From THE INDEPENDENT:
David Cameron was given a personal guarantee by Rupert Murdoch that Andy Coulson was safe to take on as his Downing Street press chief, The Independent on Sunday learnt yesterday, as the fallout from the News of the World phone-hacking scandal threatened to escalate into all-out war between the UK’s two most powerful men.
The Prime Minister had already cooled relations with the 80-year-old press baron on Friday by saying that his son, James Murdoch, has “questions to answer” over News International’s handling of the scandal. The Battle of Wapping 2011 will be intensified by the revelation that Mr Cameron was told by Mr Murdoch twice that, despite fears over Mr Coulson’s connection to the phone-hacking scandal, there was no problem with the former editor.
The IoS can reveal that the cosy relationship between the Prime Minister, Mr Murdoch Snr, News International’s chief executive Rebekah Brooks and Mr Coulson has been severely damaged by the hacking crisis, which caused the closure of the 168-year-old tabloid newspaper this weekend. Mr Cameron faces serious questions over his judgement in appointing Mr Coulson, who was arrested on Friday by police investigating hacking and illegal payments to police officers. […] Rupert Murdoch flies to London today to take personal control of the crisis, amid fears that the toxicity caused by the News of the World’s role in hacking could affect his treasured US title, The Wall Street Journal.
In fresh developments yesterday, Mr Coulson made clear he was standing by his story and would not be made a scapegoat in the crisis. Mrs Brooks also stood her ground by telling a committee of MPs that she had “no knowledge whatsoever of phone-hacking” during her tenure as editor of the News of the World.
Mr Coulson is understood to be “steaming” with rage that he has been left swinging by News International, specifically by Ms Brooks.
…snip…
Mrs Brooks continues to enjoy the support of Rupert Murdoch. Asked yesterday, before he left for London, whether she had his backing, Mr Murdoch replied: “Total.” He added: “I’m not throwing innocent people under the bus… we’ve been let down by people that we trusted, with the result the paper let down its readers.”
Meanwhile Mr Murdoch’s hopes of taking over BSkyB are hanging in the balance. An opinion poll released yesterday showed that two-thirds of people do not believe Mr Murdoch Snr and other News Corporation executives are “fit and proper” to own British media.
The YouGov survey on behalf of the campaign group Avaaz, which has campaigned against the takeover, also suggests 73 per cent of people think the media baron has too much influence over British politics. Half of people surveyed think Mr Cameron is “too close” to Mr Murdoch.
…snip…
There is speculation in the Murdoch empire that senior executives could face criminal charges in the US and the UK. Legal experts say that Les Hinton, the publisher of the WSJ, and James Murdoch could potentially face charges under the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) or the UK’s Regulation of Investigative Practices Act (RIPA). The US law means executives can be held to account for bribes paid by overseas subsidiaries, while the RIPA makes company officials liable regardless of their direct role in unlawful practices. “Under RIPA, ignorance of what was going on is not a defence,” said a legal source.
Yesterday Mr Coulson, who was questioned for nine hours at a London police station on Friday by detectives who seized his computer and documents, emerged from his home to pay tribute to his former colleagues at the News of the World, who were putting together the final edition of the newspaper for publication today. Clearly emotional, Mr Coulson said: “I think this is a very sad day for the News of the World. More importantly for the staff who, in my mind, are brilliant, professional people and I really feel for them.” A letter from Mr Coulson’s lawyers to the [House of] Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, which is investigating the scandal, reveals that the former Downing Street spin chief is sticking to evidence he gave to Parliament in 2009, when he said he did not “condone or use” phone-hacking when he was editor. The letter refers MPs to his previous evidence to the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee.
…snip..
Ms Brooks wrote to the Home Affairs committee, and her letter was also published yesterday. She said: “I want to be absolutely clear that as editor of the News of the World I had no knowledge… of phone-hacking in the case of Milly Dowler and her family, or in any other cases during my tenure. I also want to reassure you that the practice of phone-hacking is not continuing at the News of the World… I should add that we have no reason to believe that any phone-hacking occurred at any other of our titles.”
…snip…
There are also suspicions that Mr Cameron may himself have been a victim of phone hacking before he became PM – which would help to explain why his approach to News International has hardened.
Mr Murdoch’s decision to secretly move the entire News International operation to a new site and rid it of the print unions in 1986 led to the original Battle of Wapping.
