8/3/2019 Eliot Carver vs. Rupert Murdoch

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"The News of the World Never Dies" In the 1997 James Bond film"Tomorrow Never Dies", the vulpine agent is challenged to prevent azealous media mogul from catalyzing war between China and U.K.

 The scheming antagonist, Eliot Carver, is the supreme head of amedia empire known as "Carver Media Group", or C.M.G. Though itis not explicitly mentioned in the film, we're led to believe thatCarver's conglomerate is the preeminent media force, and that itsreputation is so grand that it is able to swindle, threaten, andgerrymander the rich and famous as much as it pleases.

In the 2011 News of the World hacking crisis( which contains somuch cinematic punch itself)Rupert Murdoch is slapped with theepithet of the culprit, albeit in the wake of convictions against bothGlenn Mulcaire, the News of The World's private investigator, anderstwhile editor of the tabloid Andy Coulson and the resignation of 

Rebekah Brooks, the former chief executive of News International.As the chairman of the parent conglomerate News Corporation,Murdoch and his son, James, were summoned to a testimony beforethe Culture, Media and Sport Committee of the House of Commonson July 14th, wherein they were subtly given the televised publicityto issue numerous apologies. The overarching controversysurrounding the crisis led to the death of the News of The Worldpaper. More interestingly, across the Atlantic,folk were keen toobserve how two of News Corp's major North American services,FOX News and The Wall Street Journal, would report or censor the

blasphemy of their parent company (CNN even went as far as to askwhether FOX News was furtively hushing up the dilemma).

The Carver Media Group seems to be the epitome of  journalistic omniscience, with its very own satellite in orbit, andinternational editions of its dominant tabloid, "Tomorrow". CMG isaccredited with the reputation of always being the first to break thenews. Diabolically, however, this is so due to the fact that theyactually cause the events to happen. This is demonstrated whenCarver orders that his regional heads post faux-headlines-Carver isin a plenipotentiary position. What's more, Carver utilises his media

company's ubiquity to flare up bellicosity between China and theU.K.-diabolically harboring conflict that is absolutely unfounded. Thevery fact that CMG has the potential to provoke such tumult affirmsthem as a political-yet-identic power. Murdoch's tabloids haveidentical political prowess-though, thankfully, they do not intend tocause armed conflict of any sort. With The Sun and The News of theWorld garnering viewer-ship and circulation on a grand scale,whomever the tabloids backed for an election would surely be aformidable contender. When John Major emerged as the victor of the1992 election, The Sun, whom had backed Major, brazenly lionized

itself. On an issue following the election, The Sun claimed "It's TheSun Wot Won It". In the proximate ministerial elections of 1997 and

8/3/2019 Eliot Carver vs. Rupert Murdoch

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2001, Murdoch's tabloids supported Tony Blair-and, lo and behold,Blair was prime minister faster than you can say Rebekah Brooks.

 Yet, is the candidate whom is backed by News Corp Murdoch'spersonal favorite too? When asked what he thought about DavidCameron in July 2006-whom the duo of tabloids had beensupporting- Murdoch replied, "Not much". So why would he berallying on the Conservatives? Could it be that Murdoch's tabloidssolely support the party that has the greatest chance of winning sothat the administration shall be kind to his corporation? Perhaps. Fora politician, denouncing News Corp would be foolhardy-yet gainingtheir favor may be very lucrative.

Eliot Carver may very well have been whisked up as a parodicalnemesis to Murdoch, yet the sinister likeness of the two of late havedrawn several similarities. In the wake of the News of The World

crisis, Murdoch has been accused of acknowledging the surreptitiousphone hacking and doing nothing about it-thus promoting a super-surveillant, Orwellian environment, which happens to be whatCarver champions. Whether Murdoch truly is a rogue shall berevealed, and in an age of transparency, the concept of excessivepublicity never seemed to rear its head until now. Carver is thespearhead of a corporation that degrades other institutions in orderfor itself to accrue- yet News Corp seems to be shrinking, itsreputation forever tarnished. In spite of all illicit behaviour betweenthe two, and the ambition of Murdoch and Carver, one thing's for

certain- neither ever managed to operate in China.