Is this the beginning of the end of Rupert Murdoch's media empire?

Rebekah Brooks is not for humbling
The Drum/ABC Opinion
By Jonathan Holmes
Posted May 16, 2012 15:36:59


When, at last, after months of anticipation, the axe fell, was Rebekah Brooks supplicatory? Certainly not. (AFP: Carl Court)

Related Story: Brooks lashes out at 'unjust' charges
Audio: Brooks charged over phone-hacking scandal (The World Today)


There's no denying the woman's power to fascinate.

In a mere 11 years, Rebekah Brooks, nee Wade, climbed from secretary to editor of The News of the World; she reached that pinnacle at the age of 31. She not only survived but dominated the tough, testosterone-fuelled culture of the British tabloids, first at the News of the World and then, for six years, at The Sun; she put the fear of God into hundreds of journalists working under her, while charming the all-but-uncharmable Rupert Murdoch. And his son James. And his wife Wendi. And three prime ministers. And, even more remarkably, two of their wives: Cherie Blair and Sarah Brown were both Rebekah's besties in their day.

Throughout her interrogation at the Leveson inquiry she was cool, occasionally testy, but never for a second intimidated. Though she had been forced to walk the plank by News International, there was no hint of disloyalty. As for power – well, that of course resided in the readers of The Sun, not in her, nor in her boss Rupert. She'd never thought in terms of power.

And when, at last, after months of anticipation, the axe fell, was she supplicatory? Was there the faintest hint of regret or apology? Certainly not. There was haughty disdain for her prosecutors: " ... an expensive sideshow, a waste of public money as a result of a weak and unjust decision". And sheer, unmitigated fury: "I cannot express my anger enough that those closest to me have been dragged into this unfairly."

Brought before the House of Commons Committee on Culture last year at the height of the firestorm about the hacking of Milly Dowler's telephone, her boss Rupert famously declared it the most humble day of his life. But this lady is not for humbling.

And in one way she is surely right. Though they might carry, in theory, a life sentence, the charges against Rebekah and Charlie Brooks, and sundry personal assistants, chauffeurs and aids, hardly go to the heart of the matter. They were caught, just last year, attempting to make off with seven boxes of files from the News International building; and of secretly chucking a laptop and sundry other paraphernalia into a bin near the Brooks' London home; we assume (but of course do not know) that all this stuff had something to do with the great phone-hacking cover-up which Brooks and her colleagues at News International had been engaged in for a decade.

Very naughty, if true. And banal, too. After all, just the other day, HSU national president Michael Williamson was allegedly found in an underground car park with black plastic garbage bags full of papers while the boys and girls in blue were prowling the corridors above him. It's a natural instinct to bury, allegedly, the alleged dirt.

But even if the defendants are found guilty, months or years down the track, that will not tell us what we really want to know: and as Rebekah Brooks rightly said, what we want to know is about her, not her husband, her assistant, her chauffeur, her bodyguard or her bottle-washer.

She was the editor of The News of the World at the time of the hacking into Milly Dowler's voicemail - and literally hundreds of others, it seems, from the deputy prime minister's to Hugh Grant's.

She was the editor of The Sun when it was apparently shelling out many tens, and perhaps hundreds of thousands, of pounds to policemen, and army officers, and officials up and down the Whitehall hierarchy.

She was the CEO of News International for some of the years when it obstinately, and in the face of mountains of evidence already in its own possession, insisted that one rogue reporter had been engaged in a practice which, it now seems, was routine and widespread.

The egregious Paul McMullan, he of the strawberry birthmark and the devastating frankness, who famously declared that privacy is for paedophiles (and Rebekah waged a furious campaign as editor of the News of the World against paedophiles), told Four Corners' Sarah Ferguson last year:

Rebekah Brooks, James Murdoch and Andy Coulson are saying, "I have clean hands. It was the reporters. I didn't know what they were doing. I'm innocent. It was them. Send them to jail not me." Why don't you stand up and tell the truth and say, "Sometimes, you know, if you want to catch a politician with his trousers round his ankles you've got to hack his phone. We did it. It's justified."

