Is this Armageddon for Murdoch and NewsCorp?

Panda wrote:
It appears this Report is not binding and that Labour and Lib Dems agreed with it but the Conservatives, naturally , did not.

Ofcom will look into the BskyB aspect and shareholders may want their say.

Tom Watson said Murdoch had brought shame on British business, Politics and Parliament.

Much depends on the share price.

I think Watson has done the report a disservice. What evidence did the Committee hear which allows a conclusion that Murdoch Snr is not a fit person to run a major international company? Ignorance of an activity in a minor part of his empire? Had it been shown that Murdoch had knowledge of what was going on it might be fair comment but in the absence of anything substantive that part of the report will end up being ridiculed.

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BreakingNewsBreakingNews2:20pm UK, Tuesday May 01, 2012


Rupert Murdoch 'Not Fit' To Run Company
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2:20pm UK, Tuesday May 01, 2012

News Corporation chairman Rupert Murdoch is "not fit" to run a major company, according to a report that saw members of a powerful committee of MPs split along party lines.
The Culture, Media and Sport select committeesaid, along with his son James, he should "ultimately be prepared to take responsibility" for the "wilful blindness" ofNews International andNews Corporation over the phone-hacking scandal.

But the pair were both cleared of misleading Parliament.


The behaviour ofNews International and certain witnesses in this affair demonstrated contempt for that system in the most blatant fashion.

Culture, Media and Sport select committee report
Former NOTW editor Colin Myler, ex-legal manager Tom Crone and Les Hinton, who worked for Rupert Murdoch for more than 50 years, could, however, all be referred to the House of Commons to decide whether there has been a contempt of Parliament.

Conservative MPs were keen to point out that they had not backed the statement about Mr Murdoch's suitability to run a major corporation.

It was included in the committee's report after the five Labour members and one Liberal Democrat backed it in opposition to the four Tories.

Chris wrote:

Panda wrote:
It appears this Report is not binding and that Labour and Lib Dems agreed with it but the Conservatives, naturally , did not.

Ofcom will look into the BskyB aspect and shareholders may want their say.

Tom Watson said Murdoch had brought shame on British business, Politics and Parliament.

Much depends on the share price.

I think Watson has done the report a disservice. What evidence did the Committee hear which allows a conclusion that Murdoch Snr is not a fit person to run a major international company? Ignorance of an activity in a minor part of his empire? Had it been shown that Murdoch had knowledge of what was going on it might be fair comment but in the absence of anything substantive that part of the report will end up being ridiculed.

I think both the Murdochs knew exactly what was going on chris. If you havn't got your finger on the button then you shouldn't be in charge. The
Political implications , although probably widespread will leave Cameron biting his nails wondering what the repercussions will be for him.

Panda wrote:

Chris wrote:

Panda wrote:
It appears this Report is not binding and that Labour and Lib Dems agreed with it but the Conservatives, naturally , did not.

Ofcom will look into the BskyB aspect and shareholders may want their say.

Tom Watson said Murdoch had brought shame on British business, Politics and Parliament.

Much depends on the share price.

I think Watson has done the report a disservice. What evidence did the Committee hear which allows a conclusion that Murdoch Snr is not a fit person to run a major international company? Ignorance of an activity in a minor part of his empire? Had it been shown that Murdoch had knowledge of what was going on it might be fair comment but in the absence of anything substantive that part of the report will end up being ridiculed.

I think both the Murdochs knew exactly what was going on chris. If you havn't got your finger on the button then you shouldn't be in charge. The
Political implications , although probably widespread will leave Cameron biting his nails wondering what the repercussions will be for him.

They may have or may not have but the point is the Committee failed to find any smoking gun so the conclusion is mere hyperbole with no substance.

I think James Murdoch and the e-mail he didn't read is enough and he has paid the price , a few Directorships taken away from him, being demoted on BskyB, even Australia has felt the long arm of Murdoch contagion. No, I have no sympathy for either of them and am surprised Rebekah wasn't called
to be questioned by the Leveson Inquiry. It is rumoured Elizabeth, James' Sister will join Newscorpto replace James.

News Corp. Should Waive Law Firm Privilege, Lawmakers Say

By Erik Larson and Jonathan Browning - May 1, 2012 6:16 PM GMT+0100
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..
U.K. lawmakers called on News Corp. (NWSA) to allow its former criminal defense firm to reveal details on a 2006 internal probe into phone-hacking at the company’s now- defunct News of the World tabloid.

News Corp.’s “legal privilege” with BCL Burton Copeland should be waived so the London-based law firm can defend claims it helped with a cover-up, the House of Commons Culture Committee said today. News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch told an ethics inquiry last week that lawyers and lower-ranking executives at its News International unit are to blame for his ignorance about the extent of phone hacking until late 2010.















News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch, right, Wendi Deng, his wife, center, and Lachlan Murdoch, a board member of News Corp., left, are driven by car from their apartment in London. Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg
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Murdoch’s claim “that a cover-up has taken place at the company may mean that the investigations conducted by Burton Copeland have been used by people at News International to perpetrate a falsehood,” lawmakers said in a report about the scandal. “We believe there is a strong argument that the company has no right to restrain disclosure of the file.”

The committee, investigating the scandal for the second time in six years, said the tabloid’s former editor Colin Myler and legal manager Tom Crone misled Parliament and found Murdoch is “not a fit person” to lead a major international company. Police investigating hacking and bribery at News Corp.’s U.K. titles have made 45 arrests, while Britain’s media watchdog is probing whether the company should retain its stake in pay- television provider British Sky Broadcasting Group Plc. (BSY)

Leveson Inquiry

Legal privilege prevents law firms from sharing notes, e- mails, reports and other documents related to its work without permission from the client. Judge Brian Leveson, who is overseeing the independent media-ethics inquiry triggered by the scandal, raised the issue of privilege preventing some remaining questions from being answered, such as how much information executives had about the scandal, and when they had it.

Messages left at Burton Copeland and News International seeking comment on the privilege issue weren’t returned.

While keeping the waiver in place is understandable, it would be a “fair conclusion” for the public to decide News Corp. still has something to hide, said Niri Shan, a media lawyer at Taylor Wessing LLP who isn’t involved in the matter.

“It is difficult for them to draw a line under this and say they’ve disclosed everything if they don’t waive privilege,” Shan said in a phone interview. The company may want to “take the flack that they get for not waiving privilege because the story will die down.”

Revisit Conclusions

The proposed waiver may affect the report’s conclusion that there isn’t enough evidence to determine whether Murdoch’s son, News Corp. Deputy Chief Operating Officer James Murdoch, lied about being unaware of internal e-mails that suggested phone- hacking was widespread.

“We may well revisit our conclusions in this report if more information, currently subject to criminal proceedings or subject to legal privilege which has not been waived, is disclosed,” lawmakers said in a unanimous section of the report.

Burton Copeland was hired by News International to conduct a probe after the News of the World royal reporter Clive Goodman was arrested more than five years ago. News Corp. claimed the firm’s investigation, where it reviewed e-mails and financial records, found no evidence of widespread phone hacking.

Burton Copeland parted ways with News Corp. last year and said in September its role was limited to providing documents to the police and that it wasn’t asked to carry out a full probe.

Harbottle & Lewis

Harbottle & Lewis LLP, another law firm that worked for News International, denied claims made by Rupert Murdoch to the committee last year that it gave the company a clean bill of health after reviewing the matter. The law firm wrote to lawmakers saying Murdoch was “confused or misled” in his testimony.

