新闻背景:有人认为凭借默多克在新闻界的地位,这次窃听事件很快会过眼云烟。而有人则认为新闻集团必然要为此付出沉重的代价。当然,不论是什么看法,现在的默多克和他的新闻集团正在风雨飘摇中,而且几近壮士断腕,能否自保尚是未知之数。

RATIONAL IRRATIONALITY——理性的疯狂

During his long career as the pantomime villain of the media world, Rupert Murdoch has seen out many scandals, but nothing like this one. Back in 1983, under attack for his decision to publish a set of diaries from Adolf Hitler that turned out to be forged, he famously remarked, “After all, we are in the entertainment business.” Today, nobody, least of all Murdoch, is laughing.
在他常年扮演童话里坏人的媒体行业,默多克经历并送走很多流言蜚语和丑闻,但是没有一次像这次这么严重。回顾1983年,当他正在经历由于他杜撰了阿道夫希特勒日记并出版的舆论攻击时,他随口一句:毕竟这是娱乐行业,让他迅速出名。但是今天,没有任何人会被他的言论逗笑。

With the British parliament about to come together in an unprecedented move to thwart him, Murdoch this morning accepted the inevitable and called off News Corporation’s takeover bid for British Sky Broadcasting, which, together with the BBC, dominates British television. Meanwhile, one of his own papers, the Wall Street Journal, confirmed my suspicion that he might even be prepared to sell his three remaining British newspapers—the Times, the Sunday Times, and the Sun—assuming a buyer can be found.
由于英国国会史无前例的反对,今天默多克不得不放弃新闻集团对于大不列颠天空电视台的收购。而大不列颠天空电视台是同BBC一起主宰着英国电视业的公司。与此同时,默多克的华尔街日报最近也透露如果有买家的话,默多克还会出售他现在依然拥有的时代周刊,周末时光和太阳报。

The BSkyB announcement marks a humiliating climb down for Murdoch. At this stage, however, he has more important issues to deal with—namely, insuring the survival of himself and his family at the helm of his beloved News Corporation. In the midst of a media frenzy, it is always dangerous to make definitive judgments, but at the moment it is hard to see how Murdoch can ever fully recover from the blows he has suffered in the last few days.
BSkyB的声明是默多克耻辱失败的证明。但是,这一次他自己还需要面对使自己以及自己的家族能够在新闻集团中继续占据主导地位这个更重要的差事。当事件还处在疯狂状态时,任何决定性的言论都为时过早,但就现在来讲,我们很难想象默多克将如何从过去几天痛苦的灾厄中恢复过来。

Failing in his designs for BSkyB was the least of it. To all intents and purposes, the media company, whose satellite dishes protrude from the roofs of ten million British homes, is already part of the Murdoch empire. News Corp. owns thirty-nine per cent of BSkyB’s shares, and Murdoch picks its boss. From 2003 until 2007, his youngest son, James Murdoch, was BSkyB’s C.E.O. Since then, Murdoch, Jr., who now runs all of News Corp.’s operations in Europe and Asia, has held the post of non-executive chairman of BSkyB, a post he will continue to hold, the company said today.
失去BSkyB的竞购应该说是最无足轻重的事情。因为无论出于什么目的,那些从数以万计的英国家庭中突出的卫星接收器早已是默多克媒体王国的一部分了。新闻集团拥有BSkyB公司39%的股份,BSkyB的老板也由默多克指定。从2003年到2007年,他的幼子詹姆斯·默多克是这个公司的CEO。从那时开始小默多克就已经是BSkyB的非执行董事主席了,当然他现在也是,将来依然会是。

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相关链接:

165年历史的完结——世界新闻报的前世今生

创刊165年《世界新闻报》停刊牵出手机安全隐患

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