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Beautifully shot yet muted as a drama, ‘News of the World’ brings the post-Civil War Southwest to life in the unlikely journey of a lost girl and a jaded veteran who helps her find home. Ten years ago, auteur filmmaker brothers Joel and Ethan Coen brought a surprisingly sincere revisionist Western to the big screen over Christmas weekend. Out last weekend in theaters, “News of the World” offers a similar throwback film without quite the edge or mass appeal. The Coens’ 2010 take on “True Grit,” a remake of the John Wayne classic, followed a grizzled U.S. Marshal (Jeff Bridges)...

Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, the second biggest shareholder in Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, has revealed his frustration with the fallout from the News of the World phone-hacking scandal and admitted that it is harming the reputation of the company overall, not just its publishing interests.

(Reuters) — Piers Morgan, one of the biggest names in British media and a CNN television host, has been questioned by London police in connection with allegations of phone-hacking at the Daily Mirror tabloid he used to edit. Morgan, a former judge on "America's Got Talent" show who replaced Larry King on CNN in 2011, said in a statement on Thursday he had been interviewed by officers after voluntarily attending a police station in December. The 48-year-old, who has always denied any involvement in phone hacking, was quizzed as part of wider investigations into illegal practices by journalists at Rupert...

Tony Blair's decision to openly court Rupert Murdoch to win power and ensure favorable coverage during his decade-long tenure as British prime minister will come under scrutiny when he faces a media inquiry on Monday. The inquiry, ordered by Prime Minister David Cameron after Murdoch's now defunct News of the World tabloid admitted hacking phones, has tarnished Britain's elite by laying bare the collusion between politicians, the police and the media. Blair kicks off an important week at the Leveson inquiry by answering questions about his often obsessive media management which included courting Murdoch. The inquiry has so far focused...

Rupert Murdoch is used to slipping into Downing Street by the back door for discreet meetings with prime ministers, but there was no such privacy on Wednesday when he faced a grilling about his political influence in the full glare of the world's media. … Questioned under oath at a judicial inquiry prompted by revelations of endemic phone-hacking at his News of the World tabloid, which he shut down last July, Murdoch gave a confident performance in which he amiably played down the power he holds. If his enemies had hoped to see him squirm under the forensic questioning of...

He admitted he and his colleagues hacked into people's phones and paid police officers for tips. He confessed to lurking in unmarked vans outside people's houses, stealing confidential documents, rifling through celebrity garbage and pretending he was not a journalist pursuing a story but "Brad the teenage rent boy," propositioning a priest. After Paul McMullan, a former deputy features editor at Rupert Murdoch's now-defunct News of the World tabloid, had finished testifying at a judicial inquiry Tuesday, it was hard to think of any dubious newsgathering technique he had not confessed to. Nor were the practices he described limited to...

Julian Pike said he had been aware in 2008 that the practice of people hacking into phones to secure stories had been more widespread than the company acknowledged. But he told the Commons Culture Committee he had "not done very much" to dispute the firm's claims that only one rogue reporter was involved. He also told the committee he thought James Murdoch had made mistakes in his recollection of what he knew and when regarding the hacking.

It has taken several weeks for Piers Morgan to become entangled in the phone hacking net, but it now looks probable that he’ll receive an invitation from John Whittingdale MP to appear before the Culture, Media and Sport select committee. That is an extremely perilous position for the ex-editor of the News of the World and the Daily Mirror to find himself in. Morgan’s eventual summons was probably inevitable, but he has not helped his cause by allowing himself to be drawn into spats with Louise Mensch MP and Paul Staines, aka Guido Fawkes. His name first surfaced in connection...

Mr Morgan, a former News of the World and Daily Mirror editor who is now a high-profile television presenter in the US, has spent the past week categorically denying ever printing material derived from phone hacking. He spoke out after being accused by a Conservative MP and political bloggers of being involved in the phone hacking scandal that has engulfed Rupert Murdoch’s media empire, for which he used to work. “For the record, in my time at the News of the World and the Mirror, I have never hacked a phone, told anyone to hack a phone, or published any...

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How does this year's phone hacking scandal at the now-defunct British tabloid News of the World . . . compare with last year's contretemps over the release of classified information by Julian Assange's WikiLeaks and his partners at the New York Times, the Guardian and other newspapers? At bottom, they're largely the same story. . . . Both, in short, are despicable instances of journalistic malpractice, for which some kind of price ought to be paid. So why is one a scandal, replete with arrests, resignations and parliamentary inquests, while the other is merely a controversy, with Mr. Assange's name...

LONDON (AP) — Police say Sean Hoare, the whistleblower reporter who alleged widespread hacking at the News of the World, has been found dead. Police said Hoare's death at his home in England was not considered to be suspicious, according to Britain's Press Association news agency. Hoare was quoted by The New York Times as saying that phone-hacking was widely used and even encouraged at the News of the World tabloid under then-editor Andy Coulson.

Death of Sean Hoare – who was first named journalist to allege Andy Coulson knew of hacking – not being treated as suspicious 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...

In his first significant public comments on the tabloid newspaper scandal that has engulfed his media empire, News Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch vigorously defended the company's handling of the crisis but said it would establish an independent committee to "investigate every charge of improper conduct." In an interview, Mr. Murdoch said News Corp. has handled the crisis "extremely well in every way possible," making just "minor mistakes." News Corp. owns The Wall Street Journal. The six-year saga centers on dubious reporting tactics at the company's News of the World tabloid in the U.K., a controversy that in...

4Share Change font size: A | A Vyan at Daily Kos is getