British police are investigating evidence that an executive at Rupert Murdoch's News International corporation may have deleted millions of emails from an internal archive in an apparent attempt to obstruct Scotland Yard's inquiry into the phone-hacking scandal that has hit the business and brought about the closure of the News of the World.

The archive is believed to have reached back to January 2005, revealing daily contact between News of the World editors, reporters and outsiders, including private investigators, the Guardian has reported.

The messages are potentially highly valuable both for the police and for the numerous public figures who are suing News International.

In my life I have seen some stupid doozies.... None so nasty as the cabal of the Murdoch zombies... Most of the rabid commentariat in the Murdoch Press, from Paul Kelly to Laurie Oakes, via the horrible Piers Akerman are working hard at intimidating Julia Gillard into submission... For these Murdoch scribes nothing she does is good enough — everything is worse than bad... Why is that so? One would expect better from Paul Kelly, for example... Any crap from Miranda Devine is expected... But even Paul Kelly, like the rest of these Murdoch mongrels have lost track of what global warming is all about. Some of these more erudite monkeys will even admit that Tony Abbott's solution is ridiculous, yet they still support him!!! Idiots!... And they doubt the science as well because, hey, let's face it it's winterland in Aussieland... We haven't seen spectacular warm days, have we??? Idiots!!!

The trend of warming to reach 2 degrees Celsius extra by 2100 is 0.015 degree Celsius increase per year or 0.15 degree Celsius by DECADE (this does not even including the compounding effect — if we include the compounding effect the figure is more like 0.009 per year at present). Nothing here that one can feel by placing a finger in the air. To reach a 6 degree Celsius increase by 2100, an increase of 0.05 degree Celsius per year on average is needed (this does not even including the compounding effect — if we include the compounding effect the figure is more like 0.035 per year at present)... Here again nothing that one can feel by placing a finger in the air... All the morons at Murdoch ink are retarding our understanding of a MASSIVE problem we are facing. The Murdoch ink blobs also go up in arms at the kiddies being taught about global warming — as it they were taught about global warming doom... Idiots!!! The religious cabal has taught us about doom for the last effing 2000 effing years!!!!!

The science of global warming is far more precise that these Murdoch zombies and nasty scarecrows WANT us and themselves TO KNOW... Why? Because they are paid to fight JULIA... To destroy Julia... That is their mission... that is the button that has been pushed in their conscious and subconscious brains... MURDOCH WANTS JULIA OUT! Regardless of global warming or not (which he might know is real).

Science does not tell us about doom but about effing change!!! Increase of traumatic climatic events, increase in temperature, increase in the sea level. And this precise science tells us that the change is mostly due to CO2 increase in the atmosphere, specifically OUR EXTRA CO2 emissions. The correlation is strong and only a few scientists paid by the carbon industry are trying to tell us no... So the Murdoch malignant masturbators are hanging on to these chimeric threads of idiotic science to stop a simple tax, a carbon price which is the first of a series of steps WE HAVE TO TAKE TO FORCE US TO REDUCE OUR CO2 EMISSIONS... reduce by 60 per cent on 1950s levels WORLDWIDE to minimise the rise to 2 degrees Celsius by 2100... Even Murdoch's political representative LITTLE SHIT ABBOTT was suggesting to go the CARBON TAX route rather than the ETS when Kevin and Malcolm had come to an ETS understanding... Malcolm has done his bit (but not enough) to let us know that his silly boss' new solution is ridiculous (Tony doesn't believe that climate change is happening) but MORE needs to be done, Malcolm. Resign from this party of Liberal (conservative) morons. Fight the Murdoch press and cross the floor, URGENTLY.

Julia, fight the morons...

Finally, our leaders are outraged. The claim that the mobile phone of the murdered teenager Milly Dowler was hacked by the News of the World has been described as "truly dreadful" (David Cameron), "totally shocking" (Ed Miliband) and "grotesque" (Nick Clegg). Could this be the moment that Britain's spineless politicians begin to break free from the pernicious grip of the Murdoch media empire?

In recent years, there has been no more sickening - and, I should add, undemocratic - spectacle in British public life than that of elected politicians kneeling before the throne of King Rupert. Paying homage in person to the billionaire boss of News Corporation became almost a rite of passage for new party leaders. Tony Blair, famously, flew out to address News Corp's annual conference on an island off Australia in 1995. "We were thrilled when Tony was invited to be the keynote speaker," writes Blair's ex-chief of staff, Jonathan Powell, in his memoir.

The day after his speech in front of the media mogul, an editorial in the Murdoch-owned Sun declared: "Mr Blair has vision, he has purpose and he speaks our language on morality and family life." By 1997, the Sun - which had heaped such abuse and ridicule on the former Labour leader Neil Kinnock - had officially come out for Blair and, in the wake of his landslide election victory, the new prime minister thanked the Sun for its "magnificent support" that "really did make the difference".

