Murdoch's Reporters Allegedly Listened To The Voicemails Of Hundreds

from the the-sort-of-journalism-that-needs-protectionism? dept

Fri, Sep 3rd 2010 2:02pm — Mike Masnick

While there had been earlier reports of how some reporters for Rupert Murdoch's News of the World had spied on members of the royal family by listening to their voicemails, new reports suggest this activity was endemic, impacted hundreds -- and that Scotland Yard failed to let many who were victims of such spying know about it (and even focused their investigation on just one reporter, rather than looking into whether or not it was a widespread practice, as it apparently was).

Although Coulson has long insisted he knew nothing about the illegal activity, sources who worked at the tabloid told the Times Coulson not only knew about it, he actively encouraged it. A dozen former reporters said the hacking was so pervasive at News of the World that everyone knew about it. "The office cat knew," one longtime reporter said.

This is the kind of "reporting" that needs to be protected?

Filed Under: eavesdropping, rupert murdoch, voicemails

21 Comments

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out_of_the_blue, 3 Sep 2010 @ 2:18pm

This *is* the kind of reporting that needs to be protected.
People who call themselves "royal" and believe that they're inherently superior deserve to be treated with the contempt that *they* have for "commoners", as serfs without rights. So too The Rich in general, or those who advocate torture, or to burn heretics at the stake, deserve to be the only ones treated as they advocate, in a simple application of the Golden Rule. The principle is that they've *voluntarily* removed themselves from the common law. -- But in practice, they're the first to claim to have rights.
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- Dark Helmet (profile), 3 Sep 2010 @ 2:21pm
  
  Re: This *is* the kind of reporting that needs to be protected.
  Er, no, my friend. You never defeat evil by being evil, else you've simply imbibed of evil yourself. Try again....
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- Anonymous Coward, 3 Sep 2010 @ 2:52pm
  
  Re: This *is* the kind of reporting that needs to be protected.
  Uh, part of the point of the story is that Scotland Yard apparently investigated quite extensively in the cases of voicemail hacking of the princes, but failed to really follow up on leads with regard to all the other reporters hacking into the voicemail of the assorted "lesser" public figures.
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- Eugene (profile), 3 Sep 2010 @ 2:55pm
  
  Re: This *is* the kind of reporting that needs to be protected.
  Just trying to keep up here...you're talking about "the royal family", yeah? The group with zero political power or influence whatsoever, who serve no purpose in England except to keep tabloids running?
  
  Why the hell should they be treated with anything other than complete and utter indifference?
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- Anonymous Coward, 3 Sep 2010 @ 2:56pm
  
  Re: This *is* the kind of reporting that needs to be protected.
  Right, just to get back at the rich and powerful a little bit, you sacrifice the general population. Good job.
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- abc gum, 3 Sep 2010 @ 5:41pm
  
  Re: This *is* the kind of reporting that needs to be protected.
  I guess you missed the part of the story where there were hundreds of people (not royalty) affected by this.
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PaulT (profile), 3 Sep 2010 @ 4:00pm

Of course, none of this is surprising in any way. It's one of the reasons why I tend to automatically reject any higher moral ground claims by right-wing rags like The Times, The Sun, Daily Mail, etc. on the assumption that they are hypocrites and have no moral values whatsoever.

So far, that assumption has always been proven correct, and I'd hope that the rest of the world tries to do the same - especially with anything associated with Murdoch. Sadly, judging by certain political factions in the US, some people are falling for their tricks.
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- abc gum, 3 Sep 2010 @ 5:43pm
  
  Re:
  "judging by certain political factions in the US, some people are falling for their tricks."
  
  And hopefully they keep on falling ... a long long way.
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- DS, 6 Sep 2010 @ 3:49am
  
  Re:
  Ah, but the moral-high ground from the left-wing rags is a-ok though?
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Anonymous Coward, 3 Sep 2010 @ 4:16pm

"new reports suggest "

and were these new reports a result of people illegally spying on Murdoch's staff as well?
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- Ron Rezendes (profile), 3 Sep 2010 @ 4:36pm
  
  Re:
  And does that matter?
  
  I do know "Two wrongs don't make a right" (but three lefts make a right!) and "A hypocrite is ALWAYS wrong AT LEAST half the time!", but does it really matter that the guy who steals from others while touting his companies' practically religious moral standards has no ground to stand on and has invaded the privacy of countless numbers of citizens and you are questioning those who brought this to light? Really?
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  - Anonymous Coward, 3 Sep 2010 @ 4:48pm
    
    Re: Re:
    "but three lefts make a right!"
    
    Someone is illegally spying on someone who is illegally spying on someone who hopes that they can catch the person being spied on do something illegal.
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    - chris (profile), 7 Sep 2010 @ 6:59am
      
      Re: Re: Re:
      yo dawg, heard you like illegal spying, so we put illegal spying in yo illegal spying so you can illegally spy while you illegally spy.
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- abc gum, 3 Sep 2010 @ 5:44pm
  
  Re:
  You did not read the story did you?
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  - Anonymous Coward, 3 Sep 2010 @ 6:00pm
    
    Re: Re:
    Your irony meter needs adjusting.
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    - Anonymous Coward, 3 Sep 2010 @ 10:38pm
      
      Re: Re: Re:
      Your irony meter needs adjusting.
      
      You need to check a dictionary on the difference between irony and sarcasm.
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      - Anonymous Coward, 4 Sep 2010 @ 4:28pm
        
        Re: Re: Re: Re:
        "an objectively or humorously sardonic utterance, disposition, quality, etc. "
        
        http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/irony?jss=0
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Anonymous Coward, 3 Sep 2010 @ 6:50pm

@13
++++++YOU
+------+
+------+
+------+
++++++

facing north
you turn left
then you turn left again
then left again where are you?
NOT as the one poster said "3 lefts are a right"
but behind your original self those you could
say "3 lefts leave you behind yourself"
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Anonymous Coward, 4 Sep 2010 @ 1:38am

So...
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Anonymous Coward, 5 Sep 2010 @ 2:58am

Hope Murdoch gets a really hard slap.

However with all the power he has, judges seem unwilling to actually harm him. Sued skype for looking like "sky" and he won. He was sued later for giving away music illegally with a newspaper and he paid a few pence every CD, nothing when individuals are charged hundreds of thousands per CD.
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Anonymous Coward, 6 Sep 2010 @ 7:21am

Anybody out there want to buy a newspaper now?
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