Not only is his "news" News Corporation having to deal with one and possibly more cases of hacking on U.S. soil that could cost hundreds of millions of dollars in court costs and fees, but now there's a tape out that suggests Rupert Murdoch called for internal management to begin covering up the scandal after they had started cooperating with police:
Labour MP Tom Watson has called on Rupert Murdoch to be questioned by police after a covert recording emerged of him appearing to regret the level of help News Corporation gave to the investigation into alleged wrongdoing at its newspapers.
The News Corporation boss describes payments to police and public officials as "the culture of Fleet Street" in a secret recording made during a meeting with staff from the Sun newspaper this March.
In a transcript of the recording, which was obtained by the investigative website ExaroNews and aired by Channel 4 news on Wednesday evening, he appears to regret the extent of News Corporation's internal management and standards committee's (MSC) co-operation with the police.
After a Sun journalist at the meeting appears in the recording to query the MSC handing over documents to the police, Murdoch is heard saying: "… it was a mistake, I think. But, in that atmosphere, at that time, we said, 'Look, we are an open book, we will show you everything'. And the lawyers just got rich going through millions of emails.
"All I can say is, for the last several months, we have told, the MSC has told, and [**** ****], who's a terrific lawyer, has told the police, has said, 'No, no, no – get a court order. Deal with that.'"
Journalists told Murdoch that they felt like scapegoats and he says: "We're talking about payments for news tips from cops: that's been going on a hundred years, absolutely. You didn't instigate it."
Watson told the Guardian: "I think we need to hear from [Metropolitan police comissioner] Bernard Hogan-Howe when the MSC stopped co-operating with the police inquiry."
In one particularly revealing part of the recording, Murdoch makes reference to those who might succeed him as the head of the media empire. A journalist asks what would happen if the 82-year-old Murdoch was no longer around to give them his support. "The decision would be – well, it will either be with my son, Lachlan, or with Robert Thomson [Murdoch's chief executive at News Corp]. And you don't have any worries about either of them," he tells the meeting.
During the tape, Murdoch accuses the Metropolitan police of incompetence and brands the criminal investigations into journalists as a "disgrace", saying: "The idea that the cops then started coming after you, kick you out of bed, and your families, at six in the morning, is unbelievable."
Watson told Channel 4 News: "What he seems to be saying there is that they stopped co-operating with the police before the Sun staff started to rebel. And what I would like to know is what are they sitting on that they've not given the police. And I'm sure that this transcript and this audiotape should be in the hands of the police tomorrow because I hope that they're going to be interviewing Rupert Murdoch about what he did know about criminality in his organisation."
Roy Greenslade says the tape was leaked by someone on the Sun staff because they're pissed at Murdoch for throwing them under the bus in the scandal:
As for Murdoch, he could be under no illusion about the underlying hostility from staff who felt they were paying the price for doing what was expected of them.
One told me: "We did as we were bid. No-one thought they were doing wrong. There was no training of any kind. No office lawyer raised any question." That genuine feeling of being hung out to dry is shared by almost every one of the arrested journalists.
In the tape Murdoch admits that the culture of bribery the staff engaged in at The Sun and the News of the World had been around at the papers for a long time:
He talks of the News of the World in personal terms: "We got caught with dirty hands, I guess" before launching into a further attack on the police: "The cops are totally incompetent … It's just disgraceful what they're doing … It's the biggest inquiry ever, over next-to-nothing."
A crucial section follows when one of the journalists, who had been with The Sun for under 10 years, points out that the paper's "working practices… were ones that I've inherited, rather than instigated."
Murdoch replies in what will surely be seen as a crucial statement about The Sun's culture and his acceptance of it:
"We're talking about payments for news tips from cops: that's been going on a hundred years, absolutely. You didn't instigate it."In my opinion, this offers the journalists a crucial plank of mitigation for their actions. It is also a reminder of the occasion in 2003 when the former Sun editor, Rebekah Brooks, told a Commons select committee that the paper had paid the police for information.
Murdoch continues: "I would have thought 100% … at least 90% of payments were made at the instigation of cops saying, 'I've got a good story here. It's worth 500 quid' or something. And you would say, 'No, it's not' … And they'd say, 'Well, we'll ring the Mirror…' It was the culture of Fleet Street."
In the end, this tape confirms that Rupert Murdoch, the man at the top, was responsible for the culture of bribery and corruption at his newspapers:
But the real significance of the tape is that it reveals the true, unexpurgated Rupert Murdoch. As I have said often since the hacking scandal first broke, as the man at the top I believe he has been responsible for the journalistic culture at Wapping. This tape appears to prove my point.
It is time to bring Rupert Murdoch down to the police station and interview him over the tape contents.
We'll see if they actually do that.
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