But it didn't. "I think the Sun came out for us because they knew we were going to win," says Blair's former communications chief, Alastair Campbell, now. In a study for the Centre for Research into Elections and Social Trends in 1999, Professor John Curtice of the University of Strathclyde concluded that it "was not the Sun wot won it in 1997″, adding: "[T]he pattern of vote switching during the campaign amongst readers of the Sun or any other ex-Tory newspaper proved to be much like that of those who did not read a newspaper at all."

Yet Blair - and, lest we forget, Gordon Brown - continued to hug Murdoch close. "He seemed like the 24th member of the cabinet," the former Downing Street spin doctor Lance Price has observed. On issues like crime, immigration and Europe, "his voice was rarely heard . . . but his presence was always felt". Little has changed under Cameron. He appointed Andy Coulson as his director of communications in July 2007 - just six months after the latter had resigned as News of the World editor over the original phone-hacking scandal.

The Tory leader then made his own pilgrimage to the see the Sun King in August 2008, joining Murdoch on his yacht off the coast of Greece. It is said that he removed the liberal Dominic Grieve as shadow home secretary in 2009, on the insistence of News International's chief executive - and close personal friend - Rebekah Brooks, who is now under pressure to quit over her alleged role in the hacking affair. The Culture Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, waved through proposals to allow Murdoch to buy all of BSkyB - in the midst of the hacking row.

Yes John...

"I think the Sun came out for us because they knew we were going to win," says Blair's former communications chief, Alastair Campbell, now. In a study for the Centre for Research into Elections and Social Trends in 1999, Professor John Curtice of the University of Strathclyde concluded that it "was not the Sun wot won it in 1997″, adding: "[T]he pattern of vote switching during the campaign amongst readers of the Sun or any other ex-Tory newspaper proved to be much like that of those who did not read a newspaper at all."

What a lot of crock... One does not have to be a reader of a Murdoch owned newspaper to be influenced by his views... That is the perversion of it all. Because very few people in the English speaking world would be ignorant of Uncle Rupe's existence and of his views... An influence that is subconscious as well... The other media outlet would make reference to his power and influence... The fact that "The News of the World" had about 7 million readers each week is telling of the way the Rupert system operates. The famous page three of the Daily Mirror 1970 style in Sydney did spread throughout the Murdoch world... the NofW included...

Unless those manipulative views are counter-acted with violent rebuttal, not just mere criticism, can their influence be effectively turned down a few notches.

Sacked News of the World staff appear to have fired a parting shot at their former editor Rebekah Brooks, disguising mocking messages in the crossword of the tabloid’s final edition.

Brooks, now the chief executive of News International, reportedly brought in two loyal proofreaders to sanitise Sunday’s final edition of any jibes directed at her following the newspaper’s spectacular demise during the phone hacking scandal.

But they failed to detect the not-so-cryptic clues that appear to savage her in the crosswords on page 47.

Among the clues in the paper’s Quickie puzzle were: "Brook", "stink", "catastrophe" and "digital protection".

The Cryptic Crossword appears to go even further, including the hints ‘‘criminal enterprise’’, ‘‘mix in prison’’, ‘‘string of recordings’’, and ‘‘will fear new security measure’’.

Another clue was ‘‘woman stares wildly at calamity’’, with suggestions it refers to a photograph of Mrs Brooks as she left the News International HQ in east London on Thursday after staff were told the paper would be shut down.

Tony Blair urged Gordon Brown to persuade the Labour MP who led the campaign to expose the phone-hacking scandal to fall silent, according to a report yesterday.

The Mail on Sunday stated that "well-placed" sources said Mr Blair had sought to encourage Mr Brown to ask his supporter Tom Watson to back off. A "friend of Mr Brown" was quoted as saying: "There is no doubt about it, Tony wanted Gordon to intervene." Mr Watson, who claimed last week that News International had entered "the criminal underworld", was reported to have been told that Rebekah Brooks, News International's chief executive, "will pursue you for the rest of your life".

Earlier this year, another Labour MP, Chris Bryant, said in a Commons speech that a senior figure allied to Mr Murdoch had warned his friends that speaking out about the scandal would not be forgotten.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/blair-accused-of-trying-to-silence-murdoch-critic-2311631.html

Dear Friends,

As details of the scandal surrounding my company, News Corporation, have emerged in recent days - including employees hacking into mobile phones and bribing the police - my defense has been consistent: I had no idea what was going on.

Now, I'm sure many of you are wondering, how could I, Rupert Murdoch, one of the most powerful men in the world, have no idea what is going on? The answer, my friends, is simple: I get all of my information from my own newspapers. If you relied on News of the World, The Sun, and The New York Post for your information, I can assure you that you wouldn't have a clue what was going on, either.

Some of you aren't buying this argument. You maintain that a media titan like me would get his information from sources beyond newspapers - like TV, for example. Well, that's true. But in my case, the only TV I watch is the Fox News Channel. So not only do I not know what is going on around me, I know nothing about the theory of evolution, global warming, or President Obama's birthplace.

If you still don't believe that I know nothing, here's a final piece of evidence: I paid $500 million to acquire MySpace. Case closed.

