Rupertgate Update: Top executives resign

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The Rupertgate scandal grows exponentially every day and Friday was HUGE — this morning, Rebekah Brooks, the chief executive of Rupert Murdoch’s British newspaper operations resigned, followed this afternoon by Les Hinton, the chairman of Dow Jones, which publishes Murdoch's Wall Street Journal.

The question is, which of Murdoch's top lieutenants will be willing to go to jail without giving up their boss, and which one will be John Dean and spill the beans in Murdoch's Watergate? The FBI investigation and parliament/congressional hearings are going to be fascinating.

The New York Times reports 2nd Murdoch Executive at Time of Hacking Quits:

Les Hinton, the chairman of Dow Jones, announced his resignation on Friday, joining Rebekah Brooks, the embattled chief executive of Rupert Murdoch’s British newspaper operations, in the exodus of top officials from Rupert Murdoch’s media empire.

Mr. Hinton, a long-time confidant of Mr. Murdoch, ran News International, the British publishing subsidiary of Mr. Murdoch’s News Corporation from 1997 to 2005, during the time when the phone hacking that touched off the scandal took place.

Mr. Hinton came to the United States in the end of 2007. Mr. Murdoch brought him over from Britain shortly after he purchased Dow Jones and named him chief executive of the company and publisher of The Wall Street Journal.

Mr. Hinton ran News International, Mr. Murdoch’s British newspaper subsidiary, from 1995 to 2007. He has occupied various high-level positions within News Corporation, from the head of the Fox television station network to head of the American newspaper division, which includes The New York Post.

Saying that it was a “deeply, deeply sad day," Mr. Hinton thanked the employees at The Journal.

* * *

The departure of Mr. Hinton and Ms. Brooks began a day of stepped-up damage control by Mr. Murdoch, the chairman of News Corporation, who on Friday released a copy of an apologetic note to be published in all British newspapers over the weekend.

* * *

The public apologies seemed to follow News Corporation’s acknowledgment that it had hired the public relations firm Edelman to handle the crisis. It appeared to reflect a strategy to tamp down a scandal that has already forced the closure closing of The News of the World, a tabloid, and the collapse of a $12 billion bid to assume full control of Britain’s biggest satellite broadcaster.

* * *

Rupert and James Murdoch said on Thursday that they would testify next week before a parliamentary panel investigating the scandal, abandoning earlier efforts to avoid or put off appearing before the panel. Ms. Brooks said on Friday that she still intended to attend the hearing despite her stepping down from her post as chief executive of News International.

* * *

Until the scandal erupted, Ms. Brooks, 43, had been a star within News International, the British newspaper subsidiary of Mr. Murdoch’s News Corporation, editing two influential tabloids and rising rapidly to head the division. British analysts described her as enjoying the status of a favored daughter, with close ties not only to the Murdoch family but also to leading politicians.

But her resignation had seemed ever more likely as the police arrested some of her former colleagues, leading politicians demanded her resignation, [and] News Corporation’s stock took a pounding [.]

* * *

Prime Minister David Cameron, once regarded as a personal friend of Ms. Brooks, but who later followed the opposition leader Ed Miliband in demanding her resignation, said she had made “the right decision.”

On Friday, former staff members at of The News of the World questioned why Ms. Brooks had not resigned earlier. “Our paper was sacrificed to save her career, and now she’s gone as well,” one former employee said, requesting anonymity because he did not wish to jeopardize his position in severance negotiations following after the newspaper’s closureclosing. “Who knows why they’ve chosen to do it now, as she’ll have to appear before the select committee anyway.”

* * *

With bewildering speed, the pace of the unfolding disclosures has stripped away the Murdoch family’s image as ironclad arbiters of British public life — the people politicians had to go to if they wanted to win elections, as Mr. Cameron did before the 2010 election.

* * *

British media analysts, meanwhile, have begun to ask more loudly what role James Murdoch, News Corporation’s most senior executive in Europe, played in the way the British newspapers were run.

In the United States, the Federal Bureau of Investigation in New York has opened a preliminary inquiry into allegations that News Corporation journalists sought to gain access to the phone records of victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, according to several people briefed on the matter. The F.B.I. was acting in response to a request from Congress, and there was no immediate indication that any phones had been hacked.

* * *

Since January, nine people have been arrested in that investigation, including Andy Coulson, a former close associate of Ms. Brooks and once a senior aide to Prime Minister Cameron.

* * *

The company’s woes increased on Thursday when yet another former senior editor of The News of the World, now defunct, Neil Wallis, became the ninth person since January to be arrested in the phone- hacking scandal. Mr. Wallis also appears to have unusually close ties to top officers at the Metropolitan Police Service, and worked for them as a public relations consultant last year.

When suspects start making deals with prosecutors for their testimony to stay out of jail or at least receive a reduced sentence, the truth about Rupert Murdoch's sleazy tabloid empire is finally going to come to light. These corrupt practices were endemic at News Corp. It is inconceivable that top management like Rebekah Brooks and Les Hinton, James Murdoch and Rupert Murdoch himself did not know about and approve of these corrupt practices. It was the very persona of his tabloid empire.

A conviction under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act for the bribes paid to Scotland Yard police officers can cost Rupert Murdoch his FCC licenses for his television and radio holdings in the U.S., including FAUX News Fraudcasting.