Media

Tuesday

James Forsyth

Attention turns to the police

Today, the spotlight in the phone hacking scandal is shifting onto the police — who have an awful lot of questions to answer. Indeed, I suspect at the end of this the reputation of the police will have been hugely damaged. The evidence from senior Met officials — some retired, some serving — has not convinced the Home Affairs committee today. It is a sign of how poor relations are between the police and MPs that a Tory MP has asked the current and former assistant commissioners of the Met if he they have ever taken a bribe from a journalist. Both John Yates and Andy Hayman reacted indignantly to

Peter Hoskin

Brown speaks out

We’ll try to post the video of Gordon Brown’s interview with the Beeb soon. But, for now, here’s the transcript of his remarks about News International and his son’s medical records: Gordon Brown: [The Sun] told me they had this story about Fraser’s medical condition, and that they  were going to run this story. Interviewer: How did that affect you, as a father? GB: In tears. Your son is now going to be broadcast across the media. Sarah and I are incredibly upset about it. We’re thinking about his long-term future. We’re thinking about our family. But there’s nothing that you can do about it. You’re in public life, and

Monday

Peter Hoskin

Enter Gordon Brown, with dynamite

The clunking fist is descending on Rupert Murdoch. After rumours all afternoon about Gordon Brown giving a statement on phone hacking to the Commons, the Guardian has come up with specifics: News International, they allege, used private investigators to target our Prime Minister’s phone, his bank account and his family’s medical records. You should be able to watch it all go down in the Commons, very soon. As Guido has said, there is more than a hint of cold, cold revenge about this. For all his overtures to the Murdoch press, Brown never wound his way into their affections as Tony Blair did. The Sun’s decision to shift over to

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Where we are on phone hacking

David Cameron’s speech on public service reform is being crowded out today by all the other news about hacking. First, there was there were the emails News International has allegedly passed to the police, which apparently contain information about payments to Royal protection officers. This was followed by an angry statement from Scotland Yard claiming that there is a ‘deliberate campaign to undermine the investigation into the alleged payments by corrupt journalists to corrupt police officers and divert attention from elsewhere.’ The police statement goes on to say, ‘At various meetings over the last few weeks information was shared with us by News International and their legal representatives and it

Sunday

Peter Hoskin

Miliband primes his weapon of choice

There’s a lot to sift through in the papers this morning, even apart from history’s final edition of the News of the World. I mean, a report that Rebekah Brooks is to face police questioning over the phone hacking scandal; an interview with the assistant commissioner of the Met, who apologises and flusters over the original police investigation; and claims from Paddy Ashdown that he warned No.10 “within days of the election” about the Coulson-shaped trouble that was heading their way. But more politically significant is the news that Ed Miliband could push for a Commons vote, on Wednesday, to block News Corp’s takeover of Sky. The Labour leader outlined

Saturday

Peter Hoskin

Brooks stands firm

More fuel for the firestorm: this time, a letter by Rebekah Brooks, answering questions put to her by the Home Affairs select committee. It truth, it doesn’t say much that wasn’t either spelt out or suggested in Brooks’ earlier statement this week. But its three main assertions are still worth noting: Brooks had “no knowledge” about the hacking of Milly Dowler’s phone, she claims; likewise for “any other cases during [her] tenure”; and “the practice of phone hacking is not continuing at the News of the World.” In the meantime, Labour are keeping up the political pressure — asking, now, for a judge-led inquiry to convene sooner, sooner, sooner, in

Peter Hoskin

The story sticks to No.10

Big and bold, the contraction “No.10” appears on most of this morning’s front pages. Or, failing that, the words “former Cameron aide”. After the arrest of Andy Coulson yesterday, it was ever going to be thus. But it’s still a sign of how closely Downing Street is being bound into the phone hacking scandal. Cameron’s call, yesterday, for a judge-led inquiry into the whole, stinking affair — which was, you suspect, intended to deflect some of the heat away from his prime ministerial pulpit — is treated almost as a footnote. It’s all Cameron, Coulson, Cameron, Brooks. There’s more emphasis on Downing Street inside the papers, too. Continuing his recent

Friday

James Forsyth

Ofcom to rule on Murdoch’s purchase of BSkyB

If News Corporation was not trying to buy the whole of BSkyB, there’s a good chance that phone hacking would not still be in the news today: that decision was one of the things that led to a revival of interest in the story. As has been said many times during the past few days, securing full ownership of BSkyB is regarded as crucial by the Murdochs and that is one of the reasons they were prepared to take the dramatic step of shutting down The News of the World. But the letter from Ofcom about the takeover and the possibility of Labour forcing a vote in the House of

David Blackburn

From the archives: Rupert Murdoch edition

Rupert Murdoch showed a ruthless strain in his personality yesterday. Here are some anecdotes about the man from Craig Brown. Diary, Craig Brown, The Spectator, 12 September 1987. As TUC delegates bore on about Nye Bevan and the Tolpuddle Martyrs, journalists attempt to remain sane by exchanging fond memories of their own mythological figures, the newspaper proprietors. Robert Maxwell has just taken over from Beaverbrook as the most anthologised ogre, but for some reason there are precious few stories about Rupert Murdoch. He well be bad but he is obviously not bonkers, and both attributes are necessary for real popularity among journalists. Anecdotes about Murdoch’s wit are few and far

