Phone Hacking scandal snowballs

**Boon Mee** · 19-07-2011, 07:49 AM

Originally Posted by Koojo

Oh, and will you Americans grow up and stop using childish terms like 'libtards' it just makes you appear as children in the schoolyard poking tongues.

I only started using that term as a lot of y'all are using Rethugs to define Conservatives. And, concerning the phone hacking of the 9/11 families, it's only alledged, not proven at this time.

**bsnub** · 19-07-2011, 07:50 AM

Originally Posted by Koojo

Americans grow up and stop using childish terms like 'libtards'

Please don't make sweeping generalizations about Americans. Many of us feel the same way about the word.

**crippen** · 19-07-2011, 07:50 AM

I wonder if this is how the yellows,and compatriates,will collapse in the LoS?Multiple attacks,so many that even .......... et al can't defend them.

**bobo746** · 19-07-2011, 08:00 AM

Originally Posted by Boon Mee

The Liberal media has been looking for a way to discredit Murdoch and Fox News for many years

They are doing a good enough job on their own.

**bobo746** · 19-07-2011, 08:01 AM

**bsnub** · 19-07-2011, 08:05 AM

Originally Posted by bobo746

**Cujo** · 19-07-2011, 08:07 AM

Originally Posted by Boon Mee

I only started using that term as a lot of y'all are using Rethugs to define Conservatives.

A lot of 'usall' aren't using that term at all. Never heard it.

**StrontiumDog** · 19-07-2011, 09:03 AM

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/19/wo...d=all?src=tptw

Murdoch Aides Long Tried to Blunt Scandal Over Hacking

By JO BECKER and RAVI SOMAIYA

Published: July 18, 2011

LONDON — Two days before it emerged that The News of the World had hacked the cellphone of a murdered schoolgirl, igniting a scandal that has shaken the media empire of Rupert Murdoch, his son James told friends that he thought the worst of the troubles were behind him. And he was confident that the News Corporation’s $12 billion bid for the satellite company British Sky Broadcasting would go through, according to a person present.

Now, with their most trusted lieutenant, Rebekah Brooks, arrested on suspicion of phone hacking and paying the police for information, the broadcasting bid abandoned, the 168-year-old News of the World shuttered, and nine others arrested, Rupert and James Murdoch are scheduled to face an enraged British Parliament on Tuesday.
It is a spectacle that Rupert Murdoch’s closest associates spent years trying to avoid.

Interviews with dozens of people involved in the hacking scandal, including current and former News Corporation employees, provide an inside view of how a small group of executives pursued strategies for years that had the effect of obscuring the extent of wrongdoing in the newsroom of The News of the World, Britain’s best-selling tabloid. And once the hacking scandal escalated, they scrambled in vain to quarantine the damage.

Evidence indicating that The News of the World paid the police for information was not handed over to the authorities for four years. Its parent company paid hefty sums to those who threatened legal action, on condition of silence. The tabloid continued to pay reporters and editors whose knowledge could prove embarrassing even after they were fired or arrested for hacking. A key editor’s computer equipment was destroyed, and e-mail evidence was lost. Internal advice to accept responsibility was ignored, former executives said. John Whittingdale, a conservative member of Parliament who is the chairman of the committee that will question the Murdochs, said they need to come clean on the depth of the misdeeds, who authorized them and who knew what, when.

“Parliament was misled,” Mr. Whittingdale said. “It will be a lengthy and detailed discussion.”

Mr. Murdoch has indicated he wants to cooperate.

“We think it’s important to absolutely establish our integrity in the eyes of the public,” he said last week. “It’s best just to be as transparent as possible.”

Ms. Brooks’s representative, David Wilson, said she maintained her innocence and looked forward to clearing her name, but declined to answer specific questions.

As a trickle of revelations has become a torrent, the company switched from containment to crisis mode. Ms. Brooks and others first made the case, widely believed to be true, that other newspapers had also hacked phones, and they sought to dig up evidence to prove it, interviews show.

At a private meeting, Rupert Murdoch warned Paul Dacre, the editor of the rival Daily Mail newspaper and one of the most powerful men on Fleet Street, that “we are not going to be the only bad dog on the street,” according to an account that Mr. Dacre gave to his management team. Mr. Murdoch’s spokesman did not respond to questions about his private conversations.

