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7/9/11

The Press: Murdoch's empire is turning gangrenous

The momentum behind the phone hacking scandal is starting to spread from the News of the World (NotW) and infect other tectacles of Rupert Murdoch’s empire. Renault, for example, have not just pulled advertising from the ex-newspaper, but from all his "Corporate News Empire".

And now anti-Murdoch campaigners in America are starting to sniff blood. Their target: Les Hinton, current publisher of the Wall Street Journal, which is owned by NI’s parent company News Corporation. Mr Hinton was executive chairman of News International while Coulson edited News of the World.

After playing down the disclosures for years as the work of a few rotten apples, the abrupt Murdoch move—announced Thursday by his son, James—represented a tacit acknowledgement that the critics were right: The paper's very culture was corrupt. “It was shocking,” says Sarah Ellison, a Vanity Fair contributing editor covering the story. “But when you think about it for two minutes, it's purely cynical.

It's a way of sacrificing something Murdoch doesn't care about to save what he does care about, including Rebekah Brooks , his prized News International editor in London. They seem to be sacrificing lower-level people in order to save the people who are in charge.” Brooks was very much in charge as News of the World editor during much of the misconduct, but it is the paper's 200 employees who are now losing their jobs.

For more: Murdoch's empire is turning gangrenous - here and in the US | Left Foot Forward

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