Note: I have carried over my diary from yesterday on this subject, and provided updates from various papers at the bottom.
When Rupert Murdoch purchased the Wall Street Journal in 2007 he quickly selected longtime loyal associate Les Hinton as publisher. Prior to this he was Executive Chairman of News Corp subsidiary News International Limited, which includes News Of The World.
After the first phone-hack story broke Les Hinton was tasked with overseeing NewsCorps internal investigation into the affair. Not too suprisingly he came away with findings of no widespread wrongdoing, that one bad apple had caused the mess (sound familiar?).
Hinton testified to Parliament
"There was a lot of gossip, a lot speculation, accusations. We went to extraordinary lengths [investigating claims]. There was only so much we could do retroactively."
Compare that to James Murdoch's official statement on July 7th:
"In 2006, the police focused their investigations on two men. Both went to jail. But the News of the World and News International failed to get to the bottom of repeated wrongdoing that occurred without conscience or legitimate purpose.
Wrongdoers turned a good newsroom bad and this was not fully understood or adequately pursued.
As a result, the News of the World and News International wrongly maintained that these issues were confined to one reporter.
We now have voluntarily given evidence to the police that I believe will prove that this was untrue and those who acted wrongly will have to face the consequences.
The paper made statements to Parliament without being in the full possession of the facts. This was wrong.
Gee, wonder who Murdoch is throwing under the bus with that one?
It does not help Hinton that he authorized payments to the two jailed in the first scandal, AFTER THEY WHERE JAILED! Admitting he knew it was for criminal acts.
"What silence was there left to buy?" He stressed there had been a "rigorous" internal inquiry and a full Scotland Yard investigation.
Hinton was asked if the settlement to Mulcaire included a clause in which the newspaper promised to indemnify him from any future civil actions from phone hacking victims as a result of the case.
"I'd be interested to know why you're so sure an indemnity existed," he said.
Paul Farrelly, Labour MP for Newcastle-under-Lyme, replied it was "based on good information".
Hinton said: "I am not going to discuss the details with you. I'll say this much, if an indemnity were to be in there, which I don't know if it is, I don't recall it being in, you seem to be better informed than me because I don't remember"
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Update:
Link:
But attention is now turning to Hinton, 67, who headed up News International during Brooks’s and Coulson’s editorships and now runs the New York-based Dow Jones & Co., another arm of Murdoch’s sprawling News Corp. Murdoch’s long-time lieutenant, some News Corp watchers say, could end up being a high-profile casualty in the scandal.
“The person that I think is most of a problem for Murdoch is Les Hinton,” Peter Burden, author of a 2008 book about the News of the World, told Reuters.
“He was definitely around when it was going on and he’s now running the Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones, and for him to be seen to be mixed up in that whole tacky situation would be very, very damaging indeed.”
..
For the last six months, I have heard that Mr Hinton has not been visiting the UK for precisely that reason, in order to avoid drawing any attention to himself,” Enders told Reuters
Link 2:
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.
12:32 PM PT: From the wonderful Financial Times:
Some former advisers have been left out of the loop, with Mr Murdoch said to have “dug in” with a group including James, Rebekah Brooks, the former News of the World editor who now runs News International (News Corp’s UK newspaper business), Chase Carey, News Corp’s chief operating officer, and Joel Klein, the News Corp director appointed to oversee the hacking crisis.
Mr Murdoch was said to be both furious at media coverage of a scandal that people close to him have long claimed was drummed up by competing publishers, and calm, reassuring insiders that his experience of past crises had shown that the pressure would let up.
This is exactly why we should not let this story die.