Former company executives and political aides assert that executives at News International, the News Corporation’s British subsidiary, carried out a campaign of selective leaks implicating previous management and the police. Company officials deny that. The Metropolitan Police responded with a statement alleging a “deliberate campaign to undermine the investigation into the alleged payments by corrupt journalists to corrupt police officers.”

Mr. Murdoch was attending a conference in Sun Valley, Idaho, early this month when it became clear that the latest eruption of the hacking scandal was not, as he first thought, a passing problem. According to a person briefed on the conversation, he proposed to one senior executive that he “fly commercial to London,” so he might be seen as a man of the people. He was told that would hardly do the trick, and he arrived on a Gulfstream G550 private jet.

Inquiries on Several Fronts

The storm Mr. Murdoch flew into had been brewing since 2006, when the tabloid’s royalty reporter and a private investigator were prosecuted for hacking into the messages of the royal household staff in search of juicy news exclusives. For years afterward, company executives publicly insisted that the hacking was limited to that one “rogue reporter.”

Andy Coulson resigned as editor of The News of the World after the prosecution, but said he knew nothing. “If you’re talking about illegal tapping by a private investigator,” Rupert Murdoch declared in February 2007, “that is not part of our culture anywhere in the world, least of all in Britain.”

But it turns out that almost from the beginning, executives of News International, the British subsidiary that owns the tabloid, had access to information indicating that other reporters were also engaged in the practice.

The information came from thousands of pages of records with the names of thousands of possible hacking targets that Scotland Yard had seized during the royal hacking case from the home of the private investigator, Glenn Mulcaire, who worked for the tabloid. While the police largely limited their investigation to the royalty case, lawyers representing people believed to be victims of hacking fought for access to Mr. Mulcaire’s records and made them available to the tabloid executives during the litigation.

In the initial cases, News International saw documents naming other journalists, according to details of those cases obtained by The New York Times. Notes in Mr. Mulcaire’s files include the names “Ian” and “Neville,” apparent references to the news editor, Ian Edmondson, and the chief reporter, Neville Thurlbeck.

James Murdoch, who oversees Europe and Asia operations for the News Corporation, signed off on a £700,000 settlement with Gordon Taylor, a soccer union boss who was the first to sue. One condition of the payment was confidentiality.

This month, James Murdoch acknowledged he was wrong to settle the suit, saying he did not “have a complete picture of the case” at the time.

Ms. Brooks personally persuaded Max Clifford, a celebrity publicist, to drop his case in return for even more compensation, Mr. Clifford said. He was paid to provide story tips to the paper — a deal he said totaled £1 million.

Beyond Mr. Mulcaire’s files, another likely source of information about hacking by The News of the World is its internal e-mails.

Even as the company faced a flood of claims over the past several years, News International has acknowledged that it did not take any steps to preserve e-mails that might contain evidence of hacking until late last fall. When The News of the World moved offices late last year, the computer used by Mr. Edmondson was destroyed in what the company describes as a standard procedure.

The company asserted in court that a vast amount of its e-mails from 2005 and 2006 — believed to be the height of the hacking activity — had been lost. Company officials blamed bungling, not conspiracy, for the erasures.

News International has subsequently acknowledged that some messages might be recoverable on backup disks, and the police are trying to recover that information now, said Tom Watson, a Labour Party member of Parliament. Last year, a forensic computer specialist that the company hired to help it comply with a court order to turn over documents made a surprising discovery: three e-mails sent to Mr. Edmondson containing PIN codes that could allow access to voice mail, as well as names and telephone numbers, one official said.

The paper fired Mr. Edmonson and turned over the e-mails to the police. Those e-mails were a factor in the decision to open a new Scotland Yard inquiry into hacking, according to the inquiry’s leader, Sue Akers. Mr. Edmondson referred questions to his lawyer, who did not respond.

In April, the police arrested Mr. Edmondson, along with Mr. Thurlbeck. A few days later, News International issued a blanket apology, saying, “It is now apparent that our previous inquiries failed to uncover important evidence.”

