Murdoch blames source payments on newspaper culture.
Noah Berger/AP
British police are hunting a secret tape where Rupert Murdoch told journalists at his Sun newspaper that paying off public officials was part of “the culture of Fleet Street.” Scotland Yard has asked Exaro News, the investigatory website that published the recording, to hand it over so that it can be part of the government's probe into journalists paying off sources. Murdoch was recorded on two different occasions blaming his newspaper's involvement in possibly illegal payments as just something newspapers do. “We’re talking about payments for news tips from cops,” Murdoch says on one of the tapes. “That’s been going on a hundred years, absolutely.”