The choice facing James Murdoch now is a stark one…
… admit that he knew there was a culture of illegality in parts of News International but decided to do as little as possible about it. That way leads straight to the dock. The alternative is only marginally less unpleasant – admit to incompetence!
How would you like to be the leader of the crisis management team rehearsing News International chairman James Murdoch for his potentially career threatening appearance before MP’s tomorrow?
It will be a very busy day in Wapping as they try to get their minds around the implications of the latest threat to pop out of the undergrowth – private investigator Derek Webb.
The evolving drama is obviously far from over when a new previously unsuspected character can step onto the stage and start to sing at a moment’s notice.
The appearance of Webb – whose accounts of physically following more than 100 Royals, celebrities and politicians on behalf of the News of the World have not been contested – provides a unusually tricky dilemma.
They could emphasise the ‘This Behaviour Is Not Illegal’ line and add that many news organisations, including even the BBC on a small number of occasions, use private investigators to locate suspects or stand up a story.
And anyway the News of the World doesn’t exist any more. These complaints are all history. After all, almost from the start News International’s stance, whatever the complaint, has been to try and tough it out. Why change the habits of a lifetime.
That would be a very difficult trick to pull off given that one of those followed was the MP Tom Watson, who will be an enthusiastic member of tomorrow’s interrogation team of the Commons Culture, Media and Sport committee.
There is also the small matter of the surveillance carried out on lawyers Mark Lewis and Charlotte Harris, who represent phone hacking victims – apparently in the vain hope that something compromising could be found out about them.
Even News International has admitted that such surveillance, though not illegal, “was clearly deeply inappropriate in these circumstances”. Privacy lawsuits will almost certainly follow, particularly because children were involved.
The subtleties are legion.
Was Webb being hired to find a “respectable” way of standing up stories first obtained by phone hacking, though he says he was never given a reason why he was asked to follow people such as former Attorney General Lord Goldsmith, Prince Harry’s ex-girlfriend Chelsy Davy or football manager Jose Mourinho?
Legal it may have been, but surveillance on such a scale sounds much more like fishing expeditions mounted against anyone in the public eye in the hope of finding something tasty. There is something creepy, spooky even, about a middle-aged man in a funny hat following people around, sometimes for weeks.
Then there is the old question of who authorised such extensive and expensive snooping and who signed off the cheques?
So far the only character missing from this saga is Benjy The Binman.
Whatever you call it, there is no doubt that the activities of Derek Webb will be added to the ever-growing charge sheet against James Murdoch and News Corporation.
There are now so many accusations of, at best, dubious behaviour by employees of News Corp that the ludicrous “one rogue reporter” tag is giving way to the status of “rogue” corporation.
This week the contagion spread to The Sun with allegations that a senior reporter may have been involved in the ‘bungs for cops’ scandal, which until now has been over-shadowed by phone-hacking.
But another embarrassment from last month, which takes “inappropriate” behaviour far beyond the tabloid domain, has not received nearly enough attention. Once again it is work by The Guardian‘s Nick Davies that has exposed what looks like some very dodgy deals surrounding the circulation of the Wall Street Journal Europe.
It is a complex and tangled tale but at its heart are allegations that the lines were blurred between editorial and circulation initiatives and that on occasions through third parties the Wall Street Journal Europe was funding part of its own circulation at bargain basement prices.
Last month Andrew Langhoff, the European managing director of the Journal‘s parent company Dow Jones resigned, apparently because of the allegations of editorial interference.
The Guardian reported that last year a whistleblower had raised the issue of questionable circulation deals with senior executives in New York. The whistleblower was made redundant.
Dow Jones insists the circulation deals, which account for 41% of the European edition’s 75,000 daily sales, were valid and were certified by ABC. The circulation body says it is now looking at the issue again.
As for James Murdoch he will have to deal with the differing recollections of former NotW lawyer Tom Crone and former editor Colin Myler about what he knew when about the phone-hacking scandal tomorrow.
One possible line of defence for James Murdoch emerged in a recent private conversation with a former News International executive, who has sat in meetings with the young man, who, at one stage, appeared to be Rupert Murdoch’s successor.
In meetings, it is said that James Murdoch’s mind is forever racing on to the next topic and those doing the talking have sometimes wondered whether he was actually taking in the details of an apparently mundane subject. There were so many decisions to get on with, so many things to do.
The choice facing James Murdoch now is a stark one… Admit that he knew there was a culture of illegality in parts of News International but decided to do as little as possible about it. That way leads straight to the dock.
The alternative is only marginally less unpleasant – admit to having a hopeless memory, inability to focus on essential details or take appropriate action – in a word incompetence. That route would strain the credulity of MPs and signal the end of any remaining hopes of reaching the top chair in The News Corporation.
What is now clear is that the problem has gone beyond arguing about individual instances of phone-hacking or corruption involving the police. The range of the complaints against the behaviour of News International, whether strictly illegal or not, now raises serious questions about the morality of the organisation’s corporate culture… and corporate culture should always flow from the top.