We now know that Rupert Murdoch planned to read the text of a prepared statement to the UK House of Commons Select Committee on Culture, Media and Sports. Although, he was not allowed to do so at the start of the hearing he did manage to do so at the end. In it he stated that 'this is the most humble day of my career'.
In any case, as he was not allowed to do so in the beginning, he interrupted his son James Murdoch who had started with a bizarre and rambling statement of his own, in answer to the committee chairman's first question, to briefly state that the hearing represented 'the most humble day of my life.'
Rupert however, contradicted himself at the end of the hearing when a Conservative MP, Louise Mensch, asked him why he hadn't resigned. "I think frankly I am the best person to clean this up," he replied. The sheer arrogance of his response belies the fact that he felt anything but humble. The fact that he came across as a very elderly, bewildered, terse outback farmer lacking the power of hearing was noted by many. James, on the other hand, came across as a criminally incompetent fool who owes his position in life to the sole fact that he is his father's son and he was perhaps at the hearing to smoothen his succession.
Yet by midday trading in New York, News Corp shares registered an increase of 4.8 percent. The mystery of why this would happen leads us to finally unraveling the reasons for the mess that today constitutes the Anglo-Saxon economic system which pretends to strongly feature Capitalism and Protestantism at its heart. "The two men's appearance had been "very reassuring", said Jason Subotky, a portfolio manager at the dollar 10 billion Yactman funds, New Corp's eight largest shareholder. "It shows they are taking it seriously and that the problem is contained, he said." The above is from a report published in the Financial Times of Wednesday, July 20, 2011. The same publication has quoted another "multibillion-dollar hedge fund manager who trades in News Corp and British Sky Broadcasting, the UK satellite broadcaster, in which it holds a 40 percent stake, admitted to being glued to the proceedings at Westminster.
"James has been quite impressive, he has a good command of the facts," he said, but he added: "Rupert is looking tired. It probably increasing the likelihood that he has to step down, depending on how the reviews come in."
The most bizarre aspect of all this is that the said publication has reported these ridiculous statements as an explanation for the share price rise without pointing out how contradictory and erroneous they are. It is such people, who run the capital markets of New York and London, believing that Anglo-Saxon economies are more 'liberal" and free-market oriented than other capitalist economies. Hence the financial mess the United States and the United Kingdom are in. The silver lining for developing countries in the 'Voicemailgate' is that the plutocratic nature of these two societies has been laid bare for all to see. No developing country should allow these two countries to ever lecture them on Democracy or on Free Market Economics.
The debate in the past has been about maintaining plurality in preventing concentration of media ownership. However, Rupert Murdoch's statement, that as the News of the World represented only one percent of the turnover of his Company, he had lost touch with it raises a new issue. If an organization ends up owning so many media properties that the Chief Executive ends up becoming out of touch with any of them that cannot be acceptable. The near criminal level of delegation of authority implied by father son duo in its highly unconvincing performance clearly shows that News Corp is not qualified to own even the 39 percent of British Sky Broadcasting that it now owns leave alone 100 percent.
The question now arises where all this leaves 'Dodgy Dave' and his continuing in the office of First Lord of Her Majesties Treasury. The Leader of Her Majesties Loyal opposition, Ed Miliband, is being quite clever in only demanding an apology from him and not his resignation. He knows that 'Dodgy Dave' is now damaged goods and the longer he stays as Prime Minister the more damage will be inflicted on the Conservative Party. In the past, as happened with Margaret Thatcher, Tory Grandees at this stage would have forced a resignation out of him by now. However, the Tory Party today is not the same as it was in 1991. The fact is that 'Dodgy Dave' made a Faustian pact with the devil and is now in purgatory for it. Now the Tories squirm as they feel the heat in Murdoch's embrace.