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By Adele M. Stan, AlterNet
Posted on July 14, 2011, Printed on July 14, 2011
http://www.alternet.org/story/151632/senators_call_for_murdoch_investigations_amid_allegations_of_9_11_victim_phone-hacking
Rupert Murdoch probably didn't think his week could get much worse. Then, three U.S. senators called upon federal agencies to investigate the actions of his News Corporation, which owns, among a number of media entities, Fox News and the Wall Street Journal. Senators Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and Jay Rockefeller, D-W.V., sent a joint letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, asking for a Justice Department investigation of possible phone-hacking by News Corp outlets in the U.S., and to Mary Schapiro, chief of the Securities and Exchange Commission, asking her to investigate News Corp for possible violations of U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., sent his own letter to Holder and Schapiro requesting the same.
Meanwhile, Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., asked FBI Director Robert Mueller to conduct his own investigation.
These actions have given hope to News Corp critics who have long lamented the timidity of both Democrats and most of the mainstream news establishment in the face of the blatant political organizing, race-baiting, opponent-smearing and outright disinformation promulgated by Murdoch's U.S. news outlets. But given the influence of Murdoch ally David Koch on the U.S. Congress -- many of whose members the billionaire helped to elect, both through direct donations and the organizing of Americans for Prosperity, the astroturf group he founded -- Murdoch may currently enjoy even greater insulation in Congress than he once did in the British Parliament.
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