Nemesis List: Phone Hacking Journalists

Rupert Murdoch's army of reporters may be headed to the brig.
By Allan MacDonell
July 7, 2011
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Nemesis List: Phone Hacking Journalists
News Corp. top hack Rupert Murdoch and his wife, Wendi Deng, have a right to privacy. Murdoch's reporters apparently feel they have the right to your privacy as well. (Photo: Reuters)

Subject: Bottom-feeding Fleet Street hacks.

Doing Business as: Britain’s News of the World red top, and undetermined others.

Occupation: Trampling any notion of privacy or decency.

Crime: Invading the telephones of public figures and private individuals to access personal data, text messages, and recorded conversations in the pursuit of sensationalistic tabloid fare.

Public Figures as Hack Victims: Actress Sienna Miller, comedian Steve Coogan, model Elle MacPherson, ex-wife of ex-Beatle Heather Mills, actors Hugh Grant and Jude Law, princes Harry and William.

Private Individuals as Hack Victims:  The family of Milly Dowler, a teenager who was abducted in 2002. News of the World hacks appear to have trespassed into the teenager’s cell phone and listened to frantic messages from friends and family. When the phone’s inbox filled, the hacks deleted old messages to make room for new, potentially impeding a police investigation and giving false hope to Milly’s family that their girl was alive and checking her calls.

History of Hack:  In 1997, News of the World’s royal editor Clive Goodman was jailed for four months and Glenn Mulcaire, a private investigator, was handed six months in goal for intercepting messages directed to the royal family. Despite blaming the indiscretion on one “rogue” reporter, the scandal forced the resignation of the paper’s editor, Andy Coulson.

Victim Reaction (Public Figure): Actor Hugh Grant engaged former News of the World hack Paul McMullan in a conversation in which McMullan asserted that intercepting phone calls “started out as fun” and that Rebekah Brooks, then an editor at the paper, was “absolutely” aware of illegal eavesdropping. Blinkingly deceptive Grant secretly recorded the conversation with McMullan and made the tapes public.

Victim Reaction (Private Individual): Graham Foulkes, whose son David was killed in 2005’s 7/7 London terror bombings: “My wife and I were kind of all over the place, in a very personal and deeply emotional context—the thought that somebody may have been listening to that just looking for a cheap headline is just horrendous.” 

Enablers: In September 2010, London’s mayor, Boris Johnson, pooh-poohed complaints about News of the World hacking as “codswallop” that “looks like a politically motivated put-up job by the Labour party.”

Three Hack Casualties:  Victims suck up so much empathy, but perpetrators suffer too!

1)   Revelations of illegal activities at his paper have sharply compromised News Corp. owner Rupert Murdoch’s chances of taking full ownership of the obscenely lucrative British Sky Broadcasting.

2)   News of the World’s 200 employees were shocked by Thursday’s announcement that the 168-year-old tabloid would be killed off as of Sunday.

3)   After resigning from News of the World, hack Andy Coulson became director of communications for British Prime Minister David Cameron. Coulson is expected to be arrested Friday on charges stemming from hacking.

Hack Survivor: Rebekah Brooks is now chief executive of News International, which publishes News of the World. Brooks promised the “strongest possible” disciplinary action if the allegations are proven. Further, Brooks denied all knowledge of the hack tactic and insisted she would not resign.

Sources:  BBC News | Yahoo! News UK | Seattle Post Intelligencer | The Guardian

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