Monday 19 December 2011

Rupert Murdoch 'steaming' over Dowler evidence


Rupert Murdoch's biographer Michael Wolff has tweeted about the News Corp chief's reaction to the revelations by police that News of the World journalists are unlikely to have deleted the voicemails on Milly Dowler's mobile which gave false hope that she was still alive.

According to Wolff (who appears to have mixed up voicemails with emails) on Twitter: "Rupert steaming (some more) about #NOTW closure--feels the deletion of the emails was most damaging. Without that, NOTW could have survived."

Meanwhile, the spat between the Guardian and the Independent's media columnist Stephen Glover over its article in July about the hacking of Milly Dowler's voicemails is continuing.

Last week Nick Davies wrote to the Independent disputing comments made by Glover about the article.

Today Glover writes: "What the article might reasonably have said was that the paper had hacked into Milly's phone, adding that it was also alleged it might have been responsible for the deletion of voicemails. In other words, it went further than it should have. A very good story was overegged. And, as a result, politicians, journalists and others cottoned on to the shocking, but untrue, revelation that the Sunday red-top had given the Dowlers the unfounded hope that their daughter was still alive...I am sorry Mr Davies will not admit fault. He deserves a great deal of praise for often single-handedly pursuing the phone-hacking story. Without him we would know only a fraction of the News of the World's misdemeanours.

"Nonetheless, he represented as fact an allegation which we now know – and which he should openly concede – to have been wrong."

Press Gazette is reporting that Richard Caseby, managing editor of the Sun, wrote to the Guardian's editor, Alan Rusbridger, and its readers' editor, Chris Elliott, on Friday asking for corrections in print and on the paper's website of 26 articles published since the July story about Milly Dowler.

The Guardian is making a formal representation to the Leveson Inquiry about the Milly Dowler story.
  • Pic: James and Rupert Murdoch appearing before the culture select committee last July in the wake of the phone hacking scandal. Murdoch senior described it as "the most humble day of my life".

No comments: