A high-profile parliamentary panel investigating phone hacking at Rupert Murdoch’s now-defunct News of the World tabloid released embarrassing new evidence Tuesday that the practice of intercepting voice mail had been widely discussed at the newspaper, contradicting assertions by its owners and editors.
In light of the new evidence, the panel also announced that it was summoning at least four former News of the World figures for questioning at a hearing next month and could possibly ask Mr. Murdoch’s son James, the head of the Murdoch conglomerate’s European operations, back for more testimony as well. Both father and son testified at a dramatic televised hearing last month. The disclosures threatened to push the scandal back to the forefront of public concern, raising worrying questions for Mr. Murdoch and for the British prime minister, David Cameron, who hired Andy Coulson, a former News of the World editor, as his director of communications and has been taunted by the opposition for poor judgment in doing so.
Tom Watson, a Labour lawmaker and member of the panel, also said Mr. Coulson may be among those summoned to give further evidence.
The newest allegations are contained in a four-year-old letter released for the first time from Clive Goodman, the News of the World’s former royal correspondent who served a jail term for hacking the mobile phones of three members of the royal household, to a senior human resources executive who had informed him that he was being dismissed.
In addition to the Goodman letter, the parliamentary panel released a letter from Harbottle & Lewis, a law firm hired by the Murdochs, which they have repeatedly cited as having given the News of the World a “clean bill of health” in reviewing a cache of e-mails in 2007. The law firm’s letter contradicts that assertion and says that its own investigation had been limited strictly to advising the company in its employment dispute with Mr. Goodman.
I guess basically they will have to keep treating the News Corp folks like any organized crime machine- keep pushing, and drip, drip, dripping evidence out until they fear prison more than Murdoch. It’s probably also worth pointing out that you can bet this is happening here- by the government, by criminals, by interested political parties, etc. The technology is out there, so unscrupulous people will do what unscrupulous people do.
Scamp Dog
The main difference will be that on our side of the Atlantic, the Very Serious People will agree that if it’s done in the name of national security or by those in favor with the Village, it’s no big deal.
Bullsmith
It’s not ever going to matter, but News Corp arguably very much fits the RICO definition of a criminal organization. Hacking the phones of royals and celebrities is one thing. Bribing and blackmailing the police, spying on senior members of government up to and including the Prime Minister is something else altogether.
The really chilling thing is they don’t do it to sell media, they do it to control governments and subvert democracy. Political power is the basis of the Murdoch business model.
Bullsmith
My favorite story detail from today’s multiple revelations was the very strong evidence that Mr. Coulson perjured himself during the perjury trial of a Scottish politician who had sued NoW for libel. A socialist, of course. No idea if the guy was wrongfully convicted, but it seems provable that Coulson should be. The hubris of that testimony is positively Greek.
Arclite
God, I hope the whole org collapses or is shut down. Just like Arthur Anderson (although I feel bad for all the normal folks who lost their jobs there).
Captain Haddock
Gee and which party here is going to back investigations? The GOP who benefit or the Democrats who are scared of shadows?
Culture of Truth
Charles Dickens a nation turns its lonely eyes to you
Amir Khalid
@Bullsmith: You are right. Rupert Murdoch’s media-tycoon mask came off more than a month ago, revealing the hoodlum behind it.
Zifnab
@Bullsmith:
:-p Fix’d.
It does make me wonder. Is Murdoch one of those ideologues that thinks if he can just take control of the world he can do things better? Or is he simply a jackass that likes to watch the world burn?
The Dangerman
This reminds me of one of Obama’s biggest strengths; can anyone point to any scandal of his administration that isn’t complete horseshit (read: birthers, etc.). You know the Right has been snooping (read: Clinton). Obama has run a clean operation.
Nutella
It also came out today that they paid Goodman a lot of money to keep quiet so they could continue to claim that he was a ‘rogue reporter’ and everyone else was innocent. There’s a money trail to follow so they’re not going to be able to weasel out of it.
Apparently Les Hinton (recently of the WSJ) is personally implicated in the Goodman deal as well as Cameron’s buddy Andy Coulson.
BudP
OT: check out this awesome libertarian plan to go Galt in the Pacific.
Villago Delenda Est
@Zifnab:
You have to wonder what the deal is with Murdoch. Supposedly, it’s about more and more money, but at some point he becomes as silly as one of the “old gods” in WoW who are evil just for the sake of being evil. Like the “Jack the Ripper” of the original Star Trek who fed on the emotions associated with knifing women to death.
Elizabelle
@Bullsmith:
I am hoping this thing blows up big in this country too, and that Fox News Channel takes some serious, serious damage.
Murdoch’s media empire is poisoning our democracy. As is apathy, a non-functioning major media, and “both sides do it” cynicism and ignorance.
Nutella
@Villago Delenda Est:
I don’t think it’s just to be evil. Murdoch’s got a political agenda and a lot of News Corps’ evil behavior has advanced that. He managed to become a kingmaker in UK and US and Australian politics.
