by MIRANDA ROUTE Staff Writer
“The Guardian” reported in July of 2009 that “News of the World” journalists had been involved in the hacking of celebrity’s and politician’s voicemails. It is estimated that 5,795 people were hacked by “News of the World”. The senior staff of “News of the World” allegedly had knowledge of these phone-hackings and paid $1.6 million to keep these cases underground. To make matters worse, “News of the World” targeted victims of the July 7, 2005 bombing in London by paying police for information. Also, on July 6, 2011, “The Daily Telegraph” reported that “News of the World” hacked the phones of families and soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. This was the breaking point for many people. An anonymous source says, “I think this is terrible. I haven’t heard of this before but now that I know, I think the phone-hackings were really unnecessary.” On July 7, 2011, James Murdoch announced that “News of the World” would be closing after a final July 10 edition. Murdoch’s father, Rupert Murdoch, came to address the scandal on July 10. Other Murdoch papers, including “The Sun” and “Sunday Times”, were victims of the scandals, too. Gordon Brown claims that the paper had illegally obtained his financial records and medical records of his son. On July 19, 2011, both Murdochs denied knowing about the hacking of Brown. Many people remember this meeting before the committee because Wendi Murdoch saved her husband from receiving a pie in the face thrown by British comedian Jonathan May-Bowles. An anonymous source says, “I actually saw that on T.V. and I couldn’t believe how quickly his wife acted. It’s a good thing it was just a pie and not a weapon.” By August 10, 2011, a desperate Rupert Murdoch vowed he would do anything possible to keep his media empire safe from any more upset. To replace “News of the World”, Murdoch created “The Sun on Sundays”. However, on March 13, 2012, six people were charged for attempting to prevent justice for the phone-hacking scandal. By this time, Murdoch was left with no choice but to leave his British media empire on April 3, 2012. Hopefully, this is the last time we will see such a large phone-hacking scandal for a long time.
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