Rupert Murdoch told lawmakers last year he “rested” on findings from the two law firms, as well as from police, that phone hacking had been limited to a single “rogue” reporter. He told the ethics inquiry last week he should have taken matters into his own hands.

“I should have gone down there and thrown all the damn lawyers out of the place,” Murdoch testified, saying he should have interviewed Goodman after he was convicted of intercepting messages of members of the British Royal Family.

The suggestion that law firms helped prevent the scandal from coming to light is part of a pattern of Rupert Murdoch and other executives blaming lawyers, said David Allen Green, head of media law at Preiskel & Co. LLP.

“James and Rupert Murdoch have appeared very ready to place blame on their legal advisers,” Green said. “This approach can backfire, for if the lawyers are released from any obligation of confidentiality and privilege, their criticism can be quite powerful


*** bskyb shares rose 20%

CNN) -- Global media tycoon Rupert Murdoch received a strong endorsement from the board of directors of his News Corp. on Wednesday, a day after British lawmakers investigating a phone hacking scandal said Murdoch was "not a fit person" to run a major international company.

After meeting Wednesday, the News Corp. board issued a statement announcing "its full confidence in Rupert Murdoch's fitness and support for his continuing to lead News Corporation into the future as its chairman and CEO."

"The board based its vote of confidence on Rupert Murdoch's vision and leadership in building News Corporation, his ongoing performance as chairman and CEO, and his demonstrated resolve to address the mistakes of the company identified in the" report by the Parliament panel, the statement said.

Tuesday's ruling by the Parliament committee could prompt British regulators to force Murdoch to sell his controlling stake in British Sky Broadcasting, a significant part of his media empire.




Will bad day for Murdoch hurt business? The damning report accused Murdoch and his son James of showing "willful blindness" to phone hacking at the News of the World tabloid and said the newspaper "deliberately tried to thwart the police investigation" into the illegal activity.

The now-shuttered tabloid's publisher, News Corp. subsidiary News International, "wished to buy silence in this affair and pay to make the problem go away," the Parliament's Culture, Media and Sport Committee found.

Ofcom, the British media regulator that could force Murdoch out of BSkyB, said it was "reading with interest" the report from Parliament.

The agency noted that it "has a duty under the Broadcasting Acts of 1990 and 1996 to be satisfied that any person holding a broadcasting license is, and remains, fit and proper to do so."

News Corp., which Murdoch leads as chairman and chief executive, accepted responsibility for some failings Tuesday but pushed back against some of the more critical remarks made by lawmakers.

"Hard truths have emerged from the Select Committee Report: that there was serious wrongdoing at the News of the World; that our response to the wrongdoing was too slow and too defensive; and that some of our employees misled the Select Committee in 2009," it said in a statement.

However, remarks made by some lawmakers after the report was issued Tuesday were "unjustified and highly partisan," it said.

News Corp. said it had already acted on many of the failings highlighted in the report, had brought in new internal controls and is supporting police investigations into alleged wrongdoing.

Allegations of widespread illegal eavesdropping by Murdoch journalists in search of stories have shaken the media baron's News Corp. empire and the British political establishment, up to and including Prime Minister David Cameron.

Police have arrested dozens of people as part of investigations into phone hacking, e-mail hacking and police bribery, while two parliamentary committees and an independent inquiry led by Lord Justice Brian Leveson are looking into the scandal.

Testifying last week before the Leveson inquiry, Murdoch admitted that there had been a "coverup" of phone hacking at News of the World, which ceased publication in July.

But Murdoch, who owns the Sun and the Times in London, as well as controlling The Wall Street Journal, the New York Post and Fox News, said his News Corp. had been a victim of the coverup, not the perpetrator.

"Someone took charge of a coverup, which we were victim to and I regret," he told the Leveson inquiry Thursday.

He apologized for not having paid more attention to the scandal, which he called "a serious blot on my reputation."

Tuesday's report by the Culture, Media and Sport Committee was based in part on earlier by Rupert and James Murdoch.

John Whittingdale, the chairman of the committee, said Tuesday that, although there is "no definitive evidence to prove whether or not James Murdoch was aware of ... evidence which indicated that phone hacking was widespread, the committee was nevertheless astonished that he did not seek to see the evidence."

Tom Watson, the Labour lawmaker who has long been one of the fiercest critics of Murdoch, was blistering in a news conference announcing the parliamentary findings.

"These people corrupted our country," he said. "They have brought shame on our police force and our Parliament. They lied and cheated, blackmailed and bullied, and we should all be ashamed when we think how we cowered before them for so long."

But Louise Mensch, a Conservative member of Parliament who is on the committee with Whittingdale and Watson, said the report had gone too far.

She was one of the four Conservative MPs who dissented from the amendment to the report finding that Murdoch was not a fit person to run a company.

She called the amendment "faintly ridiculous," given Murdoch's decades in the business, and accused the Labour members of the committee of pushing through a "nakedly political" statement.

"The amendments were so far out of left field they made a mockery of the whole thing," she said.

The section declaring Murdoch "not fit" passed by a vote of 6-4, with support from Labour and Liberal Democrat lawmakers, over opposition from Conservatives. Committee chairman Whittingdale, a Conservative, did not vote.

The report did not accuse either Murdoch of misleading Parliament but said three of their underlings had done so in testimony to the committee.

Longtime Murdoch right-hand man Les Hinton was criticized, as were Colin Myler, the last editor of News of the World, and Tom Crone, who was the paper's lawyer for decades.

In a statement, Myler said he stood by the evidence that he gave the committee.

The full House of Commons will have to rule on whether the three committed contempt by misleading the committee, "and, if so, what punishment should be imposed," the report says.

In a statement Tuesday to News Corp.'s 50,000 employees, Murdoch said the report "affords us a unique opportunity to reflect upon the mistakes we have made and further the course we have already completed to correct them."

He said that it was difficult for him to read many of its findings, "but we have done the most difficult part, which has been to take a long, hard and honest look at our past mistakes."

Murdoch continued, "We certainly should have acted more quickly and aggressively to uncover wrongdoing. We deeply regret what took place and have taken our share of responsibility for not rectifying the situation sooner."

He said News Corp. officials "have gone beyond what law enforcement authorities have asked of us, to ensure not only that we are in compliance with the law, but that we adhere to the highest ethical standards."

Murdoch said last week that if he had known the depth of the problem in 2007, when a private investigator and a Murdoch journalist were sent to prison for phone hacking, he "would have torn the place apart and we wouldn't be here today."

But he also suggested last week that key parts of the scandal have been overblown.

"The hacking scandal was not a great national thing until the Milly Dowler disclosure, half of which has been somewhat disowned by the police," Murdoch said.

He was referring to the revelation that people working for him had hacked into the voice mail of a missing 13-year-old who later turned out to have been murdered.

Murdoch was also grilled over his media empire's back-channel lobbying of the British government and said he learned of the existence of one of the key lobbyists only "a few months ago."

He said he was "surprised" by the extent of the contact by the employee, Fred Michel, with the British government as it considered a bid by News Corp. to take full ownership of British Sky Broadcasting.

That bid collapsed because of the phone-hacking scandal.

The scandal has also forced News Corp. to pay hundreds of thousands of pounds in compensation to the victims of phone hacking.

Rupert and James Murdoch have been hammered over the past year about what they knew about phone hacking by people working for them.

