Media mogul Rupert Murdoch described his appearance before the British parliamentary hearing into the News Of The World’s phone hacking scandal as the “most humble day” of his life.
His son, James, added: “It’s a matter of great regret … these actions do not live up to the standards that our company aspires to around the round.”
But even as these two billionaires performed their sorry act — and blamed all wrongdoing on their underlings — their media empire around the world continued its standard dirty work: telling lies, manipulating fear, prejudice and hatred, and intimidating those who challenge the rule of the rich and powerful.
The Murdoch’s apology is an empty gesture. It is just part of their strategy to minimise their losses from this latest scandal. An army of spin doctors, lawyers and conservative politicians will also do their bit to minimise the damage to Murdoch’s media empire.
All who are disgusted at this gross abuse of power should reflect that it is a consequence of the even more gross concentration of power and wealth in the world today.
The billionaires who rule this world routinely use and abuse their tremendous power in a way that shackles the institutions of formal power in even the most democratic capitalist countries.
This is why even as Rupert and James Murdoch refused to own up to any of the gross abuses carried out by News of the World, they still considered the experience “humbling” — they are used to exercising enormous power, usually without hindrance or question.
If we want to see an end to this ongoing abuse of power we need to build up movements and new institutions of people power, including the alternative, people-power media such as Green Left Weekly.
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