Simon English: Divine time for Church to offload News Corp
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Outlook The Church of England has taken a bold ethical stance. It has decided to sell its holding in that disgraceful outfit News Corp because of phone hacking and its lack of a proper corporate governance structure (it has only just noticed that the company is Murdoch heavy, and tends to favour family members for top jobs). The fund is run by various men of God, including David Harding of Winton Capital (personal fortune: about £800m). By lucky chance, or divine providence, the shares of News Corp rose about 50 per cent in the year between when the Church decided it was awfully bothered about News Corp's ethics and the decision to sell.
But then, if God can't call markets, who can? Other companies the fund has invested in: BP (without scandal), HSBC (no issues here) and GlaxoSmithKline (never been in trouble for anything).
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments