A New Beginning

I've decided to get back to blogging here: the main theme being not just Wendi Deng but the immoral activities of her husband and his global news propaganda machine. Of course I have been following these issues closely on my other blogs at Bush Out and Howard Out, but I am not going to continue those blogs any more.

Here are a few pics to kick things off again...

Murdoch's China dream shattered

Paul Sheehan previews a new book:

FOR more than 10 years, China's potential mesmerised Rupert Murdoch. He poured more than $2 billion into the country and lost at least half of it. He spent lavishly courting the communist mandarins, and cut ethical corners. He even took a young Chinese wife, who bore him two daughters and installed a Mandarin-speaking nanny so they would grow up bicultural.

And where did it all get him? Not far, according to Bruce Dover, who served the Murdoch empire in Asia as director of business development when China was Murdoch's big global play. "He was literally on the telephone every other day seeking news of progress," Dover writes in his book, Rupert's Adventures In China, to be published next week.

Murdoch described Wendi Deng, his third and much younger Chinese wife, as his "great help and adviser", but Dover was unconvinced. He writes: "The degree to which she has been a great help is arguable. While she brought to the partnership an insight into the cultural and often complex nuances of doing business there, she had no head for the politics of the country's opaque and evolving political structure. She had no business connections in China. She teamed up with the new stepson [James Murdoch] to initiate and advocate Chinese internet investments nearly all of which were later written off as total losses."

Nor does James Murdoch, Rupert's apparent favoured heir, who was sent to run News Corp's push into Asia for a time, escape Dover's scepticism. After noting that James was born in the year of the rat, he summarises some of his career achievements before arriving in China: "In late 1999 and early 2000 he spent some $US150 million acquiring stakes in some 20 internet businesses across Asia … Within two years all but a couple had disappeared completely.

"James had also been the champion of News Corp's decision to merge the highly profitable TV Guide business with Gemstar International [an onscreen program guide]. Three years later, News Corp would take a $US6 billion write-down on its investment in Gemstar."

Dover was also unimpressed by the way James courted favour in Beijing after the violent suppression of the spiritual movement Falun Gong: "The crackdown on Falun Gong was orchestrated by the same officials who had once been given the task of monitoring and controlling Rupert Murdoch's entry into China. As his father watched from the audience, James claimed that Falun Gong 'clearly does not have the success of China at heart'."

This and other episodes, including the elder Murdoch's decision to junk a memoir by the former governor of Hong Kong, Chris Patten, because it might offend Beijing, left Dover ready to depart the empire: "The Patten incident marked a distinct warming in the relationship with the propaganda department. On a personal level, it left me questioning for the first time the real cost of accepting the Murdoch dollar and working for News Corp in China. Pragmatism was one thing, but this bordered on the coldly amoral."

It didn't get them far. Again and again, Murdoch is taken for a ride by the Chinese. First, there was Richard Li, the son of the legendary Hong Kong entrepreneur Li Ka-shing, who in 1993, at the age of 23, sold most of STAR TV, a Hong Kong-based satellite service, to News for more than $500 million even as the company was hemorrhaging money.

Li forgot to tell Murdoch that Chinese consumers were pirating the signal. "Despite the tens of thousands of cable operators surreptitiously downloading the STAR TV signal and distributing it across the nation to tens of millions of subscribers," Dover writes, "Murdoch was unable to collect a single cent in return."

The Chinese would also clone the programming News was churning out, copying everything. Soon after the purchase, Murdoch made a monumental blunder during a speech extolling the virtues of satellite TV, when he uttered this fateful sentence: "And satellite broadcasting makes it possible for information-hungry residents of many closed societies to bypass state-controlled television channels."

Within a month, China had banned the distribution, installation and use of satellite reception dishes anywhere in China. Murdoch's access to top officials dried up. It took four years, and hundreds of millions in losses, before he was rehabilitated in Beijing, but the Chinese were far from finished ripping him off. Writes Dover: "Many of [those] who had been provided with all-expenses-paid trips to the UK to see the BSkyB [satellite] platform in operation loved the Murdoch concept and set about implementing it. They just excluded Murdoch from his own plan."

In 2004, desperate to recoup its massive investments, News began expanding into the "grey area" of Chinese broadcasting. "STAR was certainly pushing the boundaries of what seemed to be legally acceptable behaviour," Dover writes. "This was no friendly giant treading delicately through the regulatory fields of the Chinese media landscape. This was the Incredible Hulk on steroids: pumped up by his own self-belief and urged on by his advisers, he was stepping on toes everywhere."

A disgruntled former manager blew the whistle, detailing deception on a large scale, how STAR circumvented regulations, exploited loopholes and disguised subscription payments. On August 2, 2005, the propaganda department issued regulations ending the opening up of the Chinese television market.

"Murdoch's insatiable appetite for the Chinese market," Dover writes, "had led them to push too hard, too fast, too soon - and they had crashed."

Couldn't happen to a nicer bloke, eh?

Meanwhile, forget about Murdoch's much-repeated promise to make online WSJ stories 100% free. In fact, fees are going up 10%:

"We're sort of dividing it up," Mr Murdoch told a panel at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday. "Those things that you can get more or less as a commodity on different sites about finance, that will certainly be free." But the "really special things will still be a subscription service, and sorry to tell you, probably more expensive", he said.

I wonder if the "really special stuff" includes the rightwing propaganda? Probably not, unfortunately.

Meanwhile, I not that Rumsfeld wants a new US Department of Propaganda. Doesn't he know they already have one - it's called FOX News.

