R. Murdoch Thinks Ethics & Laws Are For Others

By now it is pretty common knowledge that Rupert Murdoch gave $1 million dollars to the Republican Governors Association claiming it was "in the best interest of the country."   He didn't give that money out of his own personal bank account, which has to be considerable since he's one of the richest men in the world.   No.   He wrote the check on the account of News Corp, the parent company of Fox News.

Of course, this gave the perception that Fox News, like many of us have been saying, is just a propaganda arm of the Republican Party.   After all, no other news organizations make political donations to any political party.

But the donation did more than just show the political slant of Fox News.   It also broke the law in Delaware, where News Corp was incorporated after moving from Australia.   Delaware law makes it illegal for any corporate executive to use corporation money to make a personal expenditure.   And Murdoch admits it was a personal expenditure rather than a corporate expenditure saying "it was actually [a result of] my friendship with John Kasich."   Kasich is a GOP gubernatorial candidate.

Understandably, at least two shareholder groups (Nathan Cummings Foundation, F & C Investments) have complained about the News Corp donation to Republicans.   The $1 million donation could have gone into shareholder dividends, and makes it look like all shareholders support the candidates that Murdoch supports.  

After all of this publicity over Murdoch's law-breaking and ethically-challenged donation, a reasonable person would think that Murdoch would have learned his lesson and not repeat that mistake again.   But that would be wrong.   IRS disclosures show that Murdoch has made a second donation to the Republican Governors Association from the News Corp account.   This time the donation was for $250,000.

At the annual shareholders meeting a couple of days ago, a stockholder questioned Murdoch about the corporate donations and asked if he would "be willing to engage shareholders" in any future donation decisions.   Murdoch's answer was,   "No. Sorry, you have the right to vote us off the board if you don't like that."

Murdoch makes it clear that News Corp is his play-thing and he will use its money like he wants, whether the shareholders like it or not (and regardless of the law).   Murdoch obviously believes that laws and ethics are for other people -- not rich tycoons like himself.