more than 50 years my guest, les hinton, was murdoch's right—hand man.s a top executive with news corp during some of its most tumultuous times. well, he's just lifted the lid on his time at the corporation in a new memoir. how much personal responsibility does he bearfor some of the excesses of news international, like the phone hacking scandal in the uk, and did he have a career he can be proud of? les hinton, welcome to hardtalk. thank you very much, zeinab. it's good to be here. what was it like working alongside rupert murdoch for more than 50 years? it was hard work. it was stirring, it was exciting, it was infuriating, and occasionally it was agony. but they were great years. over a long period of time. i began as a 15—year—old buying his sandwiches in the morning and i ended up running a large company in new york. so quite a meteoric rise from fairly humble beginnings. but you say in your memoirs, maybe news corp was a personality cult. maybe? surely it was or it wasn't wasn't. it depends on how you define a personality cult. but he certainly dom

i don't think it was rupert murdoch, but i don't know who it was. approach, the kind of journalism that draws criticisms, is that a thing of the past for news corp? it's not really, is it? hang on. when you say think of the past, you are implying perhaps in the minds of some people watching this that it was a permeating culture and it wasn't. it wasn't like that. there was a knot of people who did a lot of misdeeds by hacking people's voicemails. you are a former chairman and chief executive of fox tv stations, fox news channel was launched in 1996, not by you because apparently you didn't have the right vision for it. a lot of criticism now about fox news because people say it parades opinion and comment masquerading as fact and caters to people's prejudices and so on. that is still going on. no, see, you are quoting what commercial rivals of fox news say and then imply it as fact. i lived most of my time in new york and watch the news bulletins there, that fox is a devoted the trumpian operation. i personally don't agree with that. i think that th

we have rupert murdoch in there. we have rupert murdoch in there. we have comcast, et cetera.to ask you, but who do you think the winners and losers will be? bass is the golden question. i think it clear from previous reports that rupert murdoch is quite keen on a deal with disney, the ceo and he had been chatting quite regularly. before christmas he turned down the far, the stock offer by comcast, which was higher than disney's offer, as well. there is also a legacy to play for. there is talk of james murdoch also a legacy to play for. there is talk ofjames murdoch being on the board of disney going forward, while rupert murdoch and his other son ta ke rupert murdoch and his other son take control of his music empire. so i think take control of his music empire. so ithinki take control of his music empire. so i think i is veering towards... 0n the question therefore is, we'll disney increased its offer and what do shareholders think? because comcast‘s offer is, whereas disney's is more stock. we are going to have to watch this space. thank you very much, amy—jo crowley, for c

another argument to this which is that rupert murdoch may want to own a huge chunk of disney. the question is does he want to own a huge chunk of comcast? if it's all-cash deal, he wouldn't >> would one of the sons run disney dad, i want to run disney. >> i think it's clear that james murdoch is not in contention to run disney bob iger has been relatively consistent about that. let's talk to a telecom analyst from raymond james frank, good morning. >> good morning. >> if the department of justties is -- does lose this at&t/time warner case, do you believe that it opens up the opportunity for everybody to buy everybody >> that's going to depend. the biggest insight they get is how you define the market. how you define the market tells the story in any antitrust case. if they are successful in how

they don't want the murdoch's to have that much control over the media that it has in the u.k. so they've said continuously said it looked like they would not greenlight that kind of a sale of the remaining shares of sky back to back to fox so now what you have is comcast essentially getting the green light that rupert murdoch has been waiting for for several years really interesting case but you don't comcast is a big but it's not big news twenty first century fox so it just appears that the concerns about public interest or antitrust just weren't that hard at least for the british regulators of course in that because they have different that comcast doesn't have the same stake in europe that it has here in the united states so i think that for. the u.k. it's just not a question of a monopolistic practices they're not going to have that much control they don't have any control over print the same way that rupert murdoch's fox company has so i think that there's just not as much of a concern for comcast to go in and take take over that part of sky interest and the other story b

they don't want the murdoch's to have that much control over the media that it has in the u.k. so they've said continuously said it looked like they would not greenlight that kind of a sale of the remaining shares of sky back to back to fox so now what you have is comcast essentially getting the green light that rupert murdoch has been waiting for for several years really interesting case but you don't comcast is a big but it's not big news twenty first century fox so it just appears that the concerns about public interest or antitrust just weren't at least for the british regulators and of course in that because they have different the comcast doesn't have the same stake in europe that it has here in the united states i think that for the u.k. it's just not a question of a monopolistic practices they're not going to have that much control they don't have any control over print to the same way that rupert murdoch's fox company has so i think that there's just not as much of a concern for comcast to go in and take take over that part of sky interests and the other story breaking

