As I explained in my previous diary today, I might be off the grid next week, but in case anyone thinks the Newscorp scandal is of only parochial interest in the UK, a new USA Today Survey shows that this is of great interest in the homeland of Rupert and James Murdoch;
The poll carried out by Survey USA on behalf of the monitoring group Media Matters underlines how closely the UK scandal over phone hacking is being watched by Americans. Of the 1,200 adults sampled, 72% said they were very or somewhat familiar with news stories about phone hacking and payments to police in the UK.
Suspicions about News Corporations activities are running high in America. Some 73% of respondents said they thought it very or somewhat likely that similar activity had occurred at Rupert Murdoch's news outlets in the US.
A resounding 77% thought that the justice department should look into any illegal activities by News Corp in America – showing wide public backing to the decision of the attorney general, announced last week, to begin a preliminary investigation. Similarly, 73% supported the decision of the FBI to investigate hacking of cell phones belonging to US citizens.
So check my previous diary about action points and areas interest to American citizens affected by Newscorp and its multiple subsidiaries stateside.
Recent developments in the UK from both his lawyer and a senior editor at the time, suggest that James Murdoch lied in his representations to the House of Commons on Tuesday, and that he knew about the hush money paid to previous victims of phone hacking.
The bombshell two-paragraph statement by the News of the World's former editor and legal affairs manager is threatening to finish off James Murdoch's career just as he might have thought he had emerged from the worst.
On Tuesday, he would have gone to bed pleased with his polished performance at the culture select committee. His defence peppered with impressive Harvard MBA-speak ("I had no direct knowledge" "quantum of damages" etc) had repelled the worst of MPs' gunfire. He kept his reputed short temper in check for the afternoon and News Corp shares even rose on the stock market midway through the interrogation.
As a result of the statement, Murdoch is now being accused of the very "wilful blindness" that he claimed not to have heard of on Tuesday. Either way, there are no upsides.
Apart from the complete failure of corporate governance, this leaves James still liable, as a US citizen, to charges under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Phone hacking has continued in the last few months, with even the lawyer for the family of the murdered teenager Milly Dowler (whose phone hacking initially took this scandal to another level) being a target
Carl Bernstein, who has said every 'gate' suffix crisis has been a misnomer. has already said this is the closest thing to Watergate in the last 40 years. He said this recently on the BBC, but even two weeks ago he saw the broad ranging ramifications:
News International, the British arm of Murdoch’s media empire, “has always worked on the principle of omertà: ‘Do not say anything to anybody outside the family, and we will look after you,’ ” notes a former Murdoch editor who knows the system well. “Now they are hanging people out to dry. The moment you do that, the omertà is gone, and people are going to talk. It looks like a circular firing squad.”
Now the fear and omertà have gone, we're going to have many penititti - supergrasses - and that's also resonant:
And then there’s the other inevitable Watergate comparison. The circumstances of the alleged lawbreaking within News Corp. suggest more than a passing resemblance to Richard Nixon presiding over a criminal conspiracy in which he insulated himself from specific knowledge of numerous individual criminal acts while being himself responsible for and authorizing general policies that routinely resulted in lawbreaking and unconstitutional conduct. Not to mention his role in the cover-up. It will remain for British authorities and, presumably, disgusted and/or legally squeezed News Corp. executives and editors to reveal exactly where the rot came from at News of the World, and whether Rupert Murdoch enabled, approved, or opposed the obvious corruption that infected his underlings.
Martin Kettle in the Guardian has just reiterated this comparison with 1974: and like the Watergate Scandal it needs time to unravel.
One important date for the next phase. As Michael Wolff - Murdoch's biographer - points out in a tweet:
MichaelWolffNYC
With Parliament not in session #NOTW will be quiet(er) until Aug 8 deliver of NI discovery info to the court...
But things will be explosive by then.
So keep the faith. Keep the pressure up. This will not go away. Things will only get worse for Newscorp.