Murdoch

On weekday mornings, I'll post the most controversial, shocking and (of course) ridiculous stories for your reading pleasure. That way, when you walk into work, you'll be the master of witty conversation. Articles  • Migraine-gate? Did Michele Bachmann's security rough up a reporter? ( Time )  • But more than half think Palin is going? Only 19 percent of Republicans think Obama is going to heaven. ( Slate )  • How can anyone understand anything he says?

As Wednesday's GOP debate arrives with Rick Santorum now at center stage, it is impossible not to notice how much his rise is welcomed at Fox News. It is also impossible not to see how deeply owner Rupert Murdoch and chief Roger Ailes have already corrupted the party and our political process through owned and operated candidates like Santorum. Yet, as impossible as it is, lots of my colleagues are acting like they don't notice, because while the turmoil in the Republican Party isn't as good for them and their employers as it is for Fox, it still makes for more interesting subject matter and better business.

Rupert Murdoch spent more than a decade trying to gain control of DirecTV Group Inc., the United States' leading satellite TV operator. But the chairman of News Corp. appears willing to give that up for something he values even more: bulletproof control of his own company. Murdoch is currently negotiating to swap his 38 percent stake in El Segundo, Calif.-based DirecTV to cable pioneer John Malone for the 19 percent voting stake in News Corp. owned by Malone's Liberty Media Corp., according to two people familiar with the negotiations.

As we wheel into a big week TV and politics with the first GOP debate to include Texas Gov. Rick Perry on Wednesday and President Obama's long overdue jobs plan on Thursday, a couple of small observations demand to be made. First of all, I could not let the holiday weekend end without some mention of one of the most outrageous statements of Election 2012: Sarah Palin telling Tea Party members in Iowa Saturday that she is "not for sale. " Parts of her speech about "crony capitalism" were dead on the money.

After cutting costs by consolidating his Sky Television with British Satellite Broadcasting, Rupert Murdoch has said that the News Corp., which he controls, might go a step further and sell roughly $1 billion in assets over the next three years.Mr. Murdoch said he would sell the assets if bankers agree to defer interest payments on much of the company's bank debt, which now stands at $8.1 billion (American) or $10.3 billion (Australian).He refused to specify what assets would be sold, but one high-level publishing executive at the company's U.S. operations said the word was that none of the American properties -- magazines, television stations, a television network, newspapers and movie businesses -- would be put on the market.

WASHINGTON -- Communications executive Rupert Murdoch was accompanied by his Washington lobbyist when he met with Speaker-in-waiting Newt Gingrich in late November, and the three men discussed Mr. Murdoch's fight over federal regulations that could cost him billions of dollars, the media magnate's spokesman said yesterday.Within a week of the meeting, Mr. Murdoch's publishing company, HarperCollins, was discussing a $2 million book advance with Mr. Gingrich. The advance had ballooned to $4.5 million by the time it was announced in late December, although Mr. Gingrich subsequently relinquished it and has yet to actually sign a contract with HarperCollins.

Rupert Murdoch entered yesterday what could be the final phase of his efforts to buy Dow Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal, with a deal seemingly on track to go to Dow Jones directors for approval this week. The billionaire media mogul met with Dow Jones chief executive Richard Zannino for lunch at the New York headquarters of Murdoch's News Corp. to discuss his $5 billion offer. They then told their respective subordinates that the deal was on track, said people briefed on those conversations.

LOS ANGELES -- The morning after the demise of the CBS-QVC merger, Rupert Murdoch, the chairman of Fox Inc., trumpeted Fox Broadcasting's strides in the television industry and derided the programming of CBS as "getting pretty tired."While CBS remains the ratings leader in prime time, the network "needs a more expansionary business view," Mr. Murdoch said. "They have real problems on their program schedule."Though the Fox network is in fourth place in the ratings, Mr. Murdoch contended that it had achieved parity with CBS, ABC and NBC, citing as evidence the increased payments he said those networks were making to their affiliated stations to keep them from fleeing to Fox."

In their first face-to-face meeting yesterday, the controlling family of Dow Jones & Co. told Rupert Murdoch, a suitor some mistrust deeply, that they would sell him the company only if they could keep its jewel, The Wall Street Journal, out of his editorial control. Murdoch made it clear that he would not accept the Bancroft family's proposal, which would give a board of independent overseers the power to hire and fire top editors, but a series of adjustments and alternative plans was floated in a meeting that lasted almost five hours, according to people who were present or were briefed by participants.

MCI Communications Corp. and Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. are teaming up to launch a worldwide entertainment and information service that will combine MCI's technological prowess with the creative flair of the Murdoch empire.Under the agreement announced yesterday in Washington, MCI will invest up to $2 billion to become the largest outside shareowner in News Corp. The companies also will kick in $200 million each to launch the venture, but Mr. Murdoch and MCI Chairman Bert C. Roberts said that was just the beginning.