murdoch, the bottom line, he's a dealmaker. he's not going to turn his back on $10 billion again, i think there's nothing but good news for him in this situation. >> we're thinking about scale, and we're thinking about scale in the context of these media players. if you go back in time, all these media players really underestimated one big elephant in the room today. that would be netflix. remember back in 2010 time-warner ceo jeff bewkes said this to "new york times", is the albanian army going to take over the world i don't think so is there an albanian army today, jim, that you think people aren't looking at? they are so busy looking to acquire content with the distribution platform, they are not seeing what is coming down the pike >> well, possibly. it's interesting that netflix back then could call an albanian amazon, too, they didn't go out and buy fox or paramount or somebody like that. >> right. >> they created media companies from scratch, which by the way what antitrust regulators love that, creating organic competiti

lachlan murdoch will serve as chairman and ceo. rupert murdoch will be cochairman of the new fox. it looks like this is handing over the baton in most ways. the current cfo will take on a broader role as coo. we know that hedge funds have been filing in to 21st century fox now owning about $7.3 billion among investment firms. so that is one headline. i want to bring you another one as well which is fascinating. mark zuckerberg has decided to actually testify in europe. he has now accepted the invitation to testify before the european parliament. before he didn't seem to have any interest in doing that. once again he continues on his crusade. he will not testify before the european parliament. italian bond yields jumping to their highest level in seven months on reports that the country's populist parties debtsking for a massive write-off from the ecb. joining us from rome is kevin , bloomberg west european economy editor. i want to start on that part of the story that is moving the markets the most which is the debt write-down that was that theyby lawmakers are asking for a $300 b

to a former purveyor of fleet street notorious dark arts john ford and the alleged con man for the murdoch sunday times turned leveson inquiry whistleblower and aware of all the flowers gone the lemon tree trust exhibits its garden at the chelsea flower show in london aiming to alleviate the effects of britain's bombing of iraq all this and more coming up in part through of going on the ground. twenty five years ago companies to go public as a way to expand their would be a viable corporation you have to meet certain criteria to for being a bible corporation and then you are allowed to go public now there are no such criteria so if you're essentially burning through cash and going bankrupt you're using the public marketplace to bail out a losing position. welcome back the british labor party's deputy leader tom watson is demanding the u.k. government reverse a decision of a media regulation in the light of allegations from a former rupert murdoch sunday times worker well that worker referred to in the british house of commons was john ford and he joins me now john thanks for coming on goin

. >> last night some of the highlights, 21st century fox ceo james murdoch speaking at code addressingomcast and disney bids for the company's assets and answering questions on the competition including the threat of streaming services like netflix which recently became the world's most valuable entertainment company by market cap. take a listenp >> look at the kind of investment that netflix is required to make in anticipation of potentially their not being able to acquire rights from outside programmers they're doing a huge amount of original production those are enormous bets and when you add on top of that live sports and things of that nature, there are huge costs and i think they've done a great job in many ways, delivering the user experience for customers that have raised the bar for competitors. >> really interesting lines of questioning from peter on that there was -- i wonder what you found more interesting, the balance between disney/comcast here or this conversation more angled towards why sell now. what is changing about the about is that would require you to get out some

we speak to a former purveyor of fleet street dark arts john ford and the alleged con man for the murdoch sunday times turned leveson inquiry whistleblower and aware of all the flowers gone the lemon tree trust exhibited to garden of the chills the flower show in london aiming to alleviate the effects of britain's bombing of iraq all this more coming up a pod through of going underground. these we continue to discuss only about some monitors of the maastricht. six bods and we don't we are nothing to give to the next generation our reasons for which to be proud to be european these is the reason of us kept. twenty five years ago companies or go public as a way to expand there will be a viable corporation you have to meet certain criteria to for being a bible corporation and then you're allowed to go public now there are no such criteria so if you're essentially burning through cash and going bankrupt you're using the public marketplace to bail out a losing position. welcome back the british labor party's deputy leader tom watson is demanding the u.k. government reverse a decision of a medi

