Minderwiz
Here in the UK, the lead story this week has been on the phone hacking scandal, focussing on the News of the World - one of the oldest Sunday Newspapers in the World, but renowned for it's focus on sex, scandal and celebrities.
The phone hacking scandal began in 2006 and led to the conviction and imprisonment of 2 NOW journalists. Much focused on how much the editor, Andy Coulson knew. He denied any knowledge and after the police investigation and convictions it seemed that the claim that 2 rogue journalists were all that were involved the story died down. However the Guardian newspaper kept plugging on, together with some celebs and politicians who claimed that there phones had also been hacked. Coulson resigned, as editor taking the blame but claiming innocence of any involvement. He went on to be employed by David Cameron, then leader of the opposition.
In July 2009 the Guardian ran a story claiming that Coulson actually sanctioned payments to some of the victims to buy their silence. This story dogged Coulson even when he became Director of Communications when Cameron became Prime Minister. As more and more information dripped out and Coulson became more and more associated with the hacking, he eventually resigned in January of this year.
On July 4th (last Monday) the Guardian ran a story alleging that not only were police investigating the hacking of celebs and politicians, but were also investigating the hacking of the phone of Milly Dowler, a teenager who went missing and then was found murdered. The hacking of her phone gave the parents false hope that she was alive, as it involved deleting some of her messages. That started the explosion that eventually led to the announcement of the closure of the NOW, yesterday.
There are many side issues, including police corruption (allegations that the NOW paid police officers for information), a possible corrupt police investigation which had hidden evidence of the NOW criminal activity and the relationship of politicians to the Murdoch press.
This is quite a complex situation but I've cast charts for the 2009 articles by the Guardian, the Milly Dowler story from this week and the announcement of the closure of the NOW.
I've attached charts for the key events.
In the next post I'll say how I see these charts - I'd love comments, as this is a continuing to grow and there are other possible events that might well be worth a chart
The phone hacking scandal began in 2006 and led to the conviction and imprisonment of 2 NOW journalists. Much focused on how much the editor, Andy Coulson knew. He denied any knowledge and after the police investigation and convictions it seemed that the claim that 2 rogue journalists were all that were involved the story died down. However the Guardian newspaper kept plugging on, together with some celebs and politicians who claimed that there phones had also been hacked. Coulson resigned, as editor taking the blame but claiming innocence of any involvement. He went on to be employed by David Cameron, then leader of the opposition.
In July 2009 the Guardian ran a story claiming that Coulson actually sanctioned payments to some of the victims to buy their silence. This story dogged Coulson even when he became Director of Communications when Cameron became Prime Minister. As more and more information dripped out and Coulson became more and more associated with the hacking, he eventually resigned in January of this year.
On July 4th (last Monday) the Guardian ran a story alleging that not only were police investigating the hacking of celebs and politicians, but were also investigating the hacking of the phone of Milly Dowler, a teenager who went missing and then was found murdered. The hacking of her phone gave the parents false hope that she was alive, as it involved deleting some of her messages. That started the explosion that eventually led to the announcement of the closure of the NOW, yesterday.
There are many side issues, including police corruption (allegations that the NOW paid police officers for information), a possible corrupt police investigation which had hidden evidence of the NOW criminal activity and the relationship of politicians to the Murdoch press.
This is quite a complex situation but I've cast charts for the 2009 articles by the Guardian, the Milly Dowler story from this week and the announcement of the closure of the NOW.
I've attached charts for the key events.
In the next post I'll say how I see these charts - I'd love comments, as this is a continuing to grow and there are other possible events that might well be worth a chart