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[rhesusmacabre]

...it would be amazing if it never happened once at any other tabloid, considering it started at World with outside help.  Likewise, World's other practices, like bribing police for confidential information and attaining private documents (probably through dumpster diving), as well as doctoring up photos to embarrass people and such, are not unknown from other tabloids.

One of the most dispiriting things about this whole affair is the almost total reluctance of alot of the papers to even report any of it. And not just the News International ones too; here's one of their biggest rivals in the deepest trouble possible and they want the public to look at some other shiny thing instead. It's almost as if they had something to hide. Only in the last week has it become unavoidable for them.

[Maggarg - Eater of chicke]

I don't read the newspapers anymore, and the only news I watch is the BBC. Don't really trust anything else. NewsCorm should be taken down and broken
up, and it's a travesty that it controls so much of our news. This should never, ever have been allowed to happen.

[Leafsnail]

All print news organizations are teetering on the edge at this point, both financially and in terms of the service they provide. All it takes is a scandal like this to justify shutting one down, even ones that are close to 200 years old. I'm pretty sure the WSJ would survive something like this....but on the other hand, I think the NYT could come crashing down from such a scandal. They're all highly vulnerable.

Well, you have to bear in mind that tabloids like the NotW elevate the families of murder victims and war heroes to a certain level of reverence (they often campaign for help for injured soldiers and their families, as well as changes to the legal system).  The latest round of stories involved the NotW giving the family of a murdered (then missing) girl false hope (as well as screwing with a police investigation) and provoking the complete disgust of the father of a man who died in Afghanistan by hacking his son's email account.  It's difficult to think of a more damaging story for them, really.

Oh.  Okay, my implication was, by implication from the general chattering about the issue, is that the British tabloid industry as a whole is less scrupulous, legally and morally, than one would presume from other countries, namely America.

I'm not convinced.  Murdoch owns several American tabloids, right?  It's likely that stories of American papers doing this kind of thing just haven't been reported yet (the NotW affair only really came to light due to the tireless efforts of another paper).

And there was that old story about Fox just making up news... I think Murdoch's news outlets probably have the same kind of morals wherever they are.

[de5me7]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/correspondents/robertpeston/

Robert Pestons done some pretty extensive coverage of this story, and he is usually a pretty good analyist.

I doubt this scandle will damage Murdock much. He has been in this business a while and has survival skills. The big fishes are Coulson and Brooks. If Coulson is found guilty of anything in court it will seriously damage our PM, Camerons crediblity as he hired him, especially if he is some how connected with either the Milly case, or the soldier cases as these are very pollitically sensetive. Because Cameron can only loose from this investigation (he gets along with the Murdock press quite well) i doubt he will be putting all his effort into seeing it is carried out. Equally if he tries to slow its progress or is accused of slowing its progress he will be hurt just as much.

Legally speaking (i am no UK legal expert but i have a basic understanding of our laws) the police will have to find solid evidence (they will be going head to head with Murdocks legion of lawyers) that A; either of them either lied to the police at some point (this is quite possible im my view), B; Were activly involved in either authorising or organising, or telling other staff to engage in illegal activities. Phone tapping is illegal (but it didnt use to be, i cant remember when it became illegal, but i remember it being in the news when i was alot younger, perhaps i remembering 2003ish). Buying information off the police is more grey. Im not sure whether it is illegal. I expect it would depend on the nature of the information gathered. I know that the police do sell information to security consultancies regularly in the UK and that this isn't illegal (or at least if it isnt its a law no one cares about). However we do have what i known in the UK as the data protection act, which makes it illegal to share private information without the subjects consent. The police in the UK are infamously bad at prosecuting their own. If its just a street boby officer or some low ranking detective they might be sacrificed to the public, but if it goes higher up the chain, they will probably have some inconclusive review that will stumble on for a decade before turning nothing up.

Personally i would like to see Brooks and Coulson go down, the BskyB bid blocked and damage to the Times and possibly the Sun. The worst likley scenario for Murdock as that he will be forced to close other papers, or sell up much of his UK print business. I would also like to see some damage delt to Cameron and the conservatives but im not confident that i will get what i want. The government, Murdock, and some in the police would all like this situation to quitely fizzle out. So powerful groups will be stacking the odds against those interested in a genuine investigation.

[alway]

Today, Murdoch withdrew the BSkyB bid; it seems there may be more interesting to come.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43744298/ns/business-us_business/

with some analysts suggesting he could sell off the global giant's newspaper arm to focus on more promising video and entertainment businesses.

May even extend to the US:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43736449/ns/world_news-europe/t/uk-investigate-if-victims-targeted-phone-hacking-scandal/

British Prime Minister David Cameron on Wednesday pledged that his government would look into whether American 9/11 victims were targeted by News Corp. journalists in the phone-hacking scandal.

