It's a house of cards
Jul. 18th, 2011 03:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
innocent_lexThe phone hacking scandal has been on the go for years in the UK. For those who don't live here, the very short version is that a few years ago some journalists from the News of the World (a Murdoch-owned so-called newspaper) were investigated on charges of hacking into the royals' voicemails, most likely Prince William. Two people were put in jail, the NoW said they'd do a rigorous internal investigation and claimed there was no more hacking, and that was that. The Press Complaints Commission conducted an investigation and said there was no more evidence of hacking. It seemed that was that.
Unfortunately for the NoW, news came out that they'd paid off various football folks to keep quiet about their phones being hacked. Various famous people came forward and started to take NoW to court for hacking their phones. As more news came from further investigations (some from other papers, some from more authoritative sources) the news came out that pissed off the British public: the NoW had hacked into victims of crime, including a murdered teenager (Millie Dowler - they deleted some of her messages, leading her family and police to believe she was alive when she wasn't), family and victims of the 7/7 bombings in London, and so on.
There have been a lot of denials by a lot of people in the last few weeks and months, sometimes years. Some of those people have now resigned, some have been arrested, the NoW is now closed, Rupert and James Murdoch will be going before a parliamentary committee to answer questions, and there is both a police investigation and judicial investigation (set up by the government) in progress.
The commissioner and assistant commissioner of the Met Police have now resigned over this scandal, on the surface because of failing to uncover the full extent of these criminal activities. Who knows what other reasons there are. The NoW has been closed, and most of the country see that as Murdoch's attempt to appease people. Rebekah Brooks, ex-editor of the NoW who was in charge during the time in question and who was the CEO of News International, resigned (we assume once Murdoch realised people weren't going to accept NoW's closure as the sacrificial lamb). In good news, Murdoch has withdrawn his bid for BSkyB - which would have given him full ownership of the very large satellite broadcaster in the UK. NewsCorp still owns The Times / Sunday Times, The Sun (the biggest-selling newspaper in the UK), and 39% of BSkyB. They own a lot more in the US and Australia. These publications and channels have an enormous influence over public opinion.
So that was the short version. Really. The real issue this has brought into the light (as if it wasn't already known, just not really spoken of) is the power the media - in particular Murdoch-owned media - has in this country. Both the government and senior police have been involved with news organisations for years and years and years. There have been payments, hospitality, and high powered agreements made behind closed doors that we'll likely never get the full picture of. But the fact that MPs and prime ministers were afraid to piss off Murdoch and his senior staff is a clear sign of the disaster that's been on the bubble for years.
Possible actions coming out of all of this are likely to include more regulation on ownership of media, and also on behaviour of those working for those media. Some of that will be a good thing. Some of it may even come from a good place in caring about a broad range of opinions and not granting any one person or corporation too much power. But I'm sure some of it will be coming from a desire for revenge from MPs who've felt powerless in the face of unspoken but absolutely clear threat from those such as NewsCorp. While I think regulation will be a good thing overall to deal with the issues around power balances, from what I'm seeing at the moment the crimes that are coming to light are already crimes - you cannot hack into someone's voicemail, you cannot give or take bribes, and so on. Will the changes in regulation give MPs a feeling that they can now act on what they think is right in going after bad behaviour in NewsCorp, or will they just end up being another way for MPs to feel they can get away with things such as fiddling their expenses? Who knows.
This rambling post was brought to you by a disappointed but wholly unsurprised citizen of the UK.
For more on the timeline, see the BBC's notes: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14124020
Unfortunately for the NoW, news came out that they'd paid off various football folks to keep quiet about their phones being hacked. Various famous people came forward and started to take NoW to court for hacking their phones. As more news came from further investigations (some from other papers, some from more authoritative sources) the news came out that pissed off the British public: the NoW had hacked into victims of crime, including a murdered teenager (Millie Dowler - they deleted some of her messages, leading her family and police to believe she was alive when she wasn't), family and victims of the 7/7 bombings in London, and so on.
There have been a lot of denials by a lot of people in the last few weeks and months, sometimes years. Some of those people have now resigned, some have been arrested, the NoW is now closed, Rupert and James Murdoch will be going before a parliamentary committee to answer questions, and there is both a police investigation and judicial investigation (set up by the government) in progress.
The commissioner and assistant commissioner of the Met Police have now resigned over this scandal, on the surface because of failing to uncover the full extent of these criminal activities. Who knows what other reasons there are. The NoW has been closed, and most of the country see that as Murdoch's attempt to appease people. Rebekah Brooks, ex-editor of the NoW who was in charge during the time in question and who was the CEO of News International, resigned (we assume once Murdoch realised people weren't going to accept NoW's closure as the sacrificial lamb). In good news, Murdoch has withdrawn his bid for BSkyB - which would have given him full ownership of the very large satellite broadcaster in the UK. NewsCorp still owns The Times / Sunday Times, The Sun (the biggest-selling newspaper in the UK), and 39% of BSkyB. They own a lot more in the US and Australia. These publications and channels have an enormous influence over public opinion.
So that was the short version. Really. The real issue this has brought into the light (as if it wasn't already known, just not really spoken of) is the power the media - in particular Murdoch-owned media - has in this country. Both the government and senior police have been involved with news organisations for years and years and years. There have been payments, hospitality, and high powered agreements made behind closed doors that we'll likely never get the full picture of. But the fact that MPs and prime ministers were afraid to piss off Murdoch and his senior staff is a clear sign of the disaster that's been on the bubble for years.
Possible actions coming out of all of this are likely to include more regulation on ownership of media, and also on behaviour of those working for those media. Some of that will be a good thing. Some of it may even come from a good place in caring about a broad range of opinions and not granting any one person or corporation too much power. But I'm sure some of it will be coming from a desire for revenge from MPs who've felt powerless in the face of unspoken but absolutely clear threat from those such as NewsCorp. While I think regulation will be a good thing overall to deal with the issues around power balances, from what I'm seeing at the moment the crimes that are coming to light are already crimes - you cannot hack into someone's voicemail, you cannot give or take bribes, and so on. Will the changes in regulation give MPs a feeling that they can now act on what they think is right in going after bad behaviour in NewsCorp, or will they just end up being another way for MPs to feel they can get away with things such as fiddling their expenses? Who knows.
This rambling post was brought to you by a disappointed but wholly unsurprised citizen of the UK.
For more on the timeline, see the BBC's notes: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14124020