They have always denied knowing about the scale of the practice, which police say could have affected thousands of people, ranging from celebrities and politicians to crime victims and war veterans.

3:35pm UK, Thursday May 03, 2012

Former News of the World editors Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson have been called to give evidence to the Leveson Inquiry into media ethics and standards next week.
Mrs Brooks and Mr Coulson both edited the Sunday tabloid during the period in which the phone-hacking scandal took place.

:: Read more on the Leveson Inquiry on Sky's dedicated page

Mrs Brooks, who became a former News International chief executive after leaving the editorship, is expected to be asked about her relations with politicians and senior police officers.

Mrs Brooks, 43, who also edited The Sun, has twice been arrested by Scotland Yard detectives investigating allegations of phone hacking, corrupt payments to public officials, and an attempt to pervert the course of justice.


Leveson Inquiry Witnesses
Wednesday, May 9

:: Martin Clarke - Mail Online

:: DCI Brendan Gilmour - Met Police

:: T/ACC Russell Middleton - Devon and Cornwall Police

Thursday, May 10

:: Andy Coulson - Former NOTW editor

:: Viscount Rothermere - Mail owner

Friday, May 11

:: Rebekah Brooks - Former News Intl executive



She was bailed and has not been charged.

On Tuesday, a report by the Culture, Media and Sport select committee criticised her for presiding over a culture that led to News of the World journalists impersonating members of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler's family and hacking the teenager's phone.

Mrs Brooks has been named as one of the Leveson Inquiry's "core participants", people who have a significant interest in the hearings or may face criticism.

This means she has advance access to documents and witness statements, and the right to put questions to other witnesses through her lawyers.

Mr Coulson resigned from the News of the World in 2007 after one of his journalists was convicted of phone hacking. He later became Prime Minister David Cameron's director of communications.

He has repeatedly denied any knowledge of phone hacking at the Sunday tabloid.

In April, the lead counsel for the prosecution in the 2007 phone hacking case told the Leveson Inquiry that he had seen no evidence implicating Mr Coulson in any wrongdoing.

The inquiry will also receive testimony next week from Lord Rothermere, owner of the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday.

News Corp. (NWSA)’s board pledged its support for Chairman Rupert Murdoch as a U.S. senator sought evidence about the phone-hacking scandal that led U.K. lawmakers to say the media magnate wasn’t suited to run the company.

The board expressed “full confidence in Rupert Murdoch’s fitness” to lead the company, the directors said in a statement after meeting yesterday. Hours later, U.S. Senator Jay Rockefeller, a West Virginia Democrat, released a letter sent to a U.K. media-ethics inquiry seeking whether there was information indicating American citizens had their voice mail intercepted.





Enlarge image









News Corp.'s board expressed “full confidence in Rupert Murdoch’s fitness” to lead the company, the directors said in a statement after meeting yesterday. Photographer: Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg












The U.K. House of Commons Culture Committee in a May 1 vote said that Rupert Murdoch was “not a fit person” to lead a major international company after News Corp.’s British unit misled Parliament about the extent of phone hacking at its News of the World tabloid. Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg
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The U.K. House of Commons Culture Committee in a May 1 vote said that Murdoch was “not a fit person” to lead a major international company after News Corp.’s British unit misled Parliament about the extent of phone hacking at its News of the World tabloid. Rockefeller’s letter to the media-ethics inquiry triggered by the scandal said he had been following the U.K. proceedings with “great interest.”

“The newspapers’ employees and agents not only appear to have illegally intercepted private telephone communications; there is also evidence that they improperly made large cash payments to police officers,” the senator wrote. “I would like to know whether News International or any other News Corporation business used hacking, bribing or other similar tactics when operating in the United States.”

Similar Questions

Rockefeller, chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, raised similar questions in July as news of the scandal spread. Murdoch told the media inquiry last week that the company has cooperated with civil and criminal probes, turning over information about possible illegal activity to London police and the U.S. Department of Justice.

John Toker, a spokesman for the inquiry into press ethics, said Judge Brian Leveson had received the letter and declined to comment further.

Murdoch “turned a blind eye and exhibited willful blindness to what was going on in his companies,” the committee said in the report that was split along political lines. “This culture, we consider, permeated from the top throughout the organization and speaks volumes about the lack of effective corporate governance at News Corp.”

News Corp.’ board, in response to U.K. lawmakers, said they backed Murdoch’s “vision and leadership” and his ongoing role at the company.

Murdoch Friends

The 81-year-old Murdoch also received support from high- profile friends including Donald Trump, Barry Diller and Jacob Rothschild, an investment banker who helped Murdoch buy the now- defunct News of the World tabloid more than 40 years ago.

“We shouldn’t forget that he made a unique contribution to media in this country,” said Rothschild, a British baron who served on the board of News Corp.’s British Sky Broadcasting Group Plc. (BSY) satellite-TV business. Murdoch saved the U.K. newspaper industry and was a pioneer of pay-television in the country, said Rothschild, the co-founder and chairman of J Rothschild Capital Management.

The U.K. parliamentary report may increase the likelihood that media regulator Ofcom concludes News Corp. is unfit to hold a broadcasting license and asks the company to reduce its 39 percent stake in BSkyB. The phone-hacking scandal prompted News Corp. to abandon a 7.8 billion-pound ($12.6 billion) bid for the rest of BSkyB, the U.K.’s biggest pay-television provider, last year.

Credit Ratings

Moody’s Investors Service Inc. said yesterday that News Corp.’s ratings wouldn’t be affected by the parliamentary panel’s report. The company’s “significant cash balance and strong free cash flow generation mitigates the uncertainty of additional financial fallout from the phone hacking scandal,” the credit-rating company said in a statement. News Corp. had $9.4 billion in cash and equivalents at the end of last year.

Since BSkyB isn’t consolidated into News Corp.’s financial results, a potential sale wouldn’t affect the company’s profile, Moody’s said.

“However, we view the asset as a core operation and an important source of financial flexibility for News Corp.,” the firm said. “We believe the company will have the ability to maintain such flexibility whether it is forced to become a passive investor by giving up its seats on BSkyB’s board or to sell its investment altogether, in which case it would receive significant after-tax cash proceeds.”

News Corp. shares climbed less than 1 percent to $19.89 yesterday in New York. The stock is up 11 percent this year.

Got a story? Email : talkback@the-sun.co.uk





Nerves ... PM David Cameron


Leveson nerves have got to PM

Inquiry plea as ex-aide gives evidence


By TOM NEWTON DUNN, Political Editor


Published: Today at 00:17


DAVID Cameron has revealed deep nerves about what ex-aide Andy Coulson and former friend Rebekah Brooks will reveal about him at the Leveson Inquiry.

In an unusual move, the Government slapped in a late request for “core participant status” in the ongoing probe into press standards.






Anger ... Lord Justice Leveson
BBC

It means Downing Street lawyers will be allowed an advance look at all the pair’s written evidence ahead of them giving their testimony next week.

The request was granted by Lord Justice Leveson yesterday afternoon to the Prime Minister and seven other named Cabinet ministers.


They are Nick Clegg, Vince Cable, Jeremy Hunt, Michael Gove, Ken Clarke, Theresa May and George Osborne.

The judge also revealed his fury at Labour shadow minister Chris Bryant for leaking inquiry information last week.

