Rupert Murdoch At Leveson: Gordon Brown 'Declared War On News Corp' After Sun Backed Tories

The Huffington Post UK  |  By Posted: 25/04/2012 13:25 Updated: 25/04/2012 16:49

Former prime minister Gordon Brown told Rupert Murdoch he had declared war on News Corp after The Sun withdrew their support from the Labour party, the media mogul told the Leveson inquiry.

Giving evidence to the inquiry into media ethics, the 81-year-old told the court he did not think Brown was in a "balanced state of mind" when he made the comments.

"Mr Brown did call me and said 'Rupert do you know what's going on here?'," Murdoch said, speaking of a phone call after The Sun announced they were backing the Conservatives in September 2009 during the Labour conference.

"I said 'what do you mean?'," Murdoch continued.

"He said 'well, The Sun, and what it's doing and how it came out.' I said: 'I'm not aware. I was not warned of the exact timing… But I'm sorry to tell you, Gordon, we have come to the conclusion that we will support a change of government when there's an election.'

"I must stress no voices were raised, we were talking more quietly than you and I are now. He said 'well, your company has declared war on my government. And we have no alternative to make war on your company'."

According to the Guardian's Dan Sabbagh Murdoch told his advisers "let's get this f**king thing over with" as he left court.

Earlier Murdoch told the Leveson inquiry his media empire News Corp never "pushed our commercial interests in our newspapers."

The media mogul said he was not a "Sun King" character who used charisma to influence his media empire.

"I try very hard to set an example of ethical behaviour and make it quite clear that I expect it," he said.

"One can describe that in a number of ways. But do I do it via an aura or charisma? I don't think so."

The News Corp chief also denied asking favours from the top of government, stressing: "I have never asked a prime minister for anything."

He also denied influencing editors on the Times and Sunday Times, adding he was "sorry to say" he "never much" interfered with the News of the World.

"If you want to judge my thinking, look at The Sun," he said.

Murdoch said he would use his two day appearance at Leveson to "put some myths to bed."

In a statement this afternoon, Gordon Brown said:

“Mr Rupert Murdoch has today made a serious allegation that in a telephone call when ‘The Sun’ declared for the Conservative Party, I told him I had declared war on his company.

He is wholly wrong.

As the Leveson Inquiry heard ‘The Sun’ declared for the Conservatives on the 30th of September, 2009. I did not phone Mr Murdoch or meet him, or write to him about his decision.

The only phone call I had with Mr Murdoch in the last year of my time in office was a phone call specifically about Afghanistan and his newspaper’s coverage of the war. This was in the second week of November after his newspaper, The Sun, printed a story in the second week of November about the death of a soldier and his mother’s complaints .

I hope Mr Murdoch will have the good grace to correct his account.”

MORE: Miliband accuses Cameron at PMQs

SCANDAL: Special Adviser Resigns: 'My Activities At Times Went Too Far'

LIVEBLOG: Murdoch at Leveson

UP CLOSE: What do Murdoch's notes say?

QUIZ: Who said it, Murdoch or Mr Burns

See our liveblog:

live blog

Oldest Newest

Murdoch's evidence to Leveson has finished. But they'll be more written evidence to delve through online soon.

Share this:

Murdoch is told about a journalists who claimed she experienced "constant bullying." He asks why she did not resign.

Leveson interjects, saying: "I think the problem with that might be that she needs a job".

Murdoch says he has "never heard of" allegations of bullying in News International. "They always strike me as a happy crowd."

Share this:

Murdoch says no allegations of bullying have been brought to his attention.

Share this:
@ paulwaugh : Leveson refuses to allow NUJ lawyer to ask Qs re NI's MSC collusion w cops. But Murdoch says MSC didn't reveal journo sources

Share this:

Murdoch says his journalists can join the NUJ at any point.

Share this:
@ rowenamason : Some of my channels are better than the BBC, some a lot worse, says Murdoch #Leveson

Share this:

He says Murdoch's accusation about Dacre: "I'm going to suggest you've made a mistake in reading something."

But Murdoch said he did not "see the difference," adding: "I think there's no doubt that maybe the Daily Mail and other newspapers were campaigning against it and against us.. That is a commercial reason. They said at the time in their public statement they felt in some commercial danger, if you like, if we succeeded."

Share this:
@ Peston : "I've spent hundreds of millions of dollars" on internal investigation, says Murdoch. Really? Can it really be that much. #leveson

Share this:
@ mlcalderone : Murdoch claims Huffington Post has just "a few" reporters -- he should come by the newsroom some time! #leveson

Share this:

Quite hilariously, Murdoch says his paper the Wall Street Journal is a "challenge to get through." Unsure if he meant it like that. He says they are adding more pictures to it.

