Everyone was doing it, but the boss didn’t know about it: Murdochgate continues

Josh Halliday, Lisa O’Carroll, Sandra Laville, and Mark Sweney, The Guardian:

The Sunday People editor, James Scott, has become the first serving newspaper editor arrested over alleged phone hacking, relating to his time at the Sunday Mirror a decade ago.

Scott was one of four former Sunday Mirror senior journalists arrested in dawn raids on Thursday on suspicion of conspiracy to intercept voicemail messages. Tina Weaver, the ex-Sunday Mirror editor who is seven months pregnant, was also arrested on Thursday morning.

The other two were Nick Buckley, the deputy Sunday People editor, and Mark Thomas, the former People editor, who also both formerly worked for the Sunday Mirror.

Murdochgate expands again

Lisa O’Carroll and Josh Halliday, The Guardian:

Six former News of the World journalists, two of whom now work for the Sun, have been arrested by Scotland Yard officers investigating a new line of inquiry in relation to phone hacking.

In a dramatic new twist to the phone-hacking scandal on Wednesday morning, the Metropolitan police said in a statement that it had identified a further suspected conspiracy to intercept voicemail messages by three men and three women that is alleged to have taken place between 2005 and 2006.
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“Detectives on Operation Weeting have identified a further suspected conspiracy to intercept telephone voicemails by a number of employees who worked for the now defunct News of the World newspaper,” the Met said.

Unfortunately, Murdoch has managed so far to tourniquet off the British tabloid side of his empire, and continues to buy up American communications. He and James have so far escaped prosecution for what was pretty obviously a scheme ordered from on high. The only bright spot is that FOX News may have belatedly recognized that no one believes their political propaganda except the zombie right, which means that their audience is dying off.

Murdochgate grinds forward

Lisa O’Carroll, The Guardian:

News International has agreed to settle 130 civil damages claims for News of the World phone hacking with individuals including Cherie Blair, David Beckham’s father, and actor James Nesbitt, at a cost to the company expected to run into millions.

The publisher of the now-closed Sunday tabloid faces 167 phone-hacking damages claims filed by September from almost 180 individuals, after settling more than 50 earlier in 2012 from individuals including Lord Prescott, Jude Law and Sienna Miller.

“…expected to run into millions”

Oh the pity of it! The News of the World was a 130M pound (annually) business. Murdoch upends the lives of over a hundred people and he has to sacrifice perhaps 10% of the proceeds of one year?

Where is the deterrence in this?

Murdoch lieutenants hit with new charges

Vikram Dodd, The Guardian:

Prosecutors have announced new criminal charges against the former News International editors Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson, this time over alleged illegal payments to public officials.

The Crown Prosecution Service announced on Tuesday that four former News International employees, and a defence official alleged to have been paid £100,000 for information, should stand trial.
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Also charged are …the Sun’s former chief reporter John Kay, and the Ministry of Defence official Bettina Jordan Barber, who is alleged to have been paid £100,000 over a seven-year period.
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Coulson also faces trial in Scotland over claims he committed perjury in a libel trial, which he denies.

Good news in media!

This is sure to improve the quality and diversity in journalism.

Guardian:

Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation is looking to bid for the Los Angeles Times, the paper has reported, adding Murdoch is also interested in buying its stablemate the Chicago Tribune from their parent company, the Tribune Company.

The paper said a deal might require a waiver of federal laws that block ownership of newspapers and TV stations in the same market. Murdoch’s Fox network has stations in Los Angeles in Chicago. Tribune also has interests in television stations, some of which carry programming from News Corp’s TV channels or operate as Fox affiliates.

A bid for the LA Times alone could be worth as much as US$400m, the paper said.

I’m sure that a few strategic campaign donations can gain him the waivers. But I wish he’d finish paying his fines from the latest wiretapping/computer hacking episode before further degrading our media.

The price of her silence: Rebekah Brooks pay-out about $10M in Murdoch scandal

Dan Sabbagh and Patrick Wintour, The Guardian:

Rebekah Brooks received a payoff worth about £7m after resigning as chief executive of News International at the height of the Milly Dowler phone-hacking crisis in July 2011.

The exact figure has never been disclosed by the Murdoch company – whose parent News Corporation holds its annual meeting on Tuesday – but one source said they believed it was between £6m and £8m.

If she gets convicted of her role in phone/computer hacking and cover-up, she has to pay some of it back. You could call it incentive pay–for lying.

It’s a date! Murdoch phone hacking prosecutions

Lisa O’Carroll, The Guardian:

Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson have been told at the Old Bailey that they are not due to face a full trial until …. 9 September 2013 by Mr Justice Fulford, who is presiding over two batches of charges against them and 12 others.
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Coulson, Brooks and six others have been charged with conspiring to hack phones.

Brooks is also charged with three counts of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.
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Apart from Coulson and Brooks, the others facing phone-hacking-related charges are Edmondson, Weatherup, Thurlbeck, former News of the World managing editor Stuart Kuttner, ex-news editor Greg Miskiw and a private investigator, Glenn Mulcaire.

Kuttner faces three charges, while Miskiw faces 10 charges. Edmondson 12 charges, Thurlbeck eight and Weatherup eight.

Phone hacking ticks on

Lisa O’Carroll, The Guardian:

The former head lawyer at the News of the World has categorically denied any involvement in the commissioning of phone hacking.

Tom Crone, who was arrested at 6.45am at his home in south London on Thursday, was released on bail late Thursday night after being detained by Scotland Yard detectives on suspicion of unlawfully conspiring to intercept communications.

The Metropolitan police said that he was bailed until mid-October.

More joy in Murdoch City

Nick Davies and David Leigh, The Guardian:

Directors within Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation could face corporate charges and prosecution for neglect of their duties, in plans that are being examined by the Crown Prosecution Service.

Company lawyers, fearing a dramatic escalation of the hacking scandal by criminalising the boards on which Murdoch family members sit, are understood to have protested to the authorities.

A criminal prosecution could have a strong adverse impact on the deliberations by Ofcom as to whether News Corp representatives are “fit and proper” to hold UK broadcasting licences.
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One problem for News International, however, is the wording of section 79 of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, the hacking legislation under which eight senior News of the World journalists and executives have already been charged. It provides for the corporate prosecution of a company which commits such an offence, and also of any director whose neglect or connivance led to the crime.

For any prosecution to actually ascend the ladder to include not just the hired hands but the…::shudder:: capitalists who actually run things… is unusual and about the only thing likely to cause the organization to come clean.

Up the Murdoch ladder: Coulson and Brooks charged

Vikram Dodd, The Guardian:

British prosecutors say they have the evidence to prove there was a criminal conspiracy at Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World newspaper involving former senior executives, including Andy Coulson [who went on to serve Tory PM Cameron] and Rebekah Brooks, to hack the phones of more than 600 people including the murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler.
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Prosecutors say other victims of hacking include former senior Labour cabinet ministers such as the former deputy prime minister John Prescott, two former home secretaries, David Blunkett and Charles Clarke, and the former culture secretary Tessa Jowell.
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Also charged over phone hacking are Stuart Kuttner, former managing editor of the News of the World, Ian Edmondson, former news editor, Greg Miskiw, another former news editor, Neville Thurlbeck, former chief reporter, James Weatherup, former assistant news editor, and the private investigator Glenn Mulcaire.

From the blog:

Each of the eight, with the exception of Glenn Mulcaire, will be charged with conspiring to intercept communications without lawful authority, from 3 October 2000 to 9 August 2006.

In addition, each will face a number of further charges of conspiracy unlawfully to intercept communications…