Dial M for Murdoch News Corporation and the Corruption of Britain

by Watson, Tom; Hickman, Martin

• ISBN13: 9780399162633
• ISBN10: 0399162631
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-05-08
• Publisher: Blue Rider Press

Summary

Dial M for Murdochuncovers the inner workings of one of the most powerful companies in the world: how it came to exert a poisonous, secretive influence on public life in Britain, how it used its huge power to bully, intimidate and cover up, and how its exposure has changed the way we look at our politicians, our police service and our press. Rupert Murdoch's newspapers had been hacking phones and casually destroying people's lives for years, but it was only after a trivial report about Prince William's knee in 2005 that detectives stumbled on a criminal conspiracy. A five-year cover-up then concealed and muddied the truth. Dial M for Murdoch gives the first connected account of the extraordinary lengths to which the Murdochs' News Corporation went to "put the problem in a box" (in James Murdoch's words), how its efforts to maintain and extend its power were aided by its political and police friends, and how it was finally exposed. The book details the smears and threats against politicians, journalists and lawyers. It reveals the existence of brave insiders who pointed those pursuing the investigation towards pieces of secret information that cracked open the case. By contrast, many of the main players in the book are unsavory, but by the end of it you have a clear idea of what they did. Seeing the story whole, as it is presented here for the first time, allows the character of the organisation which it portrays to emerge unmistakably. You will hardly believe it.

Author Biography

TOM WATSON is the MP for West Bromwich East. He campaigns against unlawful media practices and led the questioning of Rupert and James Murdoch when they appeared before Parliament in July 2011. He is the deputy chair of the Labour Party.
 
MARTIN HICKMAN has worked for the Independent since 2001, and has driven the paper’s coverage of the phone hacking scandal. He was named Journalist of the Year by the Foreign Press Association in 2009.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	p. xi
Dramatis Personae	p. xv
Preface	p. xvii
The Wrong Headlines	p. 1
Wapping's News Factory	p. 13
The Dark Arts	p. 27
First Heads Roll	p. 36
Rogue Defence	p. 53
The Manchester Lawyers	p. 68
One Determined Reporter	p. 81
Intimidating Parliament	p. 96
A Murder	p. 107
Our Man in Downing Street	p. 121
Losing a Battle	p. 135
Out of Control	p. 149
U-turn at Wapping	p. 167
Summer's Lease	p. 183
A Missing Girl	p. 189
Sky Plus	p. 210
'We Are Sorry'	p. 228
Democracy Day	p. 238
Assault on the Establishment	p. 255
The Ghosts of Wapping	p. 269
The Press on Trial	p. 289
Darker and Darker	p. 305
Individuals in Glenn Mulcaire's Notes	p. 319
Arrests	p. 323
Acknowledgements	p. 326
Notes	p. 329
Index	p. 341
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