Ferguson's report contained another nugget that only the more assiduous followers of the saga would already have come across. In 2002, while Rebekah Brooks was editor of the News of the World, the police reopened an investigation into the brutal murder, back in the 1980s, of a man who'd been the business partner of Jonathan Rees, one of the more thuggish private eyes employed by Fleet Street papers. Rees was the main suspect.

By 2002, Rees was serving a seven year sentence for conspiring to plant cocaine on an innocent woman and get her sent to prison, because she was involved in a custody battle with one of Rees's clients.

Another major client of Jonathan Rees was the News of the World, and in the 1990s a certain Alex Marunchak, one of that newspaper's most senior journalists, was running a business from Rees's premises.

The policeman who was conducting the murder inquiry, and his wife, and their children, soon found themselves under surveillance. His wife – also a police officer - told Sarah Ferguson:

I saw a van at the end of my driveway parked up and what was I suspect a camera lens looking back ... However hardened you are as a police officer, when you become part of the case and your children are involved, it's hard to actually explain how frightening that is.

The detective got his colleagues to stop the van on the freeway. The driver turned out to be Alex Marunchak.

Called to Scotland Yard and accosted with these facts, the editor of The News of the World seemed untroubled. Sarah Ferguson reports:

By all accounts Rebekah Brooks offered no explanation. All she had to say was that Marunchak was a great reporter doing great work for the paper.

Not only did Alex Marunchak continue to work at a senior level for the News of the World, on his release from prison Jonathan Rees was again hired by the paper.

Just one example of the culture of impunity, the sense that the rules did not apply to them, that seems to have surrounded News International's newspapers in those years. And the flip-side of that brazen lack of caution was the fear that they were able to instil in policemen, and politicians, and public officials.

As British Labour MP Tom Watson told the House of Commons in 2010:

The truth is that, in this House we are all, in our own way, scared of the Rebekah Brookses of this world.

But in truth, there are not many Rebekah Brookses. She is a one-off. What did she know? When did she know it? What did she demand, and order, and threaten? What did she cover up, and obfuscate, and ignore?

Those are the questions that many, many Britons – especially the members of the 'chattering classes' so derided by Rupert Murdoch, his columnists and editors over the years – would love to see answered.

You do wonder when, if ever, those arrested – sometimes in dramatic dawn raids with plenty of sound and fury – will actually face charges that relate to the substance of the scandal and its cover-up.

Of course, the shenanigans that took place in the News of the World building last July may have been intended to prevent such charges ever being laid, at least against Rebekah Brooks. But compared to those matters, last year's shenanigans are indeed a sideshow.

Jonathan Holmes is the presenter of ABC TV's Media Watch. View his full profile here.

Maybe conspiring to pervert the course of justice doesn't go to the heart of the matter, but Al Capone wasn't just a tax avoider.

She has always defended her private life, whilst invading the lives of others. When she got married to Charles Brooks, not one papparazzi dared photograph her. Now she's tabloid fodder, the Daily Mail has someone following her around taking unflattering photos.

Her fall from grace has been tremendous, it may not be over yet.

Key players in News of the World scandal

Updated May 03, 2012 15:38:24


Rebekah Brooks with Rupert and James Murdoch (Indigo/Getty Images, file photo)

The scandal over phone hacking in Rupert Murdoch's newspaper empire erupted when it emerged police were investigating reports the News of the World had hacked the phone of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler.

The newspaper had already admitted some staff accessed the voicemails of public figures, but the affair moved close to the heart of the Murdoch empire since one of his top executives was editor at the time Milly Dowler was abducted.

In the wake of the scandal, News International closed its biggest selling paper, the News of the World, and dropped a takeover bid for satellite broadcaster BSkyB.

