In mid-2011, out of
a series of investigations following up the
''News of the World'' royal phone hacking scandal of 2005–2007, a series of related scandals developed surrounding other
News Corporation
News Corporation (abbreviated News Corp.), also variously known as News Corporation Limited, was an American multinational mass media corporation controlled by media mogul Rupert Murdoch and headquartered at 1211 Avenue of the Americas in New ...
properties—where initially the scandal appeared contained to a single journalist at the ''
News of the World'' (with the 2007 jailing of
Clive Goodman
Clive Goodman (born 17 September 1957, in Hammersmith, London) is an English journalist, former royal editor and reporter for the ''News of the World''. He was arrested in August 2006 and jailed in January 2007 for intercepting mobile phone messa ...
and the resignation of then-editor
Andy Coulson), investigations eventually revealed a much wider pattern of wrongdoing. This led to the closure of the ''News of the World'' on 10 July 2011, an apology by
Rupert Murdoch
Keith Rupert Murdoch ( ; born 11 March 1931) is an Australian-born American business magnate. Through his company News Corp, he is the owner of hundreds of local, national, and international publishing outlets around the world, including ...
in an advertisement in most British national newspapers, and the withdrawing of
News Corporation's bid to take over the majority of
BSkyB shares it did not own.
Investigations continued into what the company and individuals at the company knew of the phone hacking and when, as well as into other issues, including questions around police
bribery. Since police renewed investigations in 2011,
90 people have been arrested and
16 charged with crimes in conjunction with illegal acquisition of confidential information, many if not most of them employees or agents of News Corp.
United Kingdom
Phone hacking
Police corruption
In a September 2010 interview broadcast on 7 July 2011, on the
BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...
news programme ''
The World at One
''The World at One'', or ''WATO'' ("what-oh") for short, is BBC Radio 4's long-running lunchtime news and current affairs programme, produced by BBC News, which is currently broadcast from 13:00 to 13:45 from Monday to Friday. The programme de ...
'', former ''News of the World'' features editor Paul McMullan made an admission relating to
police corruption
Police corruption is a form of police misconduct in which law enforcement officers end up breaking their political contract and abuse their power for personal gain. This type of corruption may involve one or a group of officers. Internal pol ...
. He told of having used material obtained by a colleague's bribery of a police officer as the basis of a series of articles published over several years on Jennifer Elliott, the daughter of the actor
Denholm Elliott
Denholm Mitchell Elliott, (31 May 1922 – 6 October 1992) was an English actor, with more than 125 film and television credits. His well-known roles include the abortionist in '' Alfie'' (1966), Marcus Brody in ''Raiders of the Lost Ark'' (19 ...
. He stated, 'The going rate for that kind of thing might have been two to five hundred pounds and that would have been authorised, and he
.e. the police officerwould have been paid... and he would have been on the lookout for another story...' The articles described Ms Elliott's destitute situation and stated that she had worked as a prostitute. Jennifer Elliott killed herself in 2003. In Mr McMullan's opinion the News of the World – specifically, his own articles – contributed significantly to her suicide. In 2011, the paper knowingly used private investigators to gain stories from corrupt police officers.
Operation Elveden
In July 2011, the
Metropolitan Police launched
Operation Elveden
Operation Elveden was a British police investigation into allegations of inappropriate payments to police officers and other public officials. It was opened as a result of documents provided by News International to the Operation Weeting investiga ...
, a probe examining illicit payments to police officers.
On 11 February 2012, the BBC reported that a number of people, including five ''
Sun
The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...
'' employees, were arrested by police regarding allegations of corrupt payments to police and public officials. On 20 November 2012, it was reported that several individuals were to be charged with conspiring to commit misconduct in public office—former CEO
Rebekah Brooks
Rebekah Mary Brooks (; born 27 May 1968) is a British media executive and former journalist and newspaper editor. She has been chief executive officer of News UK since 2015. She was previously CEO of News International from 2009 to 2011 and w ...