a former purveyor of fleet street snow tories dogcart strong forward and alleged con man for the murdoch sunday times turned leveson inquiry whistleblower and aware of all the flowers gone the moment she trusted exhibited to government the chelsea flower show in london aiming to alleviate the effects of britain's bombing of a room full of them or coming up a pod through of going underground. forty five years ago companies that go public as a way to expand there will be a viable corporation you have to meet certain criteria to for being a bible corporation and then you are allowed to go public now there are no such criteria so if you're essentially burning through cash and going bankrupt you're using the public marketplace to bail out a losing position. welcome back the british labor party's deputy leader tom watson is demanding the u.k. government reverse a decision of a media regulation in the light of allegations from a former rupert murdoch sunday times worker well that worker referred to in the british house of commons was john ford and he joins me now john thanks for coming on going

analog is it about a murdoch-like family >> murdoch-like, but also redstone like, robert maxwell likend of wealthy family, not that owns a business, not necessarily in the media either, but stirred in a lot of -- the characters we hope that come alive, fictional characters, it's not an exact matchup. >> in the '80s we had "dallas" and "dynasty," now we have "billions," and "succession. what is it about this point in time that perhaps has the culture focussed on a different kind of rich family or tycoon? >> that's a great point because you're absolutely right. when you look back at "dallas" and "dynasty" it's old wealth and land and oil, and this is more about the fight of information, digital technology, broadcasting, the media, it's a much more -- and, of course, show business, too, is a much more modern kind of billionaire fortune in america and the world for that matter. >> here at this desk we're all watching media, the game theory on mergers and anti-trust. how much of that plays into creative decisions right now we talked to ben silverman last week about how some of these cbs/vi

agent in these on the ties that make an out of court settlement to rupert murdoch of the not supporting the labor party in those days what was it like to work for. i never met him i was always kept out of the what was called the plant i only ever entered the plant once operated as a free lunch so that there was credible bed let's see i only knew reports of him from people that i became very close to working with over the telephone but people actually in the end when the whole day with them became close friends with who more than twice referred to him is as a sociopath was it your interpretation that when you were hacking the abbey national account of gordon brown that rupert murdoch has a lot in the press these days about the attacks on the leader of the labor body to recall what was your interpretation that in effect what you were doing was trying to destroy the political chances of gordon brown with the benefit of hindsight it's clear that the there was a political agenda to undermine cotton brown i should say that the government scientist david kelly who somewhat suggest tried his be

underground that the pm acts on orders from the daily mail newspaper nowadays she seems to prefer rupert murdoch's fox news this is absolutely wrong.

that was the issue front and center executive chairman lachland murdoch and james murdoch faced questions comcast's reported interest topping disney's stock deal for fox. here what lachlan murdoch had to say. we won't engage in speculation around this. we are committed to our agreement with disney and are working to bring it to a loewsing in addition our directors are aware of their fiduciary duties. >> when asked about comcast taking on fox's bid about sky, james murdoch indicated that fox's lengthy process already long under way has an advantage. >> we remain committed to our bid to buy the remaining sky shares we do not own and expect to receive uk regulatory process in a month or two. comcast just begun its regulatory process and we think it's reasonable for comcast to undergo a robust regulatory review that could take months. >> they also said that planning for new fox, the parts of the company that are not selling to disney is under way and they are making strategic investments such as the acquisition of seven tv stations from sinclair tribune to bolster new fox's reach. julia boors

remember, in the shareholder vote, the murdochs only can vote about 20%. you still have an opportunity, if you're comcast, to put a higher number out there on the part of fox shareholders for disney you cannot force the murdochs, i keep saying this, to sell you the company if they're opposed to it. because you need to run a proxy fight to get rid of them in that case, they have that 40%. you won't win it. >> i listen to your report and say you brian roberts he wants to win this. if fox were a regular company with no family control, then this would be done. >> yes that might very well be a different story. >> the board of fox was unanimous in their approval of the disney deal. by the way, at the time, comcast did not offer the regulatory give ups they would have needed to you know, the things that would make risk go away in terms of if this is not actually approved or meets certain divestiture needs. by the way, all of this depends on judge leon. everybody assumes to -- he's going to say i side with the government if he says that it's off it's all off disne

government reverse a decision of a media regulation in the light of allegations from a former rupert murdoch sunday times worker well the. worker referred to in the british house of commons was john ford and he joins me now john thanks for coming on going underground the government says justice is already been served by the inquiry catalyzed by the murdoch media hacking of phones of a dead schoolchild what do you make of the high court decision in the bus a few days to go ahead with some kind of legal challenge well not truly i'm delighted i think particularly this week especially following on from me because lake inquiry it's clear that press practice is still us that's a reference to the magister attacks yeah that we've been commemorating the dead indeed yes so showing that journalists practice is still out of control in journalism is a competitive business and journalists will compete with each other to get a line this situation needs a root and branch inquiry we were promised leveson one and leveson two by lord leveson because he considered the. the job unfinished there are a number of a