Now that we've established that I know nothing, let me address some of the allegations about News Corp. that have come up in recent days: first and foremost, that our reporters have regularly bribed the police to obtain information. I am shocked and appalled by this charge. News Corporation has a longstanding zero tolerance policy regarding information, both the getting of it and the publishing of it. Going forward, we will be subjecting our employees to a series of random information tests. Any employees found to be possessing even trace amounts of facts will be immediately terminated.

Finally, it has come to my attention that several of my company's tabloids have featured pictures of women with their shirts off. I am as shocked by this news as you are and I intend to launch a full investigation.

In closing, I want to assure you that I intend to make amends for any and all of the wrongdoing perpetrated by employees of News Corp. in recent years. And to that end, I have plan: I implore the British government to let me own 100% of the satellite broadcasting giant B-Sky-B. I have made some grievous mistakes with the media properties I already control, and the only way I can think of to make things right is by controlling even more.

Your friend,

Rupert

By Andy Borowitz

And now "the Sun" and the "Sunday Times"...

Fresh phone hacking allegations are threatening to sink Rupert Murdoch's bid to expand his British media empire.

New reports say investigators working for the Sun and the Sunday Times targeted former prime minister Gordon Brown for a decade, obtaining details about his voicemails, bank accounts, legal affairs, and even the medical records of his ill son.

There are also reports that the now-defunct News of the World bribed a royal protection officer for information on the royal family.

As the new allegations surfaced, current prime minister David Cameron's government announced that Mr Murdoch's bid to take over satellite broadcaster BSkyB would be referred to Britain's competition commission.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/07/12/3267116.htm

Journalists from across News International repeatedly targeted the former prime minister Gordon Brown, attempting to access his voicemail and obtaining information from his bank account and legal file as well as his family's medical records.

There is also evidence that a private investigator used a serving police officer to trawl the police national computer for information about him. That investigator also targeted another Labour MP who was the subject of hostile inquiries by the News of the World, but it is not confirmed whether News International was specifically involved in trawling police computers for information on Brown.

Separately, Brown's tax paperwork was taken from his accountant's office apparently by hacking into the firm's computer. This was passed to another newspaper.

Brown was targeted during a period of more than 10 years, both as chancellor of the exchequer and as prime minister. Some of the activity clearly was illegal. Other incidents breached his privacy but not the law. An investigation by the Guardian has found that:

Scotland Yard has discovered references to Brown and his wife, Sarah, in paperwork seized from Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator who specialised in phone hacking for the News of the World.

• Abbey National bank found evidence suggesting that a "blagger" acting for the Sunday Times on six occasions posed as Brown and gained details from his account.
• London lawyers Allen & Overy were tricked into handing over details from his file by a conman working for the Sunday Times.
• Details from his infant son's medical records were obtained by the Sun, who published a story about the child's serious illness.

Brown joins a long list of Labour politicians who are known to have been targeted by private investigators working for News International, including the former prime minister Tony Blair and his media adviser Alastair Campbell, the former deputy prime minister John Prescott and his political adviser Joan Hammell, Peter Mandelson as trade secretary, Jack Straw and David Blunkett as home secretaries, Tessa Jowell as media secretary and her special adviser Bill Bush, and Chris Bryant as minister for Europe.

The sheer scale of the data assault on Brown is unusual, with evidence of attempts to obtain his legal, financial, tax, medical and police records as well as to listen to his voicemail. All of these incidents are linked to media organisations. In many cases, there is evidence of a link to News International.

Scotland Yard recently wrote separately to Brown and to his wife to tell them that their details had been found in evidence collected by Operation Weeting, the special inquiry into phone hacking at the News of the World. It is believed that this refers to handwritten notes kept by Mulcaire, which were seized by police in August 2006 and never previously investigated. Brown last year asked Scotland Yard if there was evidence he had been targeted by the private investigator and was told there was none.

Murdoch's Papers Hacked Into Prime Minister's Records

Figures at the top of hackers' collective Anonymous are threatening to attack the Metropolitan police's computer systems and those controlled by the UK judicial system, warning that Tuesday will be "the biggest day in Anonymous's history."

The collective is understood to be seeking to express anger over News International's phone hacking and at the threatened extradition of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

A Twitter feed purporting to belong to Sabu, a senior figure within the group and the founder of the spin-off group LulzSec, which hacked a site linked to the CIA and the UK's Serious Organised Crime Agency, promised two releases of information would be launched within a day.

Anonymous Hackers Threaten "Explosive" Release of Data

All three main political parties will today unite against the man they have spent decades wooing in an unprecedented attack on Rupert Murdoch and his business empire. The party leaders will order their MPs to vote for a motion calling for Mr Murdoch to abandon his takeover bid for BSkyB in the wake of the hacking scandal.

The show of unity came after a dramatic intervention by David Cameron. He made the decision after realising he could lose the vote in the House of Commons in the face of opposition from Labour and the Liberal Democrats. The mood in Downing Street was said to be "grim" yesterday.