,
Andy Coulson,
Clive Goodman
Clive Goodman (born 17 September 1957, in Hammersmith, London) is an English journalist, former royal editor and reporter for the ''News of the World''. He was arrested in August 2006 and jailed in January 2007 for intercepting mobile phone messa ...
, and
Bettina Jordan-Barber
Operation Elveden was a British police investigation into allegations of inappropriate payments to police officers and other public officials. It was opened as a result of documents provided by News International to the Operation Weeting investiga ...
.
United States
News Corporation owns a multitude of news outlets in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
, including the ''
New York Post
The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com.
It was established ...
'', ''
The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'', and the
Fox News Channel. Several media critics have called for investigations into whether they too engaged in phone hacking activities.
In addition to any possible illegal activities in the U.S., News Corporation and/or its executives might also face civil and criminal liability under the
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
On 24 February 2011, ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' reported that court documents in another, unconnected case revealed that the senior executive at News Corporation that
Judith Regan
Judith Regan (born August 17, 1953, in Massachusetts) is an American editor, producer, book publisher, and television and radio talk show host. She is the head of Regan Arts.
Early life and education
Regan grew up in Fitchburg, Massachusetts and B ...
referred to in her 2007 wrongful termination case against
HarperCollins
HarperCollins Publishers LLC is one of the Big Five English-language publishing companies, alongside Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, and Macmillan. The company is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News ...
was
Roger Ailes
Roger Eugene Ailes (May 15, 1940 – May 18, 2017) was an American television executive and media consultant. He was the chairman and CEO of Fox News, Fox Television Stations and 20th Television. Ailes was a media consultant for Republica ...
, the chairman of Fox News. Regan claimed that Ailes had previously encouraged her to lie to federal investigators who were vetting
Bernard B. Kerik, who had been nominated for
Secretary of Homeland Security
The United States secretary of homeland security is the head of the United States Department of Homeland Security, the federal department tasked with ensuring public safety in the United States. The secretary is a member of the Cabinet of the U ...
by President
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...
. Ailes allegedly gave the orders to protect his close friend,
Rudy Giuliani, who was running for president at the time. HarperCollins settled their case for $10.75 million.
According to a former New York City police officer who spoke to ''
The Mirror'' in 2009, the ''News of the World'' also attempted to retrieve private phone records of victims of the
11 September attacks
The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commerci ...
. In light of the suspected hacking,
Senate Commerce Committee
The United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation is a standing committee of the United States Senate. Besides having broad jurisdiction over all matters concerning interstate commerce, science and technology policy, a ...
chairman
Jay Rockefeller
John Davison "Jay" Rockefeller IV (born June 18, 1937) is a retired American politician who served as a United States senator from West Virginia (1985–2015). He was first elected to the Senate in 1984, while in office as governor of West Virg ...
suggested that a U.S. investigation of News Corporation should be launched. On 14 July, the
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, ...
announced it was launching an investigation into alleged hacking by News Corporation.
New investigations might also consider issues which had been raised in the past. In 2008,
Dan Cooper, one of the co-founders of Fox News, alleged that network president
Roger Ailes
Roger Eugene Ailes (May 15, 1940 – May 18, 2017) was an American television executive and media consultant. He was the chairman and CEO of Fox News, Fox Television Stations and 20th Television. Ailes was a media consultant for Republica ...
had threatened to ruin his long-time agent's business if Cooper wasn't dropped as a client. This followed an interview Cooper had given to
David Brock
David Brock (born July 23, 1962) is an American liberal political consultant, author, and commentator who founded the media watchdog group Media Matters for America. He has been described by ''Time'' as "one of the most influential operatives ...
for ''
New York'' magazine shortly after his Fox contract ended in June 1997. Cooper concluded that Ailes had pre-publication knowledge of his interview with Brock, believing that he had accessed Brock's phone records through Fox News' "Brain Room", which he claimed "housed a counterintelligence and black ops office."
