Note to the Reader: Please, remember I am writing, protected by my First Amendment Right to Freedom of Speech.
The witch-hunt of the XXIst century began at the onset of this month.
A scandal has erupted, reminiscent of Medieval witch-hunts, which, had it happened in the Middle Ages, it would have likely ended at the mast fire.
The scandal started with the alleged corruption and criminality in regard with the News of the World and London’s Metropolitan Police. However, the actual scandal was nurtured not by the public but, surprise, this time, by members of the British Parliament, the BBC and the left-wing media going for Murdoch’s jugular.
To add spice to the concoction, American “justice” has now joined in the witch-hunt, making this an all-round, all-time ruthless persecution of Australian-born American mogul, Rupert Murdoch.
WHAT’S AT THE ORIGIN OF THIS ORDEAL?
Irrational anger suddenly erupted because of Murdoch’s NewsCorp intention to buy BSkyB Television, where he anyway had some 39% shares.
That caused, apparently, the ire of the BBC and the majority of Murdoch’s newspaper rivals who ended up angry and shouting at the government, in the name of pluralism, something in the kind of “stop him.”
Whether one wants to consider the goodness the media benefited from Murdoch’s contribution or not, especially for Conservatives but also for others, his presence improved journalistic standards and enlarged the accessibility to information for the general public.
As British author and Murdoch's biographer, Sir William Shawcross, explains: “Then in 1981 Rupert Murdoch bought Times Newspapers and moved production of them and the Sun and the News of the World to Wapping. There, with the help of Margaret Thatcher’s new labour laws, he did battle with the unions. It was brutal but he won a famous and vital victory. Today there would probably be no Guardian, no Independent, no Daily Telegraph if Murdoch had not made the industry profitable. Pluralism in British newspapers today is thanks to Murdoch. Similarly with television. At the end of the 1980s, Murdoch launched Sky TV to break the monopoly of the BBC and ITV. Sky was derided by intellectual snobs as “council-house television”. Building it was a huge struggle but now BSkyB, of which Murdoch’s company owns 39.1 per cent, has 10 million subscribers. Sky News is a constant challenge to the BBC and its conventional, left-of-centre wisdom.”
The brutal explosion of this news and the hysterical evolution on a day by day basis, climaxed yesterday with news that “A former journalist who told the New York Times that phone hacking at Rupert Murdoch’s now defunct News of the World was more extensive than the paper had acknowledged at the time, was found dead.” Unsurprisingly, the police did not hesitate to immediately specify, the death seemed “natural”.
Today, Rupert Murdoch and his son James will be put on the spot by the British Parliament in what has been probably one of the most rapidly set hearings in recent times.
The intricate details of this situation are vastly reported in the media. I will, therefore, analyze another aspect of this sordid story.
WHO WOULD MURDOCH’S DOWNFALL BENEFIT?
The Arab Broadcast Forum, held a couple of times in Abu Dhabi, was a platform to present the progress report made by the media within the Arab Muslim world, and without -I know this because they hired my PR firm. The fora counted not only with Al Jazeera, Dubai 1, the Lebanese Broadcast Corporation (LBC) and other regional outlets, but also with notable Western outfits such as CNN, Bloomberg, BBC, and Fox among others, in their quest to find new markets at a time that Western economies were shrinking by the day. As former Founder and CEO of Benador Associates, I have also worked with all the above mentioned media outfits.
Allow me to backtrack to 2001:
When the massacres of 9/11 happened, in October 2011, a Saudi Prince, Al Waleed Bin Talal, gave Mayor Giuliani a check for 10 million dollars, after a Thursday morning memorial service at Ground Zero, the site of the World Trade Center towers destroyed in the attacks.
The prince offered his condolences to the people of New York, but after the ceremony he released a statement suggesting the United States "must address some of the issues that led to such a criminal attack.”
In a memorable response-statement, the Mayor of New York, rebuked the Prince saying: “I entirely reject that statement," Giuliani said. "There is no moral equivalent for this [terrorist] act. There is no justification for it. The people who did it lost any right to ask for justification for it when they slaughtered 4,000 or 5,000 innocent people.” Rudi Giuliani returned the 10 million dollars to the Prince.
WHO is Saudi Prince Al Waleed Bin Talal?