HYSTERICAL RAISINS 
Ms. Brooks said “..I want to be absolutely clear that as editor of the News of the World I had no knowledge… of phone-hacking in the case of Milly Dowler and her family, or in any other cases during my tenure. I also want to reassure you that the practice of phone-hacking is not continuing at the News of the World..”
If she didn’t know it was going on, how can she be sure it isn’t still continuing? Besides, it’s kinda hard to continue to hack phones if they’ve shut the whole bloody operation down! (Or am I making too much sense again?)
I say hang Murdoch out as a pinata, 1 quid a whack. For that, I’d find the money to fly over to Jolly Old just to take a few swings! 😀
you make more sense than any so-called investigator that uncle rupie hires is going to make. this is going to be huge. even if uncle rupie has (or used to have, before he hacked their phones, too) the prime minister and others in his pocket, they have political enemies in parliament who are champing at the bit to ask uncle rupie and his minions questions. plus, advertisers are fleeing in droves. i hope that carries over to faux news, but i doubt that’ll happen. i hope news corp gets branded as the corporation that took advantage of a young girl’s murder to make money.
Never mind me, I’m just sitting here in a lounge chair eating popcorn.
i’m going to buy stock in popcorn futures.
The problem for Rupie is that when you piss off a large number of people by stepping all over them, they’ll quickly move in for the kill once your wounded. If this grows, nobody is going to jump to his defense.
As for PM Cameron, he maybe pissed that his phone was hacked but he hired that hack as his press man. Now he’s going to face a lot of questions both from Labor and the Liberal Democrats as well as his own party.
and the beauty of that, jeb, is that cameron is doubly pissed off at rupie and his merry band of criminals. the more rupie and coulson is diminished, the more cameron is diminished for putting so much trust in them. he’s shown a total lack of judgment, and it’s come back to kick him in the ass. more popcorn!!!!
If Evil Rupert is 80, he should realize that time is running out! How can he continue the campaign of world conquest at this rate? Come on, ditch the new wife, declare yourself a great nancy, and propose to the Italian dictator of all that prints and broadcasts. At the wedding, we will have Elton play “If I ruled the world” and the two can sing a duet gazing into each others eyes. I’d pay a dollar to see that! …..PS..best blog comment on the redhead:..”Gosh, Carrot Top sure has had a lot of work done…”
😆 at carrot top! when i saw her on tv, my first thought was that julianne moore will play her in the movie.
i hope this alls weighs very heavily on the old bastard uncle rupie. i hope he goes to bed every night thinking that this will be his miserable legacy.
Here’s an article for you about California raisins (item 3).
here, where?
Damn it:
http://www.cracked.com/article_19297_5-famous-ad-campaigns-that-actually-hurt-sales.html
Hey, JP, don’t you know you shouldn’t swear? It sounds like hell and it doesn’t do you a damn bit of good. 😉
(Don’t blame me for this one, it came from my father almost 50 years ago, and I suspect it had whiskers then!)
It’s not really swearing if it’s not your mother tongue… 😉
enough about your mother’s tongue. that’s just embarrassing. 😳 and john is right–no more swearing. cut that shit out immediately! 😉
i still love raisins. 🙂
How awesome that these law violations span international boundaries. Yeah, I know, DoJ won’t do a thing because they’re p*ssies. (And I really want to be wrong on that.) But Rupie must be reeling.
I wonder why the American-owned news networks in the U.S. don’t tout their Americanness.
i really hope you’re wrong, too, but i doubt that you are. 😡 i wonder if they hacked anyone here in the states. if they did, maybe someone will not only sue them, but insist that charges be brought.
Some more about the phone-hacking, from the dear old Beeb itself:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14099102
thanks, john. this story has grabbed me, and i can’t read enough about it.
Here’s a link for the Guardian, concerning the phone tapping. It looks more shit is hitting the fan.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jul/10/news-international-phone-hacking-memos-police
uncle rupie will have to give up on the fans and buy himself a wind farm to handle all the shit.
Once I heard that Murdock owned the paper, I stopped following the story … thus don’t know much to say.
because it’s uncle rupie’s paper is what makes the story so awesome. there’s finally a chink in the armor, and the scandal spreads to all of his businesses, his family, and the british government, all the way up to 2–count ’em–2 prime ministers. it’s like a soap opera on steroids with a british accent.