Ex-News Corp Execs: We Investigated Hacking

James Murdoch was well aware that News of the World's phone hacking scandal went beyond a rogue reporter, and he failed to act, News Corp's former legal chief testified today. Tom Crone says Murdoch authorized a $1.1 million settlement with a hacking victim based on an email that indicated "News of The World was involved, and that involvement involved people beyond Clive Goodman."

A former HR exec says that, after disgraced reporter Clive Goodman wrote a letter detailing widespread hacking, the company did investigate. "We also then looked at around 2,000 to 2,500 emails and then took it to a third party,” Daniel Cloke said. “That gave me comfort as an HR director that we had covered the bases and done the proper thing.” Somehow, though, that search didn’t uncover what has in recent months been revealed, as Reuters puts it, as happening “on an almost industrial scale.” Also today, a former News International lawyer told the committee that that Goodman had been paid $400,000 not to keep quiet but as a settlement to avoid a public “tribunal.” (More News Corp stories.)