Prince Al Waleed is a Saudi Arabian billionaire, member of the Al Saud Royal family. His investments span industries and continents, from the Muslim world to Europe and the United States, he succeeded amassing a fortune through investments in stock market and real estate, from Citibank to Citigroup and Citicorp. He also made large investments on AOL, Apple, Microsoft, and many others -including Murdoch’s NewsCorp, where he initially had acquired 5% of shares, but as of 2010 he’s reported to own 7% of NewsCorp shares.
The Prince owns a diversified global financial investment firm, Kingdom Holding Company, and his net worth by 2011 is 19.6 billion. It’s important to note that he also owns Rotana Media as well as Fox Middle East, and numerous other media outfits.
Fast forward to today.
FINAL GAMBIT?
In his article titled: “Murdoch -you will miss him when he’s gone,” published in The Spectator, July 16, 2011, Shawcross writes: “Beware of what you wish for. If Murdoch’s business is destroyed, the diversity of British media will suffer seriously. Who might gather up the wreckage of the Times? Well, maybe Oleg Deripaska.” Deripaska, born 1968, is the youngest Russian-born oligarch with a net worth of 16.6 billion dollars, in 2011, with a vast amount of investments throughout diverse fields and countries.
However, the one who, in my opinion, would be more prone to gather up wreckage of NewsCorp -especially now that American “justice” has joined the witch-hunt with its arm, the FBI, would be -surprise- none other than H.R.H. Prince Al Waleed Bin Talal Al Saud, the seemingly quiet and silent character in the background of, and yet too close for comfort to, the Murdochs.
Murdoch, the conservative media mogul made a dalliance when he accepted doing business with the man who supports the Imam promoting the next-to-Ground Zero mosque.
Read these from none other than the New York Times: “Remarks by Dan Senor, a former Bush administration official, on Fox News ... In an awkward moment on Fox News this week, a pundit suggested that a member of the Saudi royal family who has supported the bridge-building work of the imam behind a planned Muslim community center and mosque in Lower Manhattan “funds radical madrasas all over the world.” The awkwardness came from the fact — unmentioned by anyone on the Fox set — that the same Saudi, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, also happens to be the second-largest shareholder in News Corp., the parent company of the Fox News Channel.”
How could Murdoch have made such a mistake...? All seems to indicate that the seasoned mogul might have been misled by someone trustworthy, because Prince Al Waleed’s suave manners and elegant custom-made tailored suits are the fanciest shell hiding the underlying essence of creeping, radical Islam in America and the world (yes, the UK included...)
Reports, last Friday, inform that the Prince urged Rebekkah Brooks, Murdoch’s right hand in News of the World, to quit -bold, assertive move from a man who only owns 7% of NewsCorp.
But let’s not forget his words to Giuliani in the aftermath of the 9/11 massacres perpetrated by Muslim terrorists against American innocent civilians in times of peace: “the United States must address some of the issues that led to such a criminal attack.”
Last May 19, 2011, on Cavuto, the Prince said: “And I think the Netanyahu position today proves conclusively to the world but more importantly to our friends in the United States that the main obstacle to peace is really Israel, not the Arab world.”
Muslims have infiltrated British life at all levels. My personal experience is that even throughout the ranks of the Parliament, there are “friends” galore of the Muslims, including “business” partners.
“Business”, the magic word.
And the situation is similar here in America, where Americans elected President Barack Hussein Obama, a true friend of Islam at the expense even of America’s security and interest, and who has recently instructed his Administration to officially recognize the Muslim Brotherhood -with whom they will soon begin talks on behalf of America.
The Muslim world is filled with intrigue and conspiracy, and students of History know it.
And, why would they be engineering this?
“Maybe” because it’s about time for them to take over our media bastion of conservatism and its founder, the resolute builder of conservative media in the West. That is the challenge and succeeding in overtaking it would be indeed an achievement for the cause of Islam.
In the end, once again, unlimited greed might be the weapon of choice of the enemy.
Murdoch might have not only sold his soul and jeopardized his business and along with it, his children’s inheritance.
But there is way more than that at stake here.
I may be wrong.
But what if I am not?
Goodwill Ambassador Eliana Benador is a national and international political adviser, global strategist and the former CEO and founder of Benador Associates. She can be followed on Twitter and on her political page on Facebook and her business page on Facebook.
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