《卫报》|新闻集团：家族企业
上周我在纽约时，有一次不寻常的经历：在福克斯新闻的编辑部，就电话窃听丑闻的影响接受天空电视台的采访。我身处鲁珀特·默多克在美国的新闻帝国腹地，受访的卫星电视频道主席是他的儿子詹姆斯，而至少到上周为止，他的新闻集团控股公司还在试图买断外部股东的股份。采访过程揭示了这起丑闻中一些尚未被充分关注的方面。
Last week while I was in New York, I had the unusual experience of being interviewed about the implications of the phone-hacking scandal in the newsroom of Fox News for Sky TV. So I was being interviewed in the epicentre of Rupert Murdoch's news empire in America for the satellite TV channel where his son James is chairman and in which, at least until last week, his News Corp master vehicle was trying to buy out the outside shareholders. What happened in the interview was revealing about some aspects of this scandal which have yet to come into full focus.
在我看来，天空新闻的采访者安娜·琼斯表现出了亲默多克的倾向。我对她说，作为一家上市公司的首席执行官，我认为如果我做出以下行为，股东们早就把我解雇了：
In my view, the Sky News interviewer, Anna Jones, demonstrated a pro-Murdoch bias. I suggested to her that, as the CEO of a public company, I think the shareholders would have had me fired if I had indulged in the following:
1. 花 5.8 亿美元（3.6 亿英镑）买下 MySpace，然后以 3500 万美元（2200 万英镑）卖掉；
1 Paid $580m (£360m) for MySpace and then sold it for $35m (£22m);
2. 花 57 亿美元（35 亿英镑）买下道琼斯，随后减记 28 亿美元（17 亿英镑）；
2 Paid $5.7bn (£3.5bn) for Dow Jones and written off $2.8bn (£1.7bn);
3. 花 6.15 亿美元（3.82 亿英镑）买下女儿的公司，堪称“明目张胆的裙带关系”的典型；
3 Paid $615m (£382m) for my daughter's business in an example of what has been described as "blatant nepotism";
4. 眼看着公司股价连续 15 年跑输标普 500 指数；
4 Seen my company's shares underperform the S&P 500 Index for 15 years; and
5. 在任期间，多名员工参与犯罪性质的电话窃听和贿赂警察，而管理层对此加以掩盖。
5 Been in charge when several of my staff had engaged in criminal phone hacking and bribing police officers, activities which had been covered up by my management.
所以，我问她，为什么默多克没有被解雇？答案当然是，没有人能解雇鲁珀特·默多克，因为默多克家族借助差别投票权控制着新闻集团。
So, I asked, why hasn't Murdoch been fired? The answer, of course, is that nobody can fire Rupert Murdoch because the Murdochs control News Corp through differential voting rights.
新闻集团有两类股本：A 股没有投票权，B 股拥有全部投票权。默多克家族持有 40% 的 B 类投票股。数量多得多的 A 股没有投票权，所以默多克家族得以控制一家他们仅持有 13% 已发行总股本（A 股和 B 股之和）的公司。
News Corp has two classes of share capital: A shares which carry no votes, and B shares which have all the votes. The Murdochs own 40% of the B voting shares. The much more numerous A shares have no votes, so the Murdochs are able to control a company in which they own only 13% of the total issued share capital being the total of the A and B shares.
因此，当新闻集团为伊丽莎白·默多克的公司 Shine 支付 6.15 亿美元时，她的父亲实际上主要是拿别人的钱在买——众所周知，花别人的钱比花自己的钱容易得多。同样，我提到的其他灾难性投资造成的价值损失，也主要落在那些长期受苦但没有投票权的新闻集团 A 股股东身上，因为他们出了大部分资金。
So when News Corp paid $615m for Elisabeth Murdoch's business, Shine, her father was literally buying it mainly with other people's money – which as we all know is much easier to spend than your own. Similarly, the impact in terms of lost value of the other disasters which I mentioned has mainly fallen on those long-suffering but non-voting A shareholders in News Corp because they are putting up most of the money.
我关于默多克局势的回答显然不是天空电视台采访者所期待或想听到的。她为鲁珀特·默多克建立“庞大帝国”的成就辩护。我提醒她，要称得上一个商业帝国，新闻集团需要产生不错的资本回报——而这恰恰是它没能做到的。
My responses about the Murdoch situation were clearly not what the Sky interviewer was expecting, or wanted to hear. She mounted a defence of Rupert Murdoch's achievements in building a "big empire". I reminded her that to qualify as a business empire News Corp would need to generate, for example, a decent return on capital – something which it has failed to do.
已动用资本回报率是衡量企业业绩最重要的指标之一——它是管理层用股东提供的资本赚取的利润回报。过去五年，新闻集团的已动用资本回报率低得惊人，每年只有 10%。可比公司要好得多：美国传媒公司维亚康姆每年做到 20%，每日邮报与通用信托集团每年做到 30%。
Return on capital employed is one of the most important measures of corporate performance – it is the profit return which the management earns on the capital shareholders provide. News Corp has managed a decidedly poor return on capital employed of just 10% a year in the past five years. Comparable companies have done much better: the US media company Viacom managed a return of 20% a year and Daily Mail & General Trust 30% a year.
采访最后，她说想带我看詹姆斯·默多克和伊丽莎白·默多克的成就，然后掐断了我的发言。我很乐意在电视直播中参与那场辩论。当然，天空新闻网站上的采访片段省略了采访者的提问和评论。
The interviewer ended by cutting me off after she said she would like to take me through the achievements of James Murdoch and Elisabeth Murdoch. I would welcome that debate on live TV. Of course the clip of the interview on the Sky website omits the interviewer's questions and comments.
如果这就是默多克家族完全控股之前天空新闻的编辑独立性和诚信标准，那么一想到如果他们获得完全所有权后会发生什么，只能让人不寒而栗。
If this is the standard of editorial independence and integrity at Sky before the Murdochs owned the company outright, one can only cringe at the thought of what would have followed if they gained outright ownership.
电话窃听、贿赂警察，以及与两大政党政治人物打得火热——两党竞相比拼谁更能迎合默多克的追随者——这整个一长串行为，总体而言是滥用权力的例证。新闻集团的股东投票结构也是如此。
The whole litany of phone hacking, police bribery, and cosiness with politicians of both major parties who competed to see who could engage in the greatest pandering to the Murdoch acolytes is, in general terms, an example of an abuse of power. So is the shareholder voting structure at News Corp.
新闻国际公司为电话窃听丑闻在报纸上发表了道歉。鲁珀特·默多克应该亲自向他的股东道歉，为他造成的损害。既然行动胜于言语，他还应该赋予默多克家族不拥有的 A 类无投票权股份投票权。到那时，新闻集团的所有者才能对他的行为作出评判。
News International published an apology in the newspapers for the phone-hacking scandal. Rupert Murdoch should apologise in person to his shareholders for the damage he has wrought and, since actions speak louder than words, he should enfranchise the class A non-voting shares which the Murdoch family does not own. Then the owners of News Corp can pass judgment upon his actions.
Terry Smith
Terry Smith
The Guardian
The Guardian