[SkHukV3N]

I wondered about that, she is a little protective of Daddy Warbucks there....

As for Rupert, I have no doubt they will find he knew nothing directly about all these wiretaps. He probably did not tell anyone to do this, but I also know that if he knew, he would not be one to tell them to stop (Unless, of course, OTHERS knew he knew, and could prove it).

The big guys are rarely the ones that give the individual orders. He is only concerned with the bottom line.

[vulikox]

Did Rupert not know about the million$ in $ettlement$ that his boy James & News Corpse guys have paid out in connection to hacking violations?

[Heaneisismich]

Probably every penny of it, but he was strangely unaware of them doing it...again and again.

[Rememavotscam]

JULY 22, 2011

Justice Department Prepares Subpoenas in News Corp. Inquiry

By JESSICA E. VASCELLARO,DEVLIN BARRETT and DANA CIMILLUCA

The U.S. Justice Department is preparing subpoenas as part of preliminary investigations into News Corp. relating to alleged foreign bribery and alleged hacking of voicemail of Sept. 11 victims, according to a government official.

The issuance of such subpoenas, which would broadly seek relevant information from the company, requires approval by senior Justice Department leadership, which hasn't yet happened, the person said.

The issuance of subpoenas would represent an escalation of scrutiny on the New York-based media company. While the company has sought to isolate the legal problems in the U.K., it has been bracing for increased scrutiny from both the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission, according to people familiar with the company's strategy.

The Justice Department has said it is looking into allegations that News Corp.'s now-defunct News of the World weekly in the U.K. paid bribes to British police. It has been unclear whether the Justice Department or the SEC have begun formal probes.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation separately has begun an inquiry into whether News Corp. employees tried to hack into voice mails of Sept. 11 victims, people familiar with the early-stage probe have said.

A person close to News Corp. said the preparation of subpoenas is "a fishing expedition with no evidence to support it."

News Corp. owns The Wall Street Journal.

Commenting on the FBI inquiry, a News Corp. spokeswoman said: "We have not seen any evidence to suggest there was any hacking of 9/11 victim's phones, nor has anybody corroborated what are clearly very serious allegations. The story arose when an unidentified person speculated to the Daily Mirror about whether it happened. That paper printed the anonymous speculation, which has since mushroomed in the broader media with no substantiation."

The spokeswoman also said the company hasn't seen any "indication of a connection or similarity between the events, allegations and practices being investigated in the U.K. and News Corp's U.S. properties."

News Corp. and its recently bolstered legal team expect a possible broad investigation by the Justice Department into whether the alleged bribes paid to British police violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, or FCPA, according to the people familiar with the company's strategy. The law is typically used to pursue charges against companies that bribe foreign officials to give them business contracts.

News Corp.'s team also is anticipating a possible FCPA-related investigation by the SEC, the people said. The SEC also could examine News Corp.'s prior disclosures, one of the people said. By law, companies must adequately alert investors to potential litigation or business pitfalls on the horizon.

A spokesman for the SEC declined to comment.

The company's U.K. newspaper unit, News International, has declined to comment on the alleged bribes, citing an ongoing police investigation. Former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks said in testimony to Parliament Tuesday that she had "never knowingly sanctioned a payment to a police officer."

U.K. police are conducting two parallel investigations into News Corp.'s now-closed News of the World, which is at the heart of the British scandal. One is related to allegations of illegal voice-mail interception and was opened in January; the other stems from allegations of police bribery. In addition, the company is facing a raft of civil suits. The U.K. government, meanwhile, plans at least two public inquiries.

For the Justice Department and the SEC to pursue News Corp. in the U.S. for allegedly bribing British policemen, the agencies would have to rely on a broad interpretation of the FCPA, legal experts say.

Another possible infraction investigators could examine: whether any payments were improperly accounted for in the company's books and records.

In recent days, News Corp. has hired an expert in the FCPA, Mark Mendelsohn, to advise it, according to people familiar with the matter.

Mr. Mendelsohn, a partner in the Washington office of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, couldn't be reached for comment.
—Vanessa O'Connell, Thomas Catan and Russell Adams contributed to this article.

Copyright 2011 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

[janeloveslifenow]

Not to jump on Lofter's bandwagon, but PLEASE let this spread to the US

[olivelappers]

All Aboooaaard!!

[avarberickibe]

Not to jump on Lofter's bandwagon, but PLEASE let this spread to the US

Now just wait a minute.

Please let this spread here.

[LClan439]

oops....! mea culpa.

but than again, this works too.

Fingers are crossed that Fox News takes a hit.

[adarmaSen]

aka the ZipTrain ...

[JohnTruels]

I thought there might be more to the hacking story when Murdoch quickly folded a 168 year old newspaper.

[CoiI8XIj]

A person close to News Corp. said the preparation of subpoenas is "a fishing expedition with no evidence to support it." Notice that the "person close" did not say "no fish".

[sisuarmalmicy]

This is beyond abhorent

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/29/wo...gewanted=print

“Forgive me if I sound cynical,” said one member of parliament, Tom Watson, who has led investigations into hacking, “but I don’t know where it is going to end.” New Hacking Case Outrages BritainBy RAVI SOMAIYA and SARAH LYALL

LONDON — Britain was awash in a new surge of outrage over the phone hacking scandal on Thursday, as news emerged that Scotland Yard had added to the list of probable victims a woman whose 8-year-old daughter was murdered by a repeat sex offender in 2000.