News International has for years said a 2007 internal investigation showed that hacking was not widespread, but recent interviews with company officials indicate that the inquiry had a different purpose. It was aimed at defending the company from a lawsuit filed by Clive Goodman, the paper’s royalty reporter who had been fired for hacking. He claimed that the dismissal was unfair because others were hacking as well, according to two company officials with direct knowledge.

Colin Myler, who succeeded Mr. Coulson as editor of The News of the World, told Parliament in 2007 that News International had turned over as many as 2,500 e-mails to the law firm of Harbottle & Lewis, which the company had retained in the matter. In a letter to Parliament at the time, the firm said it did not find anything in the e-mails linking hacking to three top editors — Mr. Coulson, Neil Wallis and Mr. Edmondson.

But a company official speaking on the condition of anonymity said that the 2,500 e-mails given to the law firm related only to Mr. Goodman and represented only a small portion of the company’s e-mail traffic.

Since Scotland Yard began its new investigation in January, with access to more internal documents, all three of the editors, who are no longer at the paper, have been arrested.

Two company officials said the 2007 internal inquiry was in fact overseen by Les Hinton, then executive chairman of News International and who resigned Friday as chief executive of Dow Jones. Mr. Hinton told Parliament in 2007 that Mr. Myler “went through thousands of e-mails.” But Mr. Myler was not given direct access to the e-mails, the company officials said. Mr. Hinton did not respond to a message, but in a statement announcing his resignation, he said he “was ignorant of what apparently happened.”

While the e-mails reviewed for the internal inquiry in 2007 showed no direct evidence of hacking, according to three company officials they did contain suggestions that Mr. Coulson may have authorized payments to the police for information. Yet News International turned over those documents to the police in recent months, prompting yet another investigation, this one into possible police bribery.

It is not clear who at News International saw the e-mails in question, or whether the law firm flagged them. The firm, citing client confidentiality obligations, declined to comment, as did the News Corporation.
More recently, as lawsuits and arrests mounted, dissension grew inside News International, interviews show.

After Mr. Edmondson was fired and arrested, Ms. Brooks pressed to pay him a monthly stipend, according to a person with knowledge of the transaction. After an internal disagreement, the payments were moved from the newsroom budget to News International’s. The company put other journalists on paid leave after their arrests, reasoning that they were innocent until proved guilty, a company spokesperson said.

By the middle of last year, News International’s lawyers and some executives were urging that the company accept some responsibility, said two officials with direct knowledge. Ms. Brooks disagreed, according to three people who described the internal debate. “Her behavior all along has been resist, resist, resist,” said one company official.

Effort to Spread the Blame

Over the last several months, Ms. Brooks spearheaded a strategy that seemed designed to spread the blame across Fleet Street, interviews show. Several former News of the World journalists said that she asked them to dig up evidence of hacking. One said in an interview that Ms. Brooks’s target was not her own newspapers, but her rivals.

Mr. Dacre, the editor of The Daily Mail, told his senior managers that he had received several reports from businesspeople, soccer stars and public relations agencies that two News International executives, Will Lewis and Simon Greenberg, had encouraged them to investigate whether their phones had been hacked by Daily Mail newspapers.

“They thought it was unfair that all the focus was on The News of the World,” said one News International official with knowledge of the effort. The two men have told colleagues they did not make such calls, but two company officials disputed that.

Mr. Dacre confronted Ms. Brooks over breakfast at the plush Brown’s hotel. “You are trying to tear down the entire industry,” Mr. Dacre told her, according to an account he relayed to his management team.

Ms. Brooks, known for her tenacity, was not deterred. At a dinner party, Lady Rothermere, the wife of the billionaire owner of The Daily Mail, overheard Ms. Brooks saying that The Mail was just as culpable as The News of the World. “We didn’t break the law,” Lady Rothermere said, according to two sources with knowledge of the exchange. Ms. Brooks asked who Lady Rothermere thought she was, “Mother Teresa?”

The scandal that smoldered for years ignited this month with news reports that the tabloid had hacked into the messages of Milly Dowler, a missing 13-year-old girl who was subsequently discovered murdered. Ms. Brooks, who was News of the World’s editor during the Dowler hacking, issued an apology, saying that she would be appalled “if the accusations are true.”

