New York Times
This newspaper carried out a lengthy investigation into phone-hacking at the News of the World in September 2010. Today, Don Van Natta Jr and Ravi Somaiya allege that police officers had their phones hacked. These claims are particularly interesting on the day that police officers face a committee of MPs:
Shortly after Scotland Yard began its initial criminal inquiry of phone hacking by The News of the World in 2006, five senior police investigators discovered that their own cellphone messages had been targeted by the tabloid and had most likely been listened to.
The disclosure, based on interviews with current and former officials, raises the question of whether senior investigators feared that if they aggressively investigated, the News of the World would punish them with splashy articles about their private lives. Some of their secrets, tabloid-ready, eventually emerged in other news outlets.
Washington Post
Erik Wemple derides claims that the scandal will cause Murdoch’s empire to crumble. Discussing News Corporation’s annual report, he says:
One lesson from the report: Britain cannot threaten News Corp. It can harrumph; it can preach; it can launch “inquiries”; but it is too much of a little rancho to puncture News Corp…
As Murdoch himself boasts, 2010 was a good year for News Corp. Among the few dark corners of the document is this: “For the fiscal year ended June 30, 2010, the U.K. newspapers’ revenues decreased 2% as compared to fiscal 2009, primarily due to lower circulation revenues…”
So here’s a scenario: The British public outcry about News of the World, the Sun and the Times forces the company to bail on those properties all together. Good! News Corp. dumps money-losing/marginally profitable newspapers. At the same time, it retains its state-of-the-art British presses, printing the titles of any outfit that wants to distribute newsprint.
Boston Globe
Cassandra Vinograd speculates about the possible fall out of these UK-based allegations on Murdoch’s US operations:
Legal analysts said yesterday it is possible Murdoch’s US companies might face legal actions because of the shady practices at the News of the World. In the United States, Murdoch owns Fox News, The Wall Street Journal, and the New York Post, among other holdings.
They said Murdoch’s News Corp. might be liable to criminal prosecution under the 1977 Corrupt Foreign Practices Act, a broad act designed to prosecute executives who bribe foreign officials in exchange for large contracts.
Los Angeles Times
Joe Flint wonders whether the same practices took place in the US:
So far, the fallout from the News of the World debacle has been mostly limited to Britain. However, as the coverage continues to intensify around the globe, it is giving new ammunition to critics of Murdoch and News Corp. in the United States.
“It is becoming increasingly clear this scandal was not perpetrated by a few rogue reporters, but was systematically orchestrated at the highest levels of News Corp.,” said Melanie Sloan, executive director of the progressive advocacy group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which has called for a congressional investigation of News Corp. “If Mr. Murdoch’s employees can be so brazen as to target the British prime minister, then it is not unreasonable to believe they also might hack into the voice mails of American politicians and citizens.”
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