[How Roger Ailes Built the Fox News Fear Factory](_blank)
Page 9 of 13, ''Rolling Stone'', 25 May 2011 Fox News denied Cooper's allegations.
[Fox News Knocks Down 'Brain Room' Claim](_blank)
Portfolio.com, 10 January 2008
On 20 July 2011, US Senator Frank Lautenberg wrote a letter to the Department of Justice requesting that the ongoing FBI probe include allegations that Floorgraphics had also been hacked by
News America Marketing, a major marketing business owned by News Corporation. On 21 July, it was reported that representatives of the US Dept. of Justice and the FBI had begun investigation into the Floorgraphics allegations.
News Corp is also being investigated over claims that senior executives misled investors in 2011, causing the company's stock to be traded at an artificially high price. A US class action has been filed for investors who purchased News Corporation common stock between 3 March 2011, and 11 July 2011.
On 11 July 2011, a group of shareholders led by
Amalgamated Bank
Amalgamated Bank () is an American financial institution. It is the largest union-owned bank and one of the only unionized banks in the United States. Amalgamated Bank is currently majority-owned by Workers United, an SEIU Affiliate.
Founded on ...
who were already suing News Corps over the purchase of Rupert Murdoch's daughter's media company,
Shine Group
Shine Group was an international television production and distribution group with 26 production companies across 12 countries creating scripted and non-scripted content in the global marketplace.
Shine Group companies included award-winning ge ...
, updated the lawsuit to include accusations that the board of News Corp "fail
dto exercise proper oversight and take sufficient action since news of the hacking first surfaced at its subsidiary nearly six years ago." On 13 September they added further charges
[ concerning the Floorgraphics case and the behaviour of another of News Corps subsidiary companies, ]NDS Group
Cisco Videoscape (formerly NDS Group and currently known as Synamedia) was a majority owned subsidiary of News Corp, which develops software for the pay TV industry (including cable, satellite and others). NDS Group was established in 1988 as an ...
. The shareholders' attorney said that the phone hacking which took place in the UK was "part of a much broader, historic pattern of corruption at News Corp., under the acquiescence of a board that was fully aware of the wrongdoing, if not directly complicit in the actions." News Corp has yet to issue a statement on the new allegations.
In November 2012, it was reported that agents of News Corp had illegally bribed a member of the US military to obtain a photograph of an imprisoned Saddam Hussein wearing only his underwear. The photo was subsequently published in a News Corp outlet. Bribing public officials is a violation of the US's Foreign corrupt practices act.
Australia
In light of News Corporation's global review, John Hartigan, the boss of News Corp's Australian company News Limited
News Corp Australia is an Australian media conglomerate and wholly owned subsidiary of the American News Corp. One of Australia's largest media conglomerates, News Corp Australia employs more than 8,000 staff nationwide and approximately 3,0 ...
, announced a review of all payments in the previous three years, and that he was personally willing to co-operate with any Australian Government
The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government, is the national government of Australia, a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Like other Westminster-style systems of government, the Australian Government ...
-led inquiry.[ On 22 July, it was reported that two former ]Victorian Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of Victoria is the highest court in the Australian state of Victoria. Founded in 1852, it is a superior court of common law and equity, with unlimited and inherent jurisdiction within the state.
The Supreme Court compri ...
judges, Frank Vincent
Frank Vincent Gattuso Jr. (April 15, 1937 – September 13, 2017) was an American actor. During a five-decade career, Vincent often portrayed mobsters. He was a frequent collaborator of filmmaker Martin Scorsese, appearing as Salvy in ''Raging B ...
and Bernard Teague, would act as independent assessors of how the review is run and would also assess its outcome.
