British politicians are now also wondering, was illegal phone hacking done elsewhere within Murdoch's News Corp? Promoting someone involved in tapping phones makes you wonder what's going through the mind of Rupert Murdoch. The Guardian:
Labour MPs used parliamentary privilege in the commons debate to criticise the chairman and CEO of News Corporation, which owns the newspaper publisher, and his senior executives, who are battling claims that the NoW endorsed the illegal hacking of mobile phones.
Tom Watson, a Labour member of the Commons culture select committee, placed Murdoch in the line of fire by accusing him of appointing Brooks as chief executive of News International knowing that she had admitted that illegal payments had been made to police.
The former minister cited evidence by Brooks to the culture committee in 2003 in which she admitted that the News of the World had paid police officers in the past for stories. This was condemned by the committee and by the Met as illegal.
"When Murdoch appointed Brooks he did so in that knowledge," Watson said of the ruling from the Commons committee. Les Hinton, then chair of News International, later told the committee that Brooks subsequently told him she had "not authorised payments to policemen"; he said her evidence was meant to suggest "there had been payments in the past".
