The "phone-hacking" scandal, 18 July 2011

This scandal embroils elements of the press, the Metropolitan Police, and politicians. Well, only one politician, but he's a big fish: Prime Minister David Cameron. So far, at least four high-ranking News Corporation executives (Alan Coulson, Rebekah Brooks, Les Hinton, and Tom Crone, until last week News International's legal manager) and two high-ranking police officials (Met Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson and now, as noted below, Assistant Commissioner John Yates) have resigned.

Cameron is not accused, nor does he seem likely to be accused, of criminal behavior. However, he has been extremely close to Alan Coulson, Rebekah Brooks and Rupert Murdoch, largely because Murdoch's UK media interests have made him a kingmaker (or Prime Minister-maker). Cameron also is widely considered to have shown extremely poor judgment when he hired Coulson in the aftermath of the latter's resignation from News of the World over -- wait for it -- phone-hacking allegations in 2007.

All in all, Cameron seems only one or two more embarrassing revelations away from a no-confidence vote. And Stephenson's resignation statement hinted at unrevealed and potentially embarrassing revelations, in addition to doing more than hinting at Stephenson's disgruntlement with Cameron.

The press and the police have offered up their sacrifices. Might politics be next?

• Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner John Yates has resigned. He did so shortly after being informed that "he would be suspended pending an inquiry into his relationship with Mr [Neil] Wallis," the former News of the World executive whose ties to former Met Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson eventually brought about Stephenson's resignation.
  
  The stories:
  
  • the BBC
  • the Guardian
  • The Guardian also has a sympathetic profile of Yates and how this seemingly admirable police official might have gone off the rails due to overconfidence in his own judgment rather than any corruption. Yates, in fact, was so honest, he had been a high-ranking anti-corruption officer.
  • the Independent
• To quote the Independent's account: "A former News of the World reporter who blew the whistle on widespread phone hacking at the title has been found dead." The reporter was Sean Hoare, who was the first journalist willing to allege on the record that Andy Coulson knew that reporters were hacking people's mobile phones.
  
  According to the Hertfordshire police statement quoted in the Guardian, "The death is currently being treated as unexplained but not thought to be suspicious."
  
  Hoare's credibility has been questioned by some because of his history of drug and alcohol abuse. For his part, Coulson emphatically denies he condoned phone-hacking or remembered it taking place while he was editor.
  
  The stories:
  
  • the Independent
  • the Guardian
  • the New York Times article in which Hoare first made his claim about Coulson (thanks to the Guardian for the link)

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
• The (New York) Times Topic page