Be Afraid

BWAAAAAHAHAHAHA! Rupert Murdoch toasts start of FBN:

"It's been a brilliant first nine days," Murdoch said. He credited his top lieutenant, Roger Ailes, for the channel's "distinctive" and "informative" look as it takes aim at industry-leading CNBC.

In a thinly veiled dig at the incumbent, Murdoch said the United States is home to "the best-run and most corruption-free companies in the world, not that you'd know it from much of the business coverage we see today."

Murdoch said his channel will still cover scandals that affect investors, "but my hope for Fox Business is that we'll also find time to celebrate the freedom and sense of optimism that free markets have given Americans."

... Ailes provided a few light notes during his short introduction for Murdoch, saying it was fitting the party be held in a temple commissioned by the Roman emperor Augustus - "the Rupert Murdoch of his day."

Rupert Cleans Wendi's Wiki

From the Gawker: Murdoch's Minions Fixed Up Wendi Deng's Wikipedia Entry.

Is Rupert Murdoch A Genocidal Tyrant?

The question is provoked by his own words:

Speaking publicly for the first time about his $6 billion purchase Mr Murdoch said he was determined to get his hands on a company that would provide such a perfect fit for his global media empire.

"That's why we put such a premium on its value and why I spent the better part of the past three months enduring criticism normally levelled at some sought of genocidal tyrant," he said.

Well, there are up to a million Iraqis dead now as a result of a war that Murdoch has enabled and supported every step of the way. Huge swathes of the Iraqi population are homeless as the population divides along ethnic lines, again as a result of a Murdoch's war.

So "genocidal" may very well fit. But "tyrant"? Well, let his business adversaries and former employees answer that one!

It Aint Over Till It's Over

Murdoch's WSJ takeover may not be as smooth as was widely reported. A single Bancroft family member with firmly gritted teeth could put the whole thing on hold for a very long time. This little matter needs to be handled carefully:

Dow Jones & Co Inc said on Thursday it was seeking a correction on a Wall Street Journal story on board director Christopher Bancroft, in the first public spat over the newspaper's reporting of Rupert Murdoch's buyout offer.

The Journal and its owner, Dow Jones, are in a dispute over whether the company was considering paying the legal fees of Bancroft to get further support for the buyout by Murdoch's News Corp (NWSa.N: Quote, Profile, Research).

The story, published in the Thursday edition of the newspaper, said the payment would be in exchange for Bancroft not using a trust he oversees to block the sale.

"Dow Jones is asking for a correction," said a Dow Jones spokeswoman.

She would not specify what was wrong.

A spokesman for the Journal said the newspaper had no plans to run a correction.

This little spat should be short-lived, however. Every man has his price, and the Bancrofts are self-evidently immoral toads:

In a memo sent to his business partner, Bruce Leadbetter, and attorney Pat Long, Bancroft said Dow Jones's payment of legal and advisory fees would ensure the family receives the same amount of money for its shares as other investors.

"What I want for my constituencies regarding the News Corp offer to merge with Dow Jones is: 1. The Wall Street Journal has the best editorial protection negotiable; 2. My family receives the same net for the Dow Jones Class B shares as the Dow Jones 'A' common shares received," he said in the letter seen by Reuters.

If Murdoch helps settle the fees, Bancroft said he would be willing to abstain from voting as as trustee.

“Jeez, I’d love to own that.”

How Murdoch stalked Dow:

In September 2005, Steginsky was in Murdoch’s office. On a coffee table sat a copy of The Wall Street Journal. The media tycoon picked it up, scanned the front page and said simply: “Jeez, I’d love to own that.” Steginsky was well aware that the support of the Bancrofts was key. By coincidence, he knew one of the family members, William Cox, who had been predicting that the company could be facing hard times.

Steginsky suggested he might give Cox a call to test the waters. Murdoch agreed.

Within the following couple of months, Steginsky and Cox met – first in Princeton, then in New York. The idea of a News Corporation takeover was gently floated. Cox was definitely interested.

The pursuit continued to Rome, where Cox and his wife Beatrice had a flat. Steginsky flew there and booked himself a room at the Hotel de Russie between the Spanish Steps and Piazza del Popolo. The five-star hotel, where an executive single room costs €480 (£323) a night, was just across the road from the Coxes’ flat.

Over three days, Steginsky shuttled back and forth between the hotel and the flat. With the Coxes, he discussed the merits of a takeover. More importantly, he gained a detailed insight into the various arms of the controlling family – or more accurately, the families: the Bancrofts, Hills and Coxes – who held sway over Dow Jones.

Stegisnky flew to Prague. There, at the airport, he met Elisabeth Goth Chelberg, William Cox’s cousin, a champion horsewoman who divides her time between Kentucky and the Czech Republic. They spoke for about an hour.

For more than a year, Steginsky pursued his quiet campaign, approaching members of the Bancroft clan to gauge their support.

Some were receptive: Michael Hill, an environmental scientist living in Boston, had written a letter in 2005 urging that the family should actively try to revive Dow Jones.

“The system is broken and we all have to put our heads together to fix it,” the letter said.

Others refused to countenance the idea of a takeover. Leslie Hill, a retired airline pilot, was contacted by phone. She shouted that the family did not want to sell and abruptly hung up.

Steginsky also received a firm rebuff from Michael Elefante, a Dow Jones director and a trustee for some older Bancroft family members. Leslie Hill’s mother, Jane Cox MacElree, was opposed to a sale “at any price”.

By the spring of this year, Murdoch was ready to move.