you can't force the murdochs to sell this to you. >> that's it.>well, no you can't have the board say -- >> i like saying disney. listen, disney, you got to come up. >> right. >> and at that point, is it just making a more painful for disney world versus universal -- >> yes. >> theme park? >> yes unless there's a deal to be struck somehow. >> right. >> and you get into things you can't collude. let us buy all sky and we'll back down. i don't know. >> do these guys hate each other? >> yes yes. >> yes >> they do >> yes. >> they hate each other? >> yes. >> no love there. >> no. red sox/yankees? >> yeah. we can have a cage match. >> yeah. >> okay. not good. >> not good. >> two have and oenter and one s >> could be. >> maybe we'll hear more tonight when disney gives the earnings. >> this was poorly timed from the point of view of the disney earnings call. >> yeah. none of this is a surprise. >> no. >> but thursday rather than today. >> right again designed, perhaps, to put pressure on disney stock. >> yeah. >> you think so? >> meanwhile, it's possible

snap chat about the redesign and life as a public company but one of the headline was james murdoch.e was asked about disney, fox, and comcast. take a listen. >> essentially we had an agreement with disney and we have an agreement with disney which we find attractive for the shareholders all stock agreement. we think from a regulatory perspective, and we thought in december that you have a higher certainty of close you weigh up the factors that's what we thought was the right thing to do. whether or not the board is asked to consider is a different offer from somebody else, in the future we'll deal with that. >> we'll hear more from murdoch later on this morning. he covered a wide range of topics including the firing of roseanne at abc, sexual harassment, and so forth the other big theme is taking jabs at facebook murdoch questioned the social ad model overall. evan spiegel did say he wished they copied more of their privacy protections than social ideas. in the end sheryl sandburg took the stage. >> it's a platform where so many people share they do the goods and the bad. it's not t

no role for james murdoch, now expected to go it alone, likely more entrepreneurial it was reported heoing to do something like venture capital investing at one point discussed whether he would have a role at disney at this point doesn't seem like james murdoch is going to disney when that deal goes through. while 21st fox entertainment aspect go to stock and disney, this new fox will be focussed on news and sports including fox news channel, fox sports, fs1, big ten network, and as well as nine of the ten largest stations in the station groups in the u.s. so cable broadcasting and interesting here to see that lockland will be taking the lead this was pretty much expected whereas james likely to go it alone. back over to you >> julia, thanks. >> a couple years ago not expected lockland would be the one with the executive role and james looking for something else to do. interesting how these things can shake out with this m&a environment and everything else. thank you, julia boorstin. >> let's take a look at micron right now up 4%. rbc initiating coverage there with an outperform the an

assets, soon after comcast got a vote of support fr activist investor christopher hone urged the murdochamily to engage with comcast and wrote if comcast formalizes a superior all-cash offer, we would support that offer over the current disney offer he noted that the murdochs may prefer disney's stock offer to a higher price cash offer from comcast due to tax benefits, but he urged them to comply with their fiduciary duties and opt for the highest bid. disney agreed in mid-december to acquire fox's movie studios, regional sports networks and other assets in a deal valued at about $52 billion at the time. comcast has been preparing an all-cash bid to top that if the government approves the at&t/time warner tie up. comcast, disney and fox all declined to comment on the letter >> so fascinating. >> you have to wonder whether or not it matters if you're a shareholder not named murdoch. >> it is regulatory implications as well. disney has a 2$2.5 million breakup fee. >>> new numbers on uber. the ride hailing company has a value now at $62 billion. uber telling cnbc it had net revenues of 2$2.

fox ceo james murdoch criticizing facebook ads and how it's been used as a platform for manipulation.o took a dig at facebook for copying its features but not its more stringent regulation policy. >> they've changed their prun products and changed the mission. fundamental they're having a hard time changing the dna of their campaign. and the dna of their company is all about having people compete online for attention. >> reporter: cheryl sandberg responding by saying they're taking responsibility and investing big even though it will hurt their bottom line to make sure this doesn't happen again. >> we can get better, we can be more transparent. we can put a lot more resources in technology automation and people. >> reporter: sandberg also talking about all the changes they've made in the past two months and the ways they're complying with new european privacy regulations. >>> sales impress at dick's sporting goods. the retailer reported stronger than expected earnings and revenue, quelling fears that business performance would be impacted by the company's decision to stop selling guns

speak to a former purveyor of fleet street notorious dark arts john ford an alleged con man for the murdoch sunday times turned leveson inquiry whistleblower and aware of all the flowers gone the moment she trusted exhibits at the garden of the chelsea flower show in london aiming to alleviate the effects of britain's bombing of iraq all the more coming up odd to have going on the ground.