So; at this point, 2 potentially interesting new directions it could go in. A sell off of Murdoch owned newspapers (only 3% of operating profit, but cost them big with the BSkyB bid), and/or the potential for these scandals to extend to the US.

[Aqizzar]

Yeah, it's pretty extraordinary to even hear serious rumors of a consideration by Murdoch to axe the entire British paper arm of NewsCorp, as a sort of firebreak to keep any suggestion of the same corruption spreading to the company in other countries.  Supposedly at this point it's actually an argument between Rupert and his son, but you know you can trust tabloids to report on other tabloids.

Of course, it's basically already too late.  There's now about a half-dozen American Congresspeople calling for legal investigation into NewsCorp enterprises.  Leading the charge is (Republican) Peter King of New Work, after the allegations that News of the World journalists tried to bribe an NYC cop for 9/11 victims' phone information, who wants the FBI on the legal side, and the SEC and FCC on the corporate side.  Murdoch's history with the FCC has been long and murky as he's acquired broadcasting licenses across the country (something like 27 distinct channels).  He became an American citizen after years of being a legal national precisely because the FCC could only authorize him broadcasting licenses if was a citizen; Murdoch both received his citizenship in genuine record time, and the FCC technically issued the licenses before he was a citizen anyway.

Meanwhile, NewsCorp as a whole is facing class action lawsuits from shareholders (amounting to less than 3% ownership, but still major investment entities), claiming that NewsCorp's public mismanagement and legal violations constitute being their financially aggrieved.  Whatever happens in England - and with Coulson and about a dozen reporters arrested, and charges pending against Brooks and Murdoch the Younger - this snowball is not stopping anytime soon.

[Vector]

I'm just hoping they take down Fox.

Please, please take down Fox.

[freeformschooler]

I'm just hoping they take down Fox.

Please, please take down Fox.

I know it's Fox and all but my puny brain cannot comprehend a world without Fox.

[Nadaka]

I'm just hoping they take down Fox.

Please, please take down Fox.

I know it's Fox and all but my puny brain cannot comprehend a world without Fox.

If you are like me, it is because you are a pessimist and can not imagine the world getting even a tiny bit better.

[freeformschooler]

I'm just hoping they take down Fox.

Please, please take down Fox.

I know it's Fox and all but my puny brain cannot comprehend a world without Fox.

If you are like me, it is because you are a pessimist and can not imagine the world getting even a tiny bit better.

Today at 11: Nadaka calls me out and is right in ways I didn't even know myself. Will Obama be eaten by giant bats? Get this crazy lady's professional opinion. More at 11 on FOX.

[alway]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43762510/ns/world_news-europe/

In Britain police say they have the names of 3,870 possible hacking victims, plus a database of 5,000 landline numbers and 4,000 mobile numbers. So far, only 170 people have been contacted, Sue Akers, the officer now in charge of the investigation, told parliament on Tuesday.

That's a lot of people.

The FBI today began investigation of the allegations about the 9/11 victims being hacked. Allegations which included supposed attempts to bribe members of the NYPD.

Edit: Word from the big man now:
dismissed speculation that it might sell off its newspapers as "pure and total rubbish."

[Vattic]

Edit: Word from the big man now:
dismissed speculation that it might sell off its newspapers as "pure and total rubbish."

I'm likely overstating but who would buy them when news papers are becoming less and less profitable?

[Jackrabbit]

I just instinctively don't like so many news outlets being owned by the same blokes, so I hope it gets split, even a bit.

[Aqizzar]

Just woke up to this news in Britain: Rebekah Brooks as been arrested as predicted, and the Chief of the Metropolitan Police has resigned, and made a lengthy statement about it.

As near as I can tell, the guy is saying everything in the book for "I have nothing to hide", and felt it was a good idea to step down, apparently so that ongoing investigation into the police force's past isn't a distraction to the guy currently running it.  I guess.  He probably doesn't have any personal connection to any of the bribery and other charges against the police, but if that's the case, he sure is saying everything one can imagine of a guy trying to distance himself from what is beginning to sound like a systemic problem throughout the force.  Who knows.

By the way, for any actual English people here, what is the big deal about the Metropolitan Police?  I know they're the London police, and I take it in the multicentury evolution of British law, they also have national responsibilities of some kind?  Because they keep coming up in these stories, and the Chief of the MPs is referred to as "UK's Top Police Officer".

Also, Hugh Grant has filed his own lawsuit against the Metropolitan Police, for what that's worth.

[Neonivek]

I'm just hoping they take down Fox.

Please, please take down Fox.

You can't. The person who owns Fox essentially owns... well... almost everything else.