Martin
@BudP: I don’t know why those guys keep fucking around. There’s no shortage of old cruise ships, aircraft carriers, supertankers for sale on the open market. They could easily buy a ship the size of the Empire State Bldg and go galt from all government intervention, and take a few hundred of their fellow libertarians with them.
licensed to kill time
OT but awesome: Watching Wolfie interview the Pres, asks him what he will get Sasha and Malia if he is re-elected.
Obama says “When I am re-elected I will get them an extension of the Secret Service protection so when they start going out with boys they will be surrounded by men with guns”.
And then he gives that big smile. Ha!
(yes, I have had a teenage daughter:)
Villago Delenda Est
@The Dangerman:
That was the thing with Clinton; aside from his fling with the zaftig Ms. Lewinski, there was nothing they could pin on him. Remember when Starr was going to shut down the Whitewater special prosecutor’s office because there was no there there in Whitewater, and how the wingnuts took him to the woodshed and told him, in no uncertain terms, to find something, anything, to pin on Clinton? Say a parking ticket or jaywalking? Starr’s ongoing under the gun investigations eventually resulted in the perjury trap laid about his relationship with Lewinski?
Contrast this with rampant corruption in the Reagan administration (the HUD secretary indicted, first sitting cabinet official in decades) and the two Bush admins.
That fuckstick Issa hasn’t found a damn thing to investigate in the Obama administration, despite the gleeful promises of wingtard trolls last November.
Bill Arnold
@The Dangerman:
You must not get enough right wing chain emails. It has been an article of right wing faith since mid-2009 that the Obama administration is the most corrupt administration ever.
(If you pick through the emails, it’s pretty much complete nonsense. But persistent, repeated lying creates reality.)
El Cid
But there was this one time with Dan Rather and a document and Bush and the National Guard, so really, both sides do it, and also there’s MSNBC, so there’s enough blame to go around.
Susan Kitchens
Oh, my ears are just itching to hear a sentence that starts with these words:
“No one could have predicted…..”
C’mon NewsCorp, NotW, pleeeease? Please have someone come out and say it.
scav
What I particularly enjoy about the docudump today is how much of it is essentially blow-back from stuff Murdoch pere et fils blathered to Parliament. Aren’t there about 2 distinct instances of the dynamic duo trying to blame the lawyers and the lawyers coming back with a quick fingerwave and a tut tut tut not so fast sweetie?
The Dangerman
@Bill Arnold:
I get some (more correctly, I check my Folks email; they are fairly apolitical, but some of their Friends are TPers).
You know the Right has been looking for something that will go beyond their echo chamber; as I scour my recollection, about the only thing that comes close to being plausible is what dealerships were closed back in the Auto bailout. Of course, that was much ado about not very much; compare and contrast with, say, the last Admin’s outing Valerie Plame Wilson?
daverave
Sounds like its time for the Murdoch empire to stage a few more hooligan riots to get themselves off of the front pages… again.
Martin
Don’t be taxing the job creators or they won’t be able to create jobs!
The difference between McClendon and you? He works 45,000 times harder than your lazy ass does.
kindness
When can we expect to see Roger Ailes scalp nailed to a post?
That may be gruesome, but karma’s a bitch, you know?
Jay B.
Not really, but I do agree with your overall point. I despise the royal family, but even they deserve some expectation of privacy. As for actors, yes, some are rich, some are assholes for sure, but they are just citizens.
There is a place where the public’s right to know outweighs the privacy of the subject, but at least this country USED to be one where you’d have to get warrants and the state had to earn the right to upend the 4th Amendment.
I know we’re talking about the U.K., but let’s be serious about it. Hacking, listening in, spying, it’s happening here too. On a scale unimaginably worse than what Murdoch’s being accused of — and I think Murdoch should go to jail if the allegations are proven. It’s just that we get to feel smug and superior about this bullshit because it’s happening over there. Our government is at least as guilty and almost certainly infinitely more.
scav
@daverave: Thing about the riots though is the public got a solid look at the immediate door-beaten-down rough justice handed out to the rioters that took out chunks of the high-street and have a lingering visual after-image they can apply to the bankers, city-boys et al who have been looting high street and environs and draw some comparisons thereunto.
Turgidson
Let’s just go the Capone route and nail Murdoch for tax evasion, if all else fails. That asshole must be cutting corners on taxes, given how much of an asshole he is and his ideology.
lamh34
Question what’s up with that Piers Morgan dude on CNN. Wasn’t he one of the editors at NOW too? Does this come after his tenure or is he possibly as guilty as the others?
Cat Lady
I predicted in another thread that the drip drip drip will start here, and our FAIL media will finally, and permanently, be discredited and abandoned. We will have an American Spring. Wingnuts will be wingnuts and have always been among us, but the “both sides do it!” horserace FAIL has brought us to the edge of democracy in this country. The media’s corruption is wide, deep and complete, and it needs to fall. This country can’t possibly survive with the media failing to do its job. It was given special protection in the Constitution to do its job, and it’s abrogated its responsibility. Fuck ’em all.
eemom
@kindness:
how much power does Ailes qua Ailes actually have?