So far one inquiry by the British parliament's Culture Select Committee has declared News International and News Corporation had "wilful blindness", while another major inquiry led by Lord Justice Leveson continues to conduct hearings.

Below are some of the key figures involved in the saga.

Rupert Murdoch


News Corporation Chief Rupert Murdoch leaves his London home in a car Photo: Rupert Murdoch is ranked as the world's 24th most powerful person (AFP: Ki Price)

Australian-born Rupert Murdoch is the founder, chairman and chief executive of News Corporation, the world's largest news conglomerate.

News Corp's operations span television, film, newspapers and advertising. Businesses include US cable network Fox, The Wall Street Journal, British newspapers The Sun and The Times, and most of Australia's best-selling metropolitan newspapers.

In 2011, Mr Murdoch was ranked by Forbes magazine as the 24th most powerful person in the world and the 106th richest, with a net worth of more than $US8 billion.

He became a US citizen in 1985 so he could buy American television stations.

A man who easily commands audiences with world leaders, Mr Murdoch's newspapers in particular are believed to wield enormous political influence.

In 1992, The Sun declared "It's the Sun Wot Won It" after it campaigned vigorously against Labour leader Neil Kinnock in an election that delivered an unexpected Conservative victory.

As the phone hacking scandal spread in July 2011, Mr Murdoch's News Corp bowed under pressure and abandoned its bid to buy out British satellite broadcaster BSkyB, a deal expected to cost at least $14 billion.

Mr Murdoch and his son James have since appeared before a parliamentary inquiry to face questions about the hacking allegations. Mr Murdoch said fronting the committee for the first time was "the most humble day of my life".

The committee's report described Mr Murdoch as lacking credibility and a majority of committee members concluded he was "not a fit person to exercise the stewardship of a major international company".

At the Leveson inquiry, he apologised for his handling of the phone hacking crisis but said he himself had been the victim of a cover-up orchestrated from within the News of the World.

James Murdoch


James Murdoch Photo: James Murdoch is tipped as heir to the News Corp media empire. (AFP: Warren Allott)

Tipped as heir to the News Corp media empire, Rupert Murdoch's youngest son James is the company's deputy chief operating officer and sits on its board of directors.

In 2007 he took over the leadership of News International, owner of the News of the World, in his role as News Corp's chairman and chief executive for Europe and Asia. In 2009 he became News International's executive chairman as Rebekah Brooks became its chief executive.

James Murdoch arrived at News International after the phone hacking had died down, but has been criticised for failing to uncover the scale of the wrongdoing.

He told the Culture Select Committee he was unaware of the extent of the hacking when he approved a huge pay-off to one victim. But his testimony was quickly contradicted by two ex-senior executives.

In its final report the committee said News Corporation's strategy had been to lay the blame on some individuals while "striving to protect more senior figures", notably James Murdoch.

It said there was "no good excuse" for him not reading a key email chain concerning phone hacking in June 2008, which betrayed "an astonishing lack of curiosity" for a CEO.

In April Mr Murdoch resigned as chairman of BSkyB so further criticism of him did not hurt the brand or its shareholders, but he remains on the satellite broadcaster's board.

Earlier in 2012 he stepped down as News International executive chairman, relinquished positions at GlaxoSmithKlein and Sotheby's and quit the boards of a number of News International subsidiary companies.

Rebekah Brooks


Rebekah Brooks Photo: Rebekah Brooks edited the Sun before becoming News International chief executive. (Max Nash: AFP)

Rebekah Brooks served as chief executive of News International, the British newspaper arm of News Corp, from 2009 until July 2011, when she resigned amid controversy over the phone hacking scandal.

She has since been arrested and released on bail in London as part of the investigation into allegations of illegal voicemail interception and police bribery.

Born Rebekah Wade, she worked for the Murdoch empire since the age of 20, joining Sunday tabloid the News of the World as a secretary before moving to The Sun daily. In 2000, she was appointed editor of the News of the World, making her, at the time, the youngest ever editor of a British national newspaper.