He slammed the MP for having shown a “total disregard” for the strict rules. In the Commons Mr Bryant quoted from an unreleased document as he listed the number of meetings between Mr Cameron and News Corp boss Rupert Murdoch.






Request ... Jeremy Hunt


Lord Justice Leveson went on to say the MP’s numbers proved to be “wrong” — and revealed Mr Bryant had written to him to apologise.

Ex-No10 communications chief Mr Coulson is up in front of the inquiry on Thursday.


Mrs Brooks — who is former chief executive of News International, which owns The Sun — is due to appear on Friday.

Their highly combustive appearances threaten to derail the Coalition’s attempt at a week-long relaunch after its “omni-shambles” six weeks,


=======================

You see why there is one Law for the rich etc......why should these Ministers and the PM be allowed to look at the information before Brooks and Coulson give their testimony? Cameron must be a very worried Man, he and Nick Clegg fared badly in the Council Votes and who knows what information
Brooks and Coulson will reveal.

May 5, 8:21 AM EDT


Murdoch scandal follows classic media baron script

By RAPHAEL SATTER
Associated Press




LONDON (AP) -- If the phone hacking scandal gripping Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. empire has a familiar ring, it might be because you've heard the story before. Scrappy outsider turns modest newspaper business into international media conglomerate. Ambition turns to hubris. Mogul dramatically falls from grace.

From William Randolph Hearst to Rupert Murdoch, many media barons' stories follow a familiar arc.

"He's one of a series," said James Curran, a professor of communications at Goldsmiths University in London. "He seems to me to be in the same press baron tradition."

Before Murdoch came Robert Maxwell and Conrad Black, both of whose careers at the top of the British media establishment ended in disgrace. Before those two came Lord Beaverbrook, the Daily Express owner whose excesses were lampooned by Evelyn Waugh in his 1938 novel "Scoop."

Earlier still was the New York Journal's William Randolph Hearst, who has become linked to the swashbuckling maverick at the center of Orson Wells' 1941 classic "Citizen Kane."

There are huge differences: Unlike Black and Maxwell, Hearst, Murdoch, and Beaverbrook stayed successful. The Hearst Corp. is 125 years old; News Corp. is worth $60 billion; there's still a statue to Beaverbrook in his Canadian hometown of Fredericton.

But there are important parallels, too.

Britain's media tycoons came from abroad - Australia, Canada, or Eastern Europe - and rapidly became establishment figures, winning wealth, titles, and friends in high places.

Then, eventually, came the fall.

Beaverbrook's attempt to create his own political party was knocked back in the 1930s, and he found himself cast adrift following the defeat of close ally Winston Churchill in 1945.

Black's and Maxwell's careers were blighted by criminality. Maxwell, having raided his newspaper's pension fund, drowned under murky circumstances in 1991; Black was only released Friday from a U.S. prison following a 2007 conviction for cheating his shareholders.

Once one of the most powerful forces in British politics, courted by Labour and Conservative leaders alike, Murdoch also has seen his clout wither amid the scandal over illegal eavesdropping at his News of the World tabloid.

Revelations of widespread illegality there have led to the arrests of dozens of journalists and media executives, the resignations of high-flying political operatives and police leaders, and hundreds of millions of dollars in legal costs.

The narrative of the hacking scandal may echo earlier stories of overreach, but Murdoch's story has little to do with those of Black or Maxwell, said Tom Bower, who has written biographies of the latter.

"There is a sharp difference," said Bower, explaining that Murdoch built "a huge and successful business" based on hard work and sharp elbows, while his competitors failed because they had created "flimsy businesses based on fraud."

Murdoch's story bears a stronger resemblance to Beaverbrook, a turn-of-the-century entrepreneur who would help revolutionize London's Fleet Street newspapers, according to Jacques Poitras, the author of "Beaverbrook: A Shattered Legacy."

Born William Aitken in the small maritime province of New Brunswick, Beaverbrook had a modest start selling insurance and magazines door to door before moving on to bond promotion and striking it rich.

He moved to England, where he was knighted, invested in the populist Daily Express, and - with the help of innovations such as crossword puzzles, gossip columns and society pages - turned it into the biggest-selling paper in the English-speaking world. That title was later claimed by Murdoch's News of the World.

"Both men published fabulously successful newspapers, and they were good at it," Poitras said. "They knew what people wanted (and) they delivered it."

Beaverbrook became fantastically influential, serving as a powerful Cabinet minister and Churchill adviser.

"His power in the 30s and 40s in London was unmatched," said Poitras. "I don't know if you could have someone of that clout now. ... Murdoch is the only one who seems to have made waves in the same way."

Compared to Beaverbrook and Murdoch, Maxwell and Black are a "second division of press baron," said Curran, the professor of communications.

Black, a member of the Canadian elite, eventually came to own The Daily Telegraph, the Jerusalem Post, and a string of U.S. and Canadian newspapers before his embezzlement plunged his empire into crisis.

Maxwell's rags-to-riches-to-ruin story is in some respects more compelling.

Born into an Orthodox Jewish family in the destitute Carpathian mountain region of what was then known as Czechoslovakia, Maxwell narrowly escaped a Nazi concentration camp to move to London. He set up a successful publishing company and moved into politics, throwing his support behind the left-wing Labour Party.

As early as 1969, there were signs of trouble. Britain's trade department investigated Maxwell in the wake of a botched takeover deal, branding him unfit "to exercise proper stewardship of a publicly quoted company" - nearly the same language used by Labour lawmakers to condemn Murdoch in a critical report on phone hacking published last week.

Maxwell survived the trade investigation, spending the next two decades expanding his empire and racking up an enormous pile of debt. By the time his body was recovered from the waters off the Canary Islands - no one knows precisely how he died - his company was more than 2 billion pounds in the red.

Murdoch, who outmaneuvered Maxwell and Black to stay at the top of the British newspaper scene, has so far avoided falling into the same abyss that swallowed his competitors. Even his most strident critics don't accuse him of anything worse than "willful blindness." He remains at the head of a fabulously successful media company, responsible for record-smashing films like "Avatar" or TV hits such as "The Simpsons," and News Corp.'s share price is riding high.

His influence in Britain, however, has undeniably suffered. Politicians who once scrambled to kiss his hand are now lining up to boast about how independent they were. Prime Minister David Cameron, who in 2008 flew out to the tycoon's yacht to seek his blessing, acknowledged last week that "we all did too much cozying up to Rupert Murdoch."

In that respect, Murdoch's isolation - in Britain at least - seems redolent of the last scene of Citizen Kane: Successful, wealthy, but unloved.

© 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

OOOPS.......Andrew Marr interrogating George Osbourne about Cameron employing Coulson . Osbourne said with hindsight it was not a good idea but
at the time there was nothing wrong , Marr says "What...even when Andy Coulson kept his News International shares at No.10?????"

Cameron Can See Evidence at News Corp. Media-Ethics Probe

By Erik Larson - May 4, 2012 4:36 PM GMT+0100
.

..
U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron and top ministers won formal legal status at an inquiry triggered by News Corp.’s phone-hacking scandal after evidence disclosed at the probe led to calls for one Cabinet member to resign.

Cameron should receive advance access to prepared statements by witnesses including former News Corp. executives Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson, who are scheduled to testify next week, Judge Brian Leveson ruled today in London after an emergency hearing.

