Media Matters’ Oliver Willis has a very interesting discussion about revelations from the ongoing phone hacking trial of several News Corporation editors and executives in England. Taken as a whole, they paint quite an incriminating picture.
The article is called, “14 Things We’ve Learned From News Corp.’s Phone Hacking Trial So Far.”
Here are the ones I found most noteworthy:
- An email from News of the World editor Andy Coulson told a subordinate to “do his phone,” a reference to celebrity Calum Best, a phone hacking victim.
What’s significant to me about this is that Coulson went on to become media chief for Prime Minister David Cameron. The Guardian writes:
Coulson, former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks, ex-News of the World managing editor Stuart Kuttner and former news editor Ian Edmondson all deny conspiring with others to hack phones between 3 October 2000 and 9 August 2006.
Brooks, whom the jury has been told had a six-year affair with Coulson between 1998 and 2004, also denies two counts of conspiring with others to commit misconduct in public office.
Then there are the payments to Glenn Mulcaire, who has pleaded guilty to phone hacking:
4. An internal News International memo revealed that the paper was paying private investigator Glenn Mulcaire’s firm, Nine Consultancy, £105,000 per year.
The Guardian points out that that sum is more than the paper spent on covering the World Cup.
Rather than assist with the phone hacking investigation, chief executive Brooks allegedly tried to hide evidence:
7. Prosecutor Andrew Edis told the jury that as the police investigation closed in on her, Brooks and her husband Charlie hid a laptop computer, two iPads and an iPhone with incriminating evidence. Police eventually recovered the devices due to a mix-up. Edis also told the jury that Brooks’ personal assistant arranged for the removal of notebooks from the company archives which have not yet been found.
Rupert Murdoch may not be Joseph McCarthy and these defendants have not been found guilty as of yet. But that famous question that helped undo him seems applicable here: “Have you no sense of decency sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?” Sadly, with Murdoch and his minions, the answer seems all too clear.
The trial is only two months old and is predicted to last “many months more.”
Stay tuned!
You know what Ruthless does all day? When he’s not in his man-cave atop of that horrid skyscraper in midManhattan, he is in countless meetings with department heads, or digital teams. The old sod recently added Storyful to his wretched company.
When he’s not in his office, Ruthless is flying off in his private plane to visit several of his News Corporation properties in Australia, U.K., Los Angeles, and other destinations.
NOTE TO RUTHLESS
We can’t wait for your forced retirement.
