Murdoch’s Attempt to End Phone Hacking Scandal Unlikely to Succeed

[Ian David]

Murdoch’s Attempt to End Phone Hacking Scandal Unlikely to Succeed
Despite an official apology, the repercussions for News Corp. are just beginning
April 11, 2011
- Christopher Silvester

LONDON -- The story so far: Clive Goodman, a journalist for Rupert Murcoch’s English tabloid, the News of the World, was sent to prison in 2006, along with a private detective, Glenn Mulcaire, for hacking into the voicemail messages of Prince William and Prince Henry. News International, the UK newspaper-owning subsidiary of Murdoch’s News Corporation, has consistently claimed that the phone-hacking was confined to a single rogue reporter, but evidence uncovered by the Guardian and New York Times has suggested otherwise.

Last Friday, James Murdoch told PBS’ Charlie Rose that News International had defused a reputation crisis over allegations of widespread illegal phone hacking at the News of the World newspaper: “You talk about a reputation crisis—actually the business is doing really well. It shows what we were able to do is really put this problem into a box.” But the lid has not stayed on the box and the contents have spilled over the sides. Rupert Murdoch has now tried to put that box into yet another one by issuing a blanket apology and offering a compensation fund for a select number of victims. Again, the lid does not seem likely to stay put.

News International’s announcement of the apology on Friday amounts to a complete reversal of policy by Rupert Murdoch and his top brass. Until now the management of News International has always argued that a single rogue reporter had been engaged in phone hacking. But the recent arrests of a former senior News of the World executive and the paper’s chief reporter—both of whom have been bailed till September pending further developments—and a court order requiring the release of internal emails has given the lie to that strategy. The former Labour minister Chris Bryant, who is suing News International, said that it is “a pretty extraordinary moment… when a national newspaper, which has been saying for years and years that there was just one rogue reporter, that it was all very regrettable, and that there were very few victims, owns up to a massive degree of criminality at the newspaper”.

It has been obvious to many that the “rogue reporter” strategy was flawed ever since News International settled claims in 2008 with Gordon Taylor, chief executive of the Professional Footballers’ Association, for £700,000, and the publicist Max Clifford, for over £1 million. After all, why would a reporter who covered the royals have been hacking their phones?

More:
http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/news/digital/e3i7c245652ae01d0d6368046bd6f602588

[Snoutport]

1. Ah...notice the tie in to the head of the Wall Street Journal? This story

just jumped the pond. :0) And now they can start investigating the US holdings of Rupert Murdoch.

[Angry Dragon]

2. Throw the weasel in jail

[blm]

3. Oh it stopped....no mainstream US media outlets will dare go after Murdoch for his crimes

They are all FAR too scared to cross Murdoch...even at his most vulnerable...he still carries too much weight with the fascist agenda. They are, after all, committed members of the corporate den of thieves....and they are THICK.