Guardian Reports News Corp. Investors "Growing Restless" Over Phone-Hacking Scandal, Rabbi Criticism

by Media Matters staff

In a January 29 article, the Guardian reported that News Corp. "investors are said to be growing restless," highlighting a phone-hacking surrounding News Corp. publication News of the World and an ad signed by 400 rabbis published in The Wall Street Journal calling on Rupert Murdoch to "sanction Glenn Beck" for his repeated use of Holocaust and Nazi imagery.

From the Guardian article:

Last week, though, it is likely that [Prince al-Waleed bin Talal], described by Time magazine as "the Arabian Warren Buffett", was devoting more than a passing interest to his almost 7% share in Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, quietly accumulated over several years.

The prince cannot have liked what he saw. What had started out as a very British row over phone hacking by reporters working on Murdoch's News of the World had become infectious and was in danger of going global.

As scores of new victims emerged to allege they had been hacked by the newspaper, MPs voiced fresh concerns at the police handling of the affair and the role played by senior executives at News International, News Corp's UK subsidiary and the ultimate parent company of the News of the World, the Sun, the Times and the Sunday Times.

Meanwhile, back across the Atlantic, it emerged that News Corp was facing another problem. Last week 400 rabbis from all the main branches of Judaism in the US bought a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal, calling on Murdoch to take sanctions against News Corp's Fox News subsidiary. The rabbis were incensed at the way that Fox commentators regularly referred to those with whom they disagreed as "Nazis".

[...]

As Murdoch waits in regulatory purgatory and hedge fund managers push BSkyB's share price north -- a move that could see News Corp having to stump up as much as £1bn more than it expected -- the media giant's investors are said to be growing restless.

A full News Corporation board meeting is believed to have been scheduled for Wednesday. The phone-hacking scandal and the BSkyB deal are expected to be high on the agenda. Bin Talal, who simply "does not lose money" according to someone who knows him well, is likely to pay very close attention to what is discussed.