a former purveyor of fleet street so tory is dark arts john ford and the alleged con man for the murdoch sunday times turned leveson inquiry whistleblower and aware of all the flowers gone the lemon tree trust exhibited to garden of the chelsea flower show in london aiming to alleviate the effects of britain's bombing of iraq all this and more coming up in part through of going on the ground. in july twenty second team hunted also to a freelance journalist working with our team to militant shelling in syria. to honor his sacrifice equality has established a holiday all sort of memorial day will recognize will reporters who often risk than the sake of the truth comes through the piece you can submit to your published works in a video or written form until june. twelve. twenty five years ago companies go public as a way to expand their would be a viable corporation you have to meet certain criteria for being a bible corporation and then you are allowed to go public now there are no such criteria so if you're essentially burning through cash and going bankrupt or using the public marketplac

is one the murdoch family will have to weigh carefully before they strike as you know, they took a lower offer given some of those concerns late last year. it's still not clear how this will play out. but we're shaping up for an interesting six weeks. >> it is i know it could be confusing, but this deal would include local fox news if you lived in chicago or new york, one of their markets, but not the fox news channel >> that's right. yes. exactly. that transaction that disney is contemplating with fox and that comcast is interested in would see fox news, the main entity of fox news, fox sports become a new entity, which the murdochs would control. the rest, movie studios, regional sports, all these other things could go over to the winner of any bid there. >> arash massoudi, thank you very much. >> thanks. >>> in other deal news, takeda pharmaceuticals ending what has been a multi-year journey and striking a deal to acquire shire for $62 billion. the deal is the largest overseas deal ever by a japanese company. shares of takeda and shire are both moving higher on that news. >>> this is

tax free favorable stock for stock with murdoch and disney.cast is testing the waters. >> what do you think of the valuation right now of the big players? at&t has come down one of the things that has not been commented probably enough upon is the idea that if, in fact, the at&t/time warner deal is allowed to go through given how much at&t has come down, frankly, the time warner deal doesn't look nearly as attractive as it used to 18 months ago. >> well, the market is really not looking at the future. and it's the future that at&t/time warner or building for. it's the future why disney needs the assets next year they're launching their netflix competitor >> how much does comcast need to do something by the way, in fairness, should note the stock is off materially the high of comcast was $44. what are we at $32 now? >> $31 >> comcast is sitting in the driver's seat. they are the largest internet provider they don't need any more media if they don't want it. >> so the pressure on this stock is what right now? is it just an expectation that someh

is there money that would change the murdoch's mind?are rational at the end of the day. given the at&t-time warner and thataving the visibility happened there, now we have better visibility on how that plays out. six months ago, you were surprised by the government lawsuit. you were looking at disney stock versus comcast stock knowing disney was going to protect you by paying a breakout the -- breakup fee. it seemed difficult for the murdochs at the time to choose anyone but disney. now, not only do you address the currency, if you don't like comcast stock we will pay you cash. notmedia industry, it is exactly like it is bright lights and everything is great going forward. there is real pressure on the legacy media industry. getting cash, i think they will listen to them. if the numbers big enough and all cash, i don't think there's any way you look past it. mark: talk to me about synergies. fox sky orer, disney comcast fox sky? rich: they talked about $2 and onein cost savings billion in -- you have to believe those numbers are larger

mark: why would comcast try to push in on the deal with murdoch when they chose bob eiger and disney?t is really content international and distribution that comcast would want in going after those fox assets. they will probably not be waiting for those u.k. decisions around fox and sky, but also at&t and time warner. that is a vertical deal held up by the department of justice right now. a ruling will come out june 12. if it goes forward, that may given the green light to make a bid. sources have said they are interested in making a bid for those fox assets that would come closer to $60 billion in cash $52.4 billion in stock. cashax implications of the -- vonnie: this decision today already negates one of those arguments, the regulation problem. also, we haven't heard from them recently. reporter: it is so interesting. it will be interesting to see what comes of at&t and time warner. it is also the tax implications around the cash because that could be much more pricey for the murdoch family. time for the bloomberg business flash, a look at some of the biggest business stories in the

