The pros and cons of the rise and fall of Rupert Murdoch

by M Ashraf Al Haq
July 20, 2011

http://www.weeklyblitz.net/1598/the-pros-and-cons-of-the-rise-and-fall-of-rupert

Let us analyse what is open, not hidden, let us visualise what is obvious than oblivious. A thing that goes up, will eventually come down, and that is simply what we mean by the law of gravity. But what Newton tried to explain was, what sort of force that can or may be applied to make that down turn to change to an upturn (rather the anti-force in reality) was indeed as important as major breakthrough. This notion has further been simplified to comprehend in the advent of 21^st century, and please by all means do correct me, if, you disagree. An incredibly determined 80 year old man, Media Mogul Mr Rupert Murdoch, who has seen the WW2, knows very well that the difference between 20^th century and 21^st century is just a twitting and a game of MySpace.

Arabs in the 21^st century seems no longer listens, so America warns Israel to modify its tactics, and the cleanup operation in the British parliament since the credit crunch, made a change of attitude, as parliamentarian don't listen at all, and that will be clearly notified by the above said gentleman, I suppose. It seems that these parliamentarians broke all protocols, and the police commissioners right now realises that having an evening tea right in the middle of suspicion and investigation with the News Empire, brought uncalled for misery for the entire (all powerful) British police force, and made their tasks tougher, harder and less wiser. The benefits of the credit crunch so far was huge, at least to me - to clean up banking system, make financial institutions more transparent, politicians to think twice before doing something, and governments to fight the austerity measures, but this crunch failed to address the foremost - clean and honest journalism and sincere policing in the drive towards transparency and accountability and thus uplifting democracy in this century.

So, it's better late than never. But who are we - to judge or estimate, sitting in the third world, seven thousand miles eastward, about a matured country's right or wrongdoings? Any way, we can learn and be warned what once a bona fide stupid said (I suppose mistakenly), truth shall triumph, but still I dare to pronounce, so what? Will truth change the world to a Garden of Angels, and all the corrupt practices will be sent to Garden of rectification? As we all know that there is no night or day, it is just the positioning of sun and earth makes this game a real wonder, and that we see since the beginning until the end of human race's delight, to have sun bath during the so called day, or have a twinkle in the night of valentine.

Could mullahs ever stop people from drinking or womanising? Still any wrongdoings never go unnoticed, or any lies never go - just like that. What happened in Bangladesh just three years back? Then again, everything is back to normal. But I think, as we are not yet developed nation yet, we should still take some lessons during the day, maybe we can break those lessons in the dark nights, or dream nights, provided we can rest during those nights. We have no colonies to conquer, so we have no option but to learn fully how the Singaporeans (the Singapore model) did learn to compete and Japanese (the Japanese model) learned to cope and come out of extreme measures, natural or manmade. Let us be reminded once again what the beloved prophet clearly said, go to the East to LEARN, but are we heeding to his advice? I fear not.

The classic example of sincerity, commitment, dignity, accountability, and above all honesty as well as courage made the Far East to fight and stand in front of giants like Russia, Europe, America and that should be our role model. The present saga in News International, made it clear, that nature shall triumph no matter what, just like the present polluting trends will make tsunamis a regular worldly feature, and any followings that are against the basic law will have a question mark raised, that's the simple notion of life, and we need to accept it logically. Nobody denies that Mr Rupert Murdock is a giant, a great charismatic and visionary entrepreneur and revolutionary, but any wrong doings can never be the norm, and just saying sorry may not be enough. The lawyer clearly stated that the Dowler family wants actions than words; a healthy start from him is what they are eager to see (But today things are heading to severity and complex than ever. The questing by the parliamentary committee, the resignations from the media and police, and the sudden death will make things more complicated and disturbing). The question arises, was it just to Rupert or to every one of us? Susan Milligan, the political and foreign affairs writer, writes, 'The most appalling techno-assault was against the family of an abducted young girl; the hackers had erased some of the messages on the phone, giving false hope to the girl's parents that she was still alive...It goes without saying that such behaviour is inexcusable, in complete opposition to the standards of any professional news operation, and...Should be prosecuted in a courtroom. But what is troubling is that the scandal didn't become a true scandal until it became known that some of the victims were just regular folks. The celebrities and royals whose phones were hacked were largely treated' as 'a loss of basic privacy and dignity'.

Douglas Adamson says further, 'I think the ... lesson of this ghastly saga is that however big and invulnerable your business may be that you are never immune to human failings. And once the cat is out of the bag in today's fast moving media world it means there is nowhere to hide. The tiny Guardian newspaper (in comparison with News Corp) doggedly pursued this story to its bitter and rightful conclusion. But it is far from over. The US is now asking some serious questions of Murdoch's other titles and media interests, the share price is taking a pasting and there could be an exit of shareholders on a major scale. The whole lot could unravel. And all because the NOTW thought it could walk on water. Decency, integrity and even lawfulness seem to have been a characteristic that has disappeared from red top journalism. Kelvin Mackenzie, the past editor of the Sun, was heard to say a few years ago that he never wanted the truth to get in the way of a good story so they didn't always double check sources! On this occasion the unvarnished truth has made the newspaper' as the 'story of the year.' And one thing has become clear, another blogger tweets, 'For a start, the customer is now king, something which some of the record labels have still not taken onboard. The reason why iTunes and Spotify proved to be the winners in the great online raffle rather than Spiralfrog, PressPlay or MusicNet is because they gave the customer just what he or she is looking for, rather than what the industry thought they wanted...The record labels spent millions – and years – coming up with their own harebrained online schemes and plans which their customers didn't use because those sites were too bulky and unwieldy'.

A tiny News Of The World (worth hundreds of millions, but compared to his giant Fox TV, which worth's billions), made a huge loss for the entire empire, in terms of billions in the stock market. 'He should have listened', says many of his well-wishers. But still some sympathisers say, 'But people have short memories. The temptation must have been too tough it out. Maybe go down 'the sinner repenteth' route and relaunch the NOTW as the responsible, ethical face of tabloid journalism', I think that could have saved his reputation. But one should not forget, that, 'Print only goes in one direction – from journalist to reader. Young people don't do one direction. We text, email, Face book...tweet and chat our way through life – between each other...it's immediate and on-going. Newspapers happen once a day, overnight, when all the news is over' (commented by Jim Carroll).

So let's be warned, We can never take things as granted, 'We must learn to cherish opportunity and creativity' (Rupert Murdoch, October 23, 2010, The Centre For Policy Studies, London) and he further said, 'Governments around the world need to free markets and minds', so I think he should and we should all take note of to this great astute saying. He further asked, 'who will show great leadership in a time of turmoil, a time when opportunity will be expanded or limited not only for this generation, but for the next?'

But Voltaire once said. 'Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities'. Though Mr. Murdoch was a king maker, but one remarks, 'This man has manipulated the media to create the opening for a political party in the U.K to come to power that would let him shape his media empire'. But unfortunately, we should not forget that as man proposes, god disposes, and I think that is fairly true in this sense. Let us learn from others mistake and let us not fall to the same trap, as we often do not learn from our recent histories or memories. Any present steps should take note what might the future might ask, if things go wrong, as it is quite normal that nothing remains hidden nowadays. Things will unfold as days goes by. And furthermore, the questionable attitude by our diplomat in Nepal reminds us that again and again.

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