Message to Rupert: Keep Calm & Carry On
Lionel Zetter says we should be careful what we wish for. Think of what we'd miss if Rupert Murdoch closed down his remaining papers.
17 Jul 2011, 21:41
Murdoch: would he really close The Sun?
That certain individuals within News International behaved appallingly (and quite possibly illegally) seems unarguable. But how many of us have been the gleeful recipients of juicy gossip or useful intelligence which has been sourced from a mid-directed email or that old classic, the original left in the photocopy machine? Taking it a step further, how many of us would refuse to listen to said gossip or act on said intelligence if we thought it just might have been illegally sourced?
I gave up using voicemail two years ago when an acquaintance who had learnt his skills whilst drawing the Queen’s shilling won a bet by hacking in to my account in less than a minute. We all have a duty to our friends, families and employers to be more careful with what we write or say in this digital world. The wartime injunctions that ‘walls have ears’ and ‘careless talk costs lives’ are as relevant today as they were when they were originally emblazoned on posters throughout a beleaguered Britain.
If Murdoch does decide - in the light of the current furore and feeding frenzy – to fold or sell The Times, the Sunday Times and the Sun, the UK will be much the poorer for it. These papers are (sequentially) a national paper of record, a great exposer of scandals and righter of wrongs, and a cheap and cheerful way of brightening up many peoples’ mornings (you can always skip past page three if it offends). If they were to stop publishing, they would be missed. If they were put up for sale, who would be a ‘fit and proper person’ to buy them? With the state of the UK economy being what it is, the odds are that any potential purchaser would either hail from somewhere far abroad, or be engaged in a form of commercial activity which would be less than appealing to those who are currently lining up to put the boot in to the Murdochs.
So my advice to the great British public in general, and the Westminster Village in particular, would be to be careful what you wish for. The Murdochs may have fallen off of a lot of people's Christmas card lists, but they have invested heavily in the UK, and Rupert in particular is a great newspaper man. Their replacements, even if they could be found, might be even less to your taste.
Not that they need it, but my advice to the Murdochs, to return to my WWII theme, would be to ‘keep calm and carry on’. Of course there are more scandals to emerge, and possibly more arrests. But the summer and the silly season are hoving in to view, and most newspaper proprietors are well aware that the activities of their own editors and journalists might not stand up to sustained and vigorous scrutiny...
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Lionel Zetter
Lionel Zetter is the owner and editor of Zetter's Pariamentary Companion.
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Comments (2)
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Let me suggest that the Times stopped being a 'newspaper of record' some years ago. The Sunday Times has a good history, but even it has begun to falter where Murdoch family interests are concerned (see China). The Sun - well if pictures (across the gamut, nakid ladies to nakid kittens) are your stuff then OK.
News International make extensive use of innovative off shore mechanisms (licencing of intellectual property, purchasing of 'raw materials', financing) to hide liabilities and introduce creative losses. Just look at how much tax gets paid (yup not a lot). Exactly how indebted theTimes really is is a fascinating question, but I think we need a forensic accountant to be able to get to the bottom of the question.
18/07/2011 14:45I think there is an agreement from the left that the right wing papers are poor and an agreement from the right that the left Wong papers are poor. Also left and right wing politicians cosy up to the press. Thus it will be. These arguments will come to nothing.
The two things I think stand out are 1) any illegal activity needs to be dealt with in the courts 2) tax payers money should not be spent on the BBC whose news is biased.
I think these 2 arguments are the only 2 with teeth.
19/07/2011 09:40