. > murdoch plans to take charge of the remaining businesses.6-year-old who was chairman at the new company which is being report as new fox. rupert murdoch wasn't mentioned in the company statement. little early for a dram in asia. wo bottles of rare 60-year-old istle yk i, they show an unquenchable thirsts for spirits. each bottles carry answer estimate of more than half a million u.s. dollars excluding a premium. haidi, cheers to that. haidi: it's not quite friday yet. betty: almost. aidi: daybreak asia. taking a look at what's going on. >> we're not whiskey con sources but perhaps you might have more to add on that. >> i dabble in whiskey. but it's quite early. but you know what, just in the contexts of marks you need more liquid investments looking at financial conditions tighting up there. that's a very bad joke. alicia's coming on the show. she'll receive global markets asia. she overseas pan-say sha to talk about tencent. one question for her. how is the street getting tencent wrong every single time? lots of things to talk about, of cou

yes it may be a protected process, and there have been behind the scenes discussions between james murdoch bob iger about the role that he could play in disney in the acquisition goes through. so there are already expectations on both parties if you think about murdoch senior as well, his background and what legacy he wants to leave behind, disney is a better fit for what he's built up with 21st century fox >> tim, i want to talk about some disney numbers. what would the company's bottom line look like without marvel and "star wars," do you think? >> significantly different the interesting thing from yesterday's numbers, if you look at the studio segment of the revenues, studio entertainment, 21% in operating revenues, but operating income was up. so over the previous six months there's been an increase of 9% for that segment but in the last three months, there's been a 29% increase in the operating income that's come down to two things, "black panther" and unexpected huge international successes and underlines disney as a global brand, and we also have the avengers franchise those two mov

murdoch will report on trent replace his brother james while rupert murdoch will serve as cochairman. news there is good news for fans of the f1 50. >> this is good. we reported on this last week. ford is resuming production of the pickup truck headed plant in dearborn, michigan tomorrow in kansas city on monday. it will take sometime for production to get back up to full speed after a fire shut down a crucial part supplier earlier this month. mercedes-benz and general motors had to suspend production at several u.s. plants. >> people love that. thank you. billionaire investor tim draper sees the government going virtual in the near future. >> they can use the block chaining over the next five or 10 years to do most government services. this is unbelievable what this can do. this could change everything. cheryl: the digital currency around the world to compete on a level playing field. skype and tesla have poured millions of dollars into bitcoin. he believes it's the centerpiece of our new virtual world. over the last three months by the way as you can see a little volatile. bush's le

a lot of this depends on the murdochs -- are they committed to disney, and if so, why?they want disney stock? they turned a higher offer from comcast down once, so it is not just about money. again, if comcast comes back with a high enough offer it might be tempting. at that point, does disney ?espond with a higher bid i do not know. it is one of the reasons bob was talking so confidently yesterday, to avoid and sitting -- answering that questioning. vonnie: our thanks to doug. mark: up next, tartan troubles. why burberry shares are sliding today. this is bloomberg. ♪ this is bloomberg. ♪ ♪ vonnie: live from new york, i'm vonnie quinn. mark: and live from london, i'm mark barton with the european close. it is minutes away. stock ofime for our the hour. it is burberry. shares are lower and it is that to pace on the worst day since january, when the market -- the market closes in london in just a few minutes. major shareholders are selling it is stake. -- its stake. why? abigail: they are selling their 6.6% state, and they have held it for just a little more than a year.

i guess you will know well, you worked for rupert murdoch for years, the times always has a special reportonomics of the country, all that sort of thing. i remember them well, they looked awful, the key thing, advertising supplement, all the fonts, the typeface in, they were quite distinct from the newspaper, you knew when you got that... maybe you did, as he sector to chairman, but our readers as discriminating as you make us out to be? laughter. in the example you set, yes, they do, there is also a tendency now, i saw this at the wall street journal, there will be a page that is not in, but faces the same as the editorial pages, that is where readers have an instinctive knowledge. of its top white newspapers are a dying to be honest, there is very little way for them to make money. they are struggling, the truth is, there is so much advertising revenue in particular leaking to the internet, that they have had to make changes in the way they sell advertising, this is where the trouble begins, how far can they go while still maintaining the trust of the readers, that what they are reading

