News of the World: more hacking scandal

The newspaper may be gone but its infamy lives on. The process continues as the political and judicial systems investigate who did what to whom and when.

Murdoch announced the end of the News of the World on July 7th and the paper published its last edition on July 10. Since then much has happened.

Former News of the World executive editor Neil Wallis arrested on July 14.

Rebekah Brooks, chief executive of News International, resigned on July 15. On July 17 she was arrested as part of two police investigations: Operation Weeting looking into the phone hacking allegations and Operation Elveden looking into illegal payments to police officers. After 12 hours in custody, she was released on bail until October 2011.

On July 18, John Yates resigns as assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police. On the same day, the startling news came out that former News of the World reporter and the first to allege phone hacking at the publication, Sean Hoare, was found dead at his home in Hertfordshire.

Wikipedia writes about Sean Hoare:

He was involved in and exposed the News International phone hacking scandal in which he claimed in a New York Times article that Andy Coulson “encouraged” him to hack phones. He was once a close friend of Coulson. Hoare had said of the phone hacking at the News of the World; “It was always done in the language of, ‘Why don’t you practise some of your dark arts on this’, which was a metaphor for saying, ‘Go and hack into a phone’. Such was the culture of intimidation and bullying that you would do it because you had to produce results. And, you know, to stand up in front of a Commons committee and say, ‘I was unaware of this under my watch’ was wrong.”

Rebekah Brooks, Rupert Murdoch and James Murdoch appeared before the parliamentary media committee in London for questioning on July 19.

August 2nd saw one person whose 15 minutes of fame has flown by, sentenced to six weeks at Her Majesty’s pleasure. Jonathan May-Bowles, the gentleman who attempted to push a shaving cream pie in Rupert Murdoch’s face, had the court give him a slap after Wendi Deng, Murdoch’s wife gave him several slaps when she tackled him trying to carry out his pie offensive. Murdoch was testifying before British MPs at the July 19 parliamentary phone hacking inquiry when May-Bowles came forward in the room to pie Murdoch. Before May-Bowles could carry out his dastardly deed, Wendi Deng pounced on him in a video which captured it all for posterity and which subsequently went viral. This became the slap that was seen round the world.

The scandal is being followed by many and is destined to have repercussions throughout the newspaper industry. While some are saying everybody gets down in the gutter once in a while to get a story, many are declaring “foul” at this obvious invasion of privacy. The problem in the future be it legal, ethical or moral, will be about the story. Telling tales out of school on a celebrity about his or her sex life may be considered frivolous and unworthy of phone hacking but what if the next story is about terrorism or corporate malfeasance? Does the end justify the means?

Published on Jul 19, 2011 by itnnews

Wendi Deng protects Rupert Murdoch from pie

The News Corporation boss was targeted with a foam pie by activist/comedian Jonnie Marbles during questioning by MPs.

References

Wikipedia: Timeline of the News Corporation scandal

The News Corporation scandal involves phone, voicemail, and computer hacking that were allegedly committed over a number of years. The scandal began in the United Kingdom, where the News International phone hacking scandal has to date resulted in the closure of the News of the World newspaper and the resignation of a number of senior members of the Metropolitan Police force.

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