2011 News Corporation scandals

The News Corporation scandal developed in mid-2011 out of a series of investigations following up the News of the World royal phone hacking scandal of 2005–2007. Where initially the scandal appeared contained to a single journalist at News Corporation subsidiary News of the World, with the 2007 jailing of Clive Goodman and the resignation of then editor Andy Coulson, investigations eventually revealed a much wider pattern of wrongdoing. This led to the closure of the News of the World on 10 July 2011, an apology by Rupert Murdoch in an advertisement in most British national newspapers, and the withdrawing of News Corporation's bid to take over the majority of BSkyB shares it did not own. However, investigations continued into what the company and individuals at the company knew of the phone hacking and when, as well as into other issues, including questions around police bribery.

United Kingdom

Main article: News International phone hacking scandal

Phone hacking

Main articles: News of the World royal phone hacking scandal and News of the World phone hacking scandal investigations

Police corruption

In a September 2010 interview broadcast on 7 July 2011, on the BBC Radio 4 news programme The World at One, former News of the World features editor Paul McMullan made an admission relating to police corruption. He told of having used material obtained by a colleague's bribery of a police officer as the basis of a series of articles published over several years on Jennifer Elliott, the daughter of the actor Denholm Elliott. He stated, 'The going rate for that kind of thing might have been two to five hundred pounds and that would have been authorised, and he [i.e. the police officer] would have been paid... and he would have been on the lookout for another story...' The articles described Ms Elliott's destitute situation and stated that she had worked as a prostitute. Jennifer Elliott killed herself in 2003. In Mr McMullan's opinion the News of the World — specifically, his own articles — contributed significantly to her suicide. In 2011, the paper knowingly used private investigators to gain stories from corrupt police officers.

Operation Elveden

Main article: Operation Elveden

In July 2011, the Metropolitan Police launched Operation Elveden, a probe examining illicit payments to police officers.

United States

News Corporation owns a multitude of news outlets in the United States, including the New York Post, The Wall Street Journal, and the Fox News Channel. Several media critics have called for investigations into whether they too engaged in phone hacking activities. In addition to any possible illegal activities in the U.S., News Corporation and/or its executives might also face civil and criminal liability under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

According to a former New York City police officer who spoke to The Mirror, the News of the World also attempted to retrieve private phone records of victims of the September 11 attacks.

In light of the suspected hacking of 9/11 victims, Senate Commerce Committee chairman Jay Rockefeller suggested that a U.S. investigation of News Corporation should be launched. On 14 July, the Federal Bureau of Investigation announced it was launching an investigation into alleged hacking by News Corporation.

New investigations might also consider issues which had been raised in the past. Former Fox News executive Dan Cooper, who helped set up the Fox News Channel, had in 2008, alleged that network president Roger Ailes had threatened to ruin his agent's business if the agent (whose client Cooper had been for two decades) did not drop him as a client. This followed an interview Cooper had given to David Brock, shortly after his contract with Fox ended in June 1997. Cooper concluded that Ailes had pre-publication knowledge of his interview with Brock, and that Brock would not have told him; rather Ailes must have accessed Brock's phone records, using Fox's "Brain Room", which "housed a counterintelligence and black ops office. So accessing phone records was easy pie." Fox News denied Cooper's allegations.

On 20 July, US Senator Frank Lautenberg wrote a letter to the Department of Justice requesting that the on-going FBI probe include allegations that Floorgraphics had also been hacked by NewsCorp. On 21 July, it was reported that representatives of the US Dept. of Justice and the FBI had begun investigation into the Floorgraphics allegations.

News Corp is also being investigated over claims that senior executives misled investors, causing the company's stock to be traded at an artificially high price. A US class action has been filed for investors who purchased News Corporation common stock between March 3, 2011, and July 11, 2011.

Australia

In light of News Corporations global review, John Hartigan the boss of News Corps Australian company News Limited, announced a review of all payments in the previous three years, and that he was personally willing to co-operate with any Australian Government led inquiry. On 22 July, it was reported that two former Victorian Supreme Court judges, Frank Vincent and Bernard Teague, will act as independent assessors of how the review is run and will also assess its outcome.

The Australian Green party called for a parliamentary inquiry into News Limited, but Hartigan directly denied allegations by both the Greens and the governing Labor party that News Limited has been running a campaign against them, describing his group's journalism as "aggressive but fair."

The administration of Prime Minister Julia Gillard stalled a ruling by an independent panel for Sky's bid to run the Australia Network, imposing a "national interest" bar on the process. After the Murdoch's had appeared in front of the UK Culture, Media and Sport Committee on 19 July, Gillard commented that: "When people have seen telephones hacked into, when people have seen individuals grieving having to deal with all of this, then I do think that causes them to ask some questions here in our country."

Criticism of coverage by News Corporation-owned outlets

Various News Corporation owned media outlets have come to defense of News Corporation, and these defense have themselves met with criticism. The Wall Street Journal, a News Corporation owned outlet, opined that "politicians and our competitors are using the phone-hacking years ago at a British corner of News Corp. to assail the Journal, and perhaps injure press freedom in general." The Times of London, also owned by NewsCorp, published an editorial cartoon labeled "Priorties" that depicted three naked Somalians holding empty bowls. One say,"I've had a bellyful of phone-hacking ...".

Researchers from the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism reported that Newscorp's autralian papers gave the scandal less coverage than independent papers. The authors also reported that "all papers carried at least one editorial [...] on phone hacking [...] Not one editorial supported the idea that there should be an inquiry into Australia's media."