News Ltd - End Of An Empire?

Once, long ago, in an office somewhere in little old Australia, there was a small media business that gave itself the unassuming moniker of "News Limited". A simple, straightforward name. You can imagine the creative meeting that preceded that christening.
"What do we do?"
"We write the news."
"Yes! or do we MAKE the news?"
"Either/or, really. So, what should we call this company?"
"News.... company..... 'News Company?"
""Catchy. But... they call businesses "something something Limited" because of the limited liability, right?"
"Right! How about 'News Limited'?"
"BINGO! Sweet vermouth?"
"Thanks! I'm parched!"

Unless someone can unearth the original footage of the founding of News Limited /News Corporation, or can give me a better story, let's stick with that one.

And what were they thinking, the Murdochs family, when they gave birth to the "News Ltd." machine? Did they have warm and fuzzy hopes that it would grow to be a somewhat profitable local newspaper and pamphlet company operating out of suburban Melbourne.....
OR did they harbour dark and malicious ambitions, and practice arcane magicks steeped in the Dark Arts, that News would become a thriving, pulsating media monster, spanning the globe and infiltrating every and all level of media consumption, from suburban Melbourne to corporate New York, and dictating not only what people ate, drove, and slept in, but also what they thought, and even the mind of the US president?

Realistically, it was probably somewhere in the middle. I've just given you the two extremes of the media world, and I didn't need a Media degree to do it.
News Ltd. is, or perhaps WAS, a juggernaut. Honestly, there are not too many words that sum it all up better than that - "juggernaut". An unstoppable force, irresistible to any and all opposition. Perhaps "virus" is suitable as a descriptor, for it is virulent, and can infect almost anything, especially the human mind.
But I am not as crazy as this blog-post so far would lead you to think. I harbour no particular ill will towards the Murdochs, nor to any of the other shareholders of the Corporation. I am the first to admit that, being human, and fallible, as I am, if I were in their position of power and limitless money, I, too, would seek total domination of the US government (and any other government), and succumb to the corruption of the soul that such practices bear.
To quote a very old adage: Power corrupts, and Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely.

I seek not to name nor shame any one man nor woman. Rupert Murdoch (or any Murdoch), Rebekah Brooks, or anyone else that has been summoned by the British Parliament recently, they are all human. They will make mistakes. The only concern for the British legal system is: should they be excused?

Let's look at the situation at hand, on today, Tuesday, this 19th day of July, 2011.
Within the last fortnight, a prominent British branch of the News Ltd. empire, "News Of The World", has been raked over the coals for criminal misconduct.
What did they do??
Well, they tapped phones. The phones of people who did not give them permission. These people were potential sources for stories and scoops. What kinds of scoops? The kind that apparently sell tabloids!: The victims of the wire-tapping by News Of The World were victims, or families of victims, of such monumental disasters as the September 11 attacks on New York, and also of soldiers that had died in combat in the Middle East wars.
"Hey, we had to do what we had to do!"
In the Information Age in which we live, I find it extremely difficult to understand why News Of The World didn't just make their stuff up. Don't they do that most of the time, anyway?

The real issue at hand, legally speaking, is not just that phones were tapped and personal privacy was violated all over the place, NO, the REAL issue is that the people whose lives were spied upon and revealed to the world for the sake of a dollar were also people in personal situations of enormous grief and emotional pain and suffering.

And the REAL ISSUE of it ALL is that News Limited and its fungi-like branches in the UK believed that it could willfully operate outside the parameters of the LAW, and get away with it.
And they probably went so far, in one of their Earth-shattering brainstorm sessions, as to say that "if we get caught, big deal! We are News Ltd! No-one can touch us!"

Rebekah Brooks is in record for admitting that her branch of Murdoch's empire was willfully and regularly bribing police officers for information and leads. In all civilised countries, this sort of behaviour is ILLEGAL.
Ms Brooks is the high-flying management-fast-track apple of Murdoch's eye. She rose for mere secretary to Rupert Murdoch's right-arm woman in the UK. She did well for herself, is probably a millionaire, if not billionaire, herself.
But the lesson to learn here, boys and girls, is that no matter how much money you have, nor who your friends are, nor how many tabloids you can sell, YOU ARE STILL HUMAN.
Until such time as the likes of the next Murdoch can overthrow Equality Under The Law, all Human beings will be subject to the law, regardless of the size of their bank account.
Honestly, I don't think News Ltd will crash as a result of all this. I am quite surprised already that News Ltd hasn't shut this story away as yet, but I'm sure the next Big Thing is coming.
Mr Murdoch has come out and wept to the rest of the press in the UK and the world, and said that he is so, so sorry about the phone-tapping.

It would be a marvelously delicious thing to see News Ltd go down for this conduct, because it would mean that Murdoch's empire of media iron-fistedness died because of heartlessness.

And that's what it really is. What News Of The World did to the victims of September 11 and the soldiers' families was purely heartless. All semblances of humanity were flushed down their corporate toilet because of the chase for the almighty dollar, and because the people at the top actually believed that they will get away with it.
It would be truly grand, and even awesome, to see News Ltd. operations all over the world, including the New York Post and Wall Street Journal, collapse into obscurity because they were, like News Of The World, riddled with corrupt minds and practices.
It would be just to see all the indecent things that News Ltd, and any other massive juggernaut of a corporation, be brought to its knees, and the entire economic system of the world be rebooted because they all fell down.
Economically speaking, I actually don't think it would make too much of a difference in America, from what I've heard about the place lately.

But, back in Reality again, I want to give you my own predictions for what will happen in the coming days and weeks:

Tonight, at 11:30pm Australian time, Rupert Murdoch will front a UK parliamentary hearing on illegal activities, mainly the heartless ones. He will be joined by his son James, and Ms Brooks. Why Ms Brooks isn't already in custody could not be explained by a law-abiding person, but she will be free as a bird, and no orange jumpsuit for her.
Murdoch will apologise, and for the briefest of moments wonder how any of this could have happened, didn't he have enough money stockpiled to insure against just this kind of embarrassment??
Small-scale investigations with large coverage in the world's general press will begin in the USA and Europe, and maybe even Australia.
A few more corporate scalps will be sacrificed by News.
Most of these will be the ones stupid enough to admit wrongdoing, with that same air or superiority and untouchablility as Ms Brooks had.
Soon enough, it will appear that Mr Murdoch has weeded out the bad apples, restructured the corporation, and will once again be a good media conductor for the free press.
Most of the stories, both the good and the bad, will be orchestrated by the News Ltd machine, all to give the effect that the corporation has been found out, then punished, taken its licks, and then been punished enough.
Within another fortnight, we will be worried about something else, like the USA's unstoppable debt crisis, or another war somewhere. Or another house-animal playing an instrument.

If it happens any differently, let's all just be pleasantly surprised.
And if your mortgage payments are late while Ms Brooks and Mr Murdoch are worried about losing billions off the price of News Ltd stock, then there is only one answer for you from the billionaires: Fuck You!

Money loses its power by the day now. Godspeed for the dawn of the corporate paradise when what money one has determines one's place in society. Just hope I don't lose any of mine, and you lose all of yours.

From The Tominator.