In the last two weeks, a series of leaks landed in other British news media that appeared intended to shift blame from News International’s current leadership and onto Mr. Coulson and the Metropolitan Police. According to political aides and News Corporation executives, the leaks most likely came from within the company.

Leaks to The Sunday Times, the BBC, and outlets like Mr. Greenberg’s former employer, The London Evening Standard, gave details of Mr. Coulson’s alleged payments to the police and blamed previous News International management.

Mr. Greenberg did not respond directly to messages seeking comment. But a News International spokeswoman referred reporters to a statement from Ms. Akers, the head of the police investigation, praising him and Mr. Lewis for their cooperation with the police.

The Metropolitan Police said it was “extremely concerned” that the release of selected information “known by a small number of people” present at meetings between News International and the police “could have a significant impact on the corruption investigation.”

Late last week, Rupert Murdoch told The Wall Street Journal that the News Corporation had handled the situation “extremely well in every way possible,” except for a few “minor mistakes.”

This weekend, as Mr. Murdoch was coached to face Parliament on Tuesday by a team of lawyers and public relations experts, a full-page advertisement from the News Corporation appeared in every major British newspaper. “We are sorry,” it said.

**StrontiumDog** · 19-07-2011, 09:07 AM

Rupert Murdoch's Other Hacking Scandal | Media Matters for America

Rupert Murdoch's Other Hacking Scandal

July 18, 2011 1:17 pm ET by Oliver Willis

David Carr writes today in the New York Times about several instances of News Corp. paying large settlements in response to lawsuits filed by companies in the U.S. In particular the Times notes a complaint from a company called Floorgraphics, against News America Marketing, a News Corp. subsidiary that does in-store and newspaper insert advertising.

In 2009, a federal case in New Jersey brought by a company called Floorgraphics went to trial, accusing News America of, wait for it, hacking its way into Floorgraphics's password protected computer system.

The complaint summed up the ethos of News America nicely, saying it had "illegally accessed plaintiff's computer system and obtained proprietary information" and "disseminated false, misleading and malicious information about the plaintiff."

The complaint stated that the breach was traced to an I.P. address registered to News America and that after the break-in, Floorgraphics lost contracts from Safeway, Winn-Dixie and Piggly Wiggly.

Much of the lawsuit was based on the testimony of Robert Emmel, a former News America executive who had become a whistle-blower. After a few days of testimony, the News Corporation had heard enough. It settled with Floorgraphics for $29.5 million and then, days later, bought it, even though it reportedly had sales of less than $1 million.

Carr also documents that News America paid $125 million to Insignia Systems to "settle allegations of anticompetitive behavior and violations of antitrust laws." News America also settled a lawsuit with Valassis Communications "in exchange for $500 million and an agreement to cooperate on certain ventures going forward."

The executive in charge of News America at this time was Paul V. Carlucci, who reportedly described those uncomfortable with the company's aggressive sales philosophy as "bed wetting liberals." Carlucci is currently the publisher of the New York Post and continues to be in charge of News America.

**Boon Mee** · 19-07-2011, 09:43 AM

Originally Posted by Koojo

Originally Posted by Boon Mee

I only started using that term as a lot of y'all are using Rethugs to define Conservatives.

A lot of 'usall' aren't using that term at all. Never heard it.

It's all over the place. Especially in this thread:

"I expect you'll use the same logic if Obama refuses to do what the thugs want and the debt ceiling isn't raised. "The stink happened to stick to the Republicans though"- yeah, jeez, I wonder why." --K. Rebozo --

https://teakdoor.com/us-domestic-issu...ml#post1820183

**Cujo** · 19-07-2011, 10:46 AM

Originally Posted by Boon Mee

Originally Posted by Koojo

Originally Posted by Boon Mee

I only started using that term as a lot of y'all are using Rethugs to define Conservatives.

A lot of 'usall' aren't using that term at all. Never heard it.

It's all over the place. Especially in this thread:

"I expect you'll use the same logic if Obama refuses to do what the thugs want and the debt ceiling isn't raised. "The stink happened to stick to the Republicans though"- yeah, jeez, I wonder why." --K. Rebozo --

https://teakdoor.com/us-domestic-issu...ml#post1820183

This isn't an american politics thread.

