back to article Ex–News International boss Brooks denies bribing cops

News Corp boss Rupert Murdoch stood by Rebekah Brooks this afternoon at a parliamentary hearing about the phone-hacking scandal at his sister company News International. Brooks, of course, resigned from her job as NI CEO on 15 July. Two days later she was arrested on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications and of …

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  1. Ragarath
    FAIL

    sounds like

    A bull with a lot of locks added to me and typically what I expected them all to say.

    Those with money never face the music they pay those ringing them.

  2. Haku
    Flame

    "never paid a police officer or knowingly sanctioned payment to a police officer"

    Bollocks.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1AJjnl2y8U

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      As they say elswhere...

      Don't Ask, Don't Tell.

      You know what you don't need to tell us, just get the job done!!

      We'll look after you but make sure there is no trail to catch you & us out. (Glen Mulcaire, take note!)

  3. frank ly
    WTF?

    Who sets the rules here?

    "Murdoch said he couldn't comment on the possibility of editors not knowing about phone-hacking methods taking place at the newspaper, given the ongoing police investigations."

    So, Rupert Murdoch (or his legal adviser) decides that he can't give answers to certain questions, to a parliamentary hearing, because it would affect police operations. Does the chairman of the hearing or the police themselves have any opinion on this matter, or do they just keep quiet and let him run the show? Oh.... a silly question I suppose.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    She will ...

    ... drive down property prices in Chipping Norton.

  5. ideapete

    The curse of the big Brown Blair NOW box

    The story so far

    Tony the red cap goblin knew his tribe would stab him in the rear end one-day especially the Brown ( flush it down crowd ) and so together with the beautiful princess Reb they created a NOW box that accepted crap and paid out coins. ( If you where a blue with a pointy hat it paid you two ) . The curse he placed on it ( unknown by the beautiful Reb ) was that immediately the redcaps got replaced by the blues it would start to smell and if anyone tried to turn off the box it would explode. Somewhere along the line the box was sold to the Murder of the Orchs ( MO s lead by King Rupert) family so Tony added another curse " Screw with me and my caps and the smell will stick to you like glue ( aided by the blue, with the pointy hats ) . Well they did and it did and when the MOs tried to shut down the NOW box and make it NOT NOW it exploded and boy did they get showered.

    The MO prince Jamie who took his eyes of the box trying to look down Rebs negligee got really covered. The boxes hiding place was in the middle of Jock Yard and they were tasked with making sure expensive shit went in and real money came out and only they knew that it paid you two if you wore blue with a pointy ( hat preferably ) . The other blue crowd led by Dave and his assistant partial blue Nick screamed at the Pointy hatted blues WTF and some of the bigger ones called " Head Rozer Peelers " ( No one knows why ) Paul and John ( no relation but will they sing ) tried to jump on the NOT NOW box to shut it up and it blew ( no relation ) them right outa the yard. The MO crowd who are from a land far far away who don't really believe in fairy stories except for equal rights are looking for Rebas twin to tell them WTF is going on.

    Stay tuned to the next Epi - Slode

    Will Dave come back from the land of Zoom with some blue Impis to asaguy the NOT NOW supporters up the rear ( They are experts at that )

    Will anyone figure out that Ed and Dave are changeling puppets created by the NOT NOW redcap Tony

    Will Boris stop sharpening his axe and write some jokes

    Will Rebecca go into the room with the entire met for a down and dirty and come out smiling ( Tickets available at your box office )

    Will Shakespeare's lawyer sue the whole lot for copy write infringement and making his works all jumbled up and incomprehensible

    Will the Pointy hatted blue rozers keep swan diving the box and who will get blown the furthest including a Dick that isnt ( we will keep you posted )

    Special thanks to the Goons and Terry Pratchett for making my mind the mess it is

    ( : ( : pete

    1. frank ly
      Happy

      I upvoted you for imagination and effort ...

      .... but it needs some rewriting (and spell-checking and a bit more punctuation). Well done though :)

      When it's all over, I have a feeling that the box will be filled with clear blue water. :(

  6. peter 45

    Yeh but.

    "never paid a police officer or knowingly sanctioned payment to a police officer"

    But did she knowingly sanction payments to 'informers' or 'sources' (Nudge nudge wink wink)

    or did she knowingly sanction payments to third persons......who paid the police.

    Or did she sanction payments with both hand over her ears trilling "La la la I can't hear you tell me what the payments are for. Now what is the headline?"

  7. system

    Never paid a police officer?

    Really?

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1AJjnl2y8U

  8. Version 1.0 Silver badge
    Happy

    And the defense is?

    That Murdoch didn't know anything because he trusted his underlings ... and his underlings didn't know anything either because nobody told them what was going on ... so it's the "we're a bunch of incompetent duffers" defense?

    Basically they are asking us to believe that when each reporter wrote a story that was published in the NoW that nobody ever asked the reporter, "Where's the source, where's the confirmation that the story is true?"