The tabloid at the center of the scandal, The News of the World, had championed the campaign of the grieving mother, Sara Payne, for a law warning parents if child sex offenders lived nearby. Mrs. Payne, who was paralyzed by a stroke in recent years, had written warmly of the paper in its final edition, calling it “an old friend.”

A statement released on behalf of Mrs. Payne by the Phoenix Foundation, a children’s charity she founded, described her as devastated and disappointed. “Today is a very sad dark day for us,” the charity added in a posting on Facebook. “Our faith in good people has taken a real battering.” The page noted that she was struggling in the wake of the July 1 anniversary of her daughter’s abduction.

British news channels, which had been growing weary of the scandal — into a fourth week of cascading revelations that have shaken the media, political elite and police — broke into their scheduled reports to report the allegations that Ms. Payne had been hacked.

“Forgive me if I sound cynical,” said one member of parliament, Tom Watson, who has led investigations into hacking, “but I don’t know where it is going to end.”

“The last edition of The News of the World made great play of the paper’s relationship with the Payne family,” he noted, saying, “I have nothing but contempt for the people that did this.”

The Guardian was the first to report Scotland Yard’s alert to Mrs. Payne, but the e-mail newsletter Popbitch suggested earlier this month that Mrs. Payne’s voice mail had been hacked and that the phone in question may have been provided to her by the onetime editor of The News of the World, Rebekah Brooks, as part of the campaign for the law.

In a statement, Ms. Brooks confirmed that The News of the World had provided Mrs. Payne with a cellphone “for the last 11 years,” but that “it was not a personal gift.” She said she found the allegations that Mrs. Payne’s voice mail had been hacked “abhorrent and particularly upsetting as Sara Payne is a dear friend.”

When Ms. Brooks, who has been forced to step down from News International, the British arm of Rubert Murdoch’s News Corporation and owner of The News of the World, recently testified before Parliament, she cited the successful campaign for Mrs. Payne’s law as evidence of the good she had done at the tabloid’s helm. A spokeswoman for News International said the company had no immediate comment.

Scotland Yard officers told Mrs. Payne that her name was on a list of about 4,000 targets held by the private investigator Glenn Mulcaire, according to the Phoenix Foundation statement. Mr. Mulcaire, who was convicted on hacking charges related to the paper five years ago, had an exclusive contract with the tabloid.

The hacking scandal had been smoldering for years, but ignited in recent weeks following assertions that hacking on behalf of The News of the World had interfered with the investigation into the 2006 murder of a 13-year-old girl, Milly Dowler. The man eventually convicted of her killing committed two more murders before he was caught.

Also on Thursday, the British judge leading the inquiry into the scandal held a news conference in central London, saying that the panel planned to hold its first public hearings in September and that it would have the power to compel witnesses to testify.

The inquiry will be in two parts. The first will focus on press regulation and the relationship between the press and the public, said the judge, Lord Justice Leveson. The second, which will begin after the police investigation is finished, will focus on specific allegations of phone hacking and other journalistic malfeasance in the wake of the scandal, which has spread through British media but which has most strongly shaken Mr. Murdoch’s media empire.

Justice Leveson was appointed by Prime Minister David Cameron after it became clear that hacking at The News of the World extended not only to public figures like celebrities and politicians, but also to Milly Dowler and the families of those killed in terrorist attacks. Mr. Cameron, a Conservative, initially resisted setting up an immediate inquiry, but changed his mind in response to widespread public disgust and growing political pressure from the opposition Labour Party.

The judge said that the investigation would be broad. “The focus of the inquiry is the culture, practices and ethics of the press in the context of the latter’s relationship with the public, the police and politicians,” he said.

His goal, he added, would be to “consider what lessons, if any, may be learned from past events” and to make recommendations about how the press might be regulated in the future.

One of the issues the judge will consider is the coziness of the ties between politicians and the news media — particularly the relationship between lawmakers and editors and executives at News International.

In another sign of how far News International’s influence extends — or has extended, until now — in British public life, it emerged last week that Justice Leveson himself had attended two parties last year at the home of Elisabeth Murdoch, a daughter of Mr. Murdoch, and her husband, Matthew Freud, a powerful public-relations executive.

Justice Leveson said that because he and the rest of the inquiry panel — which includes former journalists and a former high-ranking police officer, among others — had been chosen “for our experience,” it was “inevitable” that “there are such contacts or links, and there should be no apology for this.”

He added, “Had I had the slightest doubt about my own position, I would not have accepted the appointment, and I also make it clear that I am satisfied that what the panelists have said creates no conflict of interest for them or me.”

Justice Leveson also said that the panel would convene seminars examining media ethics, the law and investigative journalism. He said that he hoped to make the inquiry as broad as possible and encompass broadcast journalists as well as those from the print media.

A spokesman for the panel said that witnesses would testify under oath.

“It may be tempting for a number of people to close ranks and suggest that the problem is or was local to a group of journalists then operating at The News of the World,” Justice Leveson said. “But I would encourage all to take a wider view of the public good and help me grapple with the width and depth of the problem.”