She moved on to edit The Sun in 2003, becoming its first female editor, and spent six years at the helm before her appointment as chief executive of News International.

Brooks rarely gives interviews. In 2003, she told a parliamentary committee her newspaper had paid police for information, although News International later said this was not company practice.

Brooks, formerly married to a star of television soap opera EastEnders, was considered one of Mr Murdoch's most trusted executives and is politically well-connected.

She and her second husband, a former racehorse trainer, are reported to have been regular guests at UK prime minister David Cameron's Oxfordshire home.

Brooks denied all knowledge of phone hacking on her watch at the paper. She has also faced questioning from the parliamentary committee examining the allegations.

"Allegations of voice intercepts, internet intercepts of victims of crime is pretty horrific and abhorrent and I wanted to reiterate that," she said.

Asked if she had any regrets, Brooks responded, "Of course I have regrets."

Tom Crone


Tom Crone Photo: Tom Crone vetted stories at the News of the World for more than 20 years.

Tom Crone was a legal manager at News International and vetted stories at the News of the World for more than 20 years.

Mr Crone was responsible for the first internal investigation into the phone-hacking claims in 2007.

He gave evidence to a parliamentary inquiry in 2009, assuring MPs he had uncovered no evidence of hacking beyond offences committed by royal reporter Clive Goodman.

But he and former News of the World editor Colin Myler released a statement last year insisting they had warned James Murdoch that there was evidence of widespread phone hacking at the paper before he authorised a key payout to a victim, the English soccer executive Gordon Taylor.

"We would like to point out that James Murdoch's recollection of what he was told when agreeing to settle the Gordon Taylor litigation was mistaken," the statement said. "In fact, we did inform him of the 'For Neville' email which had been produced to us by Gordon Taylor's lawyers."

Rupert Murdoch told the Leveson media inquiry Mr Crone was one of those responsible for the cover-up over phone hacking at his newspapers. "The person I'm thinking of is a friend of the journalist, drinking pal, is a clever lawyer," he said.

Mr Crone rejected the accusation. "His assertion that I took charge of a cover-up in relation to phone hacking is a shameful lie," the lawyer said in a statement.

Tom Watson


Labour MP Tom Watson at the launch of a report into News International and phone hacking. Photo: Tom Watson is known as an outspoken member of the Culture Select Committee. (Reuters: Olivia Harris)

British Labour MP Tom Watson has been one of the key campaigners exposing the culture of phone hacking at News International.

He says his troubles began after he quit his position as a parliamentary secretary and called for then prime minister Tony Blair to resign.

"At that time a News International journalist told me that Rebekah Brooks would pursue me for the rest of my life, and from that point on all the newspapers were fairly hostile to me," he told Lateline last year.

Mr Watson moved to the backbench and joined the British parliament's Culture Select Committee.

Just days after he joined, the Guardian newspaper published an expose into phone hacking, which his committee decided to investigate.

"There weren't many MPs who were prepared to do that for fear of being targeted, so I decided I had to do it," he told the BBC.

"People then started coming to me - whistleblowers and victims - and I felt I had a responsibility towards them - I couldn't walk away."

In 2009 Mr Watson had another run-in with the British press, after it was falsely reported he had been involved in a plot to smear Conservatives. He took The Sun to court and won "substantial" libel damages.

At the launch of the committee's report into phone hacking he demanded Rupert and James Murdoch answer for what he called an extensive cover-up of rampant law breaking at News International. He criticised other members of the committee for not feeling "inclined or confident" to hold them to account.

David Cameron


British prime minister David Cameron Photo: British Prime Minister David Cameron hired a former News of the World editor as his director of communications. (Suzanne Plunkett : Reuters)

The British prime minister became linked to the scandal after he appointed Andy Coulson as his director of communications. Mr Coulson had been News of the World editor during the time most phone hacking is alleged to have taken place at the tabloid.

