Media mogul Rupert Murdoch is facing British lawmakers today over the huge phone hacking scandal at News Corp. Several journalists have resigned and ten people have been arrested. Murdoch's son, James, may be forced out.
Arrested, questioned for nine-hours and then released, Rebekah Brooks could play a key role in the investigations into the phone-hacking scandal. The paper says that police are treating the death of Sean Hoare as "unexplained" but "not suspicious," suggesting that it may have been a suicide. Hoare made his charges against Coulson, who went on to become Prime Minister David Cameron's spokesman, to The New York Times last year for a magazine story about the phone hacking at Rupert Murdoch's UK newspaper. He was quoted as saying that Coulson “actively encouraged me" to hack into other people's cell phone messages.This is not to say American journalists don’t play the angles from time to time. Reporters, this writer included, have been known to eavesdrop on unsuspecting individuals or read untended documents left casually in sight. Back in the day in Chicago, I felt duty-bound to join a gaggle of reporters who followed negotiators in a labor strike into the men’s room in hopes some news, among other things, would leak during the bio break.While Mr. Morgan has kept his remarks close to the vest on his own program, he's not so demure on Twitter. This morning, he tweeted a note that made it sound as if he was cheering for Mr. Murdoch, who was testifying in front of Parliament in the U.K. "News Corp stock price has risen throughout the hour. Not, I suspect, how the MPs hoped things might go from their interrogation," he wrote.
"Strong finish by Rupert," he wrote on Twitter toward the end of their visit to Parliament. "Love him or hate him, does anyone genuinely think he's a crook or condoned crime? Because I don't." Coulson was arrested as the scandal broke open earlier this month. Police say Hoare appears to have died of natural causes, but the determination had not lessened suspicion of foul play. Hoare not only talked about phone hacking, but phone tracking as well, or as he said they called in the newsroom "pinging," where he said News of the World would pay police, he believed, to track individuals’ locations.
