The Week: Most Recent media-scandals

Rupert Murdoch's phone-hacking scandal: A timeline

The Week — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 17:45:00 -0400

This article — originally published on July 19, 2011 — was last updated on April 4, 2012. Scroll down and click through for the latest updates

An electronic-eavesdropping scandal that started at Rupert Murdoch's Sunday tabloid News of the World is rapidly escalating into a full-fledged conflagration that threatens Murdoch, his global media empire, and the British government — and has already resulted in the arrest or resignation of several previously untouchable figures. How did allegations of listening in on the voicemails of the royal family snowball into a threat to one...

Time for Rupert Murdoch to resign?

The Week — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 15:44:00 -0400

Bloomberg reported this week that News Corp.'s board had discussed whether to replace the company's scandal-plagued leader, Rupert Murdoch, with COO Chase Carey. So far, News Corp. is insisting that Murdoch, who denied responsibility for the News of the World phone-hacking mess in testimony to British Parliament on Tuesday, is staying put. No matter what happens, Murdoch will largely remain in control, because he owns 40 percent of the company's voting stock. But would it be better for the company and its shareholders if he stepped aside as the media empire's figurehead?

Yes. Murdoch's resignation...

Rupert Murdoch: A real-life Lord Voldemort?

The Week — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 10:57:00 -0400

With two of the week's biggest news events centered on perilous battles with formidable and widely loathed men — Harry Potter's archrival Lord Voldemart and media baron Rupert Murdoch — it would seem odd if the media didn't make the connection. Even relatively staid news outlets wove the comparison into their hard news pieces, to varying degrees of success, notes The Washington Post's Sarah Anne Hughes. Here, some of the better Murdoch-Voldemort parallels:

The stars align
Murdoch's downfall and Harry Potter's box office triumph is "an amazing cosmic convergence," says Patrick Goldstein...

Wendi Murdoch's 'furious' pie-in-the-face-foiling skills

The Week — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 14:27:00 -0400

The video: A protester tried to hit News Corp. chief Rupert Murdoch in the face with a shaving-cream pie as he testified before British Parliament on Tuesday about the phone-hacking scandal that took down one of his newspapers, the News of the World. But the embattled 80-year-old media mogul was saved when his wife, Wendi, wowed everyone with a swift, brutal counterattack. (See a video clip below.) She leapt from her seat behind her husband, and catapulted herself over a women in front of her, with both arms swinging. She appeared to land an overhead swat on the assailant's head before a uniformed...

Hacking scandal: Rupert Murdoch's 'crocodile tears'

The Week — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 14:28:00 -0400

The video: Rupert Murdoch is going on an apology tour as he works to stanch the bleeding from a disastrous and growing phone-hacking and bribery scandal that started at his now-defunct British tabloid News of the World. Murdoch took out a full-page signed apology letter in every major British newspaper over the weekend, and personally visited the parents of Milly Dowler, the murdered 13-year-old whose phone News Corp. employees apparently hacked in 2002. (Watch Murdoch apologize below.) Taking out a full-page ad "feels a bit old-school," says PR specialist Mark Borkowski, as quoted by Britain...

Rebekah Brooks' arrest: How damaging will it be to News Corp.?

The Week — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 11:04:00 -0400

The seemingly non-stop scandal engulfing Rupert Murdoch's media companies claimed its two most high-profile trophies on Sunday, with the surprise arrest of Murdoch lieutenant Rebekah Brooks, and the resignation of Britain's top police official, Sir Paul Stephenson. Brooks — who resigned as chief executive of News International, Murdoch's British subsidiary, on Friday — was accused of illegally intercepting phone calls and bribing cops. Her arrest is the 10th of the scandal, and the most personally compromising for Murdoch. What happens now?

Murdoch is in for the fight of his life:...

The 9/11 hacking investigation: Should Rupert Murdoch be worried?

The Week — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 10:07:00 -0400

The phone-hacking and bribery scandal roiling Rupert Murdoch's British media empire took a big leap across the ocean Thursday, as the FBI opened an official review of charges that Murdoch's now-defunct News of the World tabloid had tried to steal personal information from the phones of victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack. At least six members of Congress are calling for a close look into the tabloid's U.S.-based parent company, News Corp., and on Friday, Rebekah Brooks, "Murdoch's loyal lieutenant" in Britain, stepped down in the face of a widening scandal. Here, a brief guide...

Is Fox News ignoring Rupert Murdoch's hacking scandal?

The Week — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 09:58:00 -0400

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. media empire is in the midst of its biggest scandal ever, involving illegal phone-hacking in the U.K., alleged police bribery, potentially endangering the royal family, and other morsels irresistible to most media organizations. News Corp.'s stock has tanked, and Murdoch has given up his bid to take over British cash-cow broadcaster BSkyB. And yet, the scandal is not headline news at some of News Corp.'s prominent media outlets, including the New York Post and Fox News. (Watch a CNN story below.) Is Fox intentionally downplaying the bad news about its boss?

Yes...

Will the feds investigate News Corp. over phone hacking?

The Week — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 16:18:00 -0400

Britain's tabloid phone-hacking scandal has already destroyed Rupert Murdoch's News of the World. And with new accusations that the 168-year-old newspaper tried to hack into the phones of 9/11 victims, Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) wants Uncle Sam to launch an investigation into News Corp.'s business practices. The hacking allegations raise "serious questions about whether the company has broken U.S. law," Rockefeller said in a statement, adding that if News Corp. wronged Americans, "the consequences will be severe." Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) wants an investigation, too. With Murdoch...

How Rupert Murdoch's hacking scandal could infect his news empire

The Week — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 15:54:00 -0400

The British phone-hacking scandal that brought down Rupert Murdoch's storied tabloid News of the World is spreading like wildfire to other News Corp. newspapers including The Sun and The Sunday Times. Among the newly reported high-profile hacking targets: former Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his sickly young son; police investigating News of the World; the royal family's security detail; and even, allegedly, victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. And as Murdoch arrived in Britain on a damage-control mission, News Corp. shareholders in the U.S. filed suit accusing the board of gross mismanagement...

News of the World's implosion: Winners and losers

The Week — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 13:51:00 -0400

Thursday saw the stunning collapse of the highly profitable, exceedingly popular, 168-year-old British tabloid News of the World, after a snowballing scandal involving voicemail hacking. The scandal is expected to lead to several arrests, has tarnished the reputation of Prime Minister David Cameron, and could do lasting damage to Rupert Murdoch's massive media empire. Here's a look at some people and institutions that stand to benefit from the scandal, and some who have been burned by it:

WINNERS

Rupert Murdoch
It may seem counterintuitive, but this scandal could help the media magnate. Yes, shuttering...

Will Britain's tabloid phone-hacking scandal sink Rupert Murdoch?

The Week — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 12:40:00 -0400

The British Sunday tabloid News of the World, owned by Rupert Murdoch's News International, has been embroiled in a simmering scandal since 2007, when an editor and private eye went to jail for hacking into the voicemail inboxes of royal family employees. Since then, the list of phone-hacking victims has grown to include celebrities, soccer stars, and members of Parliament. This week, credible allegations emerged that News of the World paid a private eye to hack the voicemail of a missing 13-year-old girl who was later found murdered, and the scandal went "nuclear." Now, faced with an exodus of...

'Phone-hacking' scandal: Rupert Murdoch vs. The New York Times

The Week — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 11:25:00 -0400

Rupert Murdoch's flagship Sunday tabloid in Britain, News of the World, is firing back in response to a damaging New York Times report about the newspaper's alleged illegal "phone-hacking" of political and celebrity voicemail accounts. News of the World managing editor Bill Akass, in a letter to The Times, accused it of breaching its own ethics guidelines by publishing "unsubstantiated rumor" to punish a key rival, Murdoch's Wall Street Journal. Does Team Murdoch have a case? (Watch Rupert Murdoch refuse to discuss the scandal)

Team Murdoch "has no case": Let's review News of the World's "recent...

Britain's tabloid 'hack attack'

The Week — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 08:15:00 -0400

In an article that instantly rattled the freewheeling British tabloid industry, The New York Times Magazine reports that the News of the World newspaper routinely hacked into the mobile phones of celebrities, politicians, and even members of the royal family. The Times investigation came four years after the News of the World, part of Rupert Murdoch's publishing empire, was swept up in a phone-hacking scandal that touched the top of British society. While the News of the World has admitted that one of its reporters used illegal phone-hacking services, it denies "absolutely" that the...