Peter Hoskin

Miliband is running out of attacks — but he’ll use what he’s got

It’s a strange thing, amid all venom and spite over the phone hacking scandal, how the three main parties are actually converging on the same responses. A judge-led inquiry? That’s now party policy for them all. The end of the PCC? Likewise. In his press conference earlier, Cameron even came close to saying that Rebekah Brooks should have lost her job. For once, there are trace quantities of Agreeing With Ed in the air at Westminster. This is both a boon and a bitterness for Ed Miliband. A boon, because he can at least claim that Labour led the debate, and Cameron followed. A bitterness, because the politics of the

Peter Hoskin

A newspaper has died, and the recriminations are only just beginning

The blood of the News of the World is sprayed right across the front pages this morning. And yet there’s still more bleeding to be done, it seems. The Guardian has been reporting since last night that Andy Coulson is to be arrested today, over suspicions about his knowledge of phone hacking and police bribery at the paper he once edited. The Mail quotes “supporters of Mr Coulson” as saying that, “he could make damaging claims about Mrs Brooks, who edited the News of the World before him, which in turn could result in her being questioned.” Which rather captures the sense that this story could still intensify, even after

Thursday

Fraser Nelson

A toast to the first Spectator (and to CoffeeHousers)

It’s The Spectator’s summer party today, and in a rather important year. It was exactly 300 years ago that Joseph Addison & Richard Steele first published the earliest incarnation The Spectator. This blog is named for the coffee houses that had sprung up all over London at that time — the original destinations for The Spectator. It had gossip, opinion, character assassinations, literary review (it hyped up Paradise Lost), theatre and the arts. It was a huge success, without about one in ten Londoners reading it at the time. Were Addison alive now, there are a few characteristics he’d recognise in this virtual coffee house. He wrote using a pseudonym,

Peter Hoskin

Breaking: News of the World to close

The Murdochs have acted — and how. The News of the World, a 168 year-old publication, is to close, for good, this weekend. The current speculation is that a Sunday edition of the Sun will take its place, but, for now, here’s the official statement from James Murdoch: News International today announces that this Sunday, 10 July 2011, will be the last issue of the News of the World. Making the announcement to staff, James Murdoch, Deputy Chief Operating Officer, News Corporation, and Chairman, News International said: “I have important things to say about the News of the World and the steps we are taking to address the very serious

Peter Hoskin

What the papers won’t say

Remember Operation Motorman? You may not, because little was made it at the time — and nothing like the current phone hacking furore. Yet many of the themes are identical. In 2003, a private investigator called Steve Whittamore was busted. His job was to simply to snoop out information for various newspaper groups, often using illegal methods. They’d pay him, he’d hand over the information. It really was that simple. Until, that is, the Information Commissioner got its hands on his records, which included details of some of the transactions made between him and his client journalists. By 2006, it had emerged how many journalists had been caught paying Whittamore

Peter Hoskin

The stakes rise for Rupert Murdoch

The business pages have more electricity to them than usual today, and all because of their overlap with the phone hacking scandal. In many ways, yesterday marked a turning point in the whole affair, in that it is now hitting Rupert Murdoch in the pocketbook. News Corporation shares — which had held up for a day or two — finally fell by 3.6 per cent, leaving its chairman and CEO some £120 million worse off. And, as we reported on the new Spectator Business Blog, shares in BSkyB took a similar course; due, no doubt, to prevailing concerns that Murdoch’s takeover might be posponed indefinitely. Ofcom are just one of

Wednesday

James Forsyth

This scandal will inflict huge reputational damage on the police

There’s only one thing that anyone in Westminster is talking about and that’s phone hacking. But one thing worth noting is that in every conversation I have had on the subject, MPs and Ministers have stressed that the police must not be let off the hook. For some on the Labour side—as John McTernan blogs with feeling—this is personal. But for the majority of parliamentarians, there’s just a feeling that certain policemen have been too easily corrupted, for too long. If newspapers were paying police, then the newspapers have obviously behaved badly. But those who accepted bribes are guilty of a far larger breach of the public trust. I suspect

David Blackburn

Murdoch stands by Brooks

Released by News Corporation this afternoon: “Statement from Rupert Murdoch, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, News CorporationLondon, 6 July, 2011 – Recent allegations of phone hacking and making payments to police with respect to the News of the World are deplorable and unacceptable. I have made clear that our company must fully and proactively cooperate with the police in all investigations and that is exactly what News International has been doing and will continue to do under Rebekah Brooks’ leadership. We are committed to addressing these issues fully and have taken a number of important steps to prevent them from happening again. I have also appointed Joel Klein to provide

James Forsyth James Forsyth

A beating, but not as harsh as it might have been

PMQs today was a taste for David Cameron of what he will have to face over the coming weeks as the scandal surrounding the News of the World continues to grow. Ed Miliband asked him whether he agreed that Rebekah Brooks — a friend of Cameron’s —should resign and then mocked him when he wouldn’t answer. The Labour leader than pushed him on whether News International should be stopped from taking over BSkyB and derided him when he said the matter was out of his hands. Finally, he slammed him for his decision to bring Andy Coulson — who had resigned as editor of the News of the World because

Tuesday

Peter Hoskin

Labour make a public inquiry their cause

I briefly mentioned Ed Miliband’s assertive remarks about the News of the World earlier. But it is worth returning to the video, above, to highlight one of his specific demands. “A police inquiry needs to take place without fear of favour,” said the Labour leader, “and then we need a much wider inquiry to restore the reputation of British journalism.” Harriet Harman has since echoed this sentiment in Deputy Prime Minister’s Questions, urging the government to “act” and establish a public inquiry into the newspaper trade. So, only hours after Tom Watson berated his party leadership for their timidity on this front, a public inquiry appears to have become official