4 July 2013

Sun whistleblower reveals Rupert Murdoch not so humble!

On the 19th of July, 2011, Rupert Murdoch told the Culture Media and Sport Parliamentary Select Committee that that day was 'the most humble day of my life'. Not an altogether convincing performance, but unforgettable all the same:

(Video from ITN)

Tonight, Channel 4 News' Andy Davies, in conjunction with the investigative team at Exaro
revealed:
Earlier this year, in a meeting with a group of Sun journalists (most of whom had been arrested by police for allegedly paying public officials, some of them police officers, for information), Rupert Murdoch had been secretly recorded by one of those present.

The full story can be read on the Channel 4 News website, including a video clip of MP Tom Watson and media commenter Steve Hewlett discussing the revelations with Jon Snow.

What we hear gives the lie to the 'humble' description Rupert Murdoch gave of himself and shows his true attitude towards the police and the misdemeanours of which his journalists have been accused.

Further coverage of tonight's events can be found by clicking the links below:

Guardian
Channel 4 News
Mirror
Financial Times (£)
Telegraph
Evening Standard
ITV News
The Times (£)

As Tom Watson told Jon Snow, it is to be hoped that the audio recording and transcript are immediately passed to the police!

Updated links to media coverage, July 4th:
Roy Greenslade writes:
Extract:
The investigation of News Corp is not, as Murdoch claims, about "paying cops for news tips": it is about systemic corruption. The deputy assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan police at the time, Sue Akers, explained early last year: "The cases we are investigating are not ones involving the odd drink, or meal, to police officers or other public officials. Instead, these are cases in which arrests have been made involving the delivery of regular, frequent and sometimes significant sums of money to small numbers of public officials by journalists."
One of the decisive moments consolidating Murdoch's relationship to the Metropolitan police was the use of police as armed strikebreakers in the 86-87 Wapping dispute. Margaret Thatcher herself had assured Murdoch that the police would be at his disposal, and their collusion in breaking the strike required an operation costing £14m.
As the Guardian journalist Nick Davies pointed out, this was never simply a matter of criminality. It was always about power. The networks of collusion, bribery and complicity that began to be established in the Thatcher era are beginning to be unravelled.
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