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Getting a Handle on the Phone Hacking Scandal

To understand the News of the World phone hacking scandal, you can’t do better than this calm, clear layout from Nick Davies, the Guardian reporter who’s been on the story since 2006. 

His first 80 seconds gave me a clearer understanding of the Milly Dowler hacking than I’ve gotten from a half-hour of reading elsewhere.  

At the 3:00 mark, Davies shifts the discussion to media baron Rupert Murdoch, owner of News of the World (and Fox News and The Wall Street Journal and The Times of London, among many other media properties worldwide).  In Davies’ view, the police and British politicians and media have been burying the story for years out of fear of Murdoch’s power.

“It’s about power, and the power elite, the way that people in the power elite tend to look after each other. And I think it’s reasonable for any of us to observe that the Murdoch Corporation has too much power.”

At the 7:30 mark, Davies gets into the involvement of Prime Minister David Cameron, including the tale of how Cameron’s phone may have been hacked in 2005 by reporters who wanted to find out if he was taking cocaine.

The Guardian, an old and liberal paper, is proud of breaking the story, of course. Here’s their full coverage of the scandal.

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