Tell News of the World about the rabbits, Rupert.
News of the World is a Sunday paper with a 168 year history and the largest readership of all English language newspapers. Unfortunately, a small number of employees have caused a huge amount of damage by hacking the voicemails of politicians, celebrities, and members of the royal family. Even more egregious was the discovery made earlier this week by the Guardian that some employees of News of the World had also hacked into the voicemail of missing schoolgirl Molly Dowler and intentionally deleted messages, interfering with the investigation and giving the child’s parents false hope that their missing daughter was accessing her voicemail. Six months later, the girl’s body was found, and serial killer Levi Bellfield was convicted for the murder last month. Additionally, the Evening Standard broke the news today that senior journalists and executives at News of the World had paid the Metropolitan Police bribes totalling over £100,000 (US $160,000).
The damage has been so extensive that the entire paper is being shut down by its owner, Rupert Murdoch. (That’s him in the banner picture, superimposed into Of Mice And Men ’cause that’s how we roll.) Murdoch announced this Sunday’s issue will be the final one and all revenue made this week will be going to “good causes”. We here at the Uproxx offices are hoping our beer runs count as a good cause.
For more updates on this story, you can follow the live blog at Guardian, or you can hack Rupert Murdoch’s voicemail and listen to all the messages of him yelling, “They did WHAT!?”