Friday's News Corp. annual meeting could get very interesting

There's the sizable opposition to the company's slate of directors, including CEO Rupert Murdoch and his son James. But there's also British lawmaker Tom Watson, who has flown to L.A. for tomorrow's shareholders meeting and who plans to detail new findings of surveillance techniques employed by News Corp. - techniques that he says go "beyond phone hacking." From AP:

"We know they've used tracker devices, private investigators to follow people, as well as phone hacking. Tomorrow, I want to talk about a particular aspect of other technological surveillance, but I'll leave that for the shareholders," he said. Watson said he will be acting as the proxy for 1,669 nonvoting shares owned by labor group AFL-CIO. He will likely be allowed to speak along with other shareholders.

Let's be clear: Murdoch is not about to be thrown off the board. Through family trusts, he controls a 40 percent share of voting shares, and Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, a key supporter, controls 7 percent. Murdoch opponents say they'll be happy if 20 percent or 25 percent vote against the slate. Even those numbers, however, would be a major embarrassment for the company - voting on directors slates is almost always a pro-forma affair.

From the LAT:

News Corp. is run "like a dysfunctional family firm," Watson, a member of the United Kingdom's Labor Party, said, adding that Rupert Murdoch is at his "Rosebud moment," a reference to the classic film "Citizen Kane" about a power-hungry media mogul.

I'm guessing that it's only a matter of time before Murdoch steps down and is replaced by a non-family member. The opposition among institutional shareholders is telling - and ominous.