Sunday, July 10, 2011

Reporters; Doward, Helm, Robinson, Wachman, Thorpe & Harris: "Phone-hacking scandal: is this the tipping point for Murdoch's empire?" @ The Guardian

[Excerpt]

... Some of the staff may have felt uncomfortable, but the culture reaped dividends with the News of the World bringing in scoop after scoop that left rivals trailing in its wake well into the new millennium, when Brooks took over, editing the paper for three years before moving to the Sun.

Even if, in common with other papers, its circulation was declining, the sensational stories ensured about 7.5 million people continued to read the paper, of whom 2.7 million were the wealthy ABC1s beloved of advertisers. The News of the World was a cash cow for Murdoch, who used its profits to help shore up his other newspaper interests such as the Times and the Sunday Times, which gave him huge political leverage.

What has now become clear is that the provenance of a large number of those stories can be traced to private investigators employed by News International, several on six-figure contracts. ...

Read more of this lengthy article at The Guardian, U. K. where there are "corporate criminal liability" laws for the news media.

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