"The comparison to Watergate just got a little stronger."

[babylonsister]

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/political-animal/2011_07/murdoch_media_scandal_intensif030784.php

Political Animal

July 11, 2011 11:35 AM Murdoch media scandal intensifies in UK

By Steve Benen


Yes, it can get worse.

Journalists from across News International repeatedly targeted the former prime minister Gordon Brown, attempting to access his voicemail and obtaining information from his bank account, his legal file as well as his family’s medical records.

There is also evidence that a private investigator used a serving police officer to trawl the police national computer for information about him.

The comparison to Watergate just got a little stronger.

Alyssa Rosenberg reports that the growing scandal is also causing recursions.

According to Bloomberg’s Lizzy O’Leary, the Murdochs have withdrawn their bid to take over the BSkyB network. That seems prudent. I doubt that as the phone hacking scandal spread, the bid would have been approved in any case. And the extent to which that practice was used raised critical questions about the wisdom of company leaders and internal decision-making standards. I don’t know what it’ll take for the Murdochs to clean house after this disaster of judgment, but it’ll be intriguing to see if reevaluations of the company’s news-gathering practices end up impacting the Murdoch family’s holdings on this side of the Atlantic.

[daa]

1. This is bad, Well bad for the Murdock empire but great for us.

They even tried to listen to 911 victim's phones. No telling what else they do at faux nuze.

[pansypoo53219]

2. keep digging.

i bet this hole is very very deep.

rupert has many enemies + victims.

[beac]

3. Murdoch hasn't withdrawn his takeover bid.

He HAS withdrawn the promise to spin off Sky News as a separate company once the deal closes. This automatically sends the deal to the Competition Commission and is widely seen as a stall for time.

Jeremy Hunt referred News Corporation's £8bn bid for BSkyB to the Competition Commission, pushing it back at least six months, after Rupert Murdoch chose on Monday to withdraw his offer to spin off Sky News in order to get the media merger cleared by regulators.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/blog/2011/jul/11/news-world-hacking-scandal-live#block-98 (at the 4:43pm mark)

ETA: Here's the link to the story on Bloomberg: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-11/news-corp-withdraws-sky-news-pledge-in-bid-for-outstanding-bskyb-shares.html