@ymu - hi there, just got back in, so can now have a look at you earlier reply to me - here goes:
ymu said:
That's not them trying to do the right thing, that's them trying to fuck with the politicians. Murdoch withdrew the offer to hive off Sky to make referral to the CC just before Hunt was due to deliver a statement that was made irrelevant by his action. This is exactly the same. All three party leaders set to lead their parties out on a vote, so he withdraws before they can.
I think that's what I was trying to get at in a roundabout way, but w/a different emphasis on my part. I though Murdoch wanted to deflate the H of C debate, hog the headlines (again...) and give himself some breathing space (he'll be back w/another go I reckon). The "doing the right thing" thing...did you see the quote I posted earlier on this late afternoon about what Disco said on Murdoch's withdrawal? I mean, it sure it a whole lotta flannel DC came out with - I'd be interested to see how that plays in the press tonight/tomorrow - but already the spin on this is on - hmm....
ymu said:
There's no way anyone thinks he's doing the right thing, and he's not interested in whether they think that anyway. He's trying to wrongfoot the politicians, and is probably trying to withdraw from the UK completely to stop the poison spreading across the Atlantic. As with every other move he's made in the last couple of weeks, it's too little too late and the whole of News Corp is now under serious threat. The US takes corporate governance a great deal more seriously than we do.
I was thinking about the US side on the way home this eve....if those 9/11 hacking allegations turn out to be 100% (isn't there at least one case that has been confirmed so far? Think I may have seen it on this thread?), then theoretically Murdoch is in a whole lot of trouble. He's probably planning/hoping on the hacking stuff remaining in the good old UK, leaving him to spin that the NOTW etc stuff is a "local" issue - keeping the shareholders and politicos etc over the Atlantic sweet. If Obama/Congress etc decide to act though, then phew....that is gonna be one hell of a thing there. As for the UK, I reckon he'll want to hold onto BSkyB with his bloody hands, and he won't dispose etc of the Sun and Times without a very bloody and dirty fight. I can only see him getting out of the UK paper market as a desperate last resort (but he'll spin it his way).
ymu said:
I can't fathom the doom-mongers here. Murdoch is not coming back. His power has gone and without it, he cannot do anything except watch his empire slip away. It won't change the world overnight, but the chief cheerleaders for austerity and demonisers of the poor are severely damaged/deaded by this, in the UK at the very least.
I think I said on the "hooray for the BSkyB bid withdrawal" thread that Murdoch is far, far from finished. He's a wily old schemer and plotter, and his intention to hold onto his BSkyB shares shows that he's not in full panic mode just yet. He'll use the Sun to begin to "settle scores", as it were, and The Times to bang the business case drum for him taking ove BSkyB. Sure, I'd love to think he's terminally down, but to me, he's taken a blow but he' still standing so far.
ymu said:
The Tories (blue, yellow or red) have lost the most vicious parts of their propaganda machine. It'll take them a while to rebuild it. There's a chink in the armour. Stuff happens because people make it happen - I think it's time to be thinking about what we would like to achieve, not dwell on the sheer impossibility of achieving it.
Yeah, Murdoch et al are going to find it very hard to unleash their full retinue of attack dogs at the moment without looking like amoral psychopaths. Mind you, this comes to mind for me too: The NOTW may have gone, but bear in mind we still have 6 days per week of the Sun, who can be relied on to revert to old ways, such as their "Brown's smearing us" front page today (and doubtlessly there'll be plenty more where that came from). And the rest of the press/media may be circling the wagons round NI at present, but let's not forget about the likes of the jolly old Daily Mail and Daily Express, for starters. And Murdoch still is able to run Sky News (who I understand run Channel Five's news, and give quite a lot of feeds etc to Channel 4 (they also co-produce "Dispatches"). So ye olde propaganda machine is down, for sure, but certainly not out just yet.
As for your last sentence - yeah, there's a lot to achieve/win for - my take would be to attack/pursue as many angles as possible - UK and International leads, continuing to explore the links between the UK "State" and the media (and how they collude in feeding us what they want for their own ends), pursuing financial/corporate links....many possibilities. No easy fights or quick wins, but worth going for nonetheless.
