More Fallout For Murdoch In Hacking Scandal

Is he forced to give up his stake in BSkyB?

A British parliamentary report into a phone hacking scandal may lead eventually to News Corp being forced into cutting or selling its stake in the highly profitable pay-TV firm BSkyB, having already dropped its bid to buy it outright last year.

Parliament's culture committee is widely expected to criticise News Corp in its long-awaited report, raising the possibility that the British broadcast watchdog Ofcom will take action against Rupert Murdoch's media conglomerate.

News Corp lies at the centre of a long-running scandal over phone and computer hacking, in which journalists intercepted the voicemails of celebrities and crime victims, and now faces allegations that police officers were also paid for information that was used in newspaper reports.

Ofcom, which has to ensure that directors of TV companies are "fit and proper" to hold a broadcast licence, is already conducting its own investigation into News Corp and BSkyB's directors, including Murdoch's youngest son James, who resigned as BSkyB chairman last week but remains on the board.

Meanwhile, Murdoch's influential British newspapers, which were subdued for a time at the height of the scandal, have gone on the offensive against Conservative Prime Minister David Camerson and his coalition government.

"From a political standpoint, Rupert Murdoch's attacks could have really burned his bridges with the government," said Ian Whittaker, a media analyst at London investment bank Liberum Capital, who follows BSkyB.

"From the point of view of News Corp's opponents, if you wanted to lance this whole boil once and for all with News Corp and its stake in Sky, this would be a very good opportunity to do that," he said.

Indeed.

Now that word has come that at least three law suits will be filed against News Corporation by hacking victims in the United States, this is a great opportunity to lance the boil that is Murdoch and News Corporation here in America too.

As I posted yesterday, every time light is shone onto News Corporation, it's employees and its business practices, criminality is unearthed.

You can be certain the same will happen here in America once Mark Lewis and Norman Siegel force scrutiny onto News Corp. via hacking lawsuits.

Let's lance the boil that is News Corporation.

It's time to get this infection off the ass of the world.