A rather brief update on the saga than normal, as I have kids here. However, I'll update if more comes in the afternoon. Ericlewis0 has done a great job of explaining how the phone hacking scandal that has engulfed News International, and seen its top executives and senior policeman resign, has moved to the much more serious allegation of computer hacking.
It's in the US where the Downfall will take place
As I've always said, it's in the US that the Murdoch's will meet their final downfall: that's where Newscorp is registered, and both James and Rupert are US citizens. Michael Wolff, Murdoch's biographer, agrees:
He is convinced Murdoch, 80, will be forced to step down from both his roles as chairman and chief executive. "Rupert has to leave any kind of management position in this company. This man is out of a job," he says.Wolff reckons Rupert's son James will also have to go - despite the fact the board of BSkyB gave the younger Murdoch its unanimous support in a stock-market announcement this morning.
Wolff certainly looks eager to will the crisis at News Corp to get worse, to the point some critics say is obsessive - but his predictions have proved wrong in the past. On July 18 he tweeted: "Smart money says James Murdoch will be gone from BSkyB chairman in the next few days."......
But though completely discredited in the UK, James still retains a role in the US registered Newscorp: Wolff continues...
"This scandal is only going to get bigger," says Wolff. "It's been going on for five years here but we're only a month in [in the US]. Meltdown in a foreign division that directly reports to the CEO can't be ignored by US regulators."Wolff believes US regulators and prosecutors are going to subject the company to such relentless scrutiny over its criminal wrongdoing at the News of the World that Murdoch's role will become untenable at News Corp.
Rupert's Worst Nightmare Come True? Guardian's Nick Davies comes to U.S.
Given all that, there's some ominous news for them from Adweek
Here's Rupert Murdoch's worst nightmare: Nick Davies, the tenacious investigative reporter for the Guardian who has broken much of the Hackinggate story, comes to the U.S. in search of News Corp. crimes and coverup.Well, it's come true. Davies arrives in New York today. He'll be there until Friday, and then he's going to Los Angeles in pursuit of hacking-type practices that might have been carried out on U.S. soil by Murdoch’s U.S. reporters, by his U.K. reporters working in the U.S., or by private detectives hired by News Corp.
If such crimes were committed here, that could mean real trouble for News Corp.—the legal system here is more tenacious and the remedies more draconian than in the U.K.
Having been credited by both Bernstein and Woodward of exposing a scandal as far reaching and potentially politically significant as Watergate, Davies arrival in the US certainly indicates there are avenues of inquiry to be followed up there. We've already heard that Jude Law's phone may well have been hacked on US soil, and of course the payment to police officers and potential perversion of the course of justice could lead senior members of Newscorp liable under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
More to come as and when it comes in.