Exclusive: News Corp Executive Suspected of "Orchestrating" Leak

[Hissyspit]

Source: Reuters

Exclusive: News Corp executive suspected of "orchestrating" leak

By Mark Hosenball
LONDON, JUL | Fri Jul 22, 2011 10:19am EDT

LONDON, Jul (Reuters) - A leading private investigations firm said it had strong reason to suspect that Will Lewis, a senior executive of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, was involved in "orchestrating" a leak of material from a competing news organization which helped Murdoch's business interests.

Kroll, one of the world's biggest corporate investigations firm, was hired by London's Telegraph Media Group, a competitor of Murdoch's London-based News International, to find out who had leaked unpublished excerpts of a secret audio recording that Telegraph reporters had made of Britain's Business secretary, Vince Cable.

The investigation firm says in a report, prepared for the Telegraph last March, that it could not categorically identify the source of the leak. One main reason for this, Kroll said, was that the Telegraph Media Group's information security systems were too porous and too many people had access to the relevant systems for the leaker to be pinpointed.

A News International spokesman did not respond to a request from Reuters seeking comment from Lewis.

Read more: http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE76L30I20110722?irpc=932

[CJCRANE]

1. Interesting...

"In the Telegraph recording, first reported by the BBC, Cable said that he had "declared war" on Rupert Murdoch. At the time, in December 2010, Cable was responsible for deciding whether the government should allow Murdoch to acquire the 61 percent of U.K. satellite broadcaster BSkyB the media magnate did not already own.

As a result of the leak, Cable was stripped of his responsibility for the BSkyB deal".


It looks like there could be a Murdoch mole inside the BBC.

In hindsight, this was a blessing in disguise for Cable, a Liberal Democrat, because the whole Murdoch issue is now squarely in the hands of the Conservative Party.

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. Robert Peston, BBC business editor, is close to News International

Robert Peston says claims of bias are 'utter rubbish'

BBC business editor Robert Peston today denied being a News International "patsy" after Labour MPs claimed some of his reports were apparently favourable to the company.

The row erupted when two former News of the World executives accused James Murdoch of giving misleading evidence to MPs. Peston, a friend and Muswell Hill neighbour of News Corp executive Will Lewis, instead reported last night that Matt Nixson, features editor of the Sun, had been dismissed over allegations of serious misconduct when he was at the NoW.

Labour MP Tom Watson tweeted: "Why Sun story now Peston? More spin to deflect Myler/Crone statement?" Peston replied: "Tom, that is an outrageous and untrue allegation." Watson then tweeted: "Stop being a patsy."

When Peston's Nixson story led the phone-hacking coverage on the News at Ten, former Labour minister Denis MacShane tweeted: "Robert P should no longer be reporting on this." Labour MP Chris Bryant said: "The BBC may as well get Will Lewis on each time and be done with it."

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23972370-robert-peston-says-claims-of-bias-are-utter-rubbish.do

It was Peston who broke the story about Cable's "war with Murdoch" remarks:

The paper published other comments made by Cable on 20 December, but omitted his quotes about Murdoch from its initial report.

Instead, the remarks were published by Peston, the BBC's business editor, on his blog, and the tape was played on the BBC news.

Ever since the incident, the circumstances surrounding the leak have been the subject of intense speculation.

Robert Peston told the Guardian he had received the recording from a whistleblower, who told him at the time that the Telegraph "had made a commercial decision not to publish those remarks".

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/mar/01/daily-telegraph-vince-cable-leak

[CJCRANE]

4. Thanks, the pieces are starting to fall into place.

This all adds to the suspicion (or maybe confirms) that Murdoch's cronies are hacking other media outlets.

[Uncle Joe]

6. I'm curious about something, what is gardening leave?

"He chose to leave the Telegraph at the end of that month, and has since been appointed to a post at News International. Robinson has not yet started his new job because he is currently serving a three-month period of gardening leave."

Is this someone that owns a farm?

[muriel_volestrangler]

7. It's a phrase for "don't turn up at the office, we don't want you there

but this isn't something that we can sack you over right now". The idea is "you look as if you could do with a bit of time off - why don't you take some time to work in your garden?"

Oxford English Dictionary:

gardening leave n. Brit. (euphem.) suspension from work on full pay for the duration of a notice period, typically to prevent an employee from having any further influence on the organization or from acting to benefit a competitor before leaving.

1985 Daily Tel. 2 Feb. 2/1 Then he had a spell of what he described as ‘gardening leave’, Civil Service jargon for a paid leave while a job could be found for him.
1986 J. Lynn & A. Jay Yes Prime Minister 240 But you could send Humphrey off on gardening leave while we examine the rest of the Halstead papers.
1989 Managem. Today (Nexis) Oct. 161 A gardening leave clause purports to allow a company to pay an outgoing employee to sit at home during his notice period.
2001 Western Daily Press (Electronic ed.) 12 Dec., Bruce has been on ‘gardening leave’ from Crystal Palace after he tried to walk out on the Eagles to take over at the club where he spent two seasons as a player.

[Uncle Joe]

8. Thanks, muriel.

It does seem that Peston is compromised in his reporting.

[beac]

2. K&R! n/t

[Uncle Joe]

5. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Hissyspit.