[D66] The 12 Nastiest Villains in the Murdoch Phone-Hacking Scandal

[Henk Elegeert]

The 12 Nastiest Villains in the Murdoch Phone-Hacking
Scandal<http://www.alternet.org/story/151694/the_12_nastiest_villains_in_the_murdoch_phone-hacking_scandal?page=entire>
Here's an incomplete guide to the villains in the drama that threatens to
take down the Murdoch empire.
*July 18, 2011*  |







Sometimes the bad guys really do lose. For News Corporation CEO Rupert
Murdoch, a very bad guy who, until recently, enjoyed a long winning streak,
the losing days have begun to be counted in weeks. Since the latest
incarnation of the *News of the World* phone-hacking scandal erupted a bit
more than a week ago (with the revelation that now-defunct British
tabloid *News
of the World* tampered with the voice mail of teenage murder victim Milly
Fowler), each day has brought devastating revelations that implicate a
handful of top executives at News Corp. and News International, the division
that comprises the company’s British newspapers. (News Corp. is a U.S.-based
company that also owns Fox News, the *Wall Street Journal* and the *New York
Post*, as well as the Fox movie and entertainment companies.)

Today Murdoch, his son, James (who is News Corp.’s deputy chief operations
officer), and Rebekah Brooks, who, until Friday, headed News International,
will appear before the British Parliament to provide their testimony about
accusations of widespread phone-hacking and police-bribing by *News of the
World* and possibly other News International papers.

Over the weekend, Rebekah Brooks, a Rupert Murdoch protege and CEO of News
International, stepped down, and was arrested as part of a police
investigation of the illegal hacking of voice mail accounts belonging to as
many as 4,000 different people, as well an inquiry into the alleged bribing
of police officers during the time she served as editor of the tabloid, *News
of the World*. Murdoch had mounted a fierce defense of Brooks, so her
resignation comes as a bit of a surprise. Brooks maintains her innocence.

The bribery allegations this weekend also ended the career of the
commissioner of the storied London Metropolitan Police Authority, also known
as Scotland Yard. Sir Paul Stephenson stepped down as Scotland Yard’s top
cop following reports that the department had failed to investigate
allegations of widespread phone-hacking and police bribery by *News of the
World*, as well as revelations that the police force had retained the
services of a former *News of the World*editor, Neil Wallis, as a public
relations consultant. Wallis also consulted at the time for a spa that
provided the police chief with around $18,000 worth of free services.

The *News of the World* scandal involves a complex pattern of alleged
wrongdoing by a long cast of characters, including some in British
government, as well as other newspapers owned by News Corp. (For background,
see AlterNet’s previous reporting,
here<http://www.alternet.org/story/151552/murdoch_named_patriot_act_architect_to_mop_up_paper%27s_eavesdropping_scandal%3B_%27news_of_the_world%27_to_close/>
 and here<http://www.alternet.org/story/151600/4_ways_the_murdoch_scandal_points_to_rot_at_the_top/>.)
Enterprising reporting by the *Guardian*, a British newspaper, and the *New
York Times* continues to place the scandal ever closer to the government of
U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron and his Conservative Party.

In related developments breaking at press time, a whistleblower who
implicated *News of the World* editors in the phone-hacking scheme was found
dead at his home -- authorities described his death as “unexplained but not
thought to be suspicious.” Also, a bag and computer that belonged to either
Rebekah Brooks or her husband were found in a garbage bin in the parking
garage of a mall near the Brooks’ home.

Here we offer an incomplete list of some of the villains in the drama that
threatens to take down the Murdoch empire, and has weakened the government
of British Prime Minister David Cameron.

*1. Clive Goodman.* The former *News of the World* reporter who covered the
British royal family was the first News Corp. employee implicated in the
scandal when it was revealed in 2006 that he had hired a private
investigator to hack into the voice-mail accounts of aides to the royals.
Goodman was arrested for the hacking, and subsequently fired by *News of the
World*, whose editors claimed they were shocked, shocked to learn of his
nefarious activities. When Goodman initiated a wrongful termination suit on
the grounds that he was acting on the authority of his editors, News
International paid him an undisclosed settlement, essentially buying his
silence. He was sentenced to several months in jail. Goodman was arrested
again on July 8 as part of the current police investigation into alleged
illegal payments made to police officers for the purpose of gleaning
personal information on people targeted by *News of the World*.