The decision on the “core participant” status comes about a week after evidence at the inquiry led to demands for Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt to step down. E-mails, which the government didn’t see until they were released to the public, showed one of Hunt’s aides offered inside information to a News Corp. (NWSA) lobbyist when the minister was reviewing the company’s proposed takeover of British Sky Broadcasting Group Plc. (BSY)

“Newspapers had obviously been alert to the evidence that would be given,” said Leveson, referring to the government’s claim that advance notice of such evidence would be fairer. “Articles quoting parts of the e-mails and passing comment on them appeared very quickly after becoming public.”

Cameron called for the inquiry in July in response to public outrage over phone hacking at News Corp.’s now-defunct News of the World tabloid. The judicial probe is reviewing all aspects of the U.K. media, including its ties to politicians, after hacking victims said News Corp.’s close relationship with government helped cover up the scandal.

‘Level Playing Field’

The government’s new status in the inquiry is “reasonable” given that most of the U.K.’s biggest newspaper publishers are also core participants, said Niri Shan, a media lawyer with Taylor Wessing LLP in London.

“All this is doing is putting them on a level playing field with the media,” Shan, who isn’t involved in the matter, said in a phone interview.

Hunt’s adviser, Adam Smith, resigned April 25, after the e- mails were revealed to Leveson, who is overseeing the inquiry. Smith said he had “gone too far” in his contacts with News Corp.

Other politicians who won the status include Hunt, Business Secretary Vince Cable, who was initially involved in the BSkyB approval process, and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg. All eight ministers in the group will submit their own evidence by the end of the day, Leveson said. Some will testify.

Coulson, Brooks

Brooks, who has had close ties to Cameron, resigned as chief executive officer of News Corp.’s U.K. unit in July, two days before being arrested in probes into phone hacking and bribery of public officials by journalists.

Coulson was arrested the same month. He had resigned in January 2011 as Cameron’s press chief -- a role he took on after stepping down as editor of the News of the World in 2007.

Evidence released by the inquiry showed News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch and his son James had dozens of meetings with U.K. lawmakers, including Cameron. Both Murdochs testified before Leveson last month, saying they didn’t discuss the BSkyB bid in detail during the meetings.

News Corp. closed the News of the World in July to help contain the scandal and abandoned the company’s 7.8 billion pound ($12.6 billion) bid for the 61 percent of BSkyB it didn’t already own.

Police investigations have led to at least 46 arrests, while the scandal has expanded to include bribery and computer hacking by journalists.

U.K. lawmakers called on News Corp. (NWSA) to allow its former criminal defense firm to reveal details on a 2006 internal probe into phone-hacking at the company’s now- defunct News of the World tabloid.

News Corp.’s “legal privilege” with BCL Burton Copeland should be waived so the London-based law firm can defend claims it helped with a cover-up, the House of Commons Culture Committee said today. News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch told an ethics inquiry last week that lawyers and lower-ranking executives at its News International unit are to blame for his ignorance about the extent of phone hacking until late 2010.










News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch, right, Wendi Deng, his wife, center, and Lachlan Murdoch, a board member of News Corp., left, are driven by car from their apartment in London. Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg
.
Murdoch’s claim “that a cover-up has taken place at the company may mean that the investigations conducted by Burton Copeland have been used by people at News International to perpetrate a falsehood,” lawmakers said in a report about the scandal. “We believe there is a strong argument that the company has no right to restrain disclosure of the file.”

The committee, investigating the scandal for the second time in six years, said the tabloid’s former editor Colin Myler and legal manager Tom Crone misled Parliament and found Murdoch is “not a fit person” to lead a major international company. Police investigating hacking and bribery at News Corp.’s U.K. titles have made 45 arrests, while Britain’s media watchdog is probing whether the company should retain its stake in pay- television provider British Sky Broadcasting Group Plc. (BSY)

Leveson Inquiry

Legal privilege prevents law firms from sharing notes, e- mails, reports and other documents related to its work without permission from the client. Judge Brian Leveson, who is overseeing the independent media-ethics inquiry triggered by the scandal, raised the issue of privilege preventing some remaining questions from being answered, such as how much information executives had about the scandal, and when they had it.

Messages left at Burton Copeland and News International seeking comment on the privilege issue weren’t returned.

While keeping the waiver in place is understandable, it would be a “fair conclusion” for the public to decide News Corp. still has something to hide, said Niri Shan, a media lawyer at Taylor Wessing LLP who isn’t involved in the matter.

“It is difficult for them to draw a line under this and say they’ve disclosed everything if they don’t waive privilege,” Shan said in a phone interview. The company may want to “take the flack that they get for not waiving privilege because the story will die down.”

Revisit Conclusions

The proposed waiver may affect the report’s conclusion that there isn’t enough evidence to determine whether Murdoch’s son, News Corp. Deputy Chief Operating Officer James Murdoch, lied about being unaware of internal e-mails that suggested phone- hacking was widespread.

“We may well revisit our conclusions in this report if more information, currently subject to criminal proceedings or subject to legal privilege which has not been waived, is disclosed,” lawmakers said in a unanimous section of the report.

Burton Copeland was hired by News International to conduct a probe after the News of the World royal reporter Clive Goodman was arrested more than five years ago. News Corp. claimed the firm’s investigation, where it reviewed e-mails and financial records, found no evidence of widespread phone hacking.

Burton Copeland parted ways with News Corp. last year and said in September its role was limited to providing documents to the police and that it wasn’t asked to carry out a full probe.

Harbottle & Lewis

Harbottle & Lewis LLP, another law firm that worked for News International, denied claims made by Rupert Murdoch to the committee last year that it gave the company a clean bill of health after reviewing the matter. The law firm wrote to lawmakers saying Murdoch was “confused or misled” in his testimony.

Rupert Murdoch told lawmakers last year he “rested” on findings from the two law firms, as well as from police, that phone hacking had been limited to a single “rogue” reporter. He told the ethics inquiry last week he should have taken matters into his own hands.

“I should have gone down there and thrown all the damn lawyers out of the place,” Murdoch testified, saying he should have interviewed Goodman after he was convicted of intercepting messages of members of the British Royal Family.

The suggestion that law firms helped prevent the scandal from coming to light is part of a pattern of Rupert Murdoch and other executives blaming lawyers, said David Allen Green, head of media law at Preiskel & Co. LLP.

“James and Rupert Murdoch have appeared very ready to place blame on their legal advisers,” Green said. “This approach can backfire, for if the lawyers are released from any obligation of confidentiality and privilege, their criticism can be quite powerful.”

7:38am UK, Thursday May 10, 2012

David Bowden, senior news correspondent

The Prime Minister's former spin doctor, Andy Coulson, will give evidence to the Leveson Inquiry into media ethics today.
Mr Coulson resigned from his job as David Cameron's director of communications last year after the phone hacking scandal overshadowed his role in Downing Street.


It is also rumoured that some of the text messages from Mr Cameron to Mrs Brooks are signed 'Love David'!

Sky News political correspondent Glen Oglaza
He was editor of the News Of The World (NOTW) when its former royal editor Clive Goodman was jailed for phone hacking, though Mr Coulson has always denied he knew it was going on at his paper.

The Government has admitted that, "given what we now know about the extent of phone hacking at the NOTW", Mr Coulson should not have been hired by Mr Cameron in the first place.

But what will the man who ran the biggest selling newspaper in the country, and then worked at the heart of Government, have to say to the inquiry about the relationship between the press and politicians?

And how will that chime with the evidence tomorrow from Rebekah Brooks, one-time editor of the NOTW and latterly chief executive of News International?