Share this:

In fact there's more advertising opportunities occurring every year even then there are websites. So the rates stay very low. But it's a fact of life. We have to treat it as an opportunity. The Times of London, seven days a week, we put it on the ipad, we charge for it. Unfortunately apple takes 30% but that's another argument. That can be seen any corner of the world, so maybe there's an opportunity there.

Share this:
@ SamiraAhmedUK : Surprise! Rupert Murdoch in his comfort zone now as he blames BBC for its alleged role in declining newspaper sales. #leveson

Share this:

Murdoch says it comes down to an argument about intellectual property (but it is a bit unclear what he is talking about). And now, the predictable jibe at the BBC (which does do "great broadcasting").

He says the BBC's website is viewed by 12m people in Britain a week and "feel they have had enough news", saying this is taxpayer funded and affects newspaper circulation.

Share this:
@ benfenton : #murdoch apologises for repeating a private conversation with Jay?Leveson that reveals he likes Le Monde and The Times.

Share this:
@ PSbook : Murdoch tells #leveson he doesn't have a great understanding of technology. His purchase of Myspace would seem to support that.

Share this:

"We're spending a lot of money trying to, and succeeding, in presenting every word of our newspapers on modern tablets. There will be, I will be very confident in saying, that in a very short time.. there will be billions of tablets in the world."

He says other people read news on their smart phones (or as Murdoch refers to them a "smart telephone") but says he thinks printed presses can survive another 20 years with "small" circulations.

Share this:

"You said that I had at the very beginning a great understanding of technology. I don't... But the fact is that the internet came along, slowly developed as a source of news and now is absolutely in our space.

"I think it's been responsible for a lot of loss of circulation. I should ask the judge. This inquiry I presume is for the press in this country, not just the press in Fleet Street. We're seeing everybody under extreme pressure."

He adds: "People can send their blogs from Beijing and from the Cayman Islands and whatever you do you can't regulate that. I think you have a danger of regulating, putting regulations in place, which will mean there will be no press in 10 years to regulate."

Share this:

The News of the World, let's be quite honest, was an aberration and it's my fault.

Share this:
@ christopherhope : #leveson BREAKING MPs on the Commons' Culture Select Committee will publish their long-awaited report on phone hacking on Tuesday, May 1

Share this:
@ christopherhope : #Leveson BREAK Cabinet Office confirms Cabinet Secretary and Treasury Solicitor spoke to Leveson on Tues afternoon

Share this:

"We set up inquiry after inquiry, we employed legal firm after legal firm. Perhaps we relied too much on the conclusions of the police."

He says News Corp's response to being accused of collective amnesia was "disrespectful to parliament."

He says when he appeared at the select committee last July he said he was the right person to clear it up, and he did. "I have spent hundreds of millions of dollars.... Anything that looked faintly suspicious was passed to the police. That led to, I think, a dozen midnight arrests. Because of my pledge, not because of police. We went way beyond what they'd asked us to do.

"I remain greatly distressed that people who have been with me for 20 or 30 years.. My distress, it would be presumptuous to compare it with the immense disturbance, if you like, and hurt to the people who were arrested. I feel responsible for that but I'm glad we did it."

Share this:
@ RobDotHutton : Think Private Eye may need to increase its pagination next week. #leveson

Share this:

I think that historically this whole business of the News of the World is a serious blot on my reputation.

Share this:

"When the Milly Dowler situation was first given huge publicity, I think all the newspaper took this as the chance to really make a really national scandal. It made people all over the country aware of this..

"I panicked. But I'm glad I did. I'm sorry I didn't close it years before and put a Sunday Sun in. I tell you what held us back - the News of the World readers, only half of them read the Sun."

Share this:
@ MASieghart : Tim de Lisle resigned as Arts Editor of The Times when he was pressurised to run a big Sky plug #leveson

Share this:

"I don't have any other business interests. I certainly would ask or suggest, I don't think it needs suggesting, the editor of The Sun that it would be good to mention what's coming up in our new paper on Sunday. There is self-promotion in newspapers."

Share this:

These are known to be, um, not 100% accurate.

Share this:
@ tom_watson : I raised the blackmail point with Murdoch last year and he's claiming he still hasn't read the judgement. Outrageous. #leveson

Share this:

He says Andrew Neil, the former Sunday Times editor, doesn't "know the first thing he is talking about."

"Mr Neil seems to have found it very profitable to spread lies about me"

Share this:

From a press gazette story in December:

Lord Justice Leveson this afternoon condemned as outrageous an incident in which the News of the World threatened to expose one of the dominatrices involved in the Max Mosley sex party if they didn't cooperate with the paper.