rupert murdoch would say i think we have a better chance.be legally more problematic. charlie: maybe and the other thing that brian roberts is hanging his hat on is if at&t prevails over the government and is allowed to buy time-warner. neil: if it doesn't he's not interested. charlie: well then he can't it's going to be harder to justify it but that core, he's challenged a dual class ownership structure like mine os is doing and saying mr. murdock you have a responsibility to your shareholders and they like all cash bids better than the stock bids. neil: so you're closer to the president and alienating your boss. charlie: by the way rupert murdoch is the greatest business man of all-times in my view but i'm up there with thomas edison. neil: it's a little late for that. charlie: i'm telling you one of the greatest men of all-time is our boss, but i'm saying i'm just laying out -- neil: understood. that's the kind of guy you are wish we had more time. but we do not thank you, charlie gasparino he was on both of these stories and we'll keep o

this is hard -- >> if you're going straight to the voters, rupert murdoch only has a 17% vote this isolders of 21st century fox. because if a deal has come, it's the shareholders who have to vote that in the murdochs have a 17% vote this says the structure in terms of any offer by comcast including with respect to both the spinoff of new fox and the regulatory risk provisions and the related termination fee would be at least disfavorable as the disney offer. so what they're saying to any 21st century fox shareholder, it's a breakup fee we believe we have a regulatory view through this merger and any deal will be at least as good as what you get from disney if disney goes ahead and pushes this, that's a way of signaling to the shareholders, wait. let's see what we have for you too. >> and we pointed out that even if comcast doesn't prevail, it would be nice since comcast does compete with disney, it'd be nice for them to get them to pay more. >> whether it's going to push iger to make a call at some point. >> comcast is the parent company of cnbc. just making that clear >> don't know h

the murdoch family control the controlling shares.the controlling shares, the b shares, and still despite what's going on with shari redstone and les moonves to challenge the structure, it's still a structure. so they cole it. i'm just saying, what i'm hearing, and it's interesting. fox is starting to get a little spike there, maybe. is that -- liz: it's tiny. you need a microscope. >> i don't know why it's spiking -- [ laughter ] >> thank you. liz: bringing him down to earth. >> not that i'm trying to move stocks every day. we did move ge significantly on friday on the story about the sale of multiple bidders on lighting business, the iconic lighting business. here we are, this is what brian roberts is being told, i'm not saying i agree with it, he wants our assets and all systems go, maybe it will change his mind and obviously one of the things to watch for is the at&t-time warner decision. do they allow them to merge? does it merge with conditions or it hurts the deal that other people back away? sun valley is going to be interesti

. >> he made several suggestions around the idea that murdoch likes disney stock so i was curious, what you thought he was trying to telegraph. >> part of it is -- and this is well known, rupert murdoch likes stock deals. he doesn't like to pay tax he likes to roll over into other assets the cash deal poses other problems >> so the prospect that's hanging out there is that comcast may make this bid for fox if, in fact, the at&t time warner deal is allowed to continue on. >> these are valuable assets nobody should be surprised that comcast, which has already created something that at&t is trying to emulate, nobody should be surprised that comcast will try to go out and buy the disney -- or fox assets, especially because we're in a moment where movie studios, some other networks are valuable. >> is the decision entirely the murdochs >> the decision is the murdochs. >> they own voting control, that would happen in a situation like this >> we see this with any of these companies that are controlled stock stocks >> from a legal liability perspective, isn't it difficult for them to turn down

murdoch also talked about the risk whenever anyone tweets. and that they do include guidelines for tweets in contracts. >> one more thing we should point out during roseanne's tweet storm. she made comments toward am beian who responded people of all races religion s work here. racism is not a result of any of our medications. a cheeky remark but well stated. >> i think it was a good marketing move there has been a lot of facebook bashing at code and a lot of talk of regulation what are you hearing >> well, sarah, facebook has certainly been under fire here at code. james murdoch in that same interview saying that facebook is a platform for manipulation, also taking a dig at facebook's ads saying they mocks myself profitable around their customer's privacy s&p's ceo hammering facebook copying s&p's popular features and for failing to protect users data listen. >> we would appreciate it if they copied our data protection practices also because -- you so, you know. >> speigle saying while facebook has changed its products and its mission that t

i'm on set with deroy murdoch. you may be able to add some ammunition to this in a certain extent. when you talk about quote-unquote a muslim ban. it was not a muslim ban. it was ban on certain countrys who have no idea what the heck who is there and they are deliberately trying to hurt us -- >> murder us. trish: grow their terrorism operations. if you don't know who you got in your country we're not so comfortable bringing those people to the united states. when it comes to specifically gang members and unaccompanied minors that came in during president obama's years, actually this goes all the way back to the 1980s, this ms-13 gang, you kind of have to take a stand on that. it is not about being racist or not or not wanting to open your arms to protect people working hard. >> president clearly responded to question about ms-13 referring to these animals as animals. nancy pelosi is rushing to the saying attacking all immigrants which he wants. he said each of these people have spark of divinity as human being. i wonder if they have spark of divinity, taking ma sheet test to the he

