In any company which had a history of illegality; incurring massive costs for those illegal actions; polluted public discourse; and, made massive false claims about companies and institutions, the directors and managers would be facing summary sacking at an AGM. But in the case of News Limited all the evidence is that the company never learns from such lessons.

Admittedly over the years some News executives have been defenestrated but none of those called Murdoch. But that might change if a current court case changes the balance of power in the company.

Meanwhile, as recently as this month a ‘crack’ team of Daily Telegraph employees (hard to call them journalists) conspired to try to goad employees in a pro-Palestinian restaurant into a conflict. The story was revealed by Jenna Price of the SMH (18/2) and involved a reporter, Danielle Gusmaroli (who has form); photographer Rohan Kelly who didn’t want to be there; and a videographer whose deep News experience was two weeks. Indeed, one wonders whether they were on crack rather than being crack.

The plan was for the journalist to walk into the café with a Star of David on his cap while the team waiting nearby was to rush in and capture the reaction. It was part of a plan – led by the Daily Telegraph editor, Ben English, to report on what it feels like to be Jewish in Sydney all supported by evidence collected by journalists secretly filming responses. All in all, shades of an old Get Smart episode but with evil rather than humorous intent.

As Price pointed out the media union, the MEAA, has a code of ethics which would condemn – for many reasons – this scam.

Price also highlighted previous similar News efforts. News media person Sherri Markson (again don’t like to dignify her with a journalist title) had gone ‘undercover’ to monitor what ‘lies’ academics such as Price were spreading about Rupert Murdoch on university journalism . The result three days of a typical distorted Murdoch campaign. As Price said: “And boy, did we tell those ‘lies’. We invited students to think about whether it’s important to speak truth to power ….and asked whether it was journalism to run page one after page one, campaign for one side of politics.

By the way, Markson makes much of her international experience of politics – based on a sojourn at the New York Post. Now the New York Post is one of the great tabloids and was responsible for the greatest of all tabloid headlines – Headless Body Found in Topless Bar. But Markson irritated her colleagues by constantly referring in her work and conversations to ‘our’ or ‘my’ city). New York is actually a quite welcoming city but premature embrace of ownership is frowned upon.

Of course, this latest Daily Telegraph atrocity is just one more in the series of very costly News ‘journalism’.

Murdoch UK tabloids hacked the voicemails of thousands of people – from crime victims to war dead, politicians and sports stars. They even hacked the phones of the Royal Family and apparently ‘we were not at all amused’.

The UK Leveson inquiry laid bare the full extent of this criminality – excoriating not only News but lots of other media outlets as well.

News, of course, also used its media power to assist its corporate manoeuvring to take over full control of the Sky TV service.

But perhaps the UK Murdoch media illegal actions touched a new level of baseness over the Milly Dowler affair. Dowler, a schoolgirl, went missing in 2002.

Murdoch’s News of the World journalists admitted to police searching for the missing schoolgirl that they had accessed her voicemail, Britain’s phone hacking trial heard. Tabloid staff confessed to police that they hacked the messages of the missing teenager using the schoolgirl’s mobile number and PIN which was given to them by her friends.

The prosecution alleged that then NoW editor Rebekah Brooks and her deputy Andy Coulson must have known the messages had been obtained by hacking, but they and other defendants denied it. However, Glenn Mulcaire, a private eye who worked for the NoW did admit hacking Dowler’s phone.

The Dowler affair was the last straw which created public and political uproar and led to the closure of the 168-year-old paper but not the end of Brooks’ career who has prospered since. How she fares after the Nevada court case appeals are finalised is another question though.

Needless to say, we can’t omit what News has done to inflict Trump on the world and what they are trying to do to inflict Dutton on Australia. The enthusiasm for Trump cost Fox Corp $787.5 million to settle a defamation suit filed by Dominion Voting Services which Fox stars and guests accused – in baseless claims – that Dominion was involved in 2020 election fraud to cheat Trump of victory.

All told the Murdoch empire has paid out more than a billion dollars in handling claims and legal fees between 2011 and 2023.

But the damage to the body politic is much greater. Australia is the next cab off the rank to receive the Murdoch election treatment – as witnessed on any day in any News media outlet.