Journalists arm in arm with policemen, and vice versa. A mixture that is eroding the credibility of an entire universe: not only the empire of the Murdochs, but the same fragile trust between readers and publishers, at a time that is critical for the newspaper industry. Yesterday at noon, the glacial Rebekah Brooks (former director of the closed tabloid and then managing director of the related publishing house), Rupert Murdoch's protégé and first head to fall into this scandal, was arrested and then released on bail.
In recent days the second excellent head had fallen, that of another loyalist of the Australian tycoon: the managing director of Dow Jones, Les Hinton (at the time of the indicted wiretaps he was the head of News International). Hinton had resigned to the consternation of Murdoch himself, in the meantime attacked by flashes and microphones while, immediately after meeting the parents of thirteen-year-old Milly Dowler (killed in 2002, her cell phone was intercepted by the indicted tabloid), he pronounced the fateful words: “Of course, I apologised” (of course, I apologized).
Yet while News International further apologized to readers in a full-page piece in the British weekend papers, the worst was incubating. And last night, shortly after the release of Rebekah Brooks, the viral scandal also attacked the venerable institution of the London police: Paul Stephenson, the head of Scotland Yard, resigned. He stayed with his family for 5 weeks in a Hertfordshire spa. The cost of the holiday would have been 12.000 pounds (13.600 euros). But the problem is another, as he reveals The Guardian: everything would have been offered by a company to which Neil Wallis, former deputy director of the News of the World, also hired by Stephenson as a consultant to Scotland Yard. When you say dangerous friendships.
Meanwhile, the scandal spread further within the publishing group. According to rumors, actor Jude Law is ready to sue for being spied on in New York. With him, the footballer-star David Beckham and the ex Beatles Paul McCartney. And the next bigwig given in the balance would be James Murdoch, Rupert's son: he would have hidden compromising e-mails on a large scale, which would prove the dangerous collusions of the newspapers of his empire.
