News Corp. Owner Rupert Murdoch Criticized for Illegal Activity of Company
O'BRIEN: Welcome back, everybody. This morning, more fallout in that scathing report that condemned Rupert Murdoch and his News Corp. company. A Washington watchdog group is calling on the FCC to revoke News Corp.'s 27 licenses for its local Fox Broadcasting Stations, saying, quote, "When coupled with its conduct in the United States, it is clear that News Corp. has engaged in a pattern of misbehavior that disqualifies it from holding broadcast licenses." Meanwhile, News Corp. firing back against that British report which said that Rupert Murdoch was "not a fit person," that's a quote, to run a major international company, saying that very conclusion was "unjustified and highly partisan." So what does it mean for the future of Rupert Murdoch and his media empire? Let's get right to Peter Jukes, a contributor for "Newsweek" and "The Daily Beast." He's also the author of "Bad Press, the Fall of the House of Murdoch." He joins us this morning from London. Nice to see you. Thanks for being with us. I appreciate it. In addition to al we were talking about yesterday happening in parliament, the U.S. Department of Justice is also investigating. So how does what we heard yesterday out of where you are in England affect that investigation here in the United States?</s>PETER JUKES, AUTHOR, "BAD PRESS, THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF MURDOCH": Well, phone hacking isn't within the remit of the Department of Justice's investigation. I think you probably know that's probably more likely to be focused on the foreign corrupt practices act, which relates to something that committee yesterday didn't investigate, which is quite extensive allegations of corrupting officials. The other tabloid paper which Murdoch owns, "The Sun," the daily paper isn't accused or being investigated for payments to police. That comes under the foreign corrupt practices acts. And those investigations are still ongoing.</s>O'BRIEN: News Corp. currently has 27 broadcast licenses, local TV stations across the country, New York, Los Angeles, Dallas, Washington, D.C., parliament saying that he is unfit to run News Corp. using the words "willful blindness." How much jeopardy is, in fact, Rupert Murdoch in in this particular country with those licenses?</s>JUKES: That's the FCC, and that has strict criteria to analyze in the British case. If it goes beyond Britain, there are other investigations, FBI looking at cases in Russia. There's another case ongoing in Sicily about alleged hacking of rival pay TV channels. So the problem is that there's a pattern of these practices, that that would definitely under U.S. law require some investigation. There's also civil cases pending in the U.S., I believe, which allege phone hacking of British or American citizens on U.S. soil. Now, that could force disclosure from News Corp. That's what happened here. It took 10 years, but the patent of a civil case forcing disclosure from News International led to these revelations. We don't know where it would go in the states.</s>O'BRIEN: It was quite an amazing thing to listen to Tom Watson, a member of the parliament who was just the -- one of the most damning statements I've ever heard ever on live television talking about Rupert Murdoch. But what kind of weight does it hold? You know, one of the things we heard was an apology might be demanded and might be forthcoming. What would that matter? What would the impact be?</s>JUKES: Well, I noticed that News Corp. Statement was quite apologetic. I think Tom Watson has a particular beef. He claims he was surveyed several times and followed by News Corp., or News International employees. I think there is a sense that was along with an inquiry, a huge blow against Murdoch and may be a sign that his departing the U.K., at least in newspaper terms. But remember, that's only 1 percent of News Corp.'s revenues. The B-sky-B thing is much more lucrative and much more interesting to him. But even still, News Corp. is, you know, vast organization throughout the world. It is shaming him and causes acute problems, but I'm not sure to what extent. With the share points going up because of a buy back he's in jeopardy just yet.</s>O'BRIEN: Peter Dukes, thanks for joining us. Appreciate it.</s>JUKES: You're welcome.</s>O'BRIEN: And this into CNN, a brand new photo of human rights activist Chen Gaungcheng. Here is the first photo of Chen since he escaped house arrest and fled to the United States embassy in Beijing, shows him being wheeled by a nurse in a hospital in Beijing. He's been transferred there after six days at the U.S. embassy. U.S. officials negotiated his freedom and we're told he's going to be moving to another part of China where he'll be able to study. We've got to take a short break, but still ahead on STARTING POINT, the Secret Service agents caught up in the Colombian prostitution scandal now say they're not going to cooperate. We'll tell you why. And our "Get Real" this morning, folks in Brooklyn happy about getting the nets, less happy about getting Hooters. What they're going to do about it. This is of Meredith Baxter's play list. It's Santana's "Smooth."