The News Corporation is no stranger to scandal. Fines for indecency, lawsuits charging anticompetitive business practices and libel claims are a fact of life for the company, which has been able to easily absorb the financial inconvenience.
In 2009, advertisers boycotted Glenn Becks Fox News program after the host said President Obama was racist. Taking the action in stride, Fox said the advertising dollars merely shifted to other time slots. And in January the company paid a $500 million settlement to Valassis Communications, which had accused a News Corporation subsidiary of trying to obtain a monopoly in the in-store coupon business.
The most recent prominent incident with the Federal Communications Commission came last year after the network showed an episode of American Dad in which a horse appeared to ejaculate on a characters face. The commission proposed a $25,000 fine.
This week, The New York Post was sued for libel by the hotel maid who has accused Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former International Monetary Fund chief, of sexual assault. In its coverage of the case, The Post has called the maid a prostitute.
