Rupert Murdoch: damaged goods

Try as he might to save his newspapers in Britain, Rupert Murdoch is damaged goods.

The cops have got him dead to rights on bribery, that is, the systematic corruption of the police by the senior editors of 'The Sun'.

Already the old man shuttered the venerable and profitable 'News of the World' at the time of the telephone hacking scandal. Murdoch & son's appearance before a parliamentary committee of inquiry fooled no one by the extent of the father's and the son's facile twisting of obvious truths.

James the heir to News Corp has been caught with his hand in the cookie jar by the surfacing of e-mails proving he did know the when and where and how of phone hacking. He, too, is swiss cheese, and without the protection of his father, he would have packed his things and shown the door.

The cancer is fast metastasising in the Murdoch empire, the profits from other corporate ventures notwithstanding. Rupert Murdoch cannot stop the inevitable collapse of a life time's work in publishing. It will follow him to the grave and his stockholders and institutional investors will gladly shovel the dirt on his coffin.