As the scandal that sunk Rupert Murdoch's News of the World continued to unfold last week, one of the questions that loomed was whether there would be any fallout on this side of the Atlantic. What most American analysts were wondering was whether evidence would show that employees in Britain or at one of Murdoch's U.S. properties like the New York Post had hacked into the voice mails of family members or victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks — or paid off police for information on celebrities and others here or abroad.

On weekday mornings, I'll post the most controversial, shocking and (of course) ridiculous stories for your reading pleasure. That way, when you walk into work, you'll be the master of witty conversation. Articles  • Migraine-gate? Did Michele Bachmann's security rough up a reporter? ( Time )  • But more than half think Palin is going? Only 19 percent of Republicans think Obama is going to heaven. ( Slate )  • How can anyone understand anything he says?

UPDATE (11:55 a.m.): The hearing was abruptly interrupted, and the camera went to a blank wall as a result of a disturbance in the hearing room at about 11:55 a.m. as the last questioner was addressing a question to Rupert Murdoch.  A replay of video showed a  spectator approaching Rupert Murdoch with a plate of white shaving cream. A CNN staffer in the room reports that the shaving cream hit Murdoch "squarely in the face. " Murdoch's wife, Wendi Deng, leapt to her husband's defense by throwing a punch at the man. Murdoch did not seem injured, and the spectator was removed by police.

If you want to get a sense of how desperate things have become in Rupert Murdoch's empire, take a look at this editorial in today's Wall Street Journal. To cast what is happening in the UK -- and what certainly seems headed for the US -- as the work of Murdoch's commercial and ideological enemies might seem mad to reasonable journalists. But not to Murdoch and his chieftans. That is all they seem to know: attack, attack and try to destroy your opponents. Providing reliable and trustworthy information to citizens so that they can make reasoned decisions about their lives is not on this gang's daily to-do list.

Rupert Murdoch is in trouble and a whole lot of folks are delighted. They are practically drooling at the mouth that the downfall of Fox News could be around the corner. Members of Congress are calling for an investigation into allegations that the Murdoch-owned News Corp. may have committed criminal acts in the U.S. by hacking into the cell phone voice messages of 9/11 victims. In Britain, News of the World, a Murdoch tabloid, was shut down and the heads of editors are rolling. It seems at the highest levels in Mr. Murdoch's British news empire, there was complicity in this hacking scandal.

I have been thinking about media and public shame a lot lately. And events this week with Rupert Murdoch globally and Sheila Dixon locally have focused my troubled thoughts. The litany of public figures who have been in the news lately for behaving shamefully is a long and sad one. The indictment of former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards in June brought back the whole sorry saga of him fathering a child out of wedlock with a campaign videographer as his wife fought a cancer that would claim her life in 2010.

Los Angeles -- Brace yourself. The world of network television as you know it is in for a wild ride in coming months.That's the message Rupert Murdoch delivered here yesterday to TV critics as his Fox Broadcasting Co. opened its three-day preview of new fall shows.Murdoch, Fox chairman and CEO, didn't talk much about new shows during his rare Q&A session. The emphasis instead was on the frenzied game of musical chairs occurring in network-affiliate relations, which Murdoch started last month through a deal with New World Television that resulted in eight stations leaving the old-line networks for Fox. Baltimore is still feeling the effects of the deal, which saw ABC drop WJZ (Channel 13)

TED TURNER'S CNN, which has had the 24-hour cable TV news business in the United States almost entirely to itself, suddenly finds itself with a lot of company.Last week, ABC and NBC both disclosed plans to challenge CNN in its core market, and News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch also expressed interest in launching a 24-hour news venture.What wasn't clear at the end of last week was where these new networks might find enough viewers to be successful, or whether they would be able to find clear channels on many cable systems, especially those owned by No. 2 Time-Warner, which has announced plans to acquire Turner Broadcasting.

This just in: With mega disaster MySpace off of News Corp.'s books, chief Rupert Murdoch bets on cleavage, says the following "letter" leaked to press: Dear Ms. Knowles, May I call you Beyoncé? My wife Wendi is a big fan of yours. Her iPod is stacked with your albums. Her favorite song is "Single Ladies (Put a ring on it). " Let me tell you, I did. My reason for writing is Wendi. She thinks I need to capitalize on the "Fox Look" by starting a fashion line. You probably already know this, but I am chairman and chief executive officer of News Corp., parent company of Fox News, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Post, and I thankfully, finally, offloaded MySpace — my little social networking mistake!

NEW YORK -- In the past few months, Rupert Murdoch has moved into an office at Dow Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal. He has pushed the paper's editors for shorter articles and more hard news. He has personally wooed reporters he wants to keep out of his competitors' hands. And last week, he oversaw the replacement of top executives, including the Journal's publisher, with his own lieutenants. And he hasn't even bought the company yet. That will change today, when in all likelihood shareholders will vote to approve the sale of Dow Jones to Murdoch's company, the News Corp.