Media Moguls

Love the new Dan and Dan video on the News Corp debacle on how the vacuum left by the News of the World might be filled. Meanwhile. it was a momentous day in the history of the media industry yesterday.

Rupert Murdoch, the 13th most powerful man in the world according to Forbes, the man who can make and break governments and the reputations of the rich and famous, is forced to debase himself to the Dowler family.

One down, how many thousands to go?

Meanwhile, his surrogate daughter, “lightning conductor” and personal hatchet hack finally fell on her sword, although I think that should be “pen”. It is mightier after all.

It makes you wonder where it will all end. I suspected that the sacrifice of the News of the World wouldn’t be enough. There is a sort of revenge mission creep when these things blow up and making a grand, dramatic only sharpen’s the outraged public’s appetite for more.

We saw it with the MPs’ expenses debacle when what started as justifiable outrage at duck houses, mortgage fiddles and the like has descended to the point where we’re demanding that someone should count the biros every time an MP leaves his office.

But back to News Corp, Murdoch can try all he likes to limit the damage, it’s no more than opening an umbrella when the roof’s blown off. The fundamental problem is a complete failure of corporate governance when he had the chance to put it right eight years ago.

It is more than ironic that the first tab on the News Corporation’s website should be Corporate Governance and when you click it, this is what it says:

News Corporation’s Board of Directors and management are committed to strong corporate governance and sound business practices.

And that’s it. One sentence that tells you nothing at all and doesn’t even acknowledge that there’s a fire raging in the engine room. Still Rupert should take heart.

The British public isn’t outraged apparently. It’s just a left-wing media confection to stir up the students, the militants and the minority liberal tendency, not sensible people who read the Daily Mail.

I know this because a caller to the late night phone-in told me so last night. As if to prove his point here’s another video from the Campaign to Take Back Parliament on the News Corp issue.

It’s not that interesting other than for the “Journalist” who appears to have been dragged in front of the cameras for his interview after a visit to the dentist.

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