News of the World

I'm not sure how much coverage this is getting in the States, but it's been pretty riveting over here.  News of the World is the UK equivalent of the National Enquirer, except that it has been published weekly for 168 years (!) and has a circulation of nearly 3 million copies, over three times higher than the National Enquirer.  (Not bad for a country with one-fifth the population.)  In fact, it was the biggest selling English language newspaper in the world.  And I stress "was" because it ceased publication on July 10.

The scandal that caused its downfall started in November 2005 with a fairly innocuous story about a knee injury suffered by Prince William (he who was recently married).  However, the Royals soon realized the details of that story could only have been gotten by listening to William's private voice mails on his cell phone.  (They refer to it as 'phone hacking' here, but given how few people change their default voice mail password, I question how much 'hacking' was actually done.)  After a year-long police inquiry, in which it was determined hundreds of people had been affected, two people were jailed and the editor resigned.  That should have been the end of the story.

Except David Cameron, then opposition leader, hired the disgraced editor as his PR chief.  And even after the sentencing, more people came forward, alleging their voice mails were accessed as well.  The story flared up every few months, but the Met (the London police department, affectionately known as Scotland Yard) decided not to re-open the inquiry, and nothing much happened until May of this year, when four people (including two members of Parliament) won a high court bid for a judicial review.

In separate news, Rupert Murdoch, the Australian media magnate who owns News of The World also owns The Sun (the largest daily paper in the UK), 20th Century Fox and the Fox broadcasting network, and 40% of Sky broadcasting, the major satellite TV provider in the UK.  Since last October, he had been negotiating to purchase the remaining 60% of Sky, valued at around £13 billion (US $20 billion).  It had been a rough battle because the MP charged with reviewing the merger believed it consolidated too much of the UK media in one company.  However, last December, two reporters for the London Telegraph posed undercover as constituents and secretly taped a conversation with the MP on a number of topics, the most controversial one being that the MP "had declared war on Rupert Murdoch."

David Cameron, now Prime Minister, censured the MP and stripped him of responsibility, appointing another MP who promptly approved the deal in March.  It had only to go through Parliamentary approval, which was scheduled for July 19.

Also in separate news, in June Levi Bellfield was tried (and convicted) for the kidnap and murder of Milly Dowler, a 13-year-old girl, in 2002.  As part of that case, however, it was discovered that News of the World reporters had not only accessed voice mails for Milly Dowler after she went missing, but had actually deleted some of the voice mails to make room for more!  This misled police and her family into believing Milly Dowler was still alive -- and accessing her voice mail -- when she was in fact already dead.  This lead to a public outcry against the newspaper, and the government had to respond.

Except, of course, now David Cameron was Prime Minister and the former editor was one of his cabinet members.  The editor resigned and the Prime Minister has tried to distance himself as much as possible,  Parliament also scuttled the Sky broadcasting merger, leading to egg on everyon's face.  But then it got more interesting.

As part of the judicial review started in May, investigators found over 300 emails indicating News of the World routinely paid police officers for information.  And that's illegal.  Journalists also found that senior members of the police force often have lunch with journalists, and that politicians do as well.

Now, in the past four days, the former editor and CEO of News International (the parent company in the UK) has been arrested, the senior Met Police Commissioner has resigned , the assistant Commissioner who decided not to reopen the inquiry in 2009 also resigned, Rupert Murdoch and his son James have both been called to give testimony before Parliament, and the FBI are investigating whether News of the World hacked the phones of 9/11 victims!  The UK government has also launched separate inquiries to define new rules for media ownership and influence, and in the allegations of police being paid for information.

By the beginning of July, advertisers began pulling ads in News of the World, and by July 7 Rupert Murdoch announced it would cease publication.  News Corp share price fell 16% between June 17 and July 18.  And with a story that makes new revelations daily, I'm sure this isn't over yet.

The irony, of course, is that this is exactly the sort of story you would read in News of the World...if it were still in business.