The Economist summarizes the scope:
Quote:
Four deeply worrying question emerge from this. The first is how a newsroom could run so far out of control. ...
The second question ... many journalists at the newspaper would have known about such practices, and failed to report them. That can only happen in an outfit that has lost any sense of right and wrong. The notion that its rivals were perhaps doing the same thing is no excuse.
Then there are the police. The initial investigation by the Metropolitan Police into phone hacking was pitiful. ... Files handed over last month suggest that police received some payments from the News of the World. ...
Far from urging the police to conduct a full investigation, [politicians]have long cosied up to the tabloids. One member of the parliamentary culture committee alleged last year that members had been warned they could be targeted by newspapers if they insisted on summoning Mrs Brooks to give evidence against her will.
|
As this grows, it is starting to feel more like Watergate complete with threats and obstructions at the highest levels of government and other powers that be. And with virtually one news service (The Guardian) doing most all reporting and investigations. With even law enforcement subverted at the highest levels.
And finally, this is a classic example of where problems originate. 85% of all problems are directly traceable to top management. It was true in Watergate.
Most interesting is how little Murdoch news services are reporting this corruption at highest levels involving so many people who fear to tell the truth ... just like Watergate.
Watergate enshrined in American law and bluntly defined by a 1971 Supreme Court ruling in "Times v. United States" that “only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government.” Newsgate will create what principle in British law?
What happened to the principles once heralded on Fleet Street?
Also asked (and unanswered) are predictions for Murdoch. Is this a story similar to Hearst and Maxwell? (Will there be a Patty Murdoch?)