Saturday, June 2, 2007

Principle? Murdoch Can't Get It Up

Stephen Mayne at Crikey assesses the damage to News Ltd since Murdoch announced his bid for Dow Jones:
Shares in the media conglomerate have now fallen 3.5% since the overly generous $7 billion bid was unveiled on 1 May, whilst the All Ordinaries index has risen by 3.87% over the same period, amounting to underperformance of more than 7%.

However, the intangible reputational issues are becoming more significant than any share-price gyrations as Rupert encounters far more blowback than he could have ever expected.
Mayne (who is famous for such stunts) says he is now "battling away with a rejected News Corp board tilt and a still hopeful shareholder resolution for this year’s AGM." You go, fella!

Mayne also points to a new Slate article by Jack Shafer:
Murdoch isn't bad for journalism because he's a conservative. He's bad for journalism because he has no principles...

Does Murdoch pass the Dow Jones stink test? He's not even qualified to take it.
Shafer in turn points to an Independent article suggesting that Murdoch may soon give Tony Blair a seat on the News Ltd board (which would place him right next to Jose Maria Aznar, former Spanish warmonger PM).

No comments: