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Phone-hacking Scandal Threatens Rupert Murdoch's Media Empire

British Tabloid Allegedly Listened in on Thousands of Conversations

By , About.com Guide

Britain's racy tabloids have long employed a no-holds-barred approach to journalism that crossed many ethical - and possibly legal - boundaries in a way that would be unheard of in the U.S. But the phone-hacking scandal that erupted in July 2011 led not just to the closing of the paper in question - the News of the Workld - but also threatened the vast media empire of Rupert Murdoch, the paper's owner. With each passing day fresh allegations cameto light involving abuses committed by not just the News of the World but by other Murdoch papers as well. Stay tuned.

The Basics on Britain's Phone-Hacking Scandal

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The phone-hacking scandal is perhaps the biggest press scandal ever in Britain, and that's saying something in a country where the tabloid newspapers are notorious for their aggressive pursuit of sensational stories. It involves Rupert Murdoch's vast media empire, one of the country's raciest tabs, the slayings of three young girls and the victims of an Islamic terrorist attack.

Leveson Report Rips British Tabloids, Calls for Greater Oversight of the Press

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The Leveson inquiry report into the U.K.'s s phone-hacking scandal represents a damning critique of Britain's tabloid newspaper industry, and calls for unprecedented oversight on the press. The inquiry, headed by Lord Justice Sir Brian Leveson, was launched in 2011 following reports that some tabloids - chief among them Rupert Murdoch's News of the World - had hacked into the private cellphones of possibly thousands of people, including one owned by schoolgirl Milly Dowler, who went missing and was later found murdered.

Ethics Expert Says Leveson is Right to Call for Regulation of British Newspapers

Stephen Ward
The Leveson report into Britain's phone-hacking scandal is nothing short of a scathing indictment of the country's no-holds-barred tabloid newspapers. And it proposes something that would be unheard of in the United States - an oversight body backed by parliamentary statute, one with broad investigative powers and the authority to levy hefty fines. But Dr. Stephen Ward, an ethics expert at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, argues that Britain's rowdy newspaper industry needs just that.

Phone-hacking Scandal Stirs Debate in Britain: Is Journalism a Profession?

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The phone-hacking scandal has reignited a long-running debate in Britain: Should journos, as they're known across the pond, follow the lead of their American counterparts and conduct themselves as professionals who observe a code of ethical guidelines? Or should they continue to think of their work as a trade, unrestrained by moral and ethical handwringing?

Murdoch's Wife Protects Him From Pie-Throwing Protester

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There was plenty of drama Tuesday when Rupert Murdoch testified to Parliament about the phone-hacking scandal that has swept Britain, most obviously when Murdoch's wife, Wendi Deng, threw a punch at a protester who tried to splatter the media tycoon with a shaving cream pie.

Murdoch-owned Fox News is Covering Phone-hacking Scandal Less Than CNN and MSNBC

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Here's a news flash that's guaranteed to surprise, well, no one. Rupert Murdoch's Fox News Channel is covering the phone-hacking scandal engulfing Murdoch's media empire far less than its cable news competitors.

The Day the British Tabloid at the Center of the Phone-Hacking Scandal Closed

Sunday, July 10, 2011, was a day that would live, if not in British press history then in infamy - The News of the World, the tabloid at the center of a phone hacking scandal that had taken Britain by storm, was shutting down.

It was a bombshell development that was announced just days earlier by James Murdoch, son of media baron Rupert Murdoch and head of European operations for the paper's parent company, News International.

Brit Tab at Center of Phone-Hacking Scandal Had Crossed Ethical Lines for Years

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The British phone-hacking scandal engulfing Rupert Murdoch's media empire dates back several years, but a no-holds-barred approach to investigative journalism - one that often crosses ethical lines - has existed in that country for decades. So says British journalist and scholar Kenneth Panton, who has written a number of books on his native land, including the "Historical Dictionary of the United Kingdom."

Would a U.S. Newspaper Ever Do What a British Tabloid Did?

Could a newspaper phone-hacking scandal like the one sweeping Britain occur in the American news media? Not likely, says Stephen Ward, an ethics expert and journalism professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who in the 1990s spent five years as a London correspondent for the Canadian Press.

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