Corruption, Cover-up, Incompetence

frencheuropean wrote:An interesting article in the Guardian today about the disgusting methods of NOTW:

http://mg.co.za/article/2011-07-18-inside-rebekah-brooks-news-of-the-world

Editors would then often use damaging stories as bargaining chips, trading them for future access to public figures or to build relationships with stars. Often, the paper would drop the story they had altogether and publish something more sympathetic.

"It would be things like: 'We know you were sleeping with your secretary but we'll keep it out of the paper if you give us the story about how you were given away as a child," said the long-term freelancer.

"They used to call stories 'levers'," said the general news reporter. "They weren't necessarily interested any more in using the story you'd proved or got past the lawyers. They were interested in using the story as leverage in order to get a different story. Sometimes the kind of story that you would bargain as an alternative wasn't actually the truth. It annoyed a lot of reporters.

MaryB wrote:Just heard these words on the BBC. And the Sun and NOTW had the nerve to call into question the Portugese police.