I confess that for the most part I found the Murdoch testimony before Parliament today to be predictable, frustrating, and boring. So boring, in fact, that I dozed off just before the Great Murdoch Pie Face moment. However, there actually were some revelations. One of the more interesting one is the one John Dean discusses with Keith Olbermann in the video above.

In the course of testimony, it came out that Glenn Mulcaire's legal bills are being paid for by News Corp. Mulcaire is the "private investigator" who hacked into murder victim Milly Dowler.

Telegraph:

Mr Murdoch said: "I asked the question myself and I was very surprised to find the company had made certain contributions to legal settlements.

"I don't have all of the details around each of those - not legal settlements sorry, legal fees - I was surprised, I was very surprised to find out that had occurred.

"They were done, as I understand it, in accordance with legal counsel and their strong advice."

Asked who signed the cheques, Rupert Murdoch said "it could have been" Les Hinton, head of News International at the time, or, alternatively, the chief legal officer.

It was put to the Murdochs that their company had been paying legal fees for Mulcaire, a "convicted felon" - a charge James Murdoch admitted.

He said: "I do know certain legal fees were paid for Mr Mulcaire by the company and I was as surprised and shocked to learn that as you are."

But he denied the fees were paid to buy Mulcaire's "cooperation and silence", saying: "When the allegations came out I said: 'Are we doing this? Is this what the company's doing?'

"The strong (legal) advice was that from time to time it's important and customary even to pay co-defendants' legal fees."

Other things I learned: James Murdoch is the one to watch out for. Rupert Murdoch is his old, crotchety, middle-finger-in-your-face-as-always guy, but James is one smooth operator. Always ready with a concerned look, contrite words, and a very long-winded answer, he restated what everyone else said, which was basically to say nothing.

This exchange is a perfect example. Yes, we paid his legal fees because someone else told us to, but also yes, we're all about being hands-on with the company and oh, by the way, did I forget to say I'm sorry?

Rebekah Brooks handled her testimony in a similar fashion, but was treated far more harshly by the panel questioning her. Not that she doesn't deserve harsh treatment. She does. But compared to the kid-glove treatment of the Murdoch duo, she was raked a bit harder.

Bottom line? Much like Congressional hearings here in the US, these were largely for show and not substance. The real hearings to watch will be the ones where criminal charges are brought, which I believe will happen at some point.

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Just after the news that Rebekah Brooks had been arrested, this, via BBC:

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson has resigned following the phone hacking scandal.Britain's most senior police officer said he had no knowledge of the extent of the practice and his integrity was "completely intact". Sir Paul has faced criticism for hiring former News of the World executive Neil Wallis - who was questioned by police investigating hacking - as an adviser. He said his links to the journalist could hamper current investigations.

Gosh, ya think? So far this morning the highest-ranking law enforcement official has resigned, and the woman Rupert Murdoch referred to as "the daughter he never had" has been arrested. Think there might be more? And when is it coming to the US?

Check this post on Daily Kos today:

Former Fox News executive Dan Cooper has claimed that a special bunker, requiring security clearance for access was created at the company's headquarters to conduct “counterintelligence” including snooping on phone records:

“Has Roger Ailes been keeping tabs on your phone calls?”That’s how Portfolio.com began a post back in 2008, when a former Fox News executive charged that Ailes had outfitted a highly secured “brain room” in Fox’s New York headquarters for “counterintelligence” and may have used it to hack into private phone records.

That Kos piece also cites a more recent Rolling Stone article about the "Fox Fear Factory" which bolsters Cooper's claim.

Befitting his siege mentality, Ailes also housed his newsroom in a bunker. Reporters and producers at Fox News work in a vast, windowless expanse below street level, a gloomy space lined with video-editing suites along one wall and an endless cube farm along the other. In a separate facility on the same subterranean floor, Ailes created an in-house research unit – known at Fox News as the “brain room” – that requires special security clearance to gain access. “The brain room is where Willie Horton comes from,” says Cooper, who helped design its specs. “It’s where the evil resides.”

I'd say the FBI should be preparing warrants for that room yesterday, don't you think?

Rebekah Brooks has resigned from News International in the wake of the phone hacking scandal. She released a carefully-worded letter to the staff.

Via The Guardian:

At News International we pride ourselves on setting the news agenda for the right reasons. Today we are leading the news for the wrong ones.

The reputation of the company we love so much, as well as the press freedoms we value so highly, are all at risk.

As Chief Executive of the company, I feel a deep sense of responsibility for the people we have hurt and I want to reiterate how sorry I am for what we now know to have taken place.

