken more than 20 years for politicians to realize something was portrayed on TV in the UK. There was two shows. Consistently on a Sunday night at 10pm the Satirical puppet Show “Spitting Image” had puppets of well known celebrities and people in the news including Rupert Murdoch.

   The show literally showed him how he is seem right now, a devious business man. It went further and showed him as being the one that would send the ‘reporters’ portrayed as wolves out to hunt down and harass people by any means to get a story.

   The other show, while not directly pointing the finger was called ‘Hot Metal’ and was about a newspaper run by a Newspaper Magnate that operated a tyranical organization, making demands that his employees had to comply with. A Satirical comedy but always seemed to be very much pointing the finger at ahem, Murdoch.

   I am sure that regardless of what any of the Murdoch family say, they knew. Rupert Murdoch is not a man that let’s the business run itself. He never was, is not now and never will be that type of man. That’s why at his ‘elderly’ age he is still Chairman of the Board, he needs that control. That is why it is his offspring that he tried to keep in those key positions, so that he could maintain control.

   I am sure that the same phone hacking and other invasions of privacy are still taking place in the UK by his employee’s and they were and still are taking place in the USA. They are just far more careful about how they are doing it.

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   • 
     Mashed Potato Bulletin
     May 2, 2012 at 3:44 pm

     junknfunk> That’s interesting. So I guess Murdoch was a more visible public figure in the UK back in the day, and one that seems to have represented political corruption.

     Yeah, I agree…he comes across as a micromanager. He knew full well what was going on and allowed it to happen. We’ll see if any of this scandal hits the US.

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     • 
       junknfunk
       May 2, 2012 at 7:48 pm

       In fact here is a link to a clip involving the murdoch puppet with the ‘vulture’ news of the world reporters (the wolves were the reporters for the daily newspaper ‘the sun’).

       Bear in mind that this is from 1986, it’s 26 years old and was toned down for Sunday Night Television.
     • 
       Mashed Potato Bulletin
       May 4, 2012 at 12:30 pm

       Oh, that’s great! These would go over well here in the US if it’s put into a fox news context with some of the characters from there. I remember watching these types of puppets back on cable back when Reagan was president.

       Thanks for finding this.
2. 
   youareherex
   May 1, 2012 at 12:50 pm

   the world turns and nothing really changes the same kind of politicans who fear murdoch or seek to be within his circle of power in the uk do so in the usa as well

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   • 
     Mashed Potato Bulletin
     May 2, 2012 at 3:46 pm

     Very true. We’ve seen that pandering to the conservative media by the Republican politicians for a long time now. Look at the influence Rush Limbaugh has… or did have. Good points!

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3. 
   Barneysday
   May 1, 2012 at 2:27 pm

   I think it would be great if the U.S. had the cajoles to declare Murdoch “unfit.”. But with his ownership of the Republicans, I see a better chance with the lottery than Murdoch ever being taken to task or made to follow the rules.

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   • 
     Mashed Potato Bulletin
     May 2, 2012 at 3:48 pm

     It would be nice if someone in the US took him on. But you know 1) it’d be a Democrat and 2) that person would be hounded as an anti-first amendment, constitution shredder by those on the Right. But if there’s been wrong doing then they need to be held accountable. They call for Obama to be held accountable with every other breath. Maybe it’s their turn.

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     • 
       Barneysday
       May 2, 2012 at 4:53 pm

       one can only wish…
4. 
   Martin Lack
   May 2, 2012 at 4:46 am

   Fascinating stuff indeed. Especially when it transpires that, despite the fact the report must have been printed at least a week ago(?), the entire committee (present for the Press Release yesterday) were still arguing about the inclusion of this sentence 24 hours before publication!

   As one of the Conservatives on the committee said yesterday, Tom Watson’s insistence that this sentence be included in report has gifted to Murdoch an easy reason to dismiss the entire document. However, we must hope that the damage is nonetheless done (as all the non-Conservative members of the Committee clearly hope will be the case).

   As an aside, I was very amused to see Murdoch claiming that his Wall Street Urinal newspaper is universally acclaimed for the quality of its reporting – nothing could be further from the truth. This kind of reality inversion is reminiscent of the KGB and Pravda; indeed Murdoch might be more at home in North Korea.

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   • 
     Mashed Potato Bulletin
     May 2, 2012 at 3:51 pm

     Good point. That “unfit” comment would make it easy to label it as “liberal bias” but then again, it was good to hear a political figure stand up to him.

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