NoTW Phone Hacking: Andy Coulson Is The Only Journalist Who Didn’t Know?
VERY soon the only person working at the News of the World under Andy Coulson’s editorship who did not know phones were being hacked will be Andy Coulson.
To date, assistant editor Ian Edmondson has been sacked, or relocated to a listening post at GCHQ.
In 2007, the paper’s “royal editor” Clive Goodman and private eye Glenn Mulcaire were jailed. And Coulson resigned as editor and has now walked away from his job as the Prime Minister’s head of communications.
Meanwhile the thing gets bigger. Tim Godwin, the acting Met commissioner, tells media of the re-opened investigation:
It will be very robust and it will be under scrutiny as it should be. It will restore confidence in victims who feel they have not been given a service. It will be with no stone unturned. We have some of the most skilled investigators in the country and you will be proud of what they do.
Rupert Murdoch isn’t known for allowing egregious errors in his staff go unpunished, but he has had his eye off the newspaper ball in the UK for quite some time, certainly since buying the Wall Street Journal in the US in 2007.
Now the mess of the phone hacking threatens something that is extremely important to Murdoch: his business interests. It threatens to scuttle the buy-back of BSkyB shares, currently being scrutinised (although that is rather a strong word) by Jeremy Hunt, and although the story has not exactly been front-page news in every paper in the US, the hacking case certainly has the potential to dent Murdoch’s reputation in his most important territory.
So far Rupert Murdoch has been kept remote from the unfolding saga. Now he has put himself at the centre of it. Whether he can control it is an open question.
The alleged victims:
1 Andy Coulson – Former editor of News of the World
2 Andy Gray – Former Sport Sky Sports pundit
3 Boris Johnson – Government/politics
4 Brendan Montague – Investigative journalist
5 Brian Paddick – Former deputy assistant commissioner of Met police
6 Chris Bryant – Government/politics
7 Chris Tarrant – Entertainment
8 David Davies – Executive Director of the The Football Association
9 Elle MacPherson – Model
10 George Galloway
11 Gordon Taylor – Former chief executive of the Professional Footballer’s Association
12 Heather Mills Entertainment
13 Helen Asprey Royalty Aide to the Prince of Wales
14 Ian Blair Police Former commissioner of Met police
15 Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton Royalty Private secretary to Princes William and Harry
16 Jo Armstrong – Legal adviser to Gordon Taylor
17 John Prescott
18 Kieren Fallon – Jockey
19 Max Clifford – Entertainment Agent
20 Mike Fuller – Police Former assistant commissioner of Met police
21 Miss X – Alleged victim of rape by celebrity
22 Nicola Phillips – Former assistant to Max Clifford
23 Paddy Harverson – Royalty Prince Charles’ communications secretary
24 Paul Gascoigne
25 Prince Harry
26 Prince William
27 Rebakah Wade/Brooks
28 Simon Hughes – MP
30 Sky Andrew – Football agent
31 Steve Coogan
32 Tessa Jowell – Government/politics
33 Tommy Sheridan
Posted: 27th, January 2011 | In: Reviews Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
