Just as allegedly false Fox News tweets make headlines, the British end of the Murdoch operation is suddenly coping with a messy scandal that unexpectedly turned disastrous just as President Obama was supposedly assassinated.
Shenanigans involving Murdoch’s journalists paying for the services of a mobile phone hacker just would not go away, but now the gravity of the allegations have turning mass public opinion against the Murdoch press, though it could be fleeting disgust.
What began with a tabloid exclusive about Prince William’s knee -- you couldn’t make this up! -- could yet bring Murdoch to his own knees.
For months, royals and celebrities have been entangled with Murdoch’s Sunday tabloid the "News of the World," lampooned by Private Eye as the News of the Screws -- so you can guess its editorial priorities. That the scandal ran on was partly due to the tenacity of Sienna Miller and especially the Guardian.
What hindered the momentum of the investigation was the police dragging their heels, though the reason was already in the public domain. Though tonight in London that side of the story is taking on a life of its own too with police now investigating their own ranks.
As so often in life an unexpected turn of events changes everything. Recently a convicted killer was found guilty of the murder of 13-year old Milly Dowler in 2002. Her family’s treatment at the hands of the defence lawyer has led to a public outcry and calls for a change in the law.
Even Murdoch’s daily tabloid, the Sun, was in on the act. The public sympathy for this family cannot be overstated. Then on Monday the Guardian broke the story that Murdoch’s paper had hacked and deleted the murdered teenager’s phone messages at the time of her abduction, leading the police and her parents to believe she was still alive.
As if that wasn’t enough they have now also been accused of tampering with the messages of the parents of two murdered schoolgirls in what was one of the most poignant crimes in recent British history.
Like some kind of perverse exclusive the other papers have managed to give the Britsh public ever more heinous revelations. The relatives of the London al Qaeda 7/7 bomb victims have been hacked. The mobiles of the victims themselves could have been hacked for the desperate calls of their relatives. The parents of serviceman in killed in Iraq and Afghanistan have been hacked.
Since the TNOW was the British Legion’s media partner in raising awareness of the plight of wounded veterans, the implication is the paper had privileged access to the families it has betrayed with a facade of patriotism. Since the number of hacking victims now runs into thousands it is perfectly possible that Murdoch’s lackeys have compromised the privacy of all the parents in search of exclusives!
These vile interventions have given the story astounding momentum.