    Saying "I'm sorry" doesn't cut it - they are either incompetent duffers, or they are lying.

  9. Shane Kent

    so she is...

    not a bad person, just an incompetent boss? Nice defense, fits in with Google's it was one rogue engineer and we didn't realize we were collecting excess data ALL OVER THE WORLD. She should go down regardless of her BS defense. Utter slime, she should do time in a sewer not a prison.

    1. John G Imrie

      Utter slime, she should do time in a sewer not a prison.

      Why would you whish to inflict her on Sewer Slime?

  10. PhilipN Silver badge

    And the point of all this is .... ?

    To save typing, "dirt" as used below covers scandal, rubbish, prurience, calumny etc

    Reporters and journalists dig up dirt.

    Their newspapers publish dirt,

    The British newspaper-buying public buy the newspapers which publish dirt

    Reporters and journalists dig up more dirt

    The British newspaper-buying public buy more newspapers ie. more newspapers which publish more of the dirt.

    Did Rupert invent the News of the World?

    No

    Did he drag the British press deeper in the gutter?

    Pass,

    If he did so, did the British newspaper-buying public stop buying his newspapers in protest?

    Did they change their reading habits by buying other newspapers?

    We all know the answer to the last two.

    Britain has had a culture of biting political satire since the 17th century. At times the culture becomes very personal. Nothing new there.

    Britain also still has a peeping-through-the-curtains attitude to the enjoyment of dirt. Perhaps we all thought that had been left behind in the 1950's but obviously not. Time to stop kidding ourselves.

    So the point of all this is .....?

    1. Magnus_Pym

      Look at the circulation figures

      People just aren't buying papers any more. That why Rupe is so keen to get hold of B Sky B. He can see that paper publishing is a dying business.

    2. Ru
      Alert

      Did Rupert invent the News of the World?

      He is responsible for it becoming a disreputable tabloid, yes. He knows what sells to the proles.

  11. nsld
    Mushroom

    oddly

    she clearly said in 2003 in front of a select committee that they do pay the police for information.

    That alone should be enough to convict her for conspiracy to corrupt, and for her to lie in front of a select committee today only compounds the issue.

    And her denial of knowledge as an editor is also laughable, anyone who has written for a mainstream publication knows the editors and the legal department are in the loop all the way.

    1. John Smith 19 Gold badge
      Happy

      @nsid

      Ah, her new line is (effectively) she mis-spoke.

      She was voicing a common *opinion* that some of her staff (although she's not sure who and for some reason didn't try to find out) *had* paid cops in the past.

      Kind of like the view that all journos are incorrigible p***heads.

      But in point of "fact" she had no actual *knowledge* of who (or if) any of them had done so.

      That's the explanation. Weather anyone *believes* it is another matter. But I bet she'll stick to it.

      Until evidence starts turning up. Like the report by a QC who finally reviewed the emails sent to London law firm. Turned out it was not 900+, it was 10. He was quite clear they showed law breaking and told the NI board as much.

  12. Arctic fox
    Happy

    Apparently she is trying the........

    ........."everyone was at it" defence (according to other columns I have read today) or words to that effect. It is almost horrifying (in a very satisfying and fascinating way) watching this whole business unravel in slo-mo.

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    Denial

    Oh, come one, clearly he has more than a finger in the pie.

  14. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Happy

    Or as Ross Kemp might put it

    "It's all kicking off now"

    One can hope.

  15. Mr Larrington
    Holmes

    Lies and Filth

    I think that when RB says she didn't pay Plod for information, she means that she *personally* didn't go down to the Stab Vest & Truncheon with a brown envelope stuffed with tenners. I don't think she's denying that *someone* from the News of the Screws was putting a few "drinks" the rozzers' way.

  16. Alan Firminger

    NEWSCORTPLOARNADTYIAORND

    Er ..

  17. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Happy

    That doll.

    *So* wrong.

    And yet....

  18. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Happy

    The "Shaggy" defense

    Did you authorise payments to policmen?

    "Wasn't me"

    Did you run a committee to decide who your posse of bent PI's would target?

    "Wasn't me"

    Are you detecting a theme here?

  19. Magnus_Pym
    Happy

    I'd like to work for News Corp.

    The boss will sign cheques of up to £700,000 without asking questions. He will not make any enquiries about how the business is run no matter what people tell him. The board are gullible enough to take the NotW stories at face value. They read no other papers but their own. And when you are sick of them you can walk into a cushy job with the Police or Government whenever you want.

    Just one question. Where do I sign?

  20. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Happy

    @Magnus_Pym

    "The boss will sign cheques of up to £700,000 without asking questions. "

    Sounds pretty sweet.

    But remember *all* employers lie about the job at interviews.

  21. Sam Therapy
    Mushroom

    Bullshit

    Lies, damned lies and Rebekah Brooks.

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