She is one of the biggest media players in Britain and good friend of prime ministers past and present - Lord Justice Leveson has already heard she hosted a Christmas dinner at her country home where Mr Cameron discussed the takeover of BSkyB with James Murdoch.

A new book claims that until recently Mrs Brooks and Mr Cameron regularly exchanged text messages, and some political commentators believe the next couple of days at the Leveson inquiry could be very damaging for the Prime Minister.

Political columnist Peter Oborne said: "If there was a suggestion that Downing Street was doing a commercial favour for News International or News Corp then the future of David Cameron inside Number 10 would come into question."



Mr Cameron took Mr Coulson into the heart of Government

Mr Cameron and other senior ministers are clearly concerned about what Mr Coulson and Mrs Brooks might tell the inquiry and just last week the politicians applied for and were granted "core participant " status which means they will have already seen the written evidence to the inquiry submitted by the duo.

What the Prime Minister and his colleagues cannot know until Mr Coulson and then Mrs Brooks appear before Lord Justice Leveson in person, is what they will say under oath.

The inquiry's questioning lawyer will want to know the extent of the contact between the two former tabloid editors, their bosses, the Murdochs and senior politicians from all parties.

Mr Cameron and other senior political figures will give their own evidence to the inquiry in due course, but there is no doubt they will be paying very close attention to what is said at the Royal Courts of Justice this week.

Panda wrote:
Got a story? Email : talkback@the-sun.co.uk





Nerves ... PM David Cameron


Leveson nerves have got to PM

Inquiry plea as ex-aide gives evidence


By TOM NEWTON DUNN, Political Editor


Published: Today at 00:17


DAVID Cameron has revealed deep nerves about what ex-aide Andy Coulson and former friend Rebekah Brooks will reveal about him at the Leveson Inquiry.

In an unusual move, the Government slapped in a late request for “core participant status” in the ongoing probe into press standards.






Anger ... Lord Justice Leveson
BBC

It means Downing Street lawyers will be allowed an advance look at all the pair’s written evidence ahead of them giving their testimony next week.

The request was granted by Lord Justice Leveson yesterday afternoon to the Prime Minister and seven other named Cabinet ministers.


They are Nick Clegg, Vince Cable, Jeremy Hunt, Michael Gove, Ken Clarke, Theresa May and George Osborne.

The judge also revealed his fury at Labour shadow minister Chris Bryant for leaking inquiry information last week.

He slammed the MP for having shown a “total disregard” for the strict rules. In the Commons Mr Bryant quoted from an unreleased document as he listed the number of meetings between Mr Cameron and News Corp boss Rupert Murdoch.






Request ... Jeremy Hunt


Lord Justice Leveson went on to say the MP’s numbers proved to be “wrong” — and revealed Mr Bryant had written to him to apologise.

Ex-No10 communications chief Mr Coulson is up in front of the inquiry on Thursday.


Mrs Brooks — who is former chief executive of News International, which owns The Sun — is due to appear on Friday.

Their highly combustive appearances threaten to derail the Coalition’s attempt at a week-long relaunch after its “omni-shambles” six weeks,


=======================

You see why there is one Law for the rich etc......why should these Ministers and the PM be allowed to look at the information before Brooks and Coulson give their testimony? Cameron must be a very worried Man, he and Nick Clegg fared badly in the Council Votes and who knows what information
Brooks and Coulson will reveal.

Morning Panda
Your correct "you see why there is one Law for the rich etc" what good is this to all of these MP's because they will have no idea what answers Coulson and Brooks will give, so lets hope that the two of them want to safe their own skins and sod all especially Cameron, if Coulson and Brooks are clever enough they will relise that Cameron & Co are heading for the door, and they are nolonger any use.
Lets remember if all these MP's are wanting to see the questions they are scared imo, wonder if Caulson and Brooks will also get to have a sneaky look at the questions, passed on to them by a middle man ???

Is Cameron finished??
Well I'm sure we will find out today and tomorrow by the answers they give.

morning lillyofthevalley,

I bet David Cameron is very very nervous about what Coulson and Wade will say, he was much too close to them and not doing very well as a PM at the moment.

When Murdoch gave evidence it was videod simultaneously by the BBC, is there any way you can find out whether today's will be ?

I scrolled back on this thread to Murdochs BBC link but don,t know how to check.

Rebekah Brooks


From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



Born

Rebekah Mary Wade[1][2]
27 May 1968 (age 43)
Warrington, Cheshire (then Lancashire), England[3][4][5]



Occupation

Journalist, newspaper editor[5]



Notable credit(s)

The Post, The Sun, News of the World[5]



Spouse

Ross Kemp
(m. 2002–09, divorced[6])
Charlie Brooks (m. June 2009)


Rebekah Mary Brooks (née Wade, born 27 May 1968) is a British journalist and former newspaper editor. She was Chief Executive Officer of News International (from 2009 to 2011), having previously served as the youngest editor of a British national newspaper as editor of the News of the World[7] (from 2000 to 2003) and the first female editor of The Sun[8] (from 2003 to 2009). She married actor Ross Kemp in 2002; in 2009, they divorced,[6] and she married former racehorse trainer and author Charlie Brooks.

She is a prominent figure in the News International phone hacking scandal, having been the editor of the News of the World when illegal phone hacking was allegedly carried out by the newspaper. On 15 July 2011, Brooks resigned as chief executive of News International, following widespread criticism of her role in the controversy.[9] On 17 July 2011, she was arrested on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications and on suspicion of corruption - making corrupt payments to public officials.[10] On 13 March 2012 she was again arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.[11]





Contents
[hide] 1 Early life
2 Career 2.1 News of the World
2.2 The Sun
2.3 News International

3 Phone hacking scandal 3.1 Questioning by MPs
3.2 Milly Dowler
3.3 Resignation
3.4 Arrests

4 Political connections
5 Personal life
6 See also 7 References
8 External links


[edit] Early life

Brooks was born Rebekah Mary Wade in Warrington, Lancashire (now Cheshire). She grew up in Daresbury,[12][13] and decided she wanted to be a journalist from the age of fourteen.[14] She attended Appleton Hall County Grammar School in Warrington.[13][15][16]

A childhood friend, Louise Weir, described her as "more emotionally intelligent than academic", charming and always able to get what she wanted out of people.[5]

In Brooks' entry in Who's Who she stated that she studied at the Sorbonne in Paris, but did not claim to have a degree, and did not later answer questions about this; in a 2003 Spectator article, Stephen Glover suggested that, since she was working at the age of 20 for the News of the World, "we can safely assume that she did not study at the Sorbonne in any meaningful way".[17] In 2010, Brooks was awarded an honorary Fellowship from the University of the Arts, London, for her contribution to journalism.[18] She attended the London College of Communication, now part of the university, as a student.