The motion – which is now certain to be passed by an overwhelming majority – significantly increases the pressure on News Corp to abandon its bid for BSkyB entirely, amid still growing allegations of widespread corporate misgovernance at its UK subsidiary News International.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/press/party-leaders-unite-against-murdoch-2312696.html

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Uncle Rupe is in a bind. He has to navigate this crisis very carefully... On one hand he can claim he did not know which would lead reasonable people to believe that he was incompetent. Unless there is a secret slush fund hidden in his pocket, a company like his has to account for every paper clips in the same way I have to do with mine. If he is deemed thus incompetent, then he is unfit to take over BSkyB. He is unfit to run other major media outlets in the world as well. In Australia, the unwritten cosy deal between the Liberals (conservatives) and Uncle Rupe's rag sheets should be scrutinised though there would be few instances of phone hacking uncovered.

The amount of bribes paid to the pommy police would have to be recorded by the accountants in some way or disguised as some journos have done when they deal with third world countries. It's called "facilitating money" that has to be forked out otherwise one can be deported at airports or one cannot access official departments. But the size of the payola is quite small: a couple of dollars here and there... But as a former NotW employee said, he carried two bags of 20,000 pounds each to bribe some official... The "normal" cut was around 200 pounds per info from the police. Still one can buy a lot of paper clips with that. It could have been entered in the books as bonuses to the journos but this could complicate the tax returns since, in general, there is no receipt for paper bags...

Should Uncle Rupe admit he knew but did not realise the extend of the drama, then he still unfit to rule... Incompetence or criminality is the only choice... See what happens next. See toon at top....

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch and his son James backed down in the face of threats of jail from British MPs overnight and agreed to testify to a parliamentary committee on the phone-hacking scandal.

They had initially declined to appear next Tuesday but changed their minds after the Commons media committee issued summonses.

News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks had already agreed to attend.

The MPs have accused News of the World editors of misleading parliament over phone hacking at a previous hearing in 2003.

A spokeswoman for Mr Murdoch's News Corp said: "News Corp can confirm that we are in the process of writing to the select committee with the intention that James Murdoch and Rupert Murdoch will both attend on Tuesday."

Committee chairman John Whittingdale had said that if the Murdochs did not answer the summons then the matter would be dealt with by the House of Commons, which can then order the person to attend.

"If that is not obeyed then it becomes a matter of contempt of parliament and there are penalties," he said, adding: "I understand that it can include imprisonment."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-07-14/police-arrest-another-tabloid-hacking-suspect/2795382

Unquestionably, the hacking scandal has crossed the Atlantic.

The FBI's involvement takes the affair beyond the rumblings of US politicians into the much more dangerous territory of a criminal investigation.

Of course, it remains to be proved whether Americans' phones were hacked.

The allegation that 9/11 victims were targeted by the News of the World was made by a rival British newspaper, the Daily Mirror, which based its report on an unnamed source.

If evidence of US hacking is uncovered, the scandal will take on a whole new dimension - especially if it touches upon the emotive subject of 9/11.

The company could face a second line of enquiry, into whether payments to British police officers breached US anti-corruption laws.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-14162545

-------------------

And if you think that News Ltd did not hack some phones in Australia, you still believe in Santa Claus...

Conrad Black has been told he has until September 6 to report back to Coleman federal prison to serve the final 13 months of his sentence for fraud and obstruction of justice. It means he will miss the October publication of his memoir, A Matter of Principle, parts of which he wrote during his last 29-month stay at the Florida jail.

That need not be a problem. When his book on Richard Nixon, The Invisible Quest, was published in 2007, at a time when he was confined to his Palm Beach mansion awaiting sentencing, he made a virtual appearance at Waterstone's in Piccadilly, using a so-called LongPen which allows signatures to be transmitted over the internet using fibre optics.

In the meantime, the former Daily Telegraph owner has been giving his thoughts on his one-time Fleet Street rival proprietor, Rupert Murdoch.

In a syndicated Financial Times article this week, Black called Murdoch "probably the most successful media proprietor and operator in history".

But while his personality is "generally quite agreeable," said Black, "Murdoch has no loyalty to anyone or anything except his company. He has difficulty keeping friendships; rarely keeps his word for long; is an exploiter of the discomfort of others; and has betrayed every political leader who ever helped him in any country, except Ronald Reagan and perhaps Tony Blair."

As a media mogul, Murdoch's instincts are downmarket, Black went on. "He is not only a tabloid sensationalist, he is a malicious myth-maker, an assassin of the dignity of others and of respected institutions, all in the guise of anti-elitism. He masquerades as a pillar of contemporary, enlightened populism in Britain and sensible conservatism in the US, though he has been assiduously kissing the undercarriage of the rulers of Beijing for years."

The police are now so mistrusted that their arrest of Brooks was immediately questioned by the Dowler family and some MPs as a dodgy swerve to get her out of Tuesday's parliamentary inquisition. But if she doesn't go on Tuesday, she will surely have to go another day. Ordinary citizens ask: who's working for whom? David Cameron, normally so breezily eloquent, seems no longer to know what to say.

