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 arrest of Brooks proves that the problems at News Corp. aren't the fault of a few bad apples, as Murdoch has been claiming, says Ken Auletta in The New Yorker. The "entire barrel...is rotten." And with politicians shunning Murdoch (and his money and influence), even "more apples will drop in coming days," no matter what Murdoch does. He just "doesn’t have enough fingers to stop the gushing water" from this leaky dam.
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