The economics commentator Henry Porter claims little is known of Brooks personally.[5] Tim Minogue, who was one of her first co-editors before becoming a journalist at Private Eye magazine, recalled a “likeable, skinny, hollow-eyed girl who was very ambitious”.[16]

[edit] Career

After school she worked for the French magazine L'architecture d'aujourd'hui in Paris, before returning to Britain to work for Eddy Shah's Messenger Group.[5][14] Graham Ball, the then features editor at The Post newspaper, recalled that she was a notably astute and intelligent staff member.[5] When The Post was disbanded, Brooks then moved to the News of the World.[5]

[edit] News of the World

She joined the Sunday newspaper News of the World in 1989 as a secretary, before working as a feature writer for its 'Sunday' magazine where she worked on "The A to Z of Soaps" with TV soap expert Chris Stacey, and eventually becoming the paper's deputy editor.[14] "In 1994, she prepared for the News of the World's interview with James Hewitt, a paramour of Princess Diana, by reserving a hotel suite and hiring a team to "kit it out with secret tape devices in various flowerpots and cupboards", Piers Morgan, her former boss, wrote in his memoir The Insider, The New York Times relayed in July 2011.[19] In 1998, she transferred to the News of the World's daily counterpart, The Sun, where she was appointed its deputy editor. In this period, she reportedly attempted to persuade David Yelland to end the Page Three Girls feature.[20] She then returned to the News of the World in 2000 as editor; at the time, she was the youngest editor of a national British newspaper.[7] While at the News of the World, Brooks oversaw its campaign of "naming and shaming" individuals suspected to be convicted child sex offenders-- a campaign launched in the wake of the murder of Sarah Payne.[5][21] The paper's decision led to angry mobs terrorising those they suspected of being child sex offenders,[22] which included several cases of mistaken identity and one instance where a paediatrician had her house vandalised, apparently by people who thought her occupation meant she was a paedophile.[23][24][25] The campaign was described as "grossly irresponsible" journalism by the Chief Constable of Gloucestershire, Tony Butler,[14] but Brooks defended the paper's actions on the BBC's Breakfast with Frost, claiming that it was "only right that the public have controlled access" to information on sex offenders.[26] The paper's already strong sales held up well under her leadership, while those of rival Sunday newspapers The People and the Sunday Mirror fell more sharply.[27]

Former Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott praised Brooks's handling of the story of his wife, Pauline, giving up one of her children for adoption as "very reasonable and professional" in style.[5]

[edit] The Sun

In January 2003, she returned to The Sun, replacing her former boss David Yelland, to become its first female editor.[27] On Brooks' first day as editor the Page Three girl was Rebekah Parmar-Teasdale – the caption to the picture was "Rebekah from Wapping".[15] Soon after becoming editor, Brooks ran the headline "Bonkers Bruno Locked Up" concerning the mental health problems of former heavyweight boxing champion Frank Bruno. The next day The Sun ran a 600-word reply from the head of the mental health charity Sane, and since then has adopted a style guide on covering mental health stories prepared by the same charity. Brooks and her husband spent a day with the head of Sane and made donations to the charity.[28][29]

During a March 2003 appearance before the House of Commons Select Committee on Culture, Media and Sport as part of an inquiry into privacy issues, Brooks stated that her newspaper had paid police officers for information.[30] Alison Clark, the director of corporate affairs at News International, later stated: "It is not company practice to pay police for information".[30]

Brooks has been chair of the organisation Women in Journalism,[14] and has served as a judge for the "Guardian Student Media Awards" in November 2003[31] and the tenth annual Police Bravery Awards in July 2005, the latter sponsored by The Sun.[32]

[edit] News International

In June 2009, it was announced that she would leave The Sun in September 2009, to become chief executive of the newspaper's parent company, News International.[8] Dominic Mohan was named her successor as editor of The Sun.[33]

[edit] Phone hacking scandal

A police enquiry revealed that the News of the World had a routine practice of intercepting mobile phone messages of celebrities, politicians and other public figures. The newspaper's reporter, Clive Goodman, and Glenn Mulcaire, a hired investigator, were convicted and jailed for intercepting the phone messages of members of the royal family in 2006.

[edit] Questioning by MPs

In 2003, under questioning by the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee of the House of Commons, Chris Bryant MP asked her and Andy Coulson whether either of their newspapers had ever been involved in various improper acts. Brooks replied, "We have paid police for information in the past". Andy Coulson stepped in to say that payments were only made lawfully. The Sun, of which Brooks was editor, subsequently ridiculed Chris Bryant in a number of articles, starting with one about a photograph of him in his underpants from a gay dating web site. Brooks later claimed that in her response to Bryant's question she had merely been speaking about the widespread belief that payments had been made to police, and denied having any knowledge of specific payments.[34]

According to MPs, Rebekah Brooks refused three times to attend the committee again to be questioned further,[35] resulting in four committee members "considering asking the serjeant at arms to issue a warrant forcing Brooks to attend"; however they subsequently dropped this proposal because they believed their private lives would be investigated if they did so.[35][36] John Whittingdale, chair of the committee, stated there was a conversation "about the possible repercussions of issuing a warrant for Brooks but said that did not have any bearing on his decision and he did not believe News International would target committee members."[36]

[edit] Milly Dowler

In 2011, The Guardian[37] and a solicitor alleged that in 2002, when Brooks was editor, the paper had also hacked the voicemail of missing schoolgirl Milly Dowler (later found to be murdered), to access messages left by her parents. It was also alleged that messages had been deleted when the mailbox was getting full, to allow new messages to be left and illicitly listened to; this caused the missing girl's family to think that she was still alive and monitoring her messages. The New York Times London reporter Sarah Lyall wrote that, if the allegations were true, "it would mean either that Ms. Brooks had no idea how the paper she edited was obtaining information about the Dowler family for its articles, or that she knew about the hacking and allowed it".[37] In an email to her staff Brooks said it was "inconceivable" that she had known what was happening over Milly Dowler's voicemail.[38]

[edit] Resignation





Wikinews has related news: Rebekah Brooks resigns from News International


In July 2011, Labour Party leader Ed Miliband said Brooks should "consider her position" after the Milly Dowler allegations.[39] Prime Minister David Cameron said that if Brooks had offered her resignation to him, he would have accepted it. Milly Dowler's parents also called for Brooks' resignation.

When Brooks told News of the World staff that the newspaper was being closed down, some reportedly said that all of their jobs had been sacrificed in order to save hers.[40] Andreas Whittam Smith suggested that Brooks' decision not to resign was symptomatic of "the self-serving, conceited thesis that 'only I, who was at the helm during the disaster, can steer us to safety'".[41]

On 14 July, News Corporation's second largest shareholder, Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal Alsaud, called for her resignation in a BBC interview.[42]

Having previously had an offer of resignation rejected, Brooks resigned from News International on 15 July 2011.[43] She said: "As chief executive of the company, I feel a deep sense of responsibility for the people we have hurt and I want to reiterate how sorry I am for what we now know to have taken place. I have believed that the right and responsible action has been to lead us through the heat of the crisis. However my desire to remain on the bridge has made me a focal point of the debate. This is now detracting attention from all our honest endeavours to fix the problems of the past. Therefore I have given Rupert and James Murdoch my resignation. While it has been a subject of discussion, this time my resignation has been accepted."[44]

The Daily Telegraph reported that despite resigning from her position, Brooks remained on the company payroll and continued to receive her salary from News International, having been told by Rupert Murdoch to "to travel the world on him for a year".[45]

[edit] Arrests

On 17 July 2011, Brooks was arrested by police on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications and on suspicion of corruption allegations.[46][47][48] She was arrested by detectives working on Operation Weeting, the Metropolitan Police's phone hacking probe, and Operation Elveden, the probe examining illicit payments to police officers.[48] Brooks' public relations agent Dave Wilson told CNN that she did not know she was going to be arrested when she arrived for a pre-arranged interview with London's Metropolitan Police Service.[49]

After 12 hours in custody, Brooks was released on bail until October 2011.[50]

On 13 March 2012 Brooks was rearrested, together with her husband, on suspicion of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice. [3]

[edit] Political connections

There has been criticism of her influence on leading politicians, and possible connections between this and the phone hacking affair.[51] Most notably, Brooks and her husband have close social ties to Prime Minister David Cameron and his wife. For example, a December 2010 dinner party was attended by David Cameron and James Murdoch.[52] In 2008 she was loaned a retired police horse by the Metropolitan Police. She kept it on her Oxfordshire farm, where it was ridden by David Cameron.[53]

Brooks is also a friend of Tony Blair and Cherie Blair[54] and Gordon and Sarah Brown.[55] Her wedding to Charlie Brooks in 2009 was attended by Gordon Brown and by David Cameron.