In this cascade of events, a few things stand out. First, the select committee hearing, with or without Brooks, is a remarkable moment. Rupert Murdoch disdained ordinary MPs. He would condescend to talk to a prime minister or a party leader, provided they kept smiling, and told him what he wanted to hear. Now he and his snippy son are being dragged to be cross-questioned in a way unthinkable even two weeks ago. Had they not agreed, they would – as John Whittingdale confirmed yesterday – have been arrested and possibly even banged up in Westminster's clocktower.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jul/17/murdoch-brooks-phone-hacking-scandal

Rupert Murdoch’s son James has been accused of misleading British MPs this week when he said he did not know when authorising a settlement that phone hacking at News of the World went beyond one reporter.

Colin Myler, the newspaper’s former editor, and Tom Crone, who resigned last week as legal manager for the Murdoch media empire’s British publishing arm News International, issued a statement saying they had warned him there was evidence when he authorised a key payout to a victim.

James Murdoch, the chairman of News International, told a parliamentary committee on Tuesday he did not know of the evidence when he approved a payout to Gordon Taylor, chief executive of the Professional Footballers’ Association.

Murdoch Jnr's display in front of MPs was initially said to have been greeted with approval from News Corp's shareholders. But by the end of the week, after accusations that Murdoch had lied to the Commons about the extent of his knowledge when signing off settlements to Gordon Taylor, his position is said to be in jeopardy.

David Cameron declared before the weekend that News International had "some big issues to deal with" and that the management of the company was "an issue for the shareholders". With the board of BSkyB convening this Thursday for the first time since the scandal broke, what chance does James have of still being around by the weekend?

Not much, according to the New York Times's David Carr. "James Murdoch is done," he wrote yesterday. "He and his father both know that. His testimony curdled as he emitted it, and within two days a couple of former News Corporation executives publicly challenged it.

"The hooks are still in him, as Prime Minister David Cameron made clear when he said James still had 'questions to answer.' And so he will, gradually sinking further into the mess he has overseen."

Senior lawyers at royal solicitors Harbottle & Lewis are "furious" at the way they have been blamed by Rupert Murdoch and others in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal, The Independent on Sunday has learned. They will meet the Metropolitan Police to explain their position "in the next few days".

Rupert Murdoch, the chairman of News Corporation, said the prominent London law firm had made a "massive mistake" when it gave the publishers of the News of the World a clean bill of health as to whether there was more illegality to be uncovered at the company at that time.

It is believed that Mr Murdoch also criticised the lawyers in a private meeting with Milly Dowler's family earlier this month, when he apologised for the newspaper hacking their dead daughter's mobile phone and deleting text messages, giving the family false hope that she might still be alive.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/lawyers-furious-over-criticism-in-hacking-scandal-2329295.html

-------------------

Mr Murdoch's gone mad... One of the rule of law is that one never points the finger at lawyers for one's troubles... This is a massive mistake... And a mistake made by old Rupe?...

More than a dozen private firms wanted to work on a project like the one the state Education Department is set to award to a Rupert Murdoch-owned company in a $27 million no-bid contract.

Agency officials have cited "an extremely challenging time line" in their decision to partner with News Corp. subsidiary Wireless Generation to build a data system of student test scores and other information.

The Daily News has learned that the agency has explored the project for at least two years - proof, critics say, state officials had ample time to competitively bid out the contract and still meet a fall 2012 deadline for a federal Race to the Top grant.

"It raises all kinds of questions," said Susan Lerner, executive director of good government group Common Cause New York. "There appears to be time in this process to go through a much more open-bidding process to ensure that the public is getting the best vendor at the best price."

The News has also learned that Wireless Generation paid as much as $5,000 a month to lobbying firms to advocate for the contract and Race to the Top funds with state officials.

Rupert Murdoch given $27M no-bid contract from state Department of Education

LONDON — 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.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/17/world/europe/17hacking.html?_r=1&hp

Former News of the World editor Andy Coulson is suing his ex-employer after it stopped paying his legal fees in relation to the phone-hacking scandal.

His lawyers have filed papers at the High Court against News International subsidiary News Group Newspapers.

Mr Coulson was arrested in July over NoW phone-hacking allegations. He denies knowledge of the practice.

It has emerged some UK victims of alleged hacking are considering US legal action against News Corporation.

US lawyers have been asked to explore the possibility of a case against Rupert Murdoch's media group.

Arrangement ended

Papers were filed at the High Court by Mr Coulson's lawyers on Thursday.

BBC political correspondent Robin Brant said: "Even though Andy Coulson hasn't worked for the publishers of the now-defunct News of the World for more than four years, the paper's owners were still paying his legal fees in relation to the hacking investigations.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-15040268

James Murdoch has stepped down from the boards of News Corporation's British newspapers.

The move is seen as a way of distancing Mr Murdoch, son of media mogul Rupert Murdoch, from the lawsuits filed in London against the News of the World, which was closed down earlier in the year.

The 38-year-old remains executive chairman of News International, which is the operation running the company's three British newspapers.

Mr Murdoch has denied that he had any knowledge of widespread phone hacking at his newspaper group before it became public some time later.

The News International unit has been damaged this year by the revelation that people working for the popular Sunday tabloid hacked into the phones of thousands to generate news.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-11-24/james-murdoch-quits-uk-newspapers/3690340

Charlotte Church described today how she agreed to waive a £100,000 fee for singing at Rupert Murdoch's wedding in exchange for a promise of future favourable coverage in his papers.