Share this:
FOLLOW UK

Former prime minister Gordon Brown told Rupert Murdoch he had declared war on News Corp after The Sun withdrew their support from the Labour party, the media mogul told the Leveson inquiry. Giving...
Former prime minister Gordon Brown told Rupert Murdoch he had declared war on News Corp after The Sun withdrew their support from the Labour party, the media mogul told the Leveson inquiry. Giving...
 
 
  • Comments
  • 28
  • Pending Comments
  • 0
  • View FAQ
Post Comment Preview Comment
To reply to a Comment: Click "Reply" at the bottom of the comment; after being approved your comment will appear directly underneath the comment you replied to.
View All
Favorites
Recency  | 
Popularity
northern git
fed up with all the political crap in life
09:47 AM on 04/26/2012
while I hate and despise both of these characters, Brown and Murdoch, perhaps Brown may come out a little better than he has in the past, such is my dislike, distrust and contempt for Murdoch, misusing his power and influence.

I don't think I trust one word of his testimony at Leveson, apart from confirming his identity.

Come to think of it I don't trust his son either
photo
novelist2000
veritas non olet
07:49 AM on 04/26/2012
What I found so astounding is that if Murdoch (or any other newspaper empire) roots for the Tories, people will vote Tory. If he roots for the Labour leader, the electorate will vote Labour.

Is the electorate really so gullible, so easily influenced? Nobody has really researched here, why a newspaper baron can manipulate the electorate to the extent that he engineers the elections. There is a saying 'to leave your brain in the cloakroom', is this really appliccable to national elections?
LoveAfrica
Knowledge is Power & the Truth shall set you Free
02:25 AM on 04/26/2012
''----However, in a statement, Brown said Murdoch was "wholly wrong" and called on him to retract "a serious allegation". The former prime minister said he did not speak to Murdoch by telephone at around that time, and that he did not "phone Mr Murdoch or meet him, or write to him about his decision".

Brown said he had only one phone call with the owner of the Sun and the Times in his last year in office, which ended with election defeat in May 2010, which occurred in the second week of November, and was to discuss the Sun's coverage of the war in Afghanistan.

It came after the tabloid "printed a story in the second week of November about the death of a soldier and his mother's complaints". -------- a reference to the fact that the tabloid newspaper forced him to apologise early in the month to the mother of a dead serviceman who took offence after he sent her a handwritten letter of condolence that misspelled her name.

The ex-prime minister said: "I hope Mr Murdoch will have the good grace to correct his account" when the News Corporation chief executive continues with his oral evidence on Thursday---''
Source, Dan Sabbagh, Guardian, 25/04/12
06:53 AM on 04/26/2012
And of course Gordeon Brown never lied to protect his image? We know that we cannot trust anything Brown has said. We also know that Brown has been known to lose his temper at anyone, and shot his mouth at anyone, right? I rarely believe anything Murdoch says, however, in this case I believe him more than I believe Brown. This is not the first time this call has been reported in the news. And eachtime it is reported Gordon changes his story.
Let's be honest, Labour could say that the sky is green, and the Garian would report it as the truth.
12:40 AM on 04/26/2012
this media mogul diktat et al & and all the colluding ex& currant detritus,corrupted politicians, should all be publicly hanged for corruption,bribery,espionage,sadition & high treason against the British peoples. This is for illegaly manipulating & coercing our democratic processes for the gains of the corrupted elite.
WE NEED A REVOLUTION!!
This user has chosen to opt out of the Badges program
Mickey Mouse 1
There are no lies or deceit on a chess board.
12:17 AM on 04/26/2012
Whose feet are sticking out of Rupert's behind?
06:55 AM on 04/26/2012
Until 2009,they were Brown's and Blair's before him.
12:15 AM on 04/26/2012
found it.....This arose as a quotation by John Emerich Edward Dalberg Acton, first Baron Acton (1834-1902). The historian and moralist, who was otherwise known simply as Lord Acton, expressed this opinion in a letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton in 1887:

"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men."

