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Michael Wolff: Rupert Murdoch Is A ‘Tainted Brand’ That Stands For Phone Hacking

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Adweek‘s Michael Wolff, who wrote a biography of Rupert Murdoch insists that the Murdoch who signed full page apology letters in U.K. newspapers ahead of his testimony today before a panel of the British Parliament is not apologizing for the actions of a few “rogue employees,” but rather, for what his company “is.” On Bloomberg TV, Wolff said “this is not an aberration, this is what his newspapers have always done.”

Will Murdoch save his company by stepping away from his role as News Corp. CEO? Wolff told Carol Massar on Bloomberg Television’s In the Loop “it’s likely, but he’s not going to go willingly. He’s going to go because there is no other alternative. Effectively, what you have it a tainted brand. The name Murdoch now stands for…something very clear: you hack people’s phones.”

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  • Anonymous

    Fact: Tainted brand that most view in America as the best in coverage of being the less biased news outlet on TV.

  • Anonymous

    And Barack Obama is a tainted brand that stands for selling guns to drug cartels, obviously.

  • Anonymous

    Remind people that he owns Fox, WSJ, NY Post. They are all tainted with him. He has always been a tainted figure, wonder why it took you all to notice. I’ve been on it for a very, very long time. Still, the jokers would still hate me, even though their Uncle is on the wrong side. 

  • Anonymous

    I know you don’t believe that, try to repeat it in your head as many times as possible to convince yourself. Hope it helps. 

  • Anonymous

    Another absurd post by the lamer above regarding Fox, WSJ, etc.  But hey, that’s what people do when they can’t convince the mainstream of America that their political philosophy is the correct philosophy.  They can only hope that external events somehow take away the messengers.  Pretty pathetic, — but that’s a hard core leftist for you.

    But what the dolt fails to understand is that no matter what may or may not happen with Murdoch or anyone else, the bottom line is that the masses of people aren’t going to change their own political stripes.  The expression goes “Nature abhors a vacuum”.  Someone else or some other entities will always be there to fill the void so there’s a check on the overwhelmingly liberal media.

  • Anonymous

    Another absurd post by the lamer above regarding Fox, WSJ, etc.  But hey, that’s what people do when they can’t convince the mainstream of America that their political philosophy is the correct philosophy.  They can only hope that external events somehow take away the messengers.  Pretty pathetic, — but that’s a hard core leftist for you.

    But what the dolt fails to understand is that no matter what may or may not happen with Murdoch or anyone else, the bottom line is that the masses of people aren’t going to change their own political stripes.  The expression goes “Nature abhors a vacuum”.  Someone else or some other entities will always be there to fill the void so there’s a check on the overwhelmingly liberal media.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Dronetek-Bulk-Vanderhuge/100000918732763 Dronetek Bulk Vanderhuge

    Yeah, lets shut down all points of view we don’t like! It should be all left wing, all Democrat, all liberal, ALL THE TIME! Plus, lets just ignore all the lies, misinformation and hacking the rest of the MSM has done. I don’t recall any outrage when Palin’s email was hacked and the entire MSM published the emails. 

  • Anonymous

    Fact; I do beleive it. Fox news is the best news. The rest are in the liberal tank and taint everything.

  • Anonymous

    Tell us about his involvement in the NOTW hackings, skyfet. Please, explain what he did here.

  • Anonymous

    Hey, Obama won the White House on HOPE!!! Why let it go now (aside from the fact that it’s an obvious failure)?

  • Anonymous

    He hired Andy Coulson, Coulson is involved. Nothing gets done without the boss sanctioning it. If not then he is incompetent about keeping his folks in line, if he does not about it then he has broken the law.

    Let me know if you are still doubtful. ahhhhh

  • Anonymous

    Wolfe is a liberal hack who hates Murdoch and the conservative voice.

    He was not introduced as an “extreme leftist”, a controversial source, or anything like that. This entire piece is a waste of time.

  • Anonymous

    So then you approve of Obama being impeached over the ATF debacle. Awesome!

  • Anonymous

    Now we are changing the subject. The head of the cases should be investigated and the head of the department should also be questioned.

  • Frank

    I believe it too. They have more Dems on camera than the competitors (cable and broadcast) have Republicans on camera combined. Their primetime opinion is definitely more conservative, but they always allow other voices on.

    Their regular news is far more balanced than others, and studies have shown they were just as critical of, say, McCain as Obama in the elections… whereas other news companies were far more critical of McCain than ever of Obama.

  • Anonymous

    Someone once said…”Nothing gets done without the boss sanctioning it. If not then he is incompetent about keeping his folks in line, if he does not about it
    then he has broken the law. Let me know if you are still doubtful. ahhhh”

    Therefore, you are approving of the impeachment of Obama regarding his involvement in the killing of American lives.