**Notnow** · 19-07-2011, 10:49 AM

I have never heard of Rethugs either. If getting a majority to elect you while everything you do is geared to only benefit the richest 1%, Rethugs does not seem apropos. Decepticons would be a much better fit. A pity about your Minister of Information and Propaganda being exposed, isn't it? Like Hearst and Goebbels before him.

**Notnow** · 19-07-2011, 10:52 AM

Sorry, it is not an American thread, agreed. But tyranny knows no boundaries, and enough threads make a rope.

**drawp** · 19-07-2011, 11:02 AM

Originally Posted by Koojo

Originally Posted by Boon Mee

Let's face it folks, this so-called 'phone hacking' scandal is one big yawn outside the U.S.

Why do you say "so called" as if it's not real? And why put 'phone hacking' in apostrophes like that?
It's more than so called, it's very real, and are you Ok with the media listening in to private conversations?
And lets not forget that the man at the top of this organisation is an American.
Oh, and will you Americans grow up and stop using childish terms like 'libtards' it just makes you appear as children in the schoolyard poking tongues.
Sad and pathetic.

only people like boon mee use the word libtards.. we generally ignore these types of folks in the states

**Cujo** · 19-07-2011, 11:12 AM

[QUOTE=Boon Mee;1820078][quote=Humbert;1819017]

Originally Posted by Boon Mee

Let's face it folks, this so-called 'phone hacking' scandal is one big yawn outside the U.S.

Why do you say "so called" as if it's not real? And why put 'phone hacking' in apostrophes like that?
It's more than so called, it's very real, and are you Ok with the media listening in to private conversations?
And lets not forget that the man at the top of this organisation is an American.
Oh, and will you Americans grow up and stop using childish terms like 'libtards' it just makes you appear as children in the schoolyard poking tongues.
Sad and pathetic.

**Tom Sawyer** · 19-07-2011, 11:22 AM

Originally Posted by Sailing into trouble

Cameron cutting short his trip to Africa. All it takes is for a couple of mid placed players in the NoW, Met Police or PM's office to turn over, and the house of shame will tumble.

Back on topic.. Question now becomes who will investigate the Met and the rest of the case (those accused in Government, Media) with any shred of credibility. The fact the two top cops resigned is probably designed to stop the leak from becoming big enough to sink the whole ship.

MI5 could do it I guess, but most people would think them biased and politically influenced. Other police forces? Scotland? I kind of doubt that would fly either.

**9999** · 19-07-2011, 11:24 AM

Geez I never knew Murdoch was such a bad ass gangsta, whacking the whistle blower like that. Well played old chap.

**HermantheGerman** · 19-07-2011, 11:51 AM

Originally Posted by 9999

Geez I never knew Murdoch was such a bad ass gangsta, whacking the whistle blower like that. Well played old chap.

Bad Ass Gangster he is.

'News of the World' journalist found dead

MARK HENNESSY
FORMER News of the World journalist Sean Hoare, the first journalist to publicly allege that former editor at the paper Andy Coulson encouraged his staff to hack voicemails, was found dead at his home yesterday.
The discovery of Mr Hoare’s body was made by police yesterday morning at his Watford home after concerns were raised about his whereabouts. His death is described as “unexplained, but not thought to be suspicious”.
Last year, Mr Hoare told The New York Times Mr Coulson was completely aware phone-hacking was routinely used in the News of the World, insisting he urged reporters to use it to win exclusives.
Speaking to the Guardian’ s Nick Davies, Mr Hoare explained his decision to speak out against the tabloid, saying reporters working for the newspaper were often as much victims as the people they hacked.
“I want to right a wrong, lift the lid on it, the whole culture. I know, we all know, that the hacking and other stuff is endemic. Because there is so much intimidation. In the newsroom, you have people being fired, breaking down in tears, hitting the bottle,” he said.
His life as a showbusiness reporter left Mr Hoare, described last night as “a lovely man” by one former colleague, with a drink and drugs problem. This is believed to have played a role in his death.
“I was paid to go out and take drugs with rock stars – get drunk with them, take pills with them, take cocaine with them. It was so competitive. You are going to go beyond the call of duty. You are going to do things that no sane man would do. You’re in a machine,” Mr Hoare told Davies.
In his interview with the New York Time s, Mr Hoare said he had played recordings of voicemails for Coulson but he then refused to be interviewed by police.
Last week, he was again quoted by the New York Times , on an even more serious allegation: that News of the Worl d journalists had bribed policemen to trace celebrities by tracking their mobile telephones to the nearest mobile mast they had last used.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...300947409.html

