The dingbats at Fox News' illiterate dementia variety hour, Fox and Friends, finally got around to "covering" the News Corp. hacking scandal that's giving their parent company overlord, Rupert Murdoch, so many problems these days. It is one of the sadder bits of television you'll ever see, right up there with... every other Fox and Friends segment that's ever aired, probably.
Add Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour to the list of GOP pols that Fox News CEO Roger Ailes schmoozes with. According to records obtained by Gawker under the Mississippi Public Records Act, Barbour met with Ailes at News Corporation's New York headquarters for an hour on October 14, 2010—just three weeks before the midterm elections in which Barbour played a major role.
Remember when Fox News whined that the White House tried to ice them out of an interview with a Treasury Department official that everyone else got to talk to? And the White House denied it? Well, Judicial Watch used the Freedom of Information Act to get emails of White House staffers planning the event, and it turns out they were totally lying! They hate Fox News and think Brett Baier is a "lunatic," which he absolutely is, because he works for Fox News.
Rupert Murdoch has given his formal interview since his world started collapsing around him—to the Wall Street Journal, of course. We're sure it was a hard-hitting barrage of questions. The upshot: He thinks he's handled the crisis "extremely well in every way possible." Yes sir! I was just going to say that.
In your lawless Thursday media column: the FBI's investigating News Corp, the Murdochs agree to talk to the Brits after all, a model journalism apology, a CNN reporter escapes a gunfight, and layoffs at PBS.
Another day, another overwhelming tidal wave of scandal emanating from all corners of the News Corp media empire! Today: defiance! Arrests! And more!
In your sweltering Wednesday media column: the NYT repays Carlos Slim, the global advertising market is back, a columnist is canned for plagiarism, a book review feud, and the media's most ineffectual lawyer says goodbye.
Bill Keller, the T. Herman Zweibel of New York Times columnists, is back with another edition of "Former NYT Editor Bill Keller Reveals Himself to Be Little Better Than The Average Topeka Capital-Journal Weekly Lifestyle Columnist, in a Spectacle That's Embarrassing for Everyone Involved." Today: Bill Keller uses his enviable national media platform to shit on his own employees' books.
Do you hear that? It's the sound of another shoe dropping. News Corp, besieged by a strange and unfamiliar phenomenon called "bad publicity that can't just be ignored," just announced that it's abandoning its lengthy (and extremely important, at least in the context of European media) quest to take over British Sky Broadcasting.
In your treacly Tuesday media column: News Corp stock is a buy sell, Dan Doctoroff is Bloomberg's new CEO, the economy barely beats Casey Anthony, magazine ad pages are flat, and Time Out Boston folds.
It's not just murder victims and government officials who have been hacked by Rupert Murdoch's minions. A once-pseudonymous sex writer claims a writer for the Murdoch-owned Sunday Times installed a trojan on her computer in an effort to out her.
The Huffington Post indefinitely suspended a young blogger today for rewriting too much of someone's news article. This is pretty ridiculous, given HuffPo's systematic, officially-sanctioned approach to rewriting too much of people's news articles. Just ask a HuffPo veteran.
An American media exec snuck into News of the World's offices shortly before the scandal-plagued magazine printed its final issue. Her friend was considering using the location for filming commercials, so they photographed it extensively. She posted the photos on the Web today, and gave us permission to republish them.
Last week, when News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks faced down News of the World reporters to explain why the paper was being cashiered, she warned darkly that all would become clear when the full extent of the rot at her company became known. Today another shoe dropped: Reporters for News International's Sunday Times and Sun illegally accessed former Prime Minister Gordon Brown's bank account, legal files, and family medical records.
News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch touched down in London on the day his Sunday tabloid News of the World published its final issue, preparing "to face the growing phone-hacking scandal that prompted the paper's closure," and, we presume, to personally burn some of the incriminating evidence. Of which there appears to be a lot! The Guardian writes that new memos obtained by the police "appear to show that phone hacking was more widespread... than previously thought," and we've heard a rumor that even more papers—including some that aren't Murdoch properties—will be implicated in similar phone hacking schemes soon. That's the man himself above, of course, checking out the News' final page three girl in his Range Rover as he swings by the offices of News International, News Corp's U.K. subsidiary. Rupe! Do the crossword! [image via AP]
It hasn't hit newsstands yet, but journalists have taken a couple photos of the last copy of News of the World, which is shutting down following revelations that private investigators in its employ had hacked the voicemail of murder and abduction victims and their families.