Mr Cameron said if allegations were true that a private investigator hacked into the phone of missing teenager Milly Dowler, "this is a truly dreadful act".

But former News of the World features editor Paul McMullan said Mr Cameron knew full well that phone hacking was going on, but turned a blind eye because, Mr McMullan says, the Murdoch empire has helped make prime ministers for the past three decades.

Mr Cameron later announced two inquiries - one into the hacking scandal and another into cosy relationships between journalists, police and politicians.

"It's no good actually just criticising the police. The truth is, to coin a phrase, we've all been in this together," he said.

That was an interesting choice of words, as 'We're all in this together' was the slogan for Mr Cameron's 2010 election campaign.

Andy Coulson


Andy Coulson leaves home Photo: Andy Coulson crossed the bridge from editor to prime ministerial adviser. (Ben Stansall, file photo: AFP)

Coulson served as News of the World editor from 2003 until 2007, leaving the role after one of his reporters and a private investigator were convicted of hacking into phones of members of the royal family, although Coulson insisted he knew nothing about the phone hacking.

He subsequently joined David Cameron's staff as communications director, helping to take Mr Cameron to 10 Downing Street.

But Coulson resigned from Mr Cameron's staff in January 2011 after fresh allegations surfaced connecting journalists at the News of the World to a spate of other attempts to hack the voicemails of politicians, celebrities and others.

He said media coverage of the scandal made it impossible to do his job.

In July, Coulson was arrested in relation to the phone hacking scandal. After nine hours of questioning, he was released on bail until October.

As he left the police station, the 43-year-old told reporters: "There is an awful lot I would like to say, but I can't at this time."

Scotland Yard says Coulson was arrested "in connection with allegations of corruption and phone hacking" and is accused of authorising secret payments to police.

During the period of Coulson's editorship of the Sunday paper, it was linked to a phone hacking scandal involving up to 4,000 people.

Nick Davies

British investigative journalist Nick Davies started his career in the mid-1970s and has worked with The Guardian for decades. Most recently, he became known for his reporting on WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's release of thousands of secret US military files.

In 2009, after years of investigations, the veteran freelance journalist produced compelling evidence that the hacking of mobile phone voicemails was a more commonly used technique than News International had admitted at the time.

Davies' latest reports into the News of the World phone hacking scandal again brought the issue into the spotlight, as Davies revealed that murder victim Milly Dowler's phone had been hacked.

Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger has recalled how Davies broke that story, describing the "volcanic effect" it had.

"That single action [hacking Milly's phone] - which had given Milly's parents hope during the dark days before it was confirmed that she had been murdered - caused a surge of revulsion from which NotW found it hard to recover," he wrote for Newsweek.

Davies has also reflected on that time.

"When I wrote the story about Milly Dowler, I sent an email to [my] editor saying, I think this is the most powerful story so far. But I did not foresee the extent of the emotional impact," he told AP.

"It was almost unreal to watch ... The prime minister, who had been so close to Murdoch and keen to defend the BSkyB and defend Coulson, suddenly flipped his position."

John Yates


John Yates was already under fire for his decision two years ago not to re-open the case into phone hacking Photo: John Yates was already under fire for his decision two years ago not to re-open the case into phone hacking (Stefan Wermuth)

John Yates became the second senior London police officer to resign from his post in less than 24 hours over the News of the World phone hacking scandal in July 2011.

Mr Yates was an assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police and the London force's top counter-terrorism officer, based at police headquarters in Scotland Yard.

He quit a day after Scotland Yard's chief, Commissioner Paul Stephenson, resigned amid questions over his links to former News of the World deputy editor Neil Wallis, who was employed by Scotland Yard as a consultant after he left the paper.

Many say Mr Yates, who was set to be suspended over his role in recruiting Mr Wallis as a media consultant, jumped before being pushed.

