PBS' Frontline show, beginning next Tuesday, March 27, explores the phone hacking, police bribery, media monopolization, and political bullying and influence scandal in England. This scandal first began to unravel with revelations about the News of the World and the Sun tabloid newspapers hacking the phone mailboxes of members of the Royal family and later of a murdered teenager.
Rupert Murdoch's News Corp owns both of these newspapers as well as Fox News, the New York Post, HarperCollins Publishing, and the Wall Street Journal (as well as various Fox cable channels, FX, the National Geographic channel, the American Idol show, 20th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight studios, Dow Jones, BSKYB, and much more here and abroad).
NPR's FreshAir show interviewed Frontline's lead investigative reporter, Lowell Bergman, and here is some of what he said:
But it's our understanding, both from the public record and testimony that's taken place in a public inquiry, that bribery by the Murdoch tabloids was endemic for decades. This was not a practice that emerged in the early 1990s, especially as it relates to the police.
The investigation is heating up in England and the
FBI is also following the scandal since News Corp is a US company and Murdoch is now a US citizen. This
Frontline documentary offers a chance to educate Americans about what is happening with News Corp and to put pressure on the Justice Department and the FBI to investigate. Fox News won't report the story, so we must. Spread the word.
Update:
Several commenters have posted the Frontline preview video, but let me do it here at the top:
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