Two reports via The Guardian. The first is Politics Weekly from July 21 and a recap of the big story and the fallout and some of the repercussions. The second is a Media Talk Special with members of the Guardian and an audience discussing the implications of the hearings and how it may impact the US as the story continues to widen.
July 21, 2011

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James Murdoch during the Hearings - seems a bit of prevarication has seeped in.


While the press is generally offering up a Post-Mortem to the proceedings of the day before, there are stories bubbling under the radar which are sure to gather steam in the coming hours/days.

One of course is the FBI involvement in possible phone-hacking of victims of 9/11. The other is a request for further scrutiny at previous trials involving Newscorp going back to 2003. The latest is that the testimony James Murdoch gave at the inquiry has been questioned by none other than the former editor of News Of The World and a member of the Legal staff over some statements the younger Murdoch gave to be patently false, There is rumor of proof and it will no doubt come to light shortly.


Here are two audio reports via The Guardian website. The first one is Politics Weekly, a wrapup of the week and speculation over the coming week as filed earlier today (before the latest batch of allegations were made). The second is a special edition of Media Talk which was aired yesterday and features a panel of Guardian columnists (Matt Wells, Alan Rusbridge, Nick Davies, Jonathan Freeland, Jane Martinson) and a special report by Vanity Fair U.S. columnist Sarah Ellison on U.S. reaction to the scandal in general and the hearings specifically.

Everyone is in agreement this whole scandal is gathering steam. How it will play out in the U.S. may be much worse for the Murdochs than even the current UK scandal, particularly if the phone hacking question surfaces with regards to the 9/11 victims. That may prove to end the Murdoch dynasty (as it seems to be doing now but in a much more devastating and universal way).

Despite the revelations a few hours ago, it is doubtful James Murdoch will be in any position of power within the Newscorp/News International camp. The bigger question has been, how is this impacting on the David Cameron government. There have already been some calls from the Right Wing British Blogosphere for Cameron to step down. That his error in judgment in hiring Andy Coulson signaled some weakness in his leadership ability. I expressed that hunch some days ago, but in light of all the circumstances and fast moving developments, any hunch or speculation on my part is completely pulling something out of the air.

It's gone past the point of being believable. So I'm not even trying.

The top player is the Politics Weekly Podcast from The Guardian and the bottom player is the one-hour audience participation special on the Media Talk program.

All in all, a very busy week with no letup in sight.

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