**harrybarracuda** · 19-07-2011, 01:05 PM

The plot continues to thicken:

Detectives are examining a computer, paperwork and a phone found in a bin near the riverside London home of Rebekah Brooks, the former chief executive of News International.
The Guardian has learned that a bag containing the items was found in an underground car park in the Design Centre at the exclusive Chelsea Harbour development on Monday afternoon.

The car park, under a shopping centre, is yards from the gated apartment block where Brooks lives with her husband, a former racehorse trainer and close friend of David Cameron.

It is understood the bag was handed in to security at around 3pm, and that shortly afterwards Brooks's husband, Charlie, arrived and tried to reclaim it. He was unable to prove the bag was his and the security guard refused to release it.

Instead, it is understood that the security guard called the police. In less than half an hour, two marked police cars and an unmarked forensics car are said to have arrived at the scene.

Police are now examining CCTV footage taken in the car park to uncover who dropped the bag. Initial suspicions that there had been a break-in at the Brooks's flat have been dismissed.

David Wilson, Charlie Brooks's official spokesman, told the Guardian that Charlie Brooks denies that the bag belonged to his wife. "Charlie has a bag which contains a laptop and papers which were private to him," said Wilson.

"They were nothing to do with Rebekah or the [phone-hacking] case."
Wilson said Charlie Brooks had left the bag with a friend who was returning it, but dropped it in the wrong part of the garage. When asked how the bag ended up in a bin he replied: "The suggestion is that a cleaner thought it was rubbish and put it in the bin." Wilson added: "Charlie was looking for it together with a couple of the building staff.

"Charlie was told it had gone to security, by which stage they [security] had already called the police to say they had found something.

"The police took it away. Charlie's lawyers got in touch with the police to say they could take a look at the computer but they'd see there was nothing relevant to them on it. He's expecting the stuff back forthwith."

Rebekah Brooks was arrested on Sunday under suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications, and of corrupting police officers. She is due to appear before the Commons culture, media and sport select committee on Tuesday afternoon.

Link

**Bangyai** · 19-07-2011, 01:10 PM

' I'm the only one at the Met with no links
to News International.'

**Cujo** · 19-07-2011, 01:13 PM

It really is amazing watching this unfold.
Can't wait for the movie.

**Bettyboo** · 19-07-2011, 01:22 PM

Originally Posted by HermantheGerman

FORMER News of the World journalist Sean Hoare, the first journalist to publicly allege that former editor at the paper Andy Coulson encouraged his staff to hack voicemails, was found dead at his home yesterday.

Then the piece goes on to talk about his drink and drug problems; must be a suicide or natural death then... It's a lot like Thailand, but with more depth to the deceit.

**Cujo** · 19-07-2011, 01:37 PM

Rupert and James Murdoch prepare for perilous performance before MPs

Team of advisers tell Rupert and James Murdoch to appear respectful, transparent and contrite at select committee hearing

Jane MartinsonJames and Rupert Murdoch at Cheltenham in 2010. Photograph: Barry Batchelor/PA

