The fallout from News Corp. hacking scandal. spreads to US, ad buyers becoming nervous.

Courtesy of AdWeek:

The scandal has buyers trying to reconcile the outrageousness of the charges surrounding Rupert Murdoch’s U.K. tabloid with News Corp.'s significant U.S. footprint, which includes Fox News as well as the straitlaced Wall Street Journal. Some said that while they haven’t suspended advertising in News Corp.’s U.S. properties, they're growing wary about doing business with the media giant.
“You always wonder when anybody has a scandal,” said GregClausen, chief media officer of Doner in Detroit. Clausen said that while he would still consider News Corp. properties “viable” options for clients, he added, “It puts you a little bit on edge.”

Robin Steinberg, director of publishing activation at MediaVest, which is one of the biggest print-buying shops, controlling some $1 billion in annual spending, said news of the scandal is prompting her to seek reassurances from News Corp. representatives in the U.S.

“We are addressing the situation through conversations and explanation,” she said. “The expectation is that this approach and behavior will not carry over here into the states. Certain guarantees might be necessary for clients to be comfortable allocating money to these properties.”
Others flat-out declined to comment, preferring to leave the talking to clients. “It’s a little too touchy,” said a rep for one major buying agency.

One who was prepared to give News Corp. the full benefit of the doubt was Steve Farella, founder of TargetCast tcm.

“It clearly makes an agency and any client think twice about supporting that newspaper,” Farella said of News of the World. “But in my heart, I don’t believe that any company owned by News Corp. has a policy to break the laws.”

“This doesn’t make me think twice about doing business [with News Corp.],” he continued. “We are not in News of the World, and I don’t believe that the errant practice... is being duplicated at Fox News here in America.”

Really? That is mighty naive.

My money, says that whatever Murdoch was able to get away with in England he did here in the good old United States as well.  Murdoch is an arrogant, competitive prick, and I have little doubt that much more will be coming out about this scandal, including how widespread it truly is, in the very near future.

If Fox News suffers a significant blow to their credibility here in the states, the Republicans will be left without a handy megaphone to spred their lies and misinformation. That could render them all but politically impotent.

Damn, I need more popcorn again!

Rupert Murdoch tabloid at center of phone hacking scandal in Britian to close down.

It looks like the News of the World, has hacked their last phone.

News International says it is shutting down the News of the World tabloid that is at the center of Britain's phone hacking scandal.

James Murdoch, who heads the newspaper's European operations, says the 168-year-old newspaper will publish its last edition Sunday. The scandal has cost the paper prestige and prompted dozens of companies to pull their ads.

The Rupert Murdoch-owned tabloid is accused of hacking into the cell phone messages of victims ranging from missing schoolgirls to grieving families, celebrities, royals and politicians in a quest for attention-grabbing headlines.

Police say they are examining 4,000 names of people who may have been targeted by the paper.

The Sunday-only newspaper has acknowledged that it hacked into the phones of politicians, celebrities and royal aides, but in recent days the allegations have expanded to take in the phones of missing children, the relatives of terrorist victims and families of soldiers killed in Afghanistan.

Well that is one down, is it too much to hope that Fox News will be next?

I know I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

This just might be one of the most important stories unfolding right now.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

There are a few of us in the "new media" who believe that Murdoch and his crew might not have limited their phone hacking to the other side of the pond. 

I would certainly not be surprised to learn that there are a few phones belonging to politicians, or media competitors, or sources over here that might have reason to be concerned as well.

Unscrupulous

Margaret Thatcher ally: "Lady Thatcher will not be seeing Sarah Palin. That would be belittling for Margaret. Sarah Palin is nuts."

Courtesy of the Guardian:

Sarah Palin wants to show to the Republican right that she is the true keeper of the Ronald Reagan flame by meeting the late president's closest ally on the world stage.

A meeting with Margaret Thatcher in the centenary year of Reagan's birth would be the perfect way of launching her bid for the Republican nomination for the 2012 US presidential election.

This is what Palin told Christina Lamb in the Sunday Times:

"I am going to Sudan in July and hope to stop in England on the way. I am just hoping Mrs Thatcher is well enough to see me as I so admire her."

It appears that the former prime minister has no intention of meeting the darling of the Tea Party movement. Andy McSmith reported in the Independent this morning that Palin is likely to be "thwarted" on the grounds that Thatcher, 86, rarely makes public appearances.

It would appear that the reasons go deeper than Thatcher's frail health. Her allies believe that Palin is a frivolous figure who is unworthy of an audience with the Iron Lady. This is what one ally tells me:

"Lady Thatcher will not be seeing Sarah Palin. That would be belittling for Margaret. Sarah Palin is nuts"

I was going to add a little snark to the end of this post, but there is really nothing I could say that is as perfect as that last quote.