Writing in Newsweek, Carl Bernstein (of Watergate fame) says that the closing of the scandal-ridden scandal-rag News of the World is the start of the crumbling of the Murdoch world-wide empire.
It's a long article, so there's much that could be featured. I'm going to skip over his excellent recap of the scandal itself and the growth of the Murdoch empire in the UK and US (but do read for that if for nothing else).
Instead, let's start here:
[T]he empire is shaking, and there’s no telling when it will stop. My conversations with British journalists and politicians—all of them insistent on speaking anonymously to protect themselves from retribution by the still-enormously powerful mogul—make evident that the shuttering of News of the World, and the official inquiries announced by the British government, are the beginning, not the end, of the seismic event.Though Bernstein believes that Murdoch himself may be safe, he finds it hard to believe that the master's top deputies didn't think they had his green light to run his business this way. And Scotland Yard is investigating:
News International, the British arm of Murdoch’s media empire, “has always worked on the principle of omertà: ‘Do not say anything to anybody outside the family, and we will look after you,’” notes a former Murdoch editor who knows the system well. “Now they are hanging people out to dry. The moment you do that, the omertà is gone, and people are going to talk. It looks like a circular firing squad.” ... As one of his former top executives—once a close aide—told me, “This scandal and all its implications could not have happened anywhere else. Only in Murdoch’s orbit. The hacking at News of the World was done on an industrial scale. More than anyone, Murdoch invented and established this culture in the newsroom, where you do whatever it takes to get the story, take no prisoners, destroy the competition, and the end will justify the means.”
“In the end, what you sow is what you reap,” said this same executive. “Now Murdoch is a victim of the culture that he created. It is a logical conclusion, and it is his people at the top who encouraged lawbreaking and hacking phones and condoned it.”
Investigators are already assembling voluminous records that demonstrate the systemic lawbreaking at News of the World, and Scotland Yard seems to believe what was happening in the newsroom was endemic at the highest levels at the paper and evident within the corporate structure. Checks have been found showing tens of thousands of dollars of payments at a time.Bernstein makes two Watergate comparisons. First, when he and Bob Woodward wanted to approach grand jurors and obtain private phone records, they sought Ben Bradlee's permission, who checked with corporate lawyers. Hard to imagine, he implies, that similar corporate "permissions" aren't in place, either case by case, or perhaps more likely, by institutional understanding.
Second, and related, is the degree to which the investigation turns Rupert Murdoch into Richard Nixon, the perp who can be tied to the cover-up, if not the crime. (Note: This is where the destruction of omertà comes in; by sacrificing underlings, Murdoch loses the protection that silence affords.)
I'll make two points of my own:
■ Murdoch has dynasty dreams. For me, James Murdoch is the crown jewel of this investigation.
If James Murdoch lands in jail, a novelist's eye can easily see the old man raging, mad with grief, in an empty castle.
■ Murdoch's business model: As I've written before, he's not a propagandist. He's a monopolist, an empire builder, who sells propaganda services to corrupt politicians in exchange for bigger monopolies, bigger empires. Crumble the empire and you crumble the man.
Scotland Yard is on the case. If I can suggest, channeling Bernstein: "Follow the money, folks."
GP
