What an unfortunate title for this essay.
Rupert is not being hacked in any sense whatsoever, and certainly not to death.

Don Allan,

The adverse reaction to the near monopoly of the Media by Mr. Rupert Murdoch is not entirely consistent with a kind of ‘tall poppy syndrome’, as your article implies.

The service of NOTW to the community that you somehow justify was not all that impartial; it highlighted sexual activities, especially those of deviants, and left in the dark the more substantial transactions of our society.

NOTW with its levity diverted the attention of people from and somehow justified the complex legislation that draws on the sense of modesty (as reticence to divest our body, to keep ‘private’ our toileting and sexual activities) and mired on keeping very private the financial activities of Tycoons of all kinds.

NOTW would have no community or social function to perform if Privacy Laws did not exist.

The latest privacy legislation has been surreptitiously enacted on the confusion of the concept of Modesty and Privacy.

No one of us has gone through life without a faux pas, which does not make criminal out of us, yet we are accepting these wasteful insane Laws for fear of having that fault revealed

Is Murdoch being hacked to death unfairly?

Probably.

My heart bleeds for the poor little thing.

Emotive junk mail.
Hacked to death?
If justice is in fact not blind, if Murdock is to be treated, and he will not, as an ordinary man?
Prison would be close.
Unfairly?
I recommend this thread, it shows self interest and privilege at work.
It well could be an editorial in any of Murdock's out lets.
FOX Like remote from truth honesty balance.

Possibly.

"Although I hold no brief for Murdoch it seems to me that jealousy underlies the campaign now being directed at Murdoch and his media empire by politicians and rival media."

Or payback, perhaps.

More simply, as far as the press is concerned, relishing the opportunity to kick someone when they are down, which is the universal pastime of any newspaper, anywhere, any time.

As for the pollies, they are doing their usual conga-line behind the populist furore whipped up by... oh yes.

The media.

How about that?

The biter bit.
Unfortunately Murdoch and his organization will survive and probably thrive, since he's the natural ally of conservative politicians on three continents.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/butterworth-and-bowcott-on-law/2011/jul/25/phone-hacking-lawyers-mobiles
read this then tell me it is a set up.
Understand why top police fell on their swords that Murdock said he did not know but has total control of his group.
Criminal even the Royal family Parliament and murder victims came do to just another story and some say its a beat up?
These are the lawyers of victims!

At first glance Murdoch is a prim old protestant Neocon, I fell for that too until someone pointed out that he's the Smutmeister of the Western world, the Hollywood Porno Kings must salivate at the thought of old Rupert's "T & A" empire.
Can you imagine a "conservative" taking over The Age or Haaretz and putting half naked girls on the third page?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/jul/26/osborne-news-international-election
Rather than porn it is the power seen here that concerns me.
Unfair? no targeting his Empire has been coming for a long time

In the end it will be his own shareholders that decide the issue. The NewsCorp/Limited share price has a built-in Murdoch discount.

They are increasingly unhappy about some of his less sound business dealings:

- purchasing MySpace for USD580m and selling it to Justin Timberlake for USD35m

- purchasing Dow Jones (Wall Street Journal) for around USD5b of which around USD2.8billion was later written off

- the three corporate espionage and anticompetitive law suits against News America which have cost them around USD655m (not related to the UK sleaze)

- the recent purchase of his daughters TV production company Shine for USD673m

They are also frustrated on being hamstrung by the two classes of shares: voting and non-voting. No prizes for guessing who controls the voting shares. However if the 2nd largest holder of voting stock Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Al Saud finally gets sick and tired of Murdoch's war on muslims that could change.

Nomura recently recently published a list of News assets under these headings:

Good - TV - terrestial, cable and satellite.

Bad - Film, Magazines/inserts, books

Toxic - all the newspapers.

Finally the recent Sargeant Shulz defence of "I know nuuuuuuuuthing" before the British parliament around the News International/NOTW hacking has done nuuuuuuuuthing to enhance their view that Rupert is the right man to lead a multinational publicly listed company.

If regime change were to occur I imagine it would be a complete flush out of all Murdochs and a capital restructure to bring democracy back to the shareholders.