[edit] Personal life

Brooks became engaged to actor Ross Kemp (best known as Grant Mitchell in EastEnders) in 1996, and married him in June 2002 in Las Vegas.[46] On 3 November 2005, it was reported that Brooks had been arrested following an alleged assault on her husband. She was later released without charge and the police took no further action.[46] The Sun had been running a campaign against domestic violence at the time.[15][56] The couple had spent the previous evening in the company of the former Cabinet Minister David Blunkett, who had resigned for the second time on that day.[57]

Private Eye and The Independent[58] reported that the couple had separated; this was not widely reported in the remainder of the British press. The 7 March 2008 issue of Private Eye refers to her "paramour", former racehorse trainer and author Charlie Brooks. The Guardian reported on 5 June 2009, that she would marry Brooks.[59] The Independent reported that Brooks and her fiancé had married in a lakeside ceremony in June 2009.[60] The couple live in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, and London.[61] It was reported that a laptop and other items allegedly belonging to Charlie Brooks were found in the rubbish bins at the couple's London flat in Chelsea Harbour and, despite being claimed by Mr Brooks, were removed by police for examination.[62]

In July 2011, MP Chris Bryant claimed that Brooks had previously implied that he would loiter in a London park because he was homosexual,[63] and that Kemp had responded "Shut up, you homophobic cow".[63]

Brooks is a friend of Sheryl Gascoigne, the ex-wife of footballer Paul Gascoigne.[20] She also attended the Prince of Wales' 50th birthday party.[14]

It was announced by Bell Pottinger that Rebekah and Charlie Brooks were expecting a daughter in early 2012 via a surrogate mother.[64]

On 3 November 2005, it was reported that Brooks had been arrested following an alleged assault on her husband. She was later released without charge and the police took no further action.[46] The Sun had been running a campaign against domestic violence at the time"

Redheads are supposed to be fiery.LOL

9 May 2012 Last updated at 22:41 Share this pageEmail Print Share this page


Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation has reported a jump in quarterly profits, boosted by its cable networks and its Hollywood film unit.

Net profit for the three months to March rose to $1bn (£620m) from $682m in the same period the previous year.

Mr Murdoch has become embroiled in a phone-hacking scandal in the UK at the News of the World tabloid.

But it has not had a negative impact on News Corp's shares over the past year - they have risen by 10% in that time.

The results included a $63m charge "related to the costs of the ongoing investigations initiated upon the closure of the News of the World".

Last week News Corp's board gave their backing to Mr Murdoch, their chief executive and chairman, after a UK parliamentary media committee report accused him of being "not a fit person" to run a major international business.

Deputy chairman Chase Carey reaffirmed that support on Wednesday in a conference call after the financial results were released.

He said Mr Murdoch was "one of the smartest and most forward-thinking executives of our time and both I and the board rebut any notion that he is unfit to run the company".

The now-defunct News of the World was owned by News International, itself a subsidiary of News Corp.

Movie boost

News Corp's fiscal third-quarter results showed a 2% rise in revenue to $8.4bn.

Continue reading the main story
“
Start Quote
I believe we are better situated than ever to capitalise on the increasing global demand for our superior content”
End Quote
Rupert Murdoch

News Corp

The firm also said it was doubling its share buyback programme to $10bn.

News Corp owns the Fox television networks and 20th Century Fox film studio, as well as newspapers in the US, UK and Australia.

Operating income at its cable networks increased by 15% to $846m, with large growth seen in the US, Latin America and Asia.

Its entertainment unit saw a near-10% rise in operating income to $272m, boosted by the film Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked.

But operating income fell 11% to $171m at its broadcast television unit, which did not air the Super Bowl this year and saw ratings for American Idol fall.

"Once again, News Corporation showed strong operational momentum in the quarter, driven by significant growth at our cable network programming and filmed entertainment segments," Mr Murdoch said in a statement.

"With our disciplined approach to monetising our brands, I believe we are better situated than ever to capitalise on the increasing global demand for our superior content."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/democracylive/hi/house_of_commons/newsid_8167000/8167511.stm


Andy Coulson live at the House of Commons

Panda wrote:morning lillyofthevalley,

I bet David Cameron is very very nervous about what Coulson and Wade will say, he was much too close to them and not doing very well as a PM at the moment.

When Murdoch gave evidence it was videod simultaneously by the BBC, is there any way you can find out whether today's will be ?

I scrolled back on this thread to Murdochs BBC link but don,t know how to check.

Sorry Panda just got back in and noticed your reply, I dont no how to find out either, but read up on the Coulson fiasco......noticed how he said Blair and Brown got intouch with him when he resigned from NOTW, but he couldn't remember if Cameron did....what a load of b**locks I'm sure he would easly remember if Cameron telephoned him, seems to me that Caulson is prepared to protect his pal Cameron, wonder what Cameron promised him, a job back in the Government Officer maybe??

Hi lillyof the Valley,

I managed to do it myself after all...oh that Panda is so clever.

By the time I posted the link there was only just over an hour of the interview left, so I will post early tomorrow.

Did Coulson answer one question positively?

I liked the bit where the Lawyer asks him to confirm his Salary was £140,000 working for Cameron but suggests he could have topped up his income
in other ways.

Anyway, I think it starts at 10am tomorrow so whether Rebekah Wade is on in the afternoon or Monday I don't know.

I've never watched such a load of tosh in all my life....you would think that Murdoch had just knighted him instead of throwing him the wolves.


It will be the same with brookes.


Everyone loves everybody, know body done anything and ....'well I don't think so' or 'well it could off been but I wouldnt say that's so'.....


For gods sake.....what a total waste off taxpayers money to watch people asking other people a load off rubbish about at the end off the day.....is a bloody whitewash ....reminds me off the interviews the tapas lot had....'yes stu....speak to you later stu......kiss my arse stu'....

kitti wrote:I've never watched such a load of tosh in all my life....you would think that Murdoch had just knighted him instead of throwing him the wolves.


It will be the same with brookes.


Everyone loves everybody, know body done anything and ....'well I don't think so' or 'well it could off been but I wouldnt say that's so'.....


For gods sake.....what a total waste off taxpayers money to watch people asking other people a load off rubbish about at the end off the day.....is a bloody whitewash ....reminds me off the interviews the tapas lot had....'yes stu....speak to you later stu......kiss my arse stu'....

I agree Kitti, Coulson could not answer one question without thinking about it, you could tell the Lawyer could hardly keep his cool at times. Was the
Guy at the end a Lawyer for Coulson who Leveson said could be dealt with tomorrow, Coulson hasn't gone to Trial yet, I think Rebekah also is still suspect.