Thursday, July 7, 2011

British Actress Sienna Miller Settled With Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation Earlier This Year

This was a report from June, "Sienna Miller settles phone-hacking claim."

But Washington Post has an epitaph, "RIP News of the World: Scandal was its product, scandal was its downfall":

Sienna Miller

The newspaper recently spent a lot of time in court, settling claims from people who claimed their phones had been hacked. Actress Sienna Miller collected 100,000 pounds ($160,000), and former Scotland football star Andy Gray got 20,000 pounds ($32,000). Publicist Max Clifford reportedly won 1 million pounds ($1.6 million) in a private settlement and former Professional Football Association chief Gordon Taylor reportedly won 700,000 pounds ($1.12 million).

Other claims are lined up for trial.

“Our motto is the truth, our practice is the fearless advocacy of the truth,” proclaimed John Brown, who launched the weekly paper in 1843.

A year later, it had the highest circulation of any British weekly at 18,000 copies.

The paper flourished under editor Lacelles Carr, who built circulation from 40,000 to more than 4.4 million when he died in 1941.

Circulation peaked at 8.4 million in 1950.

Rupert Murdoch established his beachhead on Fleet Street by buying the News of the World in 1969.

The News of the World remained the biggest-selling paper in Britain until 2008. It was overtaken by Murdoch’s daily tabloid, The Sun, in 2008, and the circulation now stands below 2.7 million.
Plus, an analysis from Peter Oborne, at Spectator UK, "What the papers won’t say."

Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

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