The star, dubbed the Voice of an Angel, told the Leveson Inquiry into press standards she was just 13 at the time and wanted to take the money.

But she was persuaded by her management and record company that she should go for the option of being "looked on favourably" by a "powerful man" like Mr Murdoch.

Church, 25, said she accepted that her strategy failed and that the media mogul's newspapers had since been "some of the worst offenders".

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/press/charlotte-church-waived-fee-for-good-press-6269099.html

LONDON — An e-mail chain released Tuesday by a parliamentary panel investigating the phone hacking scandal shows that Rupert Murdoch’s son James received and responded to messages in 2008 that referred to widespread phone hacking at The News of the World tabloid, the first documentation that he may have been notified of the wider problem long before he has admitted.

James Murdoch responded to the panel in a letter, saying that he had opened the e-mails on his BlackBerry and had not read their full contents at the time or since.

The e-mail chain was sent to the panel as part of an internal investigation by News International, the tabloid’s parent company. The e-mails contain warnings from lawyers that the phone hacking was more widespread than previously thought. The messages were passed on to the editor of The News of the World at the time, Colin Myler, who forwarded them to Mr. Murdoch, who replied within minutes, saying he would be available to discuss the matter.

The Parliamentary committee is investigating allegations that the tabloid illegally intercepted the voicemail messages of hundreds, perhaps even thousands, of people in the news between 2001 and 2009.

Earlier this year, News International admitted that employees routinely hacked the cell phones of celebrities, royals and other people in the news after a cascade of revelations followed by dozens of lawsuits. At least 18 former News of the World employees have been arrested, and the 168-year-old newspaper itself was shuttered this summer.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/14/world/europe/2008-e-mail-alerted-james-murdoch-to-hacking.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted=print

British police have arrested five employees of the country's biggest tabloid, The Sun, as part of an inquiry into corrupt payments made to police and public officials.

"Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) officers from Operation Elveden today arrested five employees of The Sun newspaper. Searches have taken place at the homes and offices of those arrested," News Corporation said in a statement on Saturday.

Police said earlier on Saturday they had arrested eight people as part of investigations into illegal news gathering practices, including payments to police.

"All five were arrested on suspicion of corruption ... aiding and abetting misconduct in a public office ... and conspiracy in relation to both these offences," police said in a statement.

"It relates to suspected payments to police officers and public officials."

The arrested journalists are some of the most senior on the newspaper, including the deputy editor, Geoff Webster, chief reporter, John Kay, chief foreign correspondent Nick Parker and a reporter John Sturgess.

They were arrested after News International's Management and Standards committee, set up to deal with the phone hacking scandal, provided information to Scotland Yard.

Last month, police arrested four current and former staff at Rupert Murdoch's best-selling Sun tabloid plus a policeman as they focused on suspected payments by journalists to officers.

A phone hacking scandal at News Corp's News of the World newspaper prompted the publication's closure last year.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-02-11/uk-police-arrest-sun-newspaper-employees/3825078?WT.svl=news2

------------------------

Case of ratting on its own lowly bits to protect the head? See toons while scrolling north...

A Stunning Find

When The News of the World was closed in disgrace last summer, its newsroom was locked down by security guards. In mid-November, News International says, investigators searching the seized materials found a storage crate that, judging from a sticker on top, had come from the office of Colin Myler, the paper’s last editor. It contained a hard copy of an e-mail sent from Mr. Myler to James Murdoch on June 7, 2008 — in reality a chain of e-mails that included correspondence with Tom Crone, then an in-house lawyer.

“Unfortunately, it is as bad as we feared,” Mr. Myler wrote, speaking of an impending lawsuit that threatened to reveal that voice-mail hacking at the paper was endemic.

Last summer, senior News International officials said that in that crucial period in 2008, Mr. Murdoch had neither been told about nor shown documentation of the extent of the illegality at The News of the World. The discovery of the e-mail, said one former official with knowledge of the situation, was completely unexpected.

Why did it take so long to come to light? Linklaters, a law firm working for News International, said that a junior employee found it in November, but that senior officials at the firm did not know about it until December.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/12/world/europe/a-2008-e-mail-at-the-hear...      

Eight arrests as Murdoch 'throws staff to the wolves'

Five senior 'Sun' journalists, two MoD staff and a police officer taken in dawn swoop as new front opens in bribery scandal

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/eight-arrests-as-murdoch-throws-staff-to-the-wolves-6795254.html

Yes Gus,

I reckon the end is nigh for good ol' uncle rupert .... certainly james is now gone forever .... good riddance.

The latest .....

Rupert Murdoch's global empire is set to face new legal action in the US over alleged illegal practices by News Corp journalists. The lawyer at the heart of the phone-hacking scandal in the UK, Mark Lewis, who was instrumental in exposing the scale of illegal voicemail accessing at the News of the World, is in the "advanced stages" of bringing his first case against News Corp on the other side of the Atlantic.

The news comes as Mr Murdoch prepares to fly to London following a series of arrests of senior Sun journalists.