I have believed that the right and responsible action has been to lead us through the heat of the crisis. However my desire to remain on the bridge has made me a focal point of the debate.

This is now detracting attention from all our honest endeavours to fix the problems of the past.

Therefore I have given Rupert and James Murdoch my resignation. While it has been a subject of discussion, this time my resignation has been accepted.

Rupert's wisdom, kindness and incisive advice has guided me throughout my career and James is an inspirational leader who has shown me great loyalty and friendship.

I would like to thank them both for their support.

I have worked here for 22 years and I know it to be part of the finest media company in the world.

News International is full of talented, professional and honourable people. I am proud to have been part of the team and lucky to know so many brilliant journalists and media executives.

I leave with the happiest of memories and an abundance of friends.

As you can imagine recent times have been tough. I now need to concentrate on correcting the distortions and rebutting the allegations about my record as a journalist, an editor and executive.

My resignation makes it possible for me to have the freedom and the time to give my full cooperation to all the current and future inquiries, the police investigations and the CMS appearance.

I am so grateful for all the messages of support. I have nothing but overwhelming respect for you and our millions of readers.

I wish every one of you all the best.

Rebekah

The wording of the letter suggests she had tried to resign already and had her resignation refused. The part about having time to correct the record seems to be CYA language in light of the downward spiral News International has been on over the past couple of weeks.

Take rumors for what they're worth here, but it appears that at least one member of the Murdoch family was quite unhappy about Ms. Brooks. Elisabeth Murdoch is reported to be furious over the scandal.

The 42-year-old is said to have privately “railed” against the News International chief executive and former editor of the News of the World.

Miss Murdoch, who is set to be given a seat on the board of her father’s News Corp empire, told friends that Mrs Brooks had “f----- the company”.

Meanwhile, if one were to watch only Fox News, they would have no clue anything untoward was happening elsewhere, because it's "the subject [they're] not talking about today."

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Kim Jong Il and Rupert Murdoch. Maybe it's a marriage made in heaven, unless you're a software developer looking for a job here in the United States. Bloomberg reports that Murdoch's News Corp hires North Korean developers to create mobile phone games.

Programmers from North Korea’s General Federation of Science and Technology developed a 2007 mobile-phone bowling game based on the 1998 film, as well as “Men in Black: Alien Assault,” according to two executives at Nosotek Joint Venture Company, which markets software from North Korea for foreign clients. Both games were published by a unit of News Corp., the New York-based media company, a spokeswoman for the unit said.

My first thought: Is that even legal? Well, yes, it is.

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CNN has taken pains to give Murdoch some PR cover with their not-so-subtle list of donors to both parties.

General Electric, which owns NBC, has also made substantial political contributions in the 2010 election cycle. For example, GE donated
$688,900 to Democrats through its PAC this election cycle compared to $410,100 to Republicans. The company has also given $75,500 to Democratic-affiliated leadership PACs and $74,500 to Republican-affiliated leadership PACs.

Meanwhile, GE has donated $237,000 to the Democratic Governors Association and $205,000 to the Republican Governors Association.

Time Warner, the parent company of CNN, has given $60,000 to the Democratic Governors Association in the 2010 election cycle, according to CQ Moneyline. Meanwhile, Time Warner Cable, a former subsidiary of Time Warner, donated $50,000 to the RGA this election cycle.

There are more, too. On the other hand, it's worth noting that News Corporation donated one million dollars to one party only, unlike the others CNN mentions.

Beyond the way it appears, News Corp. may have another problem, too.

It isn't like this is a complete surprise, but still, there is something incestuous about News Corp. donating $1 million to the Republican Governors' Association in order for the Republican Governors' Association to mount high-profile attack campaigns on Democratic candidates. I think it's safe for everyone to eliminate the terms "fair" and "balanced" from any discussion of Fox News.

More disturbing to me than even the editorial compromise that comes from such a contribution is the fact that the largest shareholder (besides Murdoch) in News Corp is Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, who is launching an Arabic News Network in partnership with News Corp. That raises all sorts of ethical and political issues for me. Does the corporate veil shield News Corp from the ban on contributions from foreign countries? It likely does, but it certainly should disqualify Fox News from being considered a "news outlet."

News Corp. isn't the only member of the RGA Million Dollar Roundtable, either, though they hold the record for the most compromised by it. David Koch has also donated $1 million to the cause, and the Michigan Chamber of Commerce has given $2,547,500 in 2010.

There are many other corporate members of the Six-Figure club. Keep in mind these are cumulative totals through June 30, 2010. Expect them to at least double by November:

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According to a report in the Financial Times, Microsoft has approached News Corp. about de-listing their sites from Google, which would be an apparent escalation in the search engine wars.

