Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Leveson: Could The Guardian Close Before Hackgate Scandal Is Resolved?

by Nicky Woolf

The Guardian's media desk heard about the death of the News Of The World at about 4.15pm, but, reeling in disbelief, didn't run the story immediately. They were still trying to verify it a little less than 20 minutes later, when News International chairman James Murdoch's statement was released to the press. That was Thursday 7 July 2011. The previous Monday, after nearly two years of painstaking digging and a slow drip-drip of stories that failed to gain much widespread traction, the Guardian published the story that private investigators in the pay of the News Of The World had hacked the voice mail of a murdered schoolgirl: Milly Dowler. The public was appalled.


The trail the Guardian had been following stretched from Fleet Street to Downing Street and Scotland Yard. It had implications of corruption, bribery and influence, yet had failed to gain widespread attention. But this was the breakthrough the Guardian had been working towards. With one thunderous headline, editor Alan Rusbridger had destroyed one of the jewels in Rupert Murdoch's crown....read more


http://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/comment/articles/2012-07/03/interview-with-the-guardian-newspaper-editor-alan-rusbridger-on-hacking