*2. Glenn Mulcaire.* The private
investigator<http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14080775> Goodman
hired to hack the voice-mail of an aide to Prince William. He, too, was
sentenced in 2006 to several months in jail. Mulcaire broke his silence
earlier this month to apologize to those he had harmed with his hacking.

*3. Unnamed info-leaking and possibly bribe-taking bobbies.* At this point,
no names have been dropped of cops on the take from Murdoch’s minions. But
if a cop who provides, say, information on your location via his or her
access to a GPS system that tracks your cell phone, as reportedly took place
on behalf of News International reporters, we can’t imagine a more weasely
kind of villain.

*4. Neil Wallis.* Former *News of the World* editor who was hired as a
public relations consultant by Scotland Yard; friend of top cop Paul
Stephenson. Was also the PR consultant to Champney’s, an exclusive spa that
provided Stephenson with around $18,000 worth of free services. In 2009,
Wallis advised Scotland Yard’s third-in-command, John Yates, not to pursue
an earlier investigation into *News of the World* phone-hacking beyond the
initial targets of Goodman and Mulcaire. (Yates
obliged<http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14124267>.)
Wallis reported back to his former colleagues at *News of the World* on the
state of the investigation of their activities. He was arrested on July 14
as part of the current *News of the World* investigation.

*5. Paul Stephenson.* Until this week, Commissioner of the Metropolitan
Police Authority, or Scotland Yard (since 2009). Resigned his position on
Sunday, July 17, following questions surrounding Scotland Yard’s engagement
of former N*ews of the World* editor Neil Wallis as a public relations
consultant, and whether Stephenson’s hiring of Wallis resulted
in Stephenson receiving free services from Champney’s spa. In his
resignation statement, Stephenson took a parting shot at Prime Minister
David Cameron, who has come under fire for hiring another former *News of
the World* editor, Andy Coulson, as his communications director. (Coulson
resigned that position in January.) At least Wallis, Stephenson said, was
never implicated in the phone-hacking scandal, as Coulson was.

*6. John Yates.* Until this week, served as assistant deputy commissioner of
the Metropolitan Police Authority; resigned on Monday, July 18. Responsible
for limiting the initial police investigation of *News of the World'*s phone
hacking to the work of one reporter, even though many others at the
publication were believed to have taken part in similar activities.

*7. Rebekah Brooks.* Former chairman, News International; former editor *News
of the World*, as well as the *Sun*, another News International tabloid.
Resigned her News International position on Friday, July 15. Was the top
editor at the *News of the World* when the paper hacked the voice-mail
account of 13-year-old Milly Dowler, a London schoolgirl who went missing in
2002. At the direction of *News of the World* employees, a private
investigator not only hacked Dowler’s cell-phone voice-mail, but erased
voice-mail messages when the mailbox was full, apparently in the hope of
receiving more messages that would provide details for the paper’s story on
her disappearance. The tampering gave the family and police false hope that
the girl was still alive. She was later found murdered. Former Prime
Minister Gordon Brown alleges that while Brooks edited the *Sun*, the paper
used nefarious means to glean confidential information about the health of
his seriously ill children. Brooks was arrested on Sunday, July 17, but not
charged with a specific crime, as is permissible under British law. She is
scheduled to appear before Parliament today.

*8. Les Hinton.* Former CEO of the Dow Jones Company and former publisher of
the *Wall Street Journal*; former executive chairman of News International
until Murdoch moved him to New York in 2007 to run the Dow Jones operation
(which publishes the *Wall Street Journal*.) Resigned from News Corp. on
Friday, July 15, after a 52-year career with the company. Testified on the
phone-hacking scandal twice before a committee of Parliament; told lawmakers
the scandal involved the work of a single rogue reporter, Clive
Goodman. The *Guardian* revealed last week that Hinton, while at the helm of
News International, had access to the memos resulting from a 2007
investigation revealing that phone-hacking activities were widespread among
*News of the World* staff. Hinton, however, told the culture committee of
the House of Commons that his thorough internal investigation implicated
only Goodman, the royals reporter.