This sums up the Murdochs to a T.
06:56 AM on 04/26/2012
And if you read the quote it also fits Brown, Blair, Straw, Ed Ball, and any number of Labour leaders ans well as many leaders of the Conservative Party.
12:03 AM on 04/26/2012
who said; ''Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely?''
11:40 PM on 04/26/2012
You did.
01:24 AM on 04/27/2012
come on Bo, even this comment is not worthy of you.
cantabria
my default position is wrong
11:07 PM on 04/25/2012
This whole thing is just so boring, look at all the people above here with their twitter feeds, self indulgent media, political, celebrity mutual...I just watch RT now, they're not bothered about this story, they deal with more important things.
photo
Reality always bites
Sometimes just a bit peckish
10:08 PM on 04/25/2012
Good comment, but is 'Stupider' a real word. Not all media could possibly be more stupid than all of our politicians.
photo
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Drg40
Representative Democracy is all we have.
08:47 PM on 04/25/2012
Bog standard call records will prove which of them is a liar ever so easily. I find it very interesting that Cable should have been alleged to have used exactly the same words. Maybe Murdoch isn't putting on his show of senile dementia after all, it's for real. Having got such an excellent result from his Cable sting he's trying to pretend it worked on Brown as well.
07:15 PM on 04/25/2012
Labour were extremely close to the News International group, and Blair and Brown loved it. That is, up to the point that the Sun changed its party alliegence.
Anyone, who doubts that the conversation between Murdoch and Brown as told to the enquiry,took place as described, should cast their mind back to the rant he had in the car accusing the old lady of being a rascist.
Brown was notoriously foul tempered, and spat his dummy out when he did not get his way.
Having watched PM's question time today, the stench of hypocracy from the labour camp was staggering.
This party was as close as any has ever been to Murdoch, they revelled in the Sun support for Labour, and now have the gall to question the integrity of whoever may be flavour of the day now.
The Leveson enquiry will (at great expense to the taxpayer) get to the bottom of this mess, and no doubt make many reccomendations as to the conduct of the media and politicians.
Time will tell on just who was too close to who.
08:58 PM on 04/25/2012
Yes,it all so seem that tories made very good bed pals to. This man thinks he can run British politics,He had the power to influence the British public in a big way.Three cheers to the LABOUR goverment,in trying to bring this aussie to heel.
10:03 PM on 04/25/2012
What Labour government? For years, when Labour was in government, they did nothing but court the approval of Murdoch. The major portion of the phone hacking took place in 2004 and shortly their after, and the paliramentary investedgation started only after Murdoch sithdrew his support for Labout in 2009. Labour would like you to think that it is behind the investigations, but indeed they are only trying to get back at Murdoch for withdrawing the endorsement. If News International papers endorsed Labour again, how fast do you think the Eds would change their tune?
photo
Reality always bites
Sometimes just a bit peckish
10:05 PM on 04/25/2012
Racist and innaccurate comment.
Who instigated the Leveson inquiry?
What has Murdoch's national birth place to do with it?
As for the British public being influenced- it is mostly Sun readers- and they just look at the pictures!
06:48 PM on 04/25/2012
I dispise Murdach, and the actions of his companies. I believe that he knew what was going on because he is a mico-manager. But at least this time he spoke the truth about Labour's golier than thou behavior. During BlairBrown, when the hacking was going on, the home office, in the hope of keeping the Murdoch endorsement, did not pudh the poilice to investigate. Once Labour had lost the endorsment, then they suddenly pushed the investigation, no in the name of justice, but in order to get back at Murdoch. Tony, Gorden, Eds, where was your outrage when you were endorsed by Murdoch?
One last point, it was Murdoch who dumped Labour, not the other way around. If Labour had moral objections to Murdoch, wouldn't it have been Labour that dumped Murdoch?
07:20 PM on 04/25/2012
I agree with what you say here.
I posted my own comment on here but it seems my points have upset the censors AGAIN !
12:11 AM on 04/26/2012
I've had a whole host of comments and praise removed with regard to my brief comment re Angela Merkel's photo being on the latest pulication of Mein Kampf. Someone..aol perhaps, removed the comments and favourited ticks for the 12 hours to 0900 on 25.04.12. Are the german spooks being nasty here and removing any derogatory reference to their dear leader?
05:58 PM on 04/25/2012
So we know Brown is a liar. We also know Murdoch is a liar. Choose which lie you prefer. But it's time someone stopped rule by media, they are even stupider than our politicians. Mind you, it's time we stopped rule by politicians too, and got to democracy. You know, rule by the people. Politicians do what we want, not what they want.
LoveAfrica
Knowledge is Power & the Truth shall set you Free
02:21 AM on 04/26/2012
The Liars you have not called out are; Cameron and Hunt.

Gordon Brown has asked the chief conservative liar, that is Murdoch to retract what he said because Gordon Brown did not even speak to him during the day of the so called threatening phone call. Brown will prove this in the coming days.

You object to media rule, yet you rush to call a decent man a liar just because Murdoch says so. Stay classy.
06:26 PM on 04/26/2012
I do not do anything because Murdoch says so. I do not believe Brown is an honest man, because, like all the others, he raids things like pension pots and NI contributions when he wants a bit more money to spend on things like weapons.
This user has chosen to opt out of the Badges program
Mickey Mouse 1
There are no lies or deceit on a chess board.
05:01 PM on 04/25/2012
Rupert: I see a lot of young soldiers coming back from Afghanistan have been blown up

Gordon: Our men are well equipted, like other European countries

Rupert: But they not as well equipted as the Americans!