Voicemail Hack Scandal Leads To Closure of UK Tabloid 268
Some Bitch writes "Britain's biggest selling Sunday tabloid will close after this Sunday's issue. The tabloid has been embroiled in a voicemail hacking controversy for some time now and the news that they compromised the voicemail of a murdered schoolgirl and paid bribes to Metropolitan police officers for stories kicked off a renewed assault on the paper. The News Corp daily counterpart to Sunday's News of the World is the Sun; the domain sunonsunday.co.uk was registered two days ago."
Nothing but PR (Score:3, Interesting)
This is the press equivalent of amputating a gangrenous limb to try and stop the spread of the infection, without even acknowledging that the rest of the body is already riddled with disease...
Re:shell game...? (Score:5, Interesting)
Rebekah Brooks, née Wade, who was in charge at the time is already chief exec of News International. The current rumour mill is that the NOTW staff are being sacrificed in order to keep her safe. As to why Murdoch would go to such lengths to protect her, the thinking is that if she went then James Murdoch would also have to go. James Murdoch has admitted to paying settlements to silence people involved in the hacking affair; he claims that the information given to him at the time was incomplete and he didn't know the full extent.
Just so everyone is clear what's going on here, Members of Parliament have started talking openly about how they've been threatened by News International. A murder investigation into a private detective where the prime suspects were two other PIs with close ties to News International was interfered with by the NOTW. The former deputy features editor of the NOTW has openly admitted to bribing police to the tune of £5-10,000 for stories - something he doesn't believe should be illegal. Rebekah Brooks accidentally admitted to Parliament a few years ago that they regularly paid the police for stories, although in a clarification 6 months later that claim was retracted.
There's always been rumours around how Murdoch runs his empire, but now it's being blown wide open. News International runs more like a criminal conspiracy than a legitimate media organisation; they're basically gangsters.
Re:James Murdoch alleged to off broke the law (Score:4, Interesting)
He almost certainly broke the law. The regulation of investigatory powers act makes it an offence for a corporate body to engage in this kind of behaviour and holds directors personally responsible for connivance and neglect.
If James Murdoch let things happen on a nod and a wink he's guilty of connivance. Even if he didn't have that level of knowledge, failing to do a full internal investigation based on the allegations from five years ago is a clear sign of neglect.
News of the Screws (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:shell game...? (Score:5, Interesting)
As an aside, The Guardian has a rather interesting piece [guardian.co.uk] on the use of private investigators by UK media from back in 2007 when things first kicked off. The NoTW only came in fifth behind those other stalwarts of quality UK journalism; The People, The Daily Mirror, The Mail on Sunday and, the run-away leader, The Daily Mail.
Re:shell game...? (Score:4, Interesting)
Closing down NOTW is being done for no more reason than to keep Murdoch's purchase of the remaining 60% of BSkyB on track. The government has announced a delay, and with David Cameron's close associations to key players (including Andy Coulson who was tossed from Downing Street in shame and now faces arrest), there is a push among many Tories and close supporters in papers like the Daily Telegraph to basically toss News Corp out of Britain. The general sentiment is that Murdoch has had an unholy influence on British politics and it's time for it to go.
Re:Voicemail Hack Scandal Leads To Closure of UK T (Score:4, Interesting)
He has the advantage that we already know his private life isn't whiter than white and has in any case semi-retired from acting. There isn't much you could really threaten him with.