Some things are worse than a Murdoch

[dudeness]

You would need, to quote Oscar Wilde on the death of Little Nell, a heart of stone not to laugh. James Murdoch, the new chief executive of British Sky Broadcasting (and the son of guess who?), tells the Financial Times that, to fill the vacancy, "we worked with one of the most respectable search firms in the world" and that "I was on the sharp end of that process". Lord St John, a non-executive director, explains on the Today programme that, of all the young men in the world, young Master James stood out for his brilliance. (Lord St John, by the sound of it, would have had little hesitation supporting the appointment of a horse to the Roman senate.) But the issues behind his appointment are more complex than they look. As Patricia Hewitt, the Trade and Industry Secretary, pointed out here last week, we, the people, now own most of British industry through our pension and savings funds. In theory, the fund managers - who, also in theory, are accountable to us - could have kept Mr Murdoch out, because 64.6 per cent of BSkyB is owned by outside investors. At the merged Carlton-Granada ITV company, indeed, where there is no equivalent of the Murdoch family's control of more than a third of the shares, Michael Green, the chairman, was booted out by the fund managers.
http://www.newstatesman.com/nsleader.htm

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. Interesting

For those who may not know, the New Statesman is a long-established left-wing UK magazine.

I also like the little piece at the end about the honest Christian fundamentalists, who admit they've got the date for expanding the UN Secrity Council wrong 16 times, but still put out a new prediction.

[camero]

2. You mean just like thier predictions

of the second coming of Christ. They keep changing that too. Because nobody knows.