He was already under fire for his decision two years ago not to re-open the case into phone hacking, a decision he admitted was "pretty crap".

Mr Yates had been touted as a possible Victorian police commissioner, but the odds of him getting the posting plummeted due to the phone-hacking saga.

He has been nicknamed "Yates of the Yard" by the British media following his involvement in numerous high-profile police investigations.

He also led the Metropolitan Police response to the Stockwell shooting, when police officers mistakenly shot Brazilian electrician Jean Charles de Menezes seven times in the head in July 2005, believing him to be one of four men who attempted to set off bombs in London the day before.


Clive Goodman and Glenn Mulcaire


Clive Goodman Photo: Clive Goodman was jailed for writing stories based on illegal phone taps. (Adrian Dennis, file photo: AFP)

Clive Goodman, who reported on the royal family for the News of the World, was jailed for four months in 2007 after writing stories based on illegal phone taps carried out by private detective Glenn Mulcaire, for which Goodman paid cash.

Mulcaire, who was jailed for six months, was also paid an annual retainer of 100,000 pounds ($150,000) by News of the World for other investigative services.

The judge in that case, Justice Gross, said Goodman and Mulcaire's behaviour was "low conduct, reprehensible in the extreme".

News International chairman Les Hinton told a public inquiry in 2007 that Goodman had acted alone, but he also defended the practice of phone tapping, saying that it could be in the public interest.

In July 2011, Goodman was re-arrested over alleged payments to police.

The arrest came at the same time former News of the World editor Andy Coulson was arrested.

After the arrests police raided the offices of Britain's Daily Star paper, where Goodman was working.

Hugh Grant


Hugh Grant Photo: Hugh Grant gave a press conference on the News Corporation phone hacking allegations on July 6, 2011. (Getty: Peter Macdiarmid)

British actor Hugh Grant was a high-profile victim of the scandal, having had his voicemails hacked by News of the World.

He was also involved in exposing the hacking practices of the tabloid by taping an encounter with an ex-tabloid paparazzo and writing about his admissions.

Dozens of actors, politicians and sportspeople, including Jude Law, Gordon Brown and Ryan Giggs, have had their phones hacked and some are now suing the tabloid for allegedly trawling their messages for scandals to sell newspapers.

Grant has led calls for the British prime minister to expand an inquiry to include an investigation into the power media holds over politicians.

"I'm panicking that despite all the revelations coming out thick and fast, the government, with their history of collusion and obedience to News International, will find a way to make this inquiry insufficient and kick it into the long grass," he told The Guardian.

The tabloid apologised at London's High Court for illegally accessing actress Sienna Miller's messages and agreed to pay her $153,000 in damages and legal costs.

Milly Dowler


Amanda Dowler with sister Gemma on holiday Photo: Revelations that News of the World hacked the phone of murdered schoolgirl Milly Dowler (L) outraged Britain. (Reuters)

Aged 13, she went missing on her way home from school in the London suburb of Walton on March 21, 2002.

Despite a huge police hunt and massive publicity, her body was found only six months later. This year, convicted killer Levi Bellfield was tried for and, on June 23, found guilty of the teenager's murder.

Revelations in July that a private detective working for Britain's News of the World tabloid had hacked into voicemail messages left on Milly's phone while police were still searching for her outraged Britain, and brought the phone hacking story to the front of the public's mind.

Soon after, it was alleged that the phones of other child murder victims had also been hacked, as had the phones of family members of troops killed in Afghanistan.

ABC/wires

The other thing that's really brilliant is the shadow this casts over Cameron. Labour has held back on Brooks because most political capital will come from Hunt's fall from grace, which will come very soon.

Tony Blair at the Leveson inquiry - live

• Admits Murdoch has 'substantial power'
• News International gave him 'fair shot' when under attack
• Blair: Daily Mail attacked me and my family
• Stopped meeting Mail editor in 2001
• Way the media operates, not cross-media ownership, the issue
• Blair: I decided not to confront the media