Murdoch wants BSkyB - will he get it?

[Jan Klimkowski]

This is a most interesting development.

So, two Telegraph undercover hacks tape Minister Cable stating that he has "declared war" on Murdoch's empire.

The Telegraph, at senior editorial level, choose not to run the story.

The Telegraph is an MSM rival to Murdoch's News International.

The rest of MSM is opposed to Murdoch controlling BSkyB as they fear it will give the Dirty Digger a huge financial advantage and a dominant editorial position within MSM.

Minister Cable loses his power to decide whether Murdoch gets BSkyB.

New Minister Jeremy "Silly" Hunt looks like greenlighting Murdoch's bid.

The Telegraph has now called in Kroll to investigate which member or members of Telegraph staff leaked the Cable tapes to rival MSM organs.

Kroll is a heavyweight insider dark arts and goon squad. See here and here for dedicated DPF threads on Kroll.

It is understood that four employees from the secretive corporate investigators Kroll have began interviewing Daily Telegraph staff, starting with members of the IT department.

The circumstances surrounding the leak have been the subject of intense speculation. Some industry insiders alleged that the Telegraph chose not to publish Cable's comments about Murdoch because it believed it would lead to his sacking as business secretary, removing a potentially serious obstacle to Sky's efforts to buy out BSkyB.

Telegraph Media Group, which also owns the paper's Sunday sister title and the Spectator, is a member of an alliance of media groups which is opposed to News Corp's bid to take full control of BSkyB.

The paper vigorously denies pulling the story for commercial reasons, and insists it was an editorial decision. Senior figures at the Telegraph have argued privately that Cable's comments about bringing the coalition government down if the Liberal Democrats are "pushed too far" were far more significant than his remarks about a rival media proprietor.

(snip)

Only a handful of people at the paper knew about the existence of the tapes and management are furious that Cable's comments were handed to rival news organisations. One executive said at the time the paper had been "betrayed".

It is unclear how long the Kroll investigation will last, or who it plans to interview, but it would be unusual if it didn't include the paper's journalists.

Cable has complained to the Press Complaints Commission about the paper's use of "subterfuge".

A spokesman for Telegraph Media Group said it did not comment on internal security matters.

[Jan Klimkowski]

Ignore "Prof" Grenslade's misleading headline. The spooky goons of Kroll are conducting their, ahem, investigation through selective leaks to MSM hacks:

Daily Telegraph internal inquiry clears journalists of Vince Cable leak

Telegraph's IT team questioned about leak of business secretary's 'declaration of war' on Rupert Murdoch to BBC

Roy Greenslade guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 1 March 2011 16.22 GMT

The Daily Telegraph's journalists have been provisionally cleared by an internal investigation into the leak of taped recordings of Vince Cable "declaring war" on Rupert Murdoch.

An inquiry by the private investigation firm Kroll for Telegraph Media Group has initially concluded that none of the paper's editorial staff were involved in the leak of the explosive recording to the BBC's Robert Peston.

Kroll's inquiries have concentrated instead on trying to explain how the BBC obtained the tape recording of Cable's remarks, and whose airing on BBC News forced David Cameron to strip Cable of his responsibility for media mergers.

An inside source said members of the Telegraph's IT team had been closely questioned about the leak. They included the former technical support manager, Jim Robinson, who was questioned in January.

He chose to leave the Telegraph at the end of that month, and has since been appointed to a post at News International. Robinson has not yet started his new job because he is currently serving a three-month period of gardening leave.

It is known that Robinson, who had spent 17 years with the Telegraph group, was particularly incensed by the questioning. A friend said he was upset at what he called "an interrogation" that called into question his integrity and his loyalty to the company.

At another point, it is understood that the questioner offered him amnesty if he confessed. "We'll forget about you," he was told, "if you give us Mr Big."

Robinson, who was strenuous in his denials of any involvement in the leaking of material, is said to have been amazed at the offer that, he told friends, made no sense to him.

Kroll's inquiry, which one editorial executive described as "frighteningly thorough", is continuing.

It follows a bizarre episode in December when Cable told two Telegraph reporters, who posed as constituents, that he had "declared war" on Murdoch by referring his offer to buy out BSkyB to the media regulator Ofcom.

The paper published other comments made by Cable on 20 December, but omitted his quotes about Murdoch from its initial report.

Instead, the remarks were published by Peston, the BBC's business editor, on his blog, and the tape was played on the BBC news.

Ever since the incident, the circumstances surrounding the leak have been the subject of intense speculation.

Robert Peston told the Guardian he had received the recording from a whistleblower, who told him at the time that the Telegraph "had made a commercial decision not to publish those remarks".

It was widely alleged that the Telegraph chose not to publish Cable's comments about Murdoch because it believed it would lead to his sacking as business secretary, removing a potentially serious obstacle to Sky's efforts to buy out BSkyB.

TMG is a leading member of the alliance of media groups opposed to News Corp's bid to acquire the 60.9% of BSkyB it does not already own.

The newspaper vigorously denied pulling the story for commercial reasons, insisting it was an editorial decision.

It chose to lead the paper on Cable's assertion that he had the power to pull down the coalition government if he so wished.

Senior figures said the Murdoch story was a secondary, media matter and that it had been planning to run that on the following day.

Cable has since complained to the Press Complaints Commission about the paper's use of "subterfuge". The PCC inquiry is ongoing.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/mar...cable-leak

[David Butler]

They are reporting on the BBC tonight that he has agreed to sell off Sky News to try and force the takeover through

[Magda Hassan]

Campaigners ignored as Murdoch gets go ahead

The BBC are reporting that Rupert Murdoch has been given the go ahead for News International's controversial takeover of BSkyB. The move is likely to inflame campaigners.
The global online campaigning group, Avaaz, yesterday organised over 30,000 messages and phone calls to Parliament. While a petition on the Avaaz website has been signed by close to 250,000 people. An email from Executive Director, Ricken Patel, last night told campaigners:

"Murdoch has used his vast media empire to push war in Iraq, elect George W Bush, and block global action on climate change, and if he wins this week in Britain he will use his networks here to undermine all the issues that we care about. He has manipulated US, British and Australian democracy for years, but now he wants more complete control. In the US, most of the likely Republican presidential candidates are actually paid employees of Murdoch! When his Fox News Network was shunned by Barack Obama as a mere propaganda mouthpiece, it spawned the far right "tea party"and broadcast constant, often hate-filled attacks against Obama and his healthcare and peace agenda resulting in a huge win for Republicans in the 2010 congressional elections.
"Murdoch media staff have trampled laws and standards when gathering news. Several News Corporation executives approved phone hacking and, when a formal investigation began, they had regular secret meetings with senior police officers who then failed to investigate the full extent of the scandal. Our government should punish such an organisation, not allow it monopoly powers over our media. But if Rupert Murdoch is allowed to buy all of BSkyB this week, he will soon own half of our commercial newspapers and television. This should not be allowed in any democracy."

The decision-maker Jemery Hunt had previously said:

"Rather than worry about Rupert Murdoch owning another TV channel, what we should recognise is that he has probably done more to create variety and choice in British TV than any other single person because of his huge investment in setting up Sky TV, which, at one point, was losing several million pounds a day.
"We would be the poorer and wouldn't be saying that British TV is the envy of the world if it hadn't been for him being prepared to take that commercial risk. We need to encourage that kind of investment."

So much for an impartial decision.
http://www.leftfootforward.org/2011/03/c...-go-ahead/