*9. Andy Coulson.* Former editor, *News of the World* (until 2009); former
communications director of Conservative Party (until January 2011). Presided
over*News of the World* at the height of its phone-hacking into the
voice-mail accounts of numerous celebrities, including actors Sienna Miller
and Jude Law, as well as possibly the accounts of victims of the 2007
terrorist bombings of the London subway by al Qaeda. In 2009, Coulson
stepped down from his position at *News of the World*, when the scandal
re-erupted, but was hired by the Conservative Party during David Cameron’s
successful bid to unseat then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown of the Labour
Party. When the scandal flared up again at the end of 2010, Coulson resigned
his post in the Conservative Party. Up until that point, Coulson maintained
he had no knowledge of phone-hacking, but the *New York
Times*interviewed<http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/05/magazine/05hacking-t.html>
a
former *News of the World* reporter, Sean Hoare, who said he had shared
recordings of hacked messages with his friend Coulson. (Hoare was
found dead<http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jul/18/news-of-the-world-sean-hoare>
in
his home yesterday; according to the* Guardian,* authorities describe his
death as “unexplained but not thought to be suspicious.”) Coulson was
arrested on July 8 in the current investigation of *News of the World
*phone-hacking
and bribery.

*10. David Cameron.* Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, leader of the
Conservative Party. Against the advice of Nick Clegg, his deputy prime
minister, Cameron hired Andy Coulson as his spokesperson after the election,
even though the phone-hacking scandal continued to dog Coulson. Even after
Coulson resigned as Cameron’s communications director in the wake of further
revelations implicating him in the phone-hacking operations, Cameron
continued to meet with him. Cameron also enjoys a cozy relationship with
Rebekah Brooks, entertaining her and other News Corp. editors frequently. In
a *Guardian* story<http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jul/18/phone-hacking-british-power-elite?INTCMP=SRCH>
about
the cozy relationships between Murdoch and the British elite, John Harris
describes how Murdoch enlisted Cameron to undermine the BBC, the publicly
funded broadcaster:

[I]n the summer of 2008, David Cameron was transported in a private
plane...to the Greek island of Santorini, from where he was ferried to
Rupert Murdoch's 184ft yacht the Rosehearty, for an important meeting. The
following year, the Tories began to harden a new antipathy to the BBC,
floating the freezing of the licence fee and urging the corporation to do
"more with less": messages that were in accord with the chippy anti-BBC
lecture James Murdoch gave at that year's Edinburgh TV festival. Just over a
month later came achingly predictable news: that the Sun was swinging its
support behind the Conservatives, and dumping [the] Labour [Party].

*11. James Murdoch.* Son of News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch, and deputy COO of
the company. Authorized high-figure cash settlements to several high-profile
victims of phone-hacking by *News of the World* in exchange for their
silence. The largest reported payment was to Gordon Taylor, head of the
International Footballers Association, to the tune of £700,000 (more than $1
million U.S.). James Murdoch who was called in to manage the scandal.
He made News Corp.’s official statement when company executives decided to
permanently shut down *News of the World *after the Milly Dowler revelations
and subsequent reporting by the *Guardian.*

*12. Rupert Murdoch.* Chairman and CEO, News Corporation. Runs his publicly
traded company like a personal dynasty, and uses News Corp. media properties
to advance an anti-labor, deregulatory political agenda designed not for the
benefit of readers or shareholders, but for the consolidation of his own
personal power, and that of his family. So feared in Britain that no
politician would challenge wrongdoing by any of his media properties until
the Dowler incident turned the British people against him. In the United
States, he has used News Corp. media outlets for direct political organizing
against a sitting president of the United States, allowing Fox News
personalities to organize rallies, and allowing an editorial board member of
the *Wall Street Journal* to collect speaking fees for appearances at
political events convened by David Koch’s Americans for Prosperity
Foundation, which serves as an organizing body for the Tea Party movement.

The *New York Times* reported yesterday that when the *News of the
World* phone-hacking
scandal exploded earlier this month, Murdoch considered flying to London
(from a conference in Idaho) on a commercial jet, so he could “appear to be
a man of the people.” He reconsidered and took his private Gulfstream
instead.

"

En dit soort zaken gebeurd in Nederland niet, ofzo?

Henk Elegeert
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