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Wednesday 02 May 2012
4:02PM BST 01 May 2012
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Many readers may have formed a firm opinion on this a long time ago, never mind the evidence from today’s report from the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee and the wider context of the phone hacking scandal that’s engulfed Murdoch’s UK newspaper business and the Metropolitan Police.
But it’s a crucial question that needs to be asked, especially by Murdoch’s shareholders, not only in News Corporation but also BSkyB, where News Corp holds a 39pc stake and a grip on the satellite TV company’s board.
Neither is posing the question an excuse for a cheap slur. In a letter to his employees published in May last year, Murdoch extolled the virtues of public trust. “This public trust is our company’s most valuable asset: one earned every day through our scrupulous adherence to the principles of integrity and fair dealing.”
If you believe what Murdoch says, then News Corp’s in trouble because its most valuable asset is under threat and being eroded - today’s House of Commons report is simply the latest evidence of that.
Or do shareholders take a more cynical view, shrugging their shoulders at such claims by the News Corp chairman and chief executive as just so much corporate baloney in the age of political correctness?
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It must be tempting to adopt that latter view - it may well be right. But public companies can no longer say one thing and do another without severe repercussions.
Murdoch’s letter in fact forms the preamble to News Corp’s standards of business conduct which amounts to a statement of how News Corp employees, at home and abroad, should behave.
“As a company, we are at all times truthful and accurate when dealing with government entities or officials,” say Murdoch’s rules and regulations.
Compare this to the House of Commons report which says: “Corporately, the News of the World and News International misled the Committee about the true nature and extent of the internal investigations they professed to have carried out in relation to phone hacking; by making statements they would have known were not fully truthful; and by failing to disclose documents which would have helped expose the truth.”
In the conclusion to the Murdoch standards of business conduct, News Corp tells its employees that: “The company expects that every employee, at every level, will strive to conduct himself or herself with integrity.”
Again, compare that to today’s Commons report which says: “In failing to investigate properly, and by ignoring evidence of widespread wrongdoing, News International and its parent News Corporation exhibited wilful blindness, for which the companies’ directors - including Rupert Murdoch and James Murdoch - should ultimately be prepared to take responsibility.”
These are the same people still pulling the strings at BSkyB, something Sky’s board seems oblivious to. Ofcom, however, may not prove quite so oblivious, especially having digested the detail of the Commons report.
Ultimately, today’s report reveals a chasm of inconsistency between how Rupert Murdoch says he and his employees behave and what MPs claim they have discovered to the contrary. Who do you believe?
In Damian Reece
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