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Why This Murdoch Scandal Won't Disappear
Brown is therefore secretly delighted that the police have decided to make no investigation of the Guardian's claims. If it were up to him and Cameron, the Guardian story would simply disappear. Two factors may prevent this.
The first is the decision by the House of Commons Select Committee on Culture, Media and Sport to re-open its inquiry into media incursions into privacy.
Normally, House Select Committees are very tame bodies, with nothing like the independence or authority of U.S. congressional committees. Their members are generally handpicked by party whips and their reports are usually anodyne and ignored.
This particular select committee may be different. It is in the last year of its life and has little to lose if it decides to go out with a bang. After months in which MPs have been pilloried by the British media over expenses scandals, MPs on the committee may find it irresistible to strike back at the media—especially when they could pose as the protectors of the personal privacy of popular celebrities—such as domestic goddess Nigella Lawson, named by the Guardian as a Murdoch newspaper victim.
The committee chairman—Conservative John Whittingdale—is out of favor with his party leader and has no reason to do his bidding. Another member, Paul Farrelly, is an independent-minded Labour MP—and a former investigative journalist for the Guardian’s Sunday cousin, the Observer.
Another Labour member, Alan Keen, has already urged his colleagues to investigate James and Rupert Murdoch, to establish the general principle that newspaper proprietors are responsible for the methods of their employees. Other committee members are known to be angry at the statements they were given by Murdoch executives on the Goodman case, and are eager to grill them again. Between them, the MPs might just decide to hand down a hard-hitting report, which Brown and Cameron could not ignore.
More important, neither Brown nor Cameron can predict the results of further litigation.
By revealing the Gordon Taylor settlement, the Guardian has alerted many people, and not only celebrities, that they might win huge tax-free damages from Murdoch’s newspapers in a civil action, where the burden of proof is much lower than for a criminal offense.
Mark Stephens, a leading London media lawyer, has suggested that each individual litigant could win around £500,000 ($770,000); he himself has already been approached by two high-profile figures who believe their telephones were hacked. News International could find itself having to pay off a stream of successful litigants—and any one of their cases could generate evidence to support a criminal prosecution.
The Guardian story could, just possibly, force Britain’s major parties to face up to Rupert Murdoch after 25 years of subservience.
Richard Heller is a British author and journalist and former chief of staff to Denis Healey, deputy leader of the British Labour Party.
John Talks Joe
Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects.
How Obama Is Losing Britain
Richard Heller is a British author and journalist and former chief of staff to Denis Healey, Deputy Leader of the British Labour Party.
"Mark Stephens, a leading London media lawyer, has suggested that each individual litigant could win around £500,000 ($770.000): "
Sweet
"Brown is therefore secretly delighted that the police have decided to make no investigation of the Guardian claims"
-it was nice of Brown to give out his secret thoughts for this story.
I can't believe R. Murdoch actually let them use his personal tape recorder- stupid move.
It would be a pleasant surprise if his Rupertship had to pay uber large settelments to all who have been harmed by phone tapping by his employees. His Rupertship tacitly authorized & encouraged all of these wire taps. His Rupertship should face criminal charges in the UK & elsewhere, be convicted, be sentenced & serve time an an UK slammer, aka goal.
Who knows? His Rupertship could emulate Conrad Black by writing interesting stories while he is confined. Don't bet on it, any of it.
People who contend that Rupert's influence in the world of book publishing is less overtly a form of beastiality are wrong. Publishers, editors, the lower minions, old imprints that overnight become new imprints, pop culture consultants from Rolling Stone bedazzled by any imprint at all, and the little gnomes who oil the printer's ink machine I mean mimeograph, all shake with unmitigated fear in their Manolo's and cower and scrape and sweat profusely and leave the throne room backwards from Kangabookloo to Judith Regan's bodyguard's Homeland Security Carwash and Wax Job. All the Little People who are mortified their cellphone ringtones have been tapped by spies from Fox Newsorama Carwash and Wax Job Limo Inc. Can't you just see Rupert sitting in some little soundproof room, hands cupped to ears, translating the secret amusements of Roger Ailes.
Tim Barrus
Kangabookloo, Australia
Murdoch wouldn't give a job to anyone who spells Manolos (more than one shoe) with an apostrophe, unless they were referring to something that belonged to Manolo. Could that be your problem?
Most disappointing of all is what Murdoch's people did with the illegally obtained information. Good grief, if you're going to sink to eavesdropping for 'scoops' the least you can do is get them right. Why go to all the trouble if you're just going to publish whatever BS you feel like anyway? BTW, awfully generous of Guardian to refer to the Sun and the News of the World as "newspapers."
Holy Crap!! If someone had told me this as a conspiracy theory last week, I wouldn't have believed it. Newspapers tapping phones for stories - never thought they had that kind of pull, but then again a guy like Murdock has the power to ruin almost anyone with scandal especially in the U.K. with their awful tabloids. I'm sure everyone is terrified of him. I hoped he is brought down like Conrad Black.
About time !!!
Murdoch is absolutely scum.
This comment has been removed by The Daily Beast's editors.
Didn't Google get harassed by Viacom which is also owned by Murdoch, they went through some serious legal loopholes and screwed Youtube over, obtaining personal information and ruining some artists business- it was declared completely unconstitutional, but who cares. .then there's Myspace also a Murdoch venture I believe which went from a safe haven for independent artist to a free for all and file sharing site. MTV also a big dump- owned by Viacom-Murdoch- the music video station plays about 10% of its viewing as video's...is that some complete B.S. or hunh, a music television station that doesn't play music video's? Actually its way for a select few of the major labels to get their artists played a few times a day and stamp out the rest...those are my assumptions/deductions.
This guy is a leech to this planet. He's the king of tabloids and pretty much everything he touches turns to shit. He's even managed to turn the WSJ into one big op-ed full of self centered egomaniacs that don't even have a clue what journalism is.
Thank you.
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