over regulation of the media we speak to the alleged call a man who says he was interested by the murdoch sunday times to get everyone from the chancellor of the exchequer to the boss of u.k. spy agency m i six plus as the world faces its worst refugee crisis since world war two the chelsea flower show in london tries to undo some of the legacy of tony blair's war in iraq all the civil coming up in today's going. underground but first the pentagon may be the biggest employer in the world and perhaps took over from donald trump's cancellation of june's historic singapore meeting that might have gone some way to mitigate the killing of twenty percent of korea's population by the usa and u.k. but it's closely followed by the chinese people's liberation army walmart mcdonald's and britain's n.h.s. this week u.k. labor leader jeremy corbyn accuse minority government needed to raise it may have trashing europe's largest employer for privatized profiteering the national audit office criticised n.h.s. england's capita contracts saying and i quote it's hard to put patients that risk of serious har

the headline, too fit to be, and is rupert murdoch's recently buying the journal did not help matters. later that day the press pool trailed obama to a farmers' market in florida. he ordered a strawberry milk shake, and as he took a long sip, he looked right at me. [laughter] we locked eyes, and as he gulped down the frothy mix, he said, wow, this milkshake is delicious. maybe if i had one of these every day, i won't be such a skinny guy. [laughter] obama then ordered strawberry milkshakes for the entire press corps. [laughter] i can safely say hillary didn't want to buy me a milkshake that day in new hampshire. [laughter] so, well, thanks. [applause] thanks for listening, and is i'd love to take your questions. or i can keep reading. [laughter] okay. >> did you choose to cover some extent the dispute over her private e-mails? >> yeah. you know, i -- going in this i knew that if i wrote a memoir, it had to be honest. and if i said the press did everything right in 2016 and, like, my coverage was perfect, i just think it wouldn't ring true to readers. and once you sound like you're bei

. >> back in march, mac, the french bulldog, was taken out of a backyard near 25th and murdoch.the hands of a local breeder who recognized him and then called police. this surveillance video shows a man breaking into the kennel and taking off with mac the dog. police have identified this man as joseph bagshaw and are still looking for him. but the positive side of this story is that mac is back in a big way. >> mac is back. >> he's like, i know who you are. >> so cute. congratulations for the happy reunion. >> that is your cue, jeff. >> good weather for some dog walking tomorrow. 80 degrees. sunshine by the afternoon. clouds on saturday and sunday looking good. 71. >> thanks for joining us here on this thursday night. have a great friday. >> bye-bye. we'll see you tomorrow. [ cheers and applause ]

at the time i worked with him, 1992, rupert murdoch and people were working with us to promote this newertainment and a platform to engage with fans around the world, and so we started importing all the talent, people like ruud gullit, wonderful footballing talent, but the one that continually lifted the premier league to new levels, he was and is sir alex ferguson. we will leave it there for now, thank you so much for sharing your thoughts. we wish him all the best in his recovery, thank you. you are watching bbc news. the time is just you are watching bbc news. the time isjust approaching you are watching bbc news. the time is just approaching ten minutes you are watching bbc news. the time isjust approaching ten minutes past four. the national crime agency has confirmed that jamie acourt has not appealed against his extradition back to the uk. he's wanted here on suspicion of drugs offences. mr acourt was one of the original suspects in the murder of the black teenager, stephen lawrence; he has always denied any involvement. tom burridge is in barcelona and has more. this was a long

government over regulation of the media we speak with alleged con man who says he was interested by the murdoch sunday times to target everyone from the chancellor of the exchequer to the boss of u.k. spy agency m i six plus as the world faces its worst refugee crisis since world war two the chelsea flower show in london tries to undo some of the legacy of tony blair's war in iraq all the support coming up in today's going underground but first the pentagon may be the biggest employer in the world and perhaps took heart from donald trump's cancellation of june's historic singapore meeting that might have gone some way to mitigate the killing of twenty percent of korea's population by the usa and u.k. but it's closely followed by the chinese people's liberation army walmart mcdonald's and britain's n.h.s. this week u.k. labor leader jeremy corbyn accuse minority government needed to raise it may have trashing europe's largest employer for privatized profiteering the national audit office criticised n.h.s. england scapular contract saying and i quote it's hard to put patients at risk of serious h