Gabriel Sherman is a writer for New York magazine who has written some astute and even hard-hitting pieces on The Cable Game. Just yesterday, he posted a provocative short item under the headline, "In the Murdoch Hacking Scandal, Roger Ailes Stands to Gain." An interesting argument Sherman is making: It is, of course, true, that Fox News has been completely uninvolved in the British phone-hacking scandal that threatens to consume the News Corporation's UK newspaper division. So in that sense, Fox and its boss, Roger Ailes, are better off than others within the NWS world. And yet Ailes is not happy about any of this. After all, some on the neo-Stalinist left, such as "Vyan" at Daily Kos, are eagerly hoping that Attorney General Eric Holder will try to use the power of a lefty-politicized Justice Department to target Fox News. And while such DOJ action would be flagrantly unconstitutional, the left hates Fox so much that many leftists would probably cheer.
But the truth of the matter is that nobody working within NWS is happy with this scandal--how could they be? This can't possibly do the overall company any good, and it surely puts everyone inside the company, anywhere, under some strain.
But what about those not inside the company--but who are instead close by? Such as, for example, Matthew Freud, the British p.r. wheeler-dealer who has long been a critic of Fox News--and who gets attention for his views because he happens to be married to Elisabeth Murdoch, daughter of Rupert Murdoch. Cable Gamers will remember that back in January 2010, as the New York Times profiled Ailes, Freud jumped in to the story with this nasty quote: “I am by no means alone within the family or the company in being ashamed and sickened by Roger Ailes’s horrendous and sustained disregard of the journalistic standards that News Corporation, its founder and every other global media business aspires to.” Ah yes, those were the days, a mere year-and-a-half ago, when Freud could badmouth Fox and Ailes, while citing the "journalistic standards" of the rest of NWS. There was no scandal at Fox, but there was a big scandal in the UK, and that was right under Freud's nose. And yet strangely, Freud does not seem outraged about events in Britain--at least not in any publicly declarative way.
As the Cable Gamer noted in several posts back then, it might seem strange that Freud would try to damage the company that is controlled by his wife and in-laws, but that's exactly what Freud was doing, to a degree that seemed to TCG to be a kind of mental illness. Indeed, Freud was even working in league with David Brock, the George Soros-funded self-declared guerrilla warrior and saboteur, arch-enemy of Fox and NWS overall, to undermine his father-in-law's company and even to damage Freud's own brother-in-law, James Murdoch, son of Rupert.
And so now, in the midst of perhaps the worst crisis ever to befall the News Corporation, Freud is still at it, as we shall see. He is helping one of his friends, and hurting family members.
First, let's put Freud in proper further context: As the Guardian described Freud on July 8, he is "The most famous, and most famously slippery, PR man in London." OK that sounds about right; while Freud was dumping on Ailes and Fox, he was benefiting from his relationships with the British media to make millions as a p.r. flack--not only getting good press for his clients, but getting bad press for his clients' enemies. Indeed, in the very next sentence of the Guardian story, we learn that "One of Freud's closest friends is Rebekah Brooks, the CEO of News International." There you have it. Brooks was once the most powerful player in British newspaper circles, and it's Brooks, of course, who is at the epicenter of this whole scandal--even if she denies everything. Of course, few believe her: As that same Guardian story concludes of Brooks: "who almost everyone believes needs to be fired."
But Brooks is not fired: How come? Maybe because she is Freud's friend. And yet in the meantime, as Brooks stays on--symbolizing, in the minds of critics the refusal of NWS hierarchy to acknowledge the seriousness of the problem--the shadow of suspicion falls increasingly on Rupert Murdoch and James Murdoch. But not Brooks. Gee, how conve-e-e-nient. For Brooks, of course, and also for Freud.
Here's what's really going according to TCG sources:
Because Freud is more loyal to Brooks than to his family, and because, for his own pathological reasons, he hates NWS, Freud used his insider status cripple the Murdochs' early damage-control efforts. For weeks now, there's been no explanatory narrative for the Murdochs, no definitive clearing of the air, no nothing. Just passivity, while in the meantime, every five hours or so, the BBC or one of the rival UK newspapers got a new dollop of negative information about real or alleged NWS miscreancy. Gee, where could those nasty nuggets be coming from?
Only recently have a majority of the Murdochs figured out that Freud is part of the problem, not the solution. So he has been frozen out of the inner circle as decisive action was taken--closing the News of the World. But still no movement on Brooks, because Freud still has enough influence to convince the Murdochs that she must be protected, as a matter of family honor. In the meantime, Freud continues to do his dishonorable thing, undermining the company. Yes, Freud reeks of hypocrisy and duplicity, but what else is new? That's been obvious for a long time.
Fortunately, others notice, too, such as New York's Sherman, who concludes his piece with these lines--and a good jab at Freud:
In 2010, Matthew Freud, the PR executive who is married to Rupert's daughter Elisabeth, gave this quote to the Times:
“I am by no means alone within the family or the company in being ashamed and sickened by Roger Ailes’s horrendous and sustained disregard of the journalistic standards that News Corporation, its founder and every other global media business aspires to."
Whatever Jon Stewart and fellow liberals may think of Fox News, the network's journalistic transgressions are entirely legal, which is something that no one can say about the News of the World. Up till now, Freud and James and Rebekah Brooks represented the innermost sanctum of the Murdoch orbit, a group that mingled with David Cameron and prided itself on positioning the company as a reputable member of the Establishment. It was Fox that Freud attempted to cast as the journalistic pariah.
Now, Ailes is surely taking delight in the fact that if you swap out Roger Ailes for News of the World in the Freud quote, it would be the most accurate statement about the hacking saga to come out of News Corp. yet.
The Cable Gamer doesn't take any delight in the sufferings of NWS--in part because his own wealth is tied up in the long-suffering stock price--but TCG figures that Ailes is not unhappy to see others noticing that Freud is a fraud.
TCG has sure noticed: So the headline atop Sherman's smart piece shouldn't focus on Ailes, it should focus on Freud. The real header should read, "And meanwhile, Matthew Freud is trying to gain--by making things worse for Fox and News Corp." Freud's plan to make things worse for NWS has been working pretty well, but if he is evicted from family decisionmaking--reduced to being just a gold-digging husband--then the last pathetic laugh will be on the smug-faced p.r. guy.
H/T on Daily Kos item goes to Newsbuster's Tim Graham.