It appears that Microsoft isn’t limiting this to just News Corp either. It’s reported that they are approaching numerous online publishers and offering to pay them for content if they delist from Google. One publisher approached by Microsoft said this is all about “Microsoft hurting Google’s margin”.

Microsoft’s new search engine Bing is their latest attempt to give Google a run for the money. Here are the October search engine market shares, and as you can see Microsoft has a long way to go to beat out Google:

Bing has increased at the same rate that Google has, but what is interesting is that it appears their shares are coming from Yahoo. In July of this year Microsoft and Yahoo entered a deal for Yahoo to use the Bing search engine on their sites in exchange for a split on advertising revenue, so Yahoo’s decrease in the market share also directly effects Microsoft.

Of course the whole basis of this plan depends upon the belief that Google is actually “stealing” content, something that is in serious debate in both the tech and legal worlds. If this war does escalate and end up in the courts then we could finally see a ruling come out on exactly what the “fair use doctrine” covers – something we have been running blind on for years. Given the fact that Google only reproduces the headline and first few words of an article and that this use is both for research and archival purposes, it appears that Google would have a very strong case in the courts. To really solidify their case and put the final nail in the coffin of this war, Google could remove advertising from the news section of their search engine, which is the only questionable part of “fair use” when it comes to their service. Even better would be for Google to spin off the news part of their search engine and make it a non-profit partnered with Google. Google can surely afford it, and this would destroy any battle Microsoft or News Corp may be planning.

Whatever happens with this, it is clear that Murdoch still isn’t set on removing his sites from Google. I just checked again and what I reported a couple of weeks ago still stands – News Corp sites have explicit directions asking Google to index them. This could also be used against the Murdoch/Microsoft plan. What would happen if Google showed that News Corp sites saw a large percentage of their visits originate from Google? I know that they have records of those kind of metrics, and it would be interesting to hear News Corp argue that they didn’t mind Google increasing their online visibility all these years for free.

(cross posted at IntoxiNation)

Greatscat!:

From Reuters yesterday afternoon:

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp [..] will sell eight U.S. television stations to private equity firm Oak Hill Partners for about $1.1 billion.

I couldn't help but wonder who was buying up tv stations in an election year, so a quick check of Oak Hill Partners :

Oak Hill Capital Partners traces its roots to Robert M. Bass, one of the four brothers who founded Bass Brothers Enterprises in Fort Worth, Texas.

From Texas, eh? A little more checking as a Texas based company raised my eyebrows right away:

Robert Muse Bass is a Texas billionaire worth approximately $5.46 billion as of 2006.

Bass was born into an extremely wealthy family with an uncle, Sid Richardson, worth $810 million. He and his three brothers Lee, Ed, and Sid Bass all attended Yale University, where they solidified their moneyed and political connections. Ed Bass was a classmate and personal friend of George W. Bush, and the brothers, especially Lee Bass, helped Bush financially both before and throughout his political career.

As Diane points out on her blog, it would be interesting to monitor these stations to see what kind of coverage they offer during the election and what impact, if any, it might have.

...as the FCC puts a big bow on consolidated media ownership. In spite of widespread public opposition. In opposition to basic human decency and common sense.

Free Press: FCC Chairman Kevin Martin is ignoring the public will and defying the U.S. Senate. His decision to gut longstanding ownership rules shows once again how the largest media companies — with their campaign contributions and high-powered lobbyists — are corrupting the policymaking process at the expense of local news coverage and independent voices.

“Martin’s FCC relied on slanted research and a rigged process to reach today’s preordained outcome — local media wrapped in a bow for Tribune, News Corp., Gannett and all the rest. Read more...

One has to wonder how much outrage Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, and Neil Cavuto will be allowed to express over this obvious capitulation to their boss big media ownership. After all, we all know what happens when any "little guy" stands up to the suits upstairs...

Just to prove that irony is not dead. The site Digg has banned Brave New Films for "Inappropriate Content" for this video on Fox Porn.

(Not safe for work)

YouTube requires an age check to access this video...but all of it was aired on FOX News.

Apparently, after discussion with the Digg editors, Brave New Films was reinstated after promising not to post inappropriate content from FOX News again. (There's just too many jokes to make there) And in a circular bit of logic, a Digg posting by Brave New Films on the banning is now getting Diggs.

But here's where you have to tighten that tin foil just a bit: in a convenient bit of timing, Digg has recently entered into a partnership with FOX parent company News Corp to offer WSJ content. And News Corp has been wooing Digg for the last year to outright acquire the site. Coincidence?