Just asking — I’ve wondered why people talk about him so much. Isn’t he basically just Murdoch’s U.S. puppet?
All The Murdoch’s Men. Tee hee.
Cap'n Magic
Murdoch’s empire is like herpes: you didn’t want it, you got screwed when you got it, and if you could get rid of it you would…
But you can’t.
beltane
Ah, if Rupert had only stolen a bottle of water he’d be facing serious jail time. As it is, he’ll probably lose his business but keep his money and his freedom. We are quite the messed up society.
Felanius Kootea
@lamh34: I’ve wondered about Piers Morgan too. Looks like he admitted to “dodgy practices” while he was a NOTW editor, in an old BBC interview but I haven’t seen anything more.
scav
Apparently Piers was at NoW but I thought a lot of his rumoured dodginess was while he was at the Mirror. Anyway, probably a smug twat of the first water and that qualification only to get past the lawyers and other guardians of good taste. and eemom, I think I’ve read that even Murdoch is wary of Ailes, sort of a Frankenstein’s Frankenstein situation. Murdoch craves contact with political power (and will switch hit in order to rub noses) but Ailes insists the power come in a certain flavor and will stomp on baby ducks to make it so.
BombIranForChrist
This Kabuki is amazing to me and it reminds me a little bit of the financial scandal. I mean, everyone basically knows at this point that our major financial institutions were committing fraud, but there is still this theater of pretending to believe that … something … the banks were just confused? Drunk?
Same with this: EVERYONE knows that the Murdochs are lying their asses off, but it’s going to take a little theater until we get to the point where someone does something about it, if ever.
Nutella
@BombIranForChrist:
Since a lot of underlings are in danger of jail and 200 of them were laid off when NotW folded, I think this crime scandal is going to have a lot more evidence to work with.
scav
Just as a minor aside, Harbottle & Lewis aren’t exactly no-names and actually represented / acted for Prince Charles on behalf of his sons’ being hacked by Goodwin et al. Got hired by NI after that so I don’t think they’re quite the sort you really want to piss off over and above having such a grand name.
eemom
@BombIranForChrist:
as I said when the Murdicks were testifying, when it comes down to a choice between looking like a fucking drooling idiot who had no idea what the fuck was going on right in front of their faces, versus acknowledging that no, they really weren’t that fucking stupid with the consequence of incurring criminal culpability, people in this position will always, always, ALWAYS choose the fucking clueless idiot route.
Once long ago I was discussing with a colleague how people in depositions answer questions they don’t want to answer by saying they don’t remember. She was saying how evil it is when people do that. I said, yeah, but it’s standard procedure. She said, “but it’s so EVIL.”
Dennis SGMM
Sure, I’d love to see the Murdochs sent to prison. Nah gah happen. Just as it was with the Wall Street types and the bankers, they insist that they must be paid enormous sums to run a business and then they insist that they knew nothing about how the business was run when the shit hits the fan.
Little Boots
they’re rich. they’ll survive. we’re in one of those eras when the rich are sacred. let’s hope it all passes soon.
gbear
So is the elder Murdoch going to do an encore of trying to pretend that he’s a doddering old fool when he’s called in to testify again? I can’t wait to see him try it.
gbear
OT but it’s too funny: Today Michele Bachmann took a moment during her campaigning to wish Elvis Presley a happy birthday. Elvis died 34 years ago today. Ooopie.
Little Boots
@gbear:
she pretty but dumb
John Puma
Presumably Mr Goodman will soon be fitted with cement booties.
kay
They’re such brazen liars. Did anyone, anywhere believe that Murdoch’s high-powered lawyers ever said or wrote something so broad as we give your company a “a clean bill of health”?
Yeah. Lawyers always do that. They always issue broad guarantees on lawfulness and ethics. They’re known for that.
This is how lawyers talk, and then they put it in writing:
I mean, please. They’re insulting us with this nonsense. They think we’re all idiots.
Irving
Just to put things in perspective, “the technology” in this case was a list of the default passwords for the mailboxes of the major phone companies. That, and a little knowledge of how to spoof a phone number (something that Paris Hilton mastered, so it’s not hard), and you’re golden. This isn’t DEFCON level hacking by any stretch… but then again, a lot of “hacking” is a matter of dumpster diving for passwords and private info, so there you go.
Nutella
@Irving:
Everybody’s claiming that they just used the default passwords but I don’t think that accounts for all of this. I expect they were also buying password data from phone company employees.
After the Squidgygate in 1992, surely the royal family knew not to leave default passwords on their phones, but NotW listened to William’s messages a few years ago. That’s what Goodman went to jail for.
UK celebrity Jemima Khan claimed in an article that changing voicemail passwords did not prevent hacking. She suggests that access was sold to reporters and their private investigators.
News Corps bribed cops to get information so there’s really no reason to believe they wouldn’t bribe phone company employees.