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Murdoch Tabloid Shuts Down Amid Phone-Hacking Scandal

Jul 7, 2011  •  Post A Comment

A tabloid paper owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp., one of the most widely circulated newspapers in the world, will shut down after a final edition this Sunday, The New York Times reports.

The News of the World, which is based in London, is embroiled in a widening telephone-hacking scandal, which has seen advertisers abandon the publication. It will publish a final edition Sunday without ads, and then will shut down, the story reports.

James Murdoch, the son of Rupert Murdoch, issued a statement in which he acknowledged “serious problems” and “repeated wrongdoing” at the paper.

“Wrongdoers turned a good newsroom bad and this was not fully understood or adequately pursued,” James Murdoch said. He added that the newspaper and its parent company, News International, “failed to get to the bottom of repeated wrongdoing that occurred without conscience or legitimate purpose” and “wrongly maintained that these issues were confined to one reporter. We have now 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 Times piece reported: “The broad and apologetic statement — delivered so suddenly that News of the World was still advertising a subscription deal on its website — underscored the damage to News Corp., Rubert Murdoch’s vast and powerful media company, from allegations that one of its papers, News of the World, was involved in hacking cellphones belonging to not only a 13-year-old murder victim but also relatives of fallen soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan and that it paid police bribes amounting to tens of thousands of dollars for information.”

2 Comments

  1. Better to sacrifice a marginal profit maker and tell the world how “responsible” you are for acting swiftly than to get the big profit maker, BSkyB taken away.
    I’d be willing to take a bet on this.

  2. I am praying that this is the first of the Murdoch cards to fall. It couldn’t happen to a more deserving company.

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