Is Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation in trouble in the US? (photo: AP)

It's Not Phone Hacking That Will Kill News Corp in the US

By Emily Bell, Guardian UK

20 August 11



Barring a Milly Dowler-type revelation Stateside, Murdoch will weather the recent scandals - but he has other reasons to worry.


he news that the News of the World's former Hollywood reporter James Desborough is the latest person to be arrest in the hacking case, raises the possibility that transgressions happened in the US too. But however much every liberal, competitor and Murdoch-sceptic is willing the wildfire of the phone-hacking case to ignite public outcry in America, the dampening influence of geography, distraction and incomprehension has eased the pressure on New Corp HQ.

Those with an interest in the outcome want to know the same thing: what will cause the centre to give? What can bring down Murdoch in his most important territory? Without the final implosion, it seems, there is no closure, no adequate finale to a gripping tale. "Hackgate" is a media studies thesis waiting to be written, on space, time and impact in news reporting. The physics of the case are straightforward; the further from the centre of the event, the weaker and more diffuse the shockwaves. The US market has moved swiftly on from the jumbled narrative involving the image of a murdered girl, a terrible invasion of privacy and a closed newspaper followed by the impromptu fringe show of parliamentary pie throwing. For a moment it refocused on the connections between the disgraced News International editorial management team and a Brit chat show host called Piers Morgan. But he and his employer, CNN, sat tight too.
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