Murdoch Again?

The Murdoch slime machine slithered into the news cycle again. Their people in China reportedly laid some hefty “gifts” (entertainment and travel) on sources over there. If true, that would seem to be a big no-no under US law. Wall Street Journal staffers in China were tagged with the bribery charges. They deny everything and say outsiders hired to investigate gave them a clean bill. They could have saved their money; hopefully our authorities will do the investigation and if it turns out that the Journal is clean, it will not cost Murdoch a penny. But if our investigation goes the other way, it will cost him big time. The FBI and the Justice Department are not commenting on these bribery charges.

However, this is not the only instance of the Murdoch empire being looked at for possible violations of our Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). That’s the law that makes it illegal for American entities to bribe folks outside our borders as Murdoch has in Great Britain. His minions were nailed for unconscionable telephone hacking schemes and laying thousands of British pounds on police and other public servants for scoops. Murdoch is a US citizen and his organization is based in the United States; that would seem to put his London crew under FCPA.

That could be the least of Murdoch’s worries. The FCPA violations would go away after some healthy fines; just a cost of doing business for the ethically challenged like Rupert Murdoch. More serious is the finding of a committee of the British Parliament that Murdoch is "not a fit person" to run a major international entity like News Corp. Where that spills over into News Corp’s home in America is when Murdoch’s broadcast licenses come into play. He owns a couple dozen broadcast stations in America.  

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a nonpartisan watchdog group, has been bugging the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to revoke his licenses as the Communications Act would seem to dictate. Should that happen Murdoch’s American broadcast properties would be reduced to some used office furniture, used electronics gear and real estate. The tens of millions these facilities are worth would be gone, poof, just like that. We’ll see what the FCC does. They have had this issue before them for a couple years; it is past time for them to act.

Meanwhile the DOJ is juggling the FCPA implications raised by Murdoch’s bribery activities in Great Britain. The Brits have arrested Murdoch minions by the dozen including Rupert’s darling, Rebecca Brooks, who formerly headed all his smarmy Fleet Street newspaper operations. The DOJ ought to be arresting Murdoch executives here in the United States, perhaps even Murdoch himself, certainly his son James, who headed News Corp at least in theory. Don’t hold your breath, however. In the end the FCC and the DOJ will probably chicken out and do nothing; a pity.