{"id":8071,"date":"2011-08-20T02:15:46","date_gmt":"2011-08-20T02:15:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theredphoenixapl.org\/?p=8071"},"modified":"2011-08-20T02:15:46","modified_gmt":"2011-08-20T02:15:46","slug":"ex-executives-dispute-testimony-of-murdoch-son","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/2011\/08\/ex-executives-dispute-testimony-of-murdoch-son\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Executives Dispute Testimony of Murdoch Son"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/span><\/a><\/span>
James Murdoch, a top News Corporation executive, answered questions before a parliamentary committee this week in London<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By JO BECKER and DON VAN NATTA<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

LONDON \u2014<\/strong> Two former News International executives publicly contradicted James Murdoch\u2019s testimony to a parliamentary committee, saying Thursday that they told him of evidence in 2008 that suggested that phone hacking at one of the company\u2019s tabloid newspapers was more widespread.<\/span><\/p>\n

The former executives said they informed Mr. Murdoch at the time that he was authorizing an unusually large secret settlement of a lawsuit brought by a hacking victim.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Murdoch, who runs the News Corporation\u2019s European and Asian operations, including News International, the British subsidiary, told the committee on Tuesday that he agreed to pay \u00a3725,000, which was then about $1.4 million, in the case because it made financial sense. He testified that he was not aware at the time of the evidence, which most likely would have become public had the case proceeded and undermined the company\u2019s assertion that hacking was limited to \u201ca lone rogue reporter.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/span><\/a><\/span>
Colin Myler, a former editor of The News of the World.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But Colin Myler, the former editor of the tabloid, The News of the World, and Tom Crone, the former News International legal manager, said Mr. Murdoch was \u201cmistaken\u201d in his testimony delivered to the parliamentary committee. They said he knew when settling the lawsuit brought by a soccer union leader, Gordon Taylor, about a crucial piece of evidence that had been turned over to the company: an e-mail marked \u201cfor Neville\u201d containing the transcript of a hacked cellphone message, apparently a reference to the paper\u2019s chief reporter, Neville Thurlbeck.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn fact, we did inform him of the \u2018for Neville\u2019 e-mail which had been produced to us by Gordon Taylor\u2019s lawyers,\u201d Mr. Myler and Mr. Crone said in the statement released Thursday night.<\/span><\/p>\n

The circumstances surrounding the settlement of the Taylor case are a focus of the parliamentary inquiry because they could shed light on whether there was an effort by News International to obscure the extent of the hacking. It was the first lawsuit brought by a hacking victim, and it came while the company, which owned the tabloid, was reeling from the 2007 guilty pleas of Clive Goodman, the paper\u2019s royal reporter, and Glenn Mulcaire, a private investigator, for hacking the phones of the royal household.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Myler and Mr. Crone\u2019s statement seems to mark a round of finger-pointing, coming days after the testimony of Mr. Murdoch and his father, Rupert, the News Corporation chairman, who testified that he was not to blame for the hacking and was let down by people he trusted.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Myler and Mr. Crone spoke out because they were angered that the company was telling reporters that they had failed to tell James Murdoch about critical facts in the civil lawsuit, three executives said in interviews. In a statement, Mr. Murdoch said, \u201cI stand by my testimony to the select committee.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Mr. Murdoch also told the committee that he \u201cdid not get involved in any of the negotiations directly\u201d and that the settlement seemed reasonable at the time. Beyond Mr. Myler and Mr. Crone, other News International executives, as well as members of Mr. Taylor\u2019s legal team, painted a picture of Mr. Murdoch as being quite engaged in keeping the case from going to trial. They say that the size of the settlement he authorized reflected that.<\/span><\/p>\n

In July 2008, News International\u2019s chief financial officer, Clive Milner, was asked to endorse a check for \u00a3725,000. He was not told what it was for \u2014 only that \u201cthe check is for James Murdoch,\u201d according to a company official with direct knowledge of the matter and an account Mr. Milner has shared with friends.<\/span><\/p>\n

The negotiations were so tightly held that only Mr. Crone, Mr. Myler and Mr. Murdoch knew about them, said two company officials. The officials said that even employees who were typically involved in legal decisions did not learn of the settlement until it leaked in a newspaper.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI was gobsmacked\u201d at the amount, said one of them.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/span><\/a><\/span>
Tom Crone, a former News International legal manager.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mr. Murdoch testified on Tuesday that the size of the settlement reflected a judgment \u201cby distinguished outside counsel\u201d that the company was going to lose the case and that potential damages that could run up to about $1.6 million at today\u2019s rates.<\/span><\/p>\n

