Let's face it, most of us on this side of the Big Pond aren't really paying attention to Rupert Murdoch's travails in London town. When we're not wringing our hands at our spineless Democratic congressmen, we're throwing them up in despair over the KAH-RAY-ZEE Republicans. Then, when we're all worn down, and all our shouting is done, we're headed off to the beach to catch some rays and knock back a few tall, cold ones.
But later, as it becomes clear there's something big going on, it'll be too late to figure out the big picture of what went down, and how this thing got so huge in the first place. You'll be left chasing the story and wondering what the real significance is of each new development. So follow me beyond the fold, where I've put together an outline.
The "Hackergate" investigation had been brewing since 2006, and until this month, it had gone nowhere.
1. In 2005 Scotland Yard investigates suspicions from the Royal household that their private phone conversations were being reported in News Of The World and the Sun, two of News Corp's (Murdoch's) London tabloids.
2. As the year turns over into 2006, Scotland Yard seizes thousands of documents, and in the course of their investigation, they finger two guys who worked for News of the World, and who are arrested. Scotland Yard, however, fails to follow up on most of the documents, and fails to notify all but a handful of the potential victims.
3. In January of 2007 the slowly grinding wheels of justice turn ever so little, and the two guys are sentenced to a few months in jail, and they have to apologize to the two Princes (Harry and William, if you're head's been stuck in a hole for the past few decades) for having hacked into their phones (using stolen PINs, no less).
4. March 2007, a Parliamentary investigating committee, hears the president of News International (a subsidiary of News Corp), one Les Hinton, assure them that the hacking is limited to a few rotten apples, who are now safely behind bars. Two months later (May), the chief editor of News of the World, Andy Coulson, gets hired on to become the communications director for the Conservative Party. Two months after that (July) the two guys arrested and convicted, sue News of the World for wrongful dismissal, win, and one gets 80,000£ and the other gets an undisclosed amount in their settlements.
5. Nothing much happens for the next year, until in June 2008, one of the hacked victims wins a settlement for 700,000£ from Newsgroup Newspapers, yet another subsidiary of News Corp (or perhaps another name for News International -- who can tell what's what in the byzantine structures set up by News Corp).
6. In 2009, another victim sues, and Parliament opens up another investigation into additional allegations of phone hacking. News International executives and Coulson maintain that the hacking was limited to just the two rotten apples, and they have never condoned such practices.
7. Another year rolls in, and in early 2010 Parliament issues a "scathing report" indicating that Scotland Yard failed in its investigation, and News International deliberately obfuscated the facts. Everybody yawns and rolls their eyes. Everybody except those who thought they might be victims and their lawyers, who now start suing right and left, forcing Scotland Yard to show if they were hacking victims or not. In May, the Tories win the elections, Cameron becomes Prime Minister, and our old friend Andy Coulson slithers into 10 Downing Street as Communications Director for the new administration. (Grima Wormtongue, indeed.)
8. By the time 2011 starts, several prominent people have sued News International and won. News International fires an editor who's name appeared on one of the documents collected by Scotland Yard in 2006. Also, new revelations of additional involvement by higher ups at News of the World lead Grima Wormtongue Andy Coulson to resign. But no one had yet opened up the sacks and sacks of documents sitting in evidence at Scotland Yard.
9. It isn't until July 4, 2011, when it is revealed that a little girl who was murdered in 2002, had her phone hacked by journalists, who then obstructed police investigations by deleting messages, leading them and her family to have false hope that she was alive. This is when the public woke up. Up until now, no one had much sympathy for celebrities and rich people getting their phone hacked, but this one revelation put everything in a new light. After that, it was revealed there were as many as 4,000 other ordinary citizens who's phones may have been hacked, including families of British soldiers who had died in Afghanistan and Iraq. At the time of the incident involving the murdered young girl, the editor at News of the World was Rebekah Brooks, who subsequently left to take over the editor's chair at The Sun.
Those are the bare bones of the facts of this scandal. As you can imagine, all of these lead to more questions. For one, were these practices common within the entire News International group? It seems clear that both News of the World and The Sun shared them, but not all that clear if the London Times did.
Other questions have to do with just exactly what did Scotland Yard investigate back in 2007? It is clear now that mountains of documents went unexamined, and it is only this year that someone has finally looked at them. There are allegations that the leadership of Scotland Yard were close to key people at News International. Scotland Yard had hired Neil Wallis, an ex-editor at News of the World to advise them on their investigation, and he appears to have retained close ties to his former news organization while still collecting checks from Scotland Yard. He has since been arrested, and this weekend the chief of Scotland Yard has resigned. There are similar allegations with respect to the Prime Minister and his cabinet, although only Grima Wormtongue Andy Coulson has been arrested.
A picture is also beginning to emerge of News International editors using these hacking practices as a means to control what British politicians did. Gordon Brown, the previous Prime Minister, revealed that he begged the Sun not to publish a news story about his infant son's cystic fibrosis , which it turns out they discovered by hacking his phone. He alleges his request for an investigation was thwarted the Cameron's cabinet secretary who told him "an inquiry would seem politically motivated." It doesn't take much of a leap to imagine politicians on both sides of the aisle doing favors for the press and being asked to do them favors.
Although the American press is perceived as less blood-thirsty than the British tabloid press, it does seem possible that all of Murdoch's news organizations felt licensed to pursue these practices, and people are now beginning to wonder what sort of things may have been going on in this country.
You can find an excellent timeline of the key events in this scandal at the NY Times.
Another great resource is The Guardian, which has a site devoted to nothing but their news stories on this subject over the past weeks and months.
And for those on Twitter, I recommend following @JohnWDean and @Aiannucci
Now...who would've ever thought that Guy Ritchie, Hugh Grant and Sienna Miller, all of whom sued New International leading to the revelations about hacking the phones of ordinary people, would be the heroes in this story?
10:20 PM PT: I need to note, per a comment below, and also noted by other commenters in other diaries, that part of the reason why the revelations have been slow to arrive has to do with laws in the UK which forbid parties from talking about matters that are under litigation until the trials have ended. Thus, the family of the little girl who was murdered were unable to reveal that their daughter's phone was hacked until the trial of her murderer had ended.