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Rupert Murdoch reportedly told the British media that he was not worried about the recent phone hacking that is wracking his empire and may eventual lead to the resignation of his top exec in Britain. Currently, Rebekah Brooks has no intention of resigning on her own nor is Murdoch planning to remove her from her post and that has a number of people up in arms.
Companies started pulling ads from the News of the World, Britain’s most popular magazine and part of the Murdoch media empire when the news first broke that journalists were hacking into the cell phones of not only politicians, celebrities and royal aides but the phone of a slain teenage girl and soldiers who had died in the line of duty. Twitter and Facebook users took to their accounts with comprehensive lists of which companies advertised in the News of the World and urged their followers to not only boycott those companies but to contact them and demand that they pull all ads from Murdoch’s paper.
The Ford Motor Company was the first to respond to those demands with other car makers quickly following suit. Cooperative Group, not only a retail giant but a company that bases its action on ethical business models also suspended all of its ads until the British government conducts its own investigation into the alleged hacking incidents. Shares of News Corp. dropped by nearly five points on the Nasdaq.
Murdoch’s son, James issued a statement on late Thursday saying that the Sunday issue would be the last in the paper’s history in response to the unfolding events. In addition to being the final paper, there would be no advertising at all in this issue and all money would be donated to various charities.
Meanwhile, the British government is looking at several thousand names of people’s whose phones may have been targeted at some point. Andy Coulson, a former editor at the News of the World is slated to be arrested by British police on Friday while another former journalist may be arrested as well. Rebekah Brooks will remain a top level exec with the organization according to the statement given by James Murdoch.
The Murdoch mess has been an ongoing one with a failed Metropolitan Police investigation that dates back several years but really came to international attention after it was reported that journalists had hacked into the phone of murdered 13 year old, Milly Dowler, listened to her messages and then deleted them to make room for new ones. Dowler disappeared in 2002 near her home in Surrey.
Prime Minister David Cameron assured Parliament that a new series of inquiries was being launched, including the investigation into what happened with the Metropolitan Police and whether they received payment from Brooks and Coulson in exchange for vital information related to a stories that the paper had been working on. In an original deposition, Brooks said yes, that payments had been made but retracted that statement saying that she had meant something else.
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