The Australian Greens called for a parliamentary inquiry into News Limited, but Hartigan directly denied allegations by both the Greens and the governing Labor party that News Limited has been running a campaign against them, describing his group's journalism as "aggressive but fair."[
The administration of Prime Minister Julia Gillard stalled a ruling by an independent panel for Sky's bid to run the Australia Network, imposing a "national interest" bar on the process. After the Murdochs had appeared in front of the UK Culture, Media and Sport Committee on 19 July, Gillard commented that: "When people have seen telephones hacked into, when people have seen individuals grieving having to deal with all of this, then I do think that causes them to ask some questions here in our country."]
On 13 September 2011, the government announced an inquiry into the country's media. Areas of scrutiny include the protection of privacy and the role of the Australian Press Council.
On 21 September 2011, documents were leaked to the news website Crikey
Crikey is an Australian electronic magazine comprising a website and email newsletter available to subscribers. Crikey was described by the former Federal Opposition Leader Mark Latham as the "most popular website in Parliament House" in '' T ...
detailing a proposed rebranding of News Limited as News Australia.
In 2012 following a BBC Panorama report, allegations were made that News Corp subsidiary, News Datacom Systems (NDS) had used hackers to undermine pay TV rivals in Australia and elsewhere. Some of the victims of the alleged hacking, such as Austar
Austar was an Australian telecommunications company. Its main business activity was subscription television but it has also been involved with internet access and mobile phones. It was founded in 1995 under the name Community Entertainment Tele ...
were later taken over by News Corp. NDS had originally been set up to provide security to News Corp's pay TV interests but emails obtained by Fairfax Media
Fairfax Media was a media company in Australia and New Zealand, with investments in newspaper, magazines, radio and digital properties. The company was founded by John Fairfax as John Fairfax and Sons, who purchased ''The Sydney Morning Herald' ...
revealed they had also pursued a wider agenda by distributing the keys to rival set top box operators and seeking to obtain phone records of suspected rivals. The emails were from the hard drive of NDS European chief, Ray Adams. In 2012 it was also revealed that Australian Federal police were working with UK police to investigate hacking by News Corp.
Criticism of coverage by News Corporation-owned outlets
Various News Corporation owned media outlets have come out in defense of News Corporation, these defenses have themselves met with criticism. The ''Wall Street Journal'', a News Corporation owned outlet, opined that "politicians and our competitors are using the phone-hacking years ago at a British corner of News Corp. to assail the ''Journal'', and perhaps injure press freedom in general." The ''Times'' of London, also owned by NewsCorp, published an editorial cartoon labeled "Priorities" that depicted three naked Somalians holding empty bowls. One said, "I've had a bellyful of phone-hacking ...".
Researchers from the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism reported that Newscorp's Australian papers gave the scandal much less coverage than independent papers.[Wendy Bacon, Jenna Pric]
News of the World Scandal a litmus test for independent journalism in Australia
/ref> The authors also reported that "all papers carried at least one editorial ..on phone hacking ..Not one editorial supported the idea that there should be an inquiry into Australia's media."
See also
* Journalistic scandal
Journalism scandals are high-profile incidents or acts, whether intentional or accidental, that run contrary to the generally accepted ethics and standards of journalism, or otherwise violate the 'ideal' mission of journalism: to report news eve ...
* News media phone hacking scandal
By 2002, the practice of publications using private investigators to acquire confidential information was widespread in the United Kingdom, with some individuals using illegal methods. Information was allegedly acquired by accessing private voice ...
* Phone hacking scandal reference lists
The news media phone hacking scandal is a controversy over illegal acquisition of confidential information by news media organizations that reportedly occurred in the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia between 1995 and 2011. This art ...
* Metropolitan Police role in the news media phone hacking scandal
* Phone hacking scandal comparisons with the Watergate scandal
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:News Corporation Scandal
2011 in the United States
2011 scandals
*
Scandal
A scandal can be broadly defined as the strong social reactions of outrage, anger, or surprise, when accusations or rumours circulate or appear for some reason, regarding a person or persons who are perceived to have transgressed in some way. Th ...