For a while now, revelations about the News of the World's practice of obtaining stories about celebrities via information gleaned from the hacking of their voicemail accounts have been seeping into the British public's consciousness. While most people thought this was wrong, an invasion of privacy, and something that brought a certain amount of shame and discredit upon the News of the World and British journalism in general, it has taken the news that Milly Dowler's voicemail was hacked while the Surrey schoolgirl was missing to stir up a media frenzy and public outcry. Apart from the gross invasion of privacy inherent in listening to what one can safely assume were very personal and emotional messages, the private investigator in question, Glenn Mulcaire (or possibly News of the World journalists), went on to delete voicemail messages in order to free up space for more messages for him to listen to. Apart from the possibility that this may have destroyed important evidence - it is not unheard of for perpetrators in such cases to leave voicemail messages on victims' phones in order to avert suspicion - it raised false hopes among Milly's family who reasoned that it must have been her deleting the messages and that therefore she must have still been alive.The race is now on to uncover how much the then News of the World editor and current News International (News of the World's parent company) chief executive Rebekah Brooks knew about the practice of using hacked voicemail messages as the basis of stories that appeared in the News of the World while she was in charge. The charges are that either she knew about the practice and is therefore corrupt and should resign her current post and face criminal charges, or that she didn't know what was going on within her newspaper and is therefore incompetent and should resign her current post. Brooks herself says it was "inconceivable" that she knew about the phone hacking, and News International are apparently to claim that Brooks (then going under her maiden name of Wade) was on holiday not only when Milly Dowler's voicemail was hacked, but also when, allegedly, the voicemail accounts of the familes of Soham victims Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman were targeted by Mulcaire. If this were true, it would focus further attention on the man who would have been in charge when Brooks was away - then deputy editor Andy Coulson, who took over as editor when Brooks left, and went on to resign from that post in 2007 when it was revealed that phone hacking took place 'on his watch' as editor, even though he has always denied actually knowing that it took place. Following David Cameron's unfortunate (or unwise, given Coulson's known connection with the hacking scandal) to appoint him as Conservative Party communications officer, Coulson was forced to resign from a second position because of the same scandal, finally leaving the Conservatives in early 2011, nearly five months after the New York Times re-ignited the scandal with fresh allegations about the extent of Coulson's knowledge of the phone hacking during his editorship of the News of the World - something Coulson has denied under oath. It would certainly be convenient if it turns out that Brooks was away - News International could then seek to cast the blame on someone who is now outside of their organisation, hoping that this would leave their Chief Executive relatively blame-free. Evidence to support this theory comes with the way News International have put Coulson further into the spotlight by releasing emails to the police that allegedly reveal Coulson as having authorised payments to police officers. Unfortunately for them, Brooks is unlikely to escape so easily. Even apart from new allegations that Brooks knew that News of the World resources were being used to spy on Detective Chief Superintendent David Cook while he investigated two private investigators with links to the News of the World over the murder of their former business partner, the suspicion remains that she is culpable of maintaining (if not fostering) an environment within her newspaper where journalists, under pressure to come up with big stories, could believe that results took precedence over morals. In a statement released this week, Mulcaire spoke of the "relentless pressure" and "constant demand for results" he experienced while working for the News of the World - pressure that had filtered down from above and caused him to lose sight of any moral considerations that could get in the way of providing the information demanded of him. So where did this pressure filter down from? Pressure to achieve results, to get the big stories, exists at any newspaper, but a newspaper owned by the ruthless Rupert Murdoch is likely to have that pressure in spades. Murdoch is a man who demands results, and he is the man who should ultimately have to answer as to why employees within one of his organisations felt the need to resort to such abhorrent behaviour to get the results they believed they had to achieve. According to the New York Times article, Andy Coulson imposed "a hypercompetitive ethos, even by tabloid standards" where there was a "“do whatever it takes” mentality".
I don't believe for one second that Rupert Murdoch will ever truly be held to account for any of this, but the consolation is that the whole scandal is very damaging to him. Firstly, although he is never going to end up in the poor house, it is hitting him in the pocket. With many large brands such as Ford cutting back their advertising deals, the News of the World is losing large amounts of revenue, while huge sums are being knocked off the value of News Corp and BSkyB shares. Secondly, it couldn't have come at a worse time for Murdoch, as there is now considerable pressure for the government (or Ofcom) to block Murdoch's News Corporation from taking over the 61% of BSkyB that they don't already own - a takeover which appeared to be a done deal not so long ago is now under a certain amount of threat. And finally - and this may be the best thing - it is now no longer politically advantageous to be seen to be associated with, or supported by, Rupert Murdoch or any of his media outlets. Ed Milliband has finally done something notable as Labour leader - at yesterday's Prime Minister's Questions he has demanded a public enquiry, demanded Brooks be sacked, demanded that the BSkyB takeover be at least delayed, and poured scorn on Cameron's judgement in hiring Coulson. All of which are guaranteed to make him persona non grata with Rupert. Here's hoping that other politicians continue to be as brave when facing up to the Murdoch empire, and are free to make policies and take decisions in the best interests of the country without having to worry about annoying Rupert Murdoch and finding themselves in a light bulb on the front page of the Sun.
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