Rupert Murdoch Admits A ‘Cover-Up’ At The News Of The World, Says ‘I Failed!’

Dear Commons Community,

Rupert Murdoch at an inquiry in London regarding his influence on major British government officials answered in reference to the phone hacking scandal that rocked his media empire last year: “there had been a “cover-up” at the News of the World, but claimed that he was a victim rather than an accomplice in the scheme. He also said that the phone hacking scandal will be a “blot on my reputation” for the rest of his life.

The Huffington Post is reporting that:

“The second day of Murdoch’s testimony before the media ethics panel found the mogul facing far sharper questioning than he did on Wednesday. Murdoch did not back down from his insistence that he had known nothing about the extent of phone hacking at his newspapers. (Indeed, he said that he had essentially ignored the News of the World for over 30 years.) But he said that he had “failed” by being such a remote chief executive…

In Murdoch’s telling, the wool had been pulled over his eyes by a handful of people at the News of the World.

“I think the senior executives were all misinformed and shielded from anything that was going on there,” he said, adding that he blamed “one or two” unnamed people for that. “There’s no question in my mind that, maybe even the editor, but certainly beyond that, someone took charge of a cover-up, and we were all victims of that.”

He claimed that those “strong characters,” who appeared to be former News International legal adviser Tom Crone and News of the World editor Colin Myler, had prevented reporters from speaking to either James Murdoch or Rebekah Brooks.”

Lord Brian Leveson, the judge leading the inquiry, asked how Murdoch could not have been more interested in phone hacking, given that he was so personally close to his print titles.

“I have to admit that some newspapers are closer to my heart than others, but I also have to say that I failed,” Murdoch said. After a long pause, he added, “and I am sorry about that.”

It will be interesting to see how Fox News covers this story!

Tony

 

Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant: Democrats’ “one mission in life is to abort children.”

Dear Commons Community,

The Huffington Post is reporting that Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant (R), in defending his decision to sign a bill that could shut down Mississippi’s only abortion clinic, told conservative radio host Tony Perkins on Tuesday that the Democrats’ “one mission in life is to abort children.”

“Even if you believe in abortion, the hypocrisy of the left that now tried to kill this bill, that says that I should have never signed it, the true hypocrisy is that their one mission in life is to abort children, is to kill children in the womb,” he said. “It doesn’t really matter, they don’t care if the mother’s life is in jeopardy, that if something goes wrong that a doctor can’t admit them to a local hospital, that he’s not even board certified.”

Nothing like having good moderate, public discourse on serious issues facing our country!!

Tony

 

Student Veterans for America Names 26 For-Profit Colleges It Says Exploit Its Brand to Lure Students!


Dear Commons Community,

The Chronicle of Higher Education is reporting that the  national advocacy group for student veterans that kicked out 40 chapters at for-profit colleges earlier this month for allegedly providing misleading information to prospective students plans to released the names of 26 chapters that remain suspended. The article states:

“The organization, Student Veterans of America, or SVA, revoked the 40 chapters’ membership three weeks ago after officials discovered that the institutions had listed administrators, not students, as primary contacts and used institutional Web sites and recruitment pages as chapter sites. The group has since reinstated 14 chapters, with up-to-date contact information, after verifying that they are indeed led by students.

The announcement on Thursday will name the 26 chapters—including those at 13 campuses affiliated with Education Management Corporation, the nation’s second-largest publicly traded for-profit higher education company—that have not been reinstated.

Michael Dakduk, executive director of SVA, said he was concerned that some for-profit colleges were taking advantage of the organization’s well-known brand to legitimize their programs. If a campus lists a registrar, an enrollment adviser, or other administrator, as the 26 ousted chapters allegedly did, that compromises the organization’s goal of connecting veterans directly to one another, said Mr. Dakduk. It threatens its credibility, he said.

“We’re worried that some may just be using it to appear that they’re veteran- or military-friendly,” he said in an interview.

The student-veterans’ group has 35 for-profit-college chapters in good standing, including the 14 that were reinstated, Mr. Dakduk said. The recent scrutiny is “not because we’re picking on the for-profits,” he said. “It’s because we don’t know that for-profits have the same standards of handling student organizations that traditional brick-and-mortar institutions have.” This week, SVA officials sent a 10-question survey to its 35 for-profit-college chapters to determine how much independence they have from administrators.”

Tony