The "phone-hacking" scandal, 17 July 2011

• In spite of stiff competition from Sir Paul Stephenson, I think we must award the "I've had the worst week" award to Rebekah Brooks, who was arrested by Scotland Yard "on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications" and "on suspicion of corruption," according to a statement from the Metropolitan Police. She has been released on bail.
  
  Brooks is still slated to appear before a House of Commons committee on Tuesday, although commentators have pointed out that having been arrested, she might not be able to answer MPs' questions freely. That Catch-22 is starting to spawn conspiracy theories among some MPs that her arrest was a way to take the heat off both the phone-hacking and the police bribery investigations.
  
  The stories:
  
  • the Independent
  • the Guardian
  • the BBC
• The commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Sir Paul Stephenson, has resigned. This comes at the end of a bad week for the Metropolitan Police, with damaging revelations coming one after another. One of the most damaging, I'd guess, was that Stephenson knew about the Met's payments for PR advising to Neil Wallis, a former News International editor implicated in the phone-hacking scandal (and arrested this past week). The knowledge itself wasn't the main problem: rather, it was the fact that Stephenson didn't share his knowledge with Prime Minister David Cameron before the information became public.
  
  The stories:
  
  • the Independent
  • the Guardian says that Stephenson included a veiled threat to Cameron's political career in his statement of resignation
  • the BBC
• Labour leader Ed Miliband has called for the breakup of Rupert Murdoch's UK media properties, saying Murdoch has too large a share of the UK press market. Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg also called for greater plurality in the UK press.
  
  • the Guardian
  • the BBC
• The BBC has a good look at how News Corp.'s British travails are engendering fallout in the U.S.
  

  The scandal has also revealed a battle at the heart of News Corp, which is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, for the future of the US empire. That has exposed a corporate structure where the Murdoch family squabble among themselves but are also pitted against other factions. It is a fight that puts highly profitable TV interests against those of a declining print industry.
  

  The question on everyone's mind is, who will run News Corp. when Rupert Murdoch gives up the reins? Rupert's son James is no longer the favorite; many wonder if he's even still in the running.
• The New York Times' David Carr has written what I'd call an opinion piece describing a low-profile but similarly problematic News Corp. division, News America Marketing. It should come as no surprise that Carr thinks News America and News International say something about News Corp.'s culture.
  

Various publications have whole sections of their Web sites dedicated to the phone-hacking story.

• BBC
• The Guardian
• Not so much a section as an FAQ, courtesy of the Independent; it includes basic questions that you likely would have if you knew little but the headlines, plus a glossary of terms like "hacking" and "blagging" (a term I had never encountered before this scandal)
• The (New York) Times Topic page