  • Anonymous

    That would be Coulson in this case. The head of the department would be Rebekah Brooks. But you’re insisting Murdocjh is involved and responsible. Obama hired Holder. Obama hired Napolitano. Thus, by that very same broken logic, Obama sold guns to drug cartels. Brian Terry’s blood is on Barack Obama’s hands.

    Right?

  • Anonymous

    Duh! that’s a reach, even for your lame standard. Eric Holder is on the line, this is accepted by everyone, you are just being a moron by making a dumb argument. The ATF is under the Justice department (if you don’t know). Their Boss did the action, he reports to Holder, if he is guilty, then Holder needs to explain himself. Was George Bush made responsible for what happened in Abu Guraib? Nah.

  • Anonymous

    In all honesty, the longer the ATF situation goes on without heads rolling, it will be on Obama’s watch. How is it going to look in 2012 when the American people know that Obama helped in the supplying (stimulus money) of guns to drug cartels?

  • Anonymous

    Responded to that already above. Let me remind ya, ATF got caught doing this. ATF head reports to Eric Holder.

    Rupert Murdoch hired Andy Coulson, he reports to him directly. Rebekkah Brooks, was the Editor of The Sun at the time, the role of News International was non-existing then. So he reports directly to Murdoch. So again go back and learn before embarrassing yourself.

  • Anonymous

    So George Bush was involved in the torture in Abu Guraib. I thought that Rumsfeld head was in line for that. What double standard.

  • Anonymous

    I’m betting it will blow over and Murdoch will retire of his own free will. He might even stick around a little longer than he would have, just to show he can. His son, however, will not fare so well, and that might be another reason for the Old Dog to hold on.

  • Harry

    So this story is about partisanship not morality. Where I have seen this before. It reminds me of the Iraq War. It doesn’t matter how many people died, the depths of the Abu Grahb prison scandal, or how bad the civil war became you still had about 20% of the country who would have supported Bush regardless. We still have the same Fox viewers in America. This is already the greatest media scandal of our lifetime. But, it doesn’t matter how many more people commit suicide or how many more hacking accounts surface, there will be defensive people in denial at Fox news who will stand beside Rupert Murdoch. 

  • Anonymous

    Did he say ‘tainted brand’ or ‘branded taint’?

  • Anonymous

    Did he say ‘tainted brand’ or ‘branded taint’?

  • Anonymous

    Obama hired Eric Holder.

    Actually, set that aside. Obama’s signature is put on a law (stimulus funds) that traces HIM specifically to the ATF case. You can’t take away a signature.

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  • Mlkbeat

    Good thing we got Saddam Hussein.. the man responsible for the 9-11 attacks!  And only Fox had the guts to report that “fact”

  • Jerry Baustian

     NewsCorp has 53,000 employees worldwide. That is why it has so many divisions, with managers in each division responsible for the people they hire, and lower level managers at each newspaper and TV station responsible for their own hiring.Chief executives are responsible for looking at the big picture, and the chief executive of a multinational company necessarily delegates that responsibility to the people in each country, and to the managers of each company in each country, and to the managers in each department of each company. If one of the managers, in this case one of the editors, does things which are illegal or unethical, and hides this from his or her immediate superior, then there is no way for the man at the top to know what is happening at the bottom — until people are arrested, until the company ends up in court, when what was covered up suddenly becomes public knowledge.

  • thisexists

    Better than being a branded taint.  

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_U7T5LVIQK7AMIBM5WI765VDVDQ smald4lib

    When  your media is controlled by 5 corporations, and all the board members of these corporations are on the boards of other corporations, you get what we call a fascist government. And to think that this isn’t true is really when the propagandist like the Murdock’s, Aisles controlled GOP(Fox) News, is called denial. And to equate free speech with money is the height of judicial fascism. Think our founding fathers didn’t know?

    Jefferson:  “I hope we shall…crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and to bid defiance to the laws of our country.”

  • JMcCarthy

    Does Michale Wolff get any money from one of his hero’s George Soros?  The Soros who has admitted to turning in jews to the Nazi’s during WW2 and responsable for how many death’s?  And all Mr. Wolff can talk about is alleged phone hacking that Mr. Murdoch had no prior knowledge of?  More garbage from the Soros and obama Marxist, Radicle Left Wing Democrat Propaganda “Mass Media” Machine!

  • JMcCarthy

    Does Michale Wolff get any money from one of his hero’s George Soros?  The Soros who has admitted to turning in jews to the Nazi’s during WW2 and responsable for how many death’s?  And all Mr. Wolff can talk about is alleged phone hacking that Mr. Murdoch had no prior knowledge of?  More garbage from the Soros and obama Marxist, Radicle Left Wing Democrat Propaganda “Mass Media” Machine!

  • Dik Gozinya

    Wolff is just another cretin who has no problem with the New York Times publishing WikiLeaks documents that endanger America’s allies.

    Watch out America-Soros and Media Matters want to take away our Freedom of Speech. Watch these ‘M’F'rs.

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