The Forum > General Discussion > Murdoch A New Breed of Mushroom
Murdoch A New Breed of Mushroom
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Did Rupert think his journalists had committed blackmail, when asked at the Leveson Inquiry to comment on “the newspaper had offered to pixilate the face of one of the women in the video and pay her if she would give an interview. If she refused, her privacy would not be protected” Murdoch’s reply was ''A journalist doing a favour for someone in return for a favour back is pretty much everyday practice'' Justice Brian Leveson pressed Murdock, saying he found it disturbing that a woman whose actions had not touched on the public interest would be treated that way.
Old Rupert, after all he is top cocky at News Corp, insisted: ''It's a common thing in life, not just in journalism, for people to say, 'You scratch my back and I will scratch your back.''
But the appearances of daddy and Son, at the Leveson Inquiry this week is about much more than an analysis of where the ‘British media have gone wrong.’
Underneath the claims about hacking, bribery, cover-ups and failures in corporate governance, simmers a crucial question: are the Murdoch’s and their companies fit and proper to be holding the positions they do?
It has been argued by media analyst Steve Hewlett, that the issue was not Murdoch lobbying for his commercial interests, or allowing his political interests to shape the content of his newspapers; all proprietors did that. "The problem was that he was 40 per cent of the market and way, way over-mighty. There wasn't anything of significance that didn't involve 'What did Rupert make of this?' for the last 30 years.
These are questions for Australia as well.