Newscorp phone hacking scandal whistleblower found dead

[Aspiring Humanist]

(Reuters) - A former journalist who told the New York Times that phone hacking at Rupert Murdoch's now defunct News of the World was more extensive than the paper had acknowledged at the time, has been found dead, media reported on Monday.

Police said they were not treating the death as suspicious.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/18/us-newscorp-hacking-hoare-idUSTRE76H5GT20110718?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews&rpc=71

Thoughts? No way this was coincidental...and are UK police stupid or in on it?

[LegendZ]

No. They are just doing what the bourgeoisie told them.

[Coggeh]

how could they not treat this as suspicious? im not saying they did kill him, think that would be seriously stupid. But if you find a body of a whistleblower dead in probably the most popular scandal this side of 2000 then you'd want to treat it at the very least bit suspicious don't ya think?

[Sensible Socialist]

We shouldn't hold our breath for a full and independent examination of his death. How many other deaths have the ruling class swept under the rug to avoid public scrutiny?

[Crux]

I agree, especially considering this investigation now also involves bribing top officials in the police. But then again it is quite possible, given his complicity as well, that the pressure just got to him. Perhaps we'll see in a couple of decades.

[RedSquare]

We'll probably never really know, or more to the point be able to accept the explanation given by the police as honest.

He unleashed the biggest scandal in more than a decade, and in doing so implicated the police, successive governments and Rupert Murdoch's media empire in a web of intrigue that stretches beyond borders and could supposedly jeopardize some of Murdoch's future business objectives such as the capture of British Sky Broadcasting, the largest satellite TV service in UK & Ireland and parts of Europe.

His most recent health check came back clear from his doctor, and his friends and family report that he was upbeat and actually looking forward to re-establishing his career.

Mighty suspicious.

[NoOneIsIllegal]

What happened? I don't watch TV and read almost zero news. What was the whistle blowing about, etc?

[RemoveYourChains]

Thoughts? No way this was coincidental...and are UK police stupid or in on it?

Highly suspicious. But seeing as the police themselves are implicated in this scandal, it would not surprise me if there is a lack of internal pressure to investigate the fortuitous "offing" of a potential primary witness.

[Coggeh]

What happened? I don't watch TV and read almost zero news. What was the whistle blowing about, etc?
Read the news and find out.

[Barry]

Obviously with the stress and other elements with the loss of jobs for staff, will be a possible thought of suicide. or thats what will be told, a death involved with this either which way will lead to the further degeneration of the situation

[Mindtoaster]

Even if it wasn't some bourgeois media mogul or british politician that had him offed, thousands of people lost their jobs from News of the World going under. He's probably received shit tons of death threats over the past few months.

It's ridiculous that this has been immediately labeled "not suspicious"- there is absolutely NO REASON this shouldn't be investigated as suspicious.

Something shady is definitely going on

[~Spectre]

News of the World phone-hacking whistleblower found dead
Death of Sean Hoare – who was first named journalist to allege Andy Coulson knew of hacking – not being treated as suspicious (http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jul/18/news-of-the-world-sean-hoare)


Sean Hoare, the former News of the World showbiz reporter who was the first named journalist to allege Andy Coulson was aware of phone hacking by his staff, has been found dead, the Guardian has learned.

Hoare, who worked on the Sun and the News of the World with Coulson before being dismissed for drink and drugs problems, is said to have been found dead at his Watford home.

Hertfordshire police would not confirm his identity, but the force said in a statement: "At 10.40am today [Monday 18 July] police were called to Langley Road, Watford, following the concerns for the welfare of a man who lives at an address on the street. Upon police and ambulance arrival at a property, the body of a man was found. The man was pronounced dead at the scene shortly after.

"The death is currently being treated as unexplained, but not thought to be suspicious. Police investigations into this incident are ongoing."

Hoare first made his claims in a New York Times investigation into the phone-hacking allegations at the News of the World.

He told the newspaper that not only did Coulson know of the phone hacking, but that he actively encouraged his staff to intercept the phone calls of celebrities in the pursuit of exclusives.

In a subsequent interview with the BBC he alleged that he was personally asked by his then-editor, Coulson, to tap into phones. In an interview with the PM programme he said Coulson's insistence that he didn't know about the practice was "a lie, it is simply a lie".

At the time a Downing Street spokeswoman said Coulson totally and utterly denied the allegations and said he had "never condoned the use of phone hacking and nor do I have any recollection of incidences where phone hacking took place".

Sean Hoare, a one-time close friend of Coulson's, told the New York Times the two men first worked together at the Sun, where, Hoare said, he played tape recordings of hacked messages for Coulson. At the News of the World, Hoare said he continued to inform Coulson of his activities. Coulson "actively encouraged me to do it", Hoare said.

In September last year, he was interviewed under caution by police over his claims that the former Tory communications chief asked him to hack into phones when he was editor of the paper, but declined to make any comment.

Hoare returned to the spotlight last week, after he told the New York Times that reporters at the News of the World were able to use police technology to locate people using their mobile phone signals in exchange for payments to police officers.

He said journalists were able to use a technique called "pinging" which measured the distance between mobile handsets and a number of phone masts to pinpoint its location.

Hoare gave further details about the use of "pinging" to the Guardian last week. He described how reporters would ask a news desk executive to obtain the location of a target: "Within 15 to 30 minutes someone on the news desk would come back and say 'right that's where they are.'"

He said: "You'd just go to the news desk and they'd just come back to you. You don't ask any questions. You'd consider it a job done. The chain of command is one of absolute discipline and that's why I never bought into it, like with Andy saying he wasn't aware of it and all that. That's bollocks."

He said he would stand by everything he had told the New York Times about "pinging". "I don't know how often it happened. That would be wrong of me. But if I had access as a humble reporter … "

He admitted he had had problems with drink and drugs and had been in rehab. "But that's irrelevant," he said. "There's more to come. This is not going to go away."

Hoare named a private investigator who he said had links with the News of the World, adding: "He may want to talk now because I think what you'll find now is a lot of people are going to want to cover their arse."

Speaking to another Guardian journalist last week, Hoare repeatedly expressed the hope that the hacking scandal would lead to journalism in general being cleaned up and said he had decided to blow the whistle on the activities of some of his former News of the World colleagues with that aim in mind.

He also said he had been injured the previous weekend while taking down a marquee erected for a children's party. He said he had broken his nose and badly injured his foot when a relative accidentally struck him with a heavy pole from the marquee.

Hoare also emphasised that he was not making any money from telling his story. Hoare, who has been treated for drug and alcohol problems, reminisced about partying with former pop stars and said he missed the days when he was able to go out on the town.

[Pretty Flaco]

What happened? I don't watch TV and read almost zero news. What was the whistle blowing about, etc?

Here you go:

http://www.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/europe/07/18/uk.phone.hacking.explainer/index.html?hpt=hp_t1