(Rebekah Brooks) Murdoch confidante lays bare ties to UK elite

[maddezmom]

Last edited Fri May 11, 2012, 06:24 PM - Edit history (1)

Source: Reuters

Reuters) - Prime Minister David Cameron was among top politicians who commiserated with Rebekah Brooks when she was forced to resign in disgrace as head of Rupert Murdoch's British newspaper group over a phone-hacking scandal, she told an inquiry on Friday.

Brooks is a former editor of the News of the World, which Murdoch shut in July when it emerged its journalists had hacked into the voicemail of public figures and a murdered schoolgirl. She was appearing at a judicial inquiry into press ethics to answer questions about her friendships with British politicians and the influence of Murdoch newspapers.

Her testimony revealed she had met frequently with Cameron, lobbied key offices of government for the approval of a major Murdoch takeover bid and intervened in the long-running row between former Labour Prime Ministers Tony Blair and Gordon Brown.

¬snip¬

Asked if she had indirectly received a message from Cameron to "keep her head up" in the week she stood down, as reported by the Times, she said: "Along those lines. I don't think they were the exact words."

Cameron also sent a message to Brooks via an intermediary explaining that he could not remain loyal to her publicly because opposition leader Ed Miliband "had him on the run" over his cozy relationship with top people in the Murdoch empire.



Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/11/us-britain-hacking-brooks-idUSBRE8491L820120511?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&rpc=71

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David Cameron was dragged further into the phone hacking scandal after Rebekah Brooks admitted privately discussing details of the emerging situation with the Prime Minister.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/leveson-inquiry/9261369/Cameron-had-private-talks-with-Brooks-on-hacking.html

[klook]

1. "The Telegraph newspaper has reported that Cameron texted Brooks up to 12 times a day..."

"...the two also exchanged messages ahead of social events held in Chipping Norton, which is close to their respective country manors, arranging to meet but without being seen together in public."

Finally! The whiff of a sex scandal may get the M$M to focus on this.

[Blue_Tires]

2. How have they uncovered this much in the NOTW scandal

while Fox News remains untouched here in the U.S.?

[Ikonoklast]

3. I think that pot is almost at the boiling point.

I think that there are probably more than one investigative reporters looking to score a Pulitzer getting the story out on Fox in this country, and are furiously working on the story.

All in good time, all in good tinme....

[maddezmom]

6. agreed, they had a hearing yesterday

Genachowski was pressed by Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), a long-time critic of News Corp. and Fox, on whether the FCC was taking that Parliamentary investigation into News Corp., and its finding the company had misled it to cover up illegal activity, into account when it considered the company's fitness to own 27 TV stations.

The chairman said that it was not appropriate for him to comment on specifics of any adjudicatory proceeding that might come before the commission. But he did say that licensees do have to meet certain qualification, technical, financial and on character. He said that the FCC has laid out what that entails, and that "if any issues arise, we would take this very seriously" and would "look at the record, look at the facts, apply the precedent and apply the law."

Lautenberg asked whether that meant that the British Parliament committee finding did not pass the FCC unnoticed.

Genachowski said that the FCC was certainly aware of the "serious issues" raised in the UK and the ongoing process there.


more: http://www.multichannel.com/article/484335-Genachowski_FCC_Is_Aware_of_Serious_News_Corp_Issues_in_UK.php

[ProfessionalLeftist]

4. THAT is what I want to know! n/t

[NCcoast]

5. Because Eric Holder is a toady?

Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil... unless of course it's medical marijuana

[JDPriestly]

7. It's way past time that the relationships between members and owners of the press

and our government officials be investigated and publicized.

This situation is utterly scandalous and probably exists here too.

Yet another channel through which corporations run the British (and our?) government.

"An unnamed government source"? Who is the "unnamed government source"? We need to ask that question.