But the $1.4 million settlement was a record amount for a privacy case. At the time, cases involving published stories shown to have violated the privacy of claimants were settling for $6,000 to $24,000, lawyers said. Another factor that made the Taylor settlement unusual was that The News of the World had only prepared, but not published, an article about Mr. Taylor.<\/span><\/p>\n

On July 24, 2008, while the negotiations in the Taylor settlement case were drawing to a close, Max Mosley, a former auto racing executive, won a $120,000 judgment over a front-page article in The News of the World that falsely accused him of engaging in \u201csick Nazi orgies.\u201d That settlement was considered a record at the time. In current hacking cases, News International itself has said any settlement beyond about $160,000 is unreasonable.<\/span><\/p>\n

When Mr. Taylor\u2019s legal team began negotiations, the company offered about $99,000. But the figure kept rising as the company was made aware of the evidence that Mr. Taylor\u2019s lawyer had obtained by court order.<\/span><\/p>\n

The evidence came from a trove Scotland Yard had seized during the investigation of the hacking of the royal household\u2019s phones from the home of Mr. Mulcaire, the private investigator who worked for the tabloid.<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition to the \u201cfor Neville\u201d e-mail, News International lawyers were also shown a draft of the unpublished article about what was said to have been an affair between Mr. Taylor and his assistant. The article was based on a voice mail left on his phone by the assistant that said, \u201cThank you for yesterday.\u201d In fact, the woman\u2019s gratitude was for a speech Mr. Taylor gave at her father\u2019s funeral, according to his lawyer, Mark Lewis.<\/span><\/p>\n

Among the evidence made available to News International was an audiotape of Mr. Mulcaire instructing a reporter on how to hack phone messages. It turned out that the reporter worked for another newspaper, but at the time, company executives believed he worked for them, said one executive.<\/span><\/p>\n

The turning point in negotiations came in April 2008 after a judge ordered Mr. Mulcaire, in open court, to identify \u201cNeville\u201d and the reporter whose voice was heard on the audiotape. That is when News International increased the offer to about $798,000 for Mr. Taylor and $648,000 for legal costs, according to three people with direct knowledge of the talks. The legal fees represented 100 percent of the amount requested by Mr. Taylor\u2019s legal team, which occurs only rarely in such cases, the three people said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt very quickly became silly money,\u201d said a person with knowledge of the negotiations.<\/span><\/p>\n

Indeed, counting News International\u2019s own legal bills, the total cost to the company exceeded the $1.6 million figure, at today\u2019s exchange rates, that Mr. Murdoch testified he worried the company would have to pay if the case went to trial.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/span><\/a><\/span>
Gordon Taylor filed a lawsuit as a victim of phone hacking.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After Mr. Murdoch insisted that he knew nothing about the underlying facts, Tom Watson, a Labour member of Parliament, said to him on Tuesday, \u201cBut you paid an astronomical sum, and there was no reason to.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr. Murdoch told the committee that he thought it was \u201csimply a matter\u201d relating to Mr. Goodman\u2019s actions, and that he acted on the advice of both Mr. Myler and his counsel.<\/span><\/p>\n

Pressed about his lack of knowledge \u2014 at one point Adrian Sanders, a Liberal Democrat member of Parliament, asked him if he \u201cwas familiar with the term willful blindness\u201d \u2014 Mr. Murdoch explained that he had only just taken over the News Corporation\u2019s Europe and Asia operations when he was advised, in early 2008, to settle the case.<\/span><\/p>\n

He said that even with the benefit of hindsight, he would do it again, but added that \u201cif I knew that what we know now,\u201d he would also have contacted the police and \u201cmoved faster to get to the bottom of these allegations.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Ravi Somaiya contributed reporting.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Fuente<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By JO BECKER and DON VAN NATTA LONDON \u2014 Two former News International executives publicly contradicted James Murdoch\u2019s testimony to a parliamentary committee, saying Thursday..<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39126,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[166,97],"tags":[347],"class_list":["post-8071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","category-us-news","tag-workers-struggle"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/redphoenix.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/22murdoch1-popup_8071_0032b.jpg?fit=650%2C471&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8071\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}