The prospect of Mr Lewis supervising legal action in the US will do little to reassure the embattled board of News Corp that a new front on illegal practices is about to open in their own back yard. US authorities, including the FBI, are already accelerating their own inquiries into the Murdoch media empire over alleged violations of US law on corrupt payments to foreign officials.

With the arrest of five more senior Sun journalists over the weekend on suspicion of corruption and conspiracy - adding to the four former and current Sun employees arrested last month - a visit to London this week by News Corp's chairman and CEO, Rupert Murdoch, is already being viewed, according to one News Corp executive, as "five-star crisis management" with the future of The Sun on the line.

Sources close to Mr Lewis's legal team have already scheduled key meetings in New York to take place within the next few weeks. Although US investigators have so far found little evidence to support allegations that News Corp journalists illegally accessed the voicemails of 9/11 victims or their families in the US, the FBI have remained focused on allegations of bribery and illegal payments made by News Corp employees.

An email sent to News International staff over the weekend by chief executive Tom Mockridge emphasised that News Corp had "empowered" an independent body, the management and standards committee (MSC), to cooperate fully with the police.

News Corp's board, including Mr Murdoch and his son James, are potentially liable under US corrupt practices law if they knew about or authorised bribes and failed to stop it. The scale of the arrests allied to information supplied to the police by the MSC suggests that News Corp is making it clear to the US Department of Justice that after a decade of silence on illegal practices, it is changing its culture.

However, the expensive legal defence team News Corp has recently hired, including former US Justice Department and White House counsel, suggests that Mr Murdoch is gearing up for a high-profile battle to save his company.

Inside News International's London headquarters, there is growing concern among journalists that the arrests are primarily being made to protect News Corp's global brand. One Sun journalist described Mr Mockridge's email about "due process" as "a sham of emotionally laden drivel".

Although Mr Mockridge claimed that the Sun's editor Dominic Mohan was "committed to leading the paper through this difficult period", The Independent has been told that Mr Mohan has confided to close colleagues he fears that he could soon joins the ranks of those arrested by the Met's specialist unit investigating corruption, Operation Elveden.

Another NI journalist, who asked not to be named, said: "Far from Dominic offering guarantees about leading the paper, he's told some of us he thinks he'll get his collar felt. He said his email traffic was 'colossal' because a lot of people preferred not to knock on his door in the climate. So he may have missed stuff that will be seen as dodgy."

Murdoch Hit By Threat Of New Legal Fight In US

The crisis in Rupert Murdoch's news empire deepened last night when Sun journalists began planning legal action against their employer with the help of two things they have previously shunned – the Human Rights Act and the National Union of Journalists.

Click HERE to view 'The Sun says: The usual editorial line' graphic

Several senior journalists have contacted the NUJ – to which they do not belong because News International has its own staff organisation – seeking its help in putting together a case claiming that the parent company has breached their right to freedom of expression by passing information about their sources to the Metropolitan Police.

Five Sun journalists – its deputy editor, chief reporter, chief foreign correspondent, deputy news editor and picture editor (and two Ministry of Defence officials and a Surrey police officer) – were arrested on Saturday by the Met's Operation Elveden into bribery of public officials after receiving information from New Corp's Management and Standards Committee.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/press/you-couldnt-make-it-up-sun-staff-hope-strasbourg-can-save-them-from-murdoch-6953004.html

Scotland Yard today faces claims of a secret campaign from inside the highest ranks of the force to oust the former Commissioner Ian Blair – a civil war that pitted senior colleagues against one another and undermined its leadership during one of the most tumultuous periods in its history.

The extraordinary allegations are contained in a suppressed police-intelligence report which outlines allegations that a senior Met manager set out to cripple his own Commissioner. It will lead to renewed scrutiny of the entangled relationship between the Metropolitan Police and Rupert Murdoch's News International.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/dirty-tricks-and-leaks-at-the-heart-of-scotland-yard-7646599.html

A powerful British parliamentary committee has labelled Rupert Murdoch unfit to run a major company, and called on him to take responsibility for the culture of illegal phone hacking that has shaken News Corporation.

The long-awaited report by the Culture Select Committee did not find that Rupert and James Murdoch had misled MPs, but said the 81-year-old News Corp chief lacked credibility and his son James appeared incompetent.

"News International and its parent News Corporation exhibited wilful blindness, for which the companies' directors - including Rupert Murdoch and James Murdoch - should ultimately take responsibility," it said.

"Their instinct throughout, until it was too late, was to cover up rather than seek out wrongdoing and discipline the perpetrators.

"Even if there were a 'don't ask, don't tell' culture at News International, the whole affair demonstrates huge failings of corporate governance at the company and its parent, News Corporation.

"We conclude, therefore, that Rupert Murdoch is not a fit person to exercise the stewardship of a major international company."

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-05-01/murdoch-27unfit27-to-run-global-company/3983738?WT.svl=news2

see toon at top...

from Crikey …..

Paul Barry: British MPs massacre the Murdochs

Paul Barry of The Power Index writes

Rupert Murdoch has two straws to cling onto after he was savaged by British MPs overnight in a devastating report on the News of the World phone-hacking scandal.

The first is that Conservative members of the House of Commons Culture committee refused to back the majority verdict and brand him unfit to run an international company.

The second is that he and his son James have escaped being hauled before the bar of the House to apologise for misleading parliament, as seems likely to happen to three of his top ex-executives—Les Hinton, Tom Crone and Colin Myler.

But otherwise there is no comfort for him in an extraordinarily damning 117-page critique, which characterizes Rupert and James Murdoch and their top ex-executives at News International as a pack of liars, cheats and fools.

Most damaging of all is the verdict on the old man himself, backed by the five Labour MPs and one Liberal Democrat on the committee, who charge that Rupert either knew about phone hacking and hasn't admitted it, or he tried his best not to find out:

"If at all relevant times, Rupert Murdoch did not take steps to become fully informed about phone-hacking, he turned a blind eye and exhibited wilful blindness to what was going on in his companies and publications. This culture, we consider, permeated from the top throughout the organisation and speaks volumes about the lack of effective corporate governance at News Corporation and News International. We conclude therefore that Rupert Murdoch is not a fit person to exercise the stewardship of a major international company".

The phrase "not a fit person" was chosen to match the test used by British media regulator Ofcom, which is investigating whether Murdoch and News should be allowed to continue controlling satellite TV group BSkyB. And the committee's condemnation—even though it is not unanimous—will make it much harder for the Murdochs to hang onto their stake.

Defending this headline verdict to the media, Labour MP Tom Watson claimed bluntly: "Everybody in the world knows who is responsible for the wrongdoing at News Corporation. Rupert Murdoch. More than any individual alive he is to blame. Morally the deeds are his; he paid the piper and called the tune. It is his company, his culture, his people, his business, his failures, his crimes."

The MPs' judgment on the rest of the Murdoch team was only marginally better, and this was unanimous, with three ex-top executives judged to have "misled" the committee and participated in a "cover-up", while Rupert's son James was described, on the kindest view, as astonishingly incompetent.

Here's what the committee had to say about each of the main players.

News International: "Exhibited wilful blindness, for which the companies' directors - including Rupert Murdoch and James Murdoch - should ultimately be prepared to take responsibility."

Les Hinton, (Rupert's trusted deputy for 50 years, CEO of News International till December 2007). "Misled the committee ... complicit in a cover up".

James Murdoch, (CEO of News International from December 2007): Displayed an "astonishing" lack of curiosity and "wilful ignorance", which "clearly raises questions about his competence".

Tom Crone, (NotW top lawyer): "Deliberately avoided disclosing crucial information to the committee and, when asked to do so, answered questions falsely."

Colin Myler, (NotW editor from January 2007): "Deliberately avoided disclosing crucial information to the committee and, when asked to do so, answered questions falsely."

The MPs would almost certainly have slammed two other ex-NotW editors, Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson, who were more directly implicated in the actual hacking and were warned by police of the scale of it in September 2006. But since both may face criminal charges, the committee decided to make no comment.

So what does it all mean and what will be the likely impact?

The first thing you can say is the Murdochs will now find it harder to hang onto control of BSkyB and may decide to sell their 39% stake.

Second is that it may put the British newspapers into play and see Rupert drummed out of Britain. This is what Rupert's biographer Michael Wolff is predicting. We're not sure that's right, but we'll see.

Third is it will increase pressure from News Corporation's independent shareholders for Rupert to step down as executive chairman and for James to step down from the board. More broadly, it will also increase pressure on the gerrymander that gives the Murdochs control of the group with nearly 40% of the votes, despite having only 12% of the shares.

And fourth and last is that investors clearly don't give a damn. As all this ordure cascaded down yesterday, News Corp's share price rose gently, unfazed by the prospect of losing BSkyB, and unconvinced (or unconcerned) that the scandal might loosen Rupert's grip on the empire.

Meanwhile, News Corp has responded to the report, stating it contains commentary that is "unjustified and highly partisan", and Rupert Murdoch has issued a statement to the company's staff (read the item in Media).

Detectives are examining an estimated 600 fresh allegations of phone-hacking incidents at Rupert Murdoch's now closed News of the World on the back of fresh evidence obtained by the Metropolitan police from a suspect turned supergrass.

Further details are expected to emerge on Monday morning at the high court during a hearing relating to the existing litigation by hacking victims against Murdoch's News International (NI) – hours before MPs are due to vote on joint Labour and Liberal Democrat amendments that would introduce a backstop law to stiffen regulation of the press.

Sources say Scotland Yard detectives believe they can identify as many as 600 new incidents after obtaining the phone records of an insider who is now being lined up as a crown witness. As a result of the new information, the force's Operation Weeting is recalibrating the timetable for concluding its investigation, which had been due to be completed with the conclusion of trials this year. Police now expect their work to continue into 2015.

The 600 new potential litigants fall into three groups: new victims; others who sued over hacking but signed agreements with NI allowing them to sue the company again; and a third group who signed agreements potentially barring them from suing again. The indications are that there may be "some hundreds of new legal actions" from the first two groups.