Murdochs Former Editor’s Letter: Phone Hacking Well Known in 2007

The U.K. newspaper The Guardian is reporting fresh scandal in the phone hacking business for Rupert and James Murdoch. They’ve obtained a letter written in 2007 by former News of the World reporter Clive Goodman. The letter surfaced in a batch of correspondence concerning the phone hacking. Here’s the link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/interactive/2011/aug/16/clive-goodman-letter-phone-hacking Goodman had already been fired in the hacking scandal and wrote to the head of News International in protest on March 2, 2007. He’d just finished a four month jail term for hacking phones of members of the royal family. Basically, Goodman wrote that everyone at News of the World knew about the phone hacking, that it was sanctioned, and that he’d been promised a return to his job after incarceration if he didn’t implicate the company. Some names are redacted in the letter, but its meaning is clear. “Other members of staff were carrying out the same illegal procedures. This practice was widely discussed in the daily editorial conference.” The Guardian article suggests the Murdochs will be called back before Parliament.