It seems fair to say that the stakes could not be higher for Rupert and James Murdoch when they appear in front of 11 members of parliament at 2.30pm on Tuesday.
Their appearance, scheduled to last an hour, will not only be scrutinised by the world's media but will also be pored over by criminal investigators and investors looking for signs of culpability from one of the world's most powerful media owners and his heir apparent.
Next up in front of the MPs will be Rebekah Brooks, former chief executive of News International, the newspaper business that owned the News of the World, who is to give evidence after her resignation on Friday and arrest two days later.
The scale of the crisis saw the two men locked in meetings with their advisers over the weekend and all day on Monday, preparing for a performance that could have devastating consequences for News Corp, which owns three national newspapers in the UK as well as the Fox film and television network and a 39% stake in the satellite business BSkyB.
Not only has the scandal prompted the resignations of two of the most senior people in the company but it has also brought down two of the most senior police chiefs and led to 10 arrests.
So what can we expect? John Whittingdale, chairman of the media and culture select committee who summonsed the pair, said his team would be looking for answers in the phone-hacking scandal such as: how widespread was it? How long has it been going on? Who knew about it? These questions may seem straightforward but, as James Murdoch pointed out in his letter finally accepting the summons (he had earlier tried to delay the appearance), he could be constrained legally.
This will be the conundrum for the Murdoch team: how to present their man as an honest, open and humble executive who is sorry about past failings while at the same time shielding him from further inquiries. One senior media lawyer said: "The PR advice will be to look them in the eyes, tell the truth and look upfront for the global TV audience. The legal advice will be to say nothing."
The first rule for all concerned is to "avoid self-incrimination", the lawyer added.
Executives involved in such corporate scandals typically take separate legal advice which means the company can declare abject contrition while the executive can maintain a studious silence, but that doesn't seem to have been the case for the Murdochs.
While the former chief executive Brooks has employed her own legal and publicity team – Stephen Parkinson at Kingsley Napley and Bell Pottinger chairman David Wilson – the Murdochs appear to have used the same lawyers to prepare them for their hour-long grilling.
The Murdochs' inner team includes Matthew Anderson, James Murdoch's right-hand man, and Will Lewis, who is on the management and standards committee, and a team of lawyers led by Joel Klein, a News Corp board member given responsibility for the cleanup operation, and Jeff Palker, News Corp's European and Asian general counsel. Dan Tench of Olswang is one of the outside lawyers giving advice.
The thrust of their advice, according to someone close to the executive team, seems to be to appear "respectful", "transparent" and, in line with the mood on Friday, "contrite".
Both Murdochs are said to be genuinely horrified at recent events. James Murdoch has the most at stake and could be the most difficult in terms of preparation. He is as known for his sharp temper and inability to suffer fools gladly as he is for his intelligence. A sign of irritation or impatience will go down badly with parliamentarians who feel they have been lied to as well as the public – 65% of whom believe the youngest Murdoch son should resign, according to a poll for ITV News at Ten.
Of more concern to the Murdochs will be growing shareholder unrest at James's involvement in the scandal. Shareholders in BSkyB, chaired by James Murdoch, have made it clear that any slip will justify a move to make him stand down temporarily in order to deal with the phone-hacking scandal.
Although the event has garnered interest from Canadian, American, Australian, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Indian and Japanese press as well as unprecedented excitement in the UK – BBC2 has said it will let the programme run over if it goes on for longer than two hours – the legal profession were disappointed at the expected length of time. "What possible kind of forensic inquiry can they have in that timescale?" asked one media lawyer. "They're not going to find out the truth about anything in that timeframe. There's a bit of a circus going on."
The judicial inquiry scheduled for later this year is different, however, as Lord Justice Leveson has the power to call for all documents and can cross-examine any evidence. In many ways, the select committee could be just the warm up exercise.

Rupert and James Murdoch prepare for perilous performance before MPs | Media | The Guardian

**Tom Sawyer** · 19-07-2011, 01:37 PM

Originally Posted by HermantheGerman

The discovery of Mr Hoare’s body was made by police yesterday morning at his Watford home after concerns were raised about his whereabouts. His death is described as “unexplained, but not thought to be suspicious”.

That was a pretty fast conclusion - found his body yesterday. Unexplained - not suspicious?

Originally Posted by HermantheGerman

Last week, he was again quoted by the New York Times , on an even more serious allegation: that News of the Worl d journalists had bribed policemen to trace celebrities by tracking their mobile telephones to the nearest mobile mast they had last used.

The cops whacked him. Poor guy. RIP.

**Bettyboo** · 19-07-2011, 01:46 PM

^ the story also threw in his 'drugs and drink' problems, to further discredit the guy...

Now, I don't have the details, it may well have been a 'natural' death, but the timing says otherwise. Plus, there's a history in the UK of these 'suicides' when folk are about to discredit the government...

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