Do you believe that Rupert Murdoch's people hacked phones here in the U.S and

[Uncle Joe]

a secondary question, have you seen any substantial reporting or coverage by the corporate media; here in the U.S. about this phone hacking in the U.K.?

On a thread by muriel_volestrangler

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4806249

News International, parent company of the News of the World, on Friday admitted liability for the first time over widespread phone hacking cases and said it would pay compensation in some cases.

News of the World, Britain's biggest selling newspaper, came under fire over its use of phone hacking in a scandal that cost the former editor his later job as head of communications for Prime Minister David Cameron.

On a thread by Snoutport

Hugh Grant was hounded mercilessly by the Rupert Murdoch press for any tidbit of gossip they could publish. Hugh Grant's car broke down and low and behold, the guy who stopped to help was one of the journalists who had hounded him all those years. The reporter had retired so the two ended up having a couple of pints and the journalist blabbed all about how Murdoch's top British Harpy and Chief of Newscorp, Rebekah Brooks was often horseback riding with the new Prime Minister, that she 100% knew of the phone hacking, and then he admitted to a whole bunch of other things going on at Murdoch's newspapers. Bad things. Illegal things...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x841429

[damntexdem]

1. And they say that belief is dead:

I believe this with absolutely no evidence that it happened in the U.S. ;-)

Well, of course there is circumstantial evidence evinced by everything to do with Faux News. ;-)

[Uncle Joe]

2. Even more than Faux "New's" behavior, is that of a supposedly competitive corporate media

that ignores an adverse story tied to the owner of its' major competitor.

They wouldn't have a problem with covering a lone individual hacker getting in to Palin's e-mails, but phone hacking by high ranking individuals tied to the owner of the most conservative corporate media institution here in the U.S. gets little or no mention.

I have to wonder if Murdoch has something on them or perhaps the Sun's Sheen has blinded them?;-)

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. The question revolves around how easy US phone companies made it to access others' voice mail

The point is that, in the UK, all the phone companies sent out the same default passcode for voicemail to all customers - many of whom never bothered to change it. And so journalists (realistically, this was not limited to Murdoch's papers; for instance, Piers Morgan, now pulling in the dosh as a CNN chat show host, boasted to his workers when he was the Mirror editor that he knew exactly what messages had been left on some celebrity's voicemail) freely accessed them if they could. It wasn't even illegal until about 2000.

If US phone companies were as lazy as the UK ones, then, yes, of course Murdoch's employees would have done it. So would many more (National Enquirer etc.).

[Uncle Joe]

4. I agree with you, Muriel, but I also see a larger question

Not just the ease of tapping phones due to the "laziness" of the phone companies, but the motivations and real life repercussions of said tappers' actions.

I believe there is little doubt that Murdoch wants to monopolize the information world as he continually adds to his media empire, and his propaganda isn't remotely objective so would those working under him ie: said tappers have used blackmail, coercion or inside information to further those aims of building an information trust to push their extreme ideology?

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. It is possible that Murdoch employees have used explicit or implicit coercion

It's known that various MPs in the UK have said they have backed off investigating Murdoch's operations because they fear being made a target of his journalists.

"Almost as bad as the original illegal activity... has been the cover-up," Mr Bryant complained. "Other members and former members of this House have said they were warned off pushing this issue in the House and in select committees. When I raised the question of parliamentary privilege last September, my friends were told by a senior figure allied to Rupert Murdoch and a former executive of News International to warn me that this would not be forgotten." He listed all the covert tactics used to obtain or wheedle out information about private lives: all were part of the "dark arts" practised by News International.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/murdoch-ally-warned-mps-not-to-pursue-hacking-scandal-2238673.html

Whether that's because they know Murdoch has specific information on them he'd reveal, or just that his papers have had such success in the past at making life tough for their targets - part of which will turn out to have been the information gained from the voicemails - I don't know. It also could be because Murdoch's papers have admitted paying police officers for information.