The parliamentary committee investigating illegal voicemail hacking at News International has released a cache of internal company documents showing that the firm was well aware of just how deep its phone hacking scandal went way back in 2008, when it was still publicly claiming that the problem was limited to a few bad apples.
In your wacky Wednesday media column: Christiane Amanpour's reportedly unhappy, the New Orleans paper's crazy Twitter scheme, the Hackgate Phone Zero located, and Wikileaks isn't so easy to copy after all.
Billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg is sticking up for billionaire mogul Rupert Murdoch as shareholder activists try to depose the aging News Corp. chairman.
Selectively senile media magnate Rupert Murdoch has set up a special "hotline" for staff to report any "illegal activity" they spy around the various News Corp newsrooms. Which of course raises the question: Is the hotline tapped? And if so, will Murdoch-owned tabloids be the first to get scoops on News Corp employees who are about to be arrested for their shady journalistic practices? Because that ouroborosian arrangement could keep him in scandalous headlines for years to come.
A British attorney, who represented the family of a murder victim whose phone was hacked by News Of The World journalists, says he is teaming up with a lawyer in the U.S. to begin legal proceedings against the Murdochs and News Corporation.
In your mordant Monday media column: News Corp pays up for Milly Dowler, Janet Robinson tweets in secret, Ted Koppel could head to NBC, Americans think Fox News is "the best," and a Senator's wife finally resigns from a newspaper.
The Metropolitan Police knew for years that the Sun had hacked into teen British murder victim Milly Dowler's voicemail, but sat on the information because they were in cahoots with England's tabloids. It wasn't until the Guardian broke the Dowler story that the police finally investigated the hacking in earnest. Now the cops want to know who ratted them out.
In your departing Tuesday media column: Sam Sifton says goodbye to the NYT restaurant critic gig (with memo!), Nancy Franklin quits as NYer TV critic, more News Corp scandalism, and Mashable expands.
In your tendentious Tuesday media column: Judith Miller gets a new job, James Murdoch accused of deception, the NYT poaches from the WSJ, Jill Abramson's introductory memo, and organic Thai asparagus journalism.
In your laboring Friday media column: Rupert Murdoch gets his due, rumors of more Washington Post cuts, the Oakland Tribune is dying, a rare August with lots of news, and Matthew Freud may be the last man standing.
Twitchy sociopath James Murdoch may be on thin ice at News Corp., Reuters' Peter Lauria reports. Despite a public vote of confidence from his father during last week's earnings call—"I have full confidence in James"—some News Corp. executives are preparing for a post-James world, on account of how he lied to Parliament.
News Corp has allowed that the ongoing UK and US investigations into the News Of The World phone hacking scandal might just hurt its reputation and business interests.
News Corp has a much-anticipated quarterly earnings call today, following yesterday's board meeting. The one (and only) real agenda item is to figure out how to move past the devastating UK phone hacking scandal—which means making sure it doesn't spread to America. Fortunately, News Corp has something going for it: best friends!
Piers Morgan has repeatedly claimed—falsely!—that he never countenanced or encountered voicemail hacking during his tenure as editor of the Daily Mirror. Now Heather Mills has come forward to claim that a reporter for the Mirror's parent company confessed to her in 2001 that the paper had surreptitiously gained access to a voicemail message Paul McCartney left for her after the couple had a fight. The trouble for Morgan is that he openly admitted to having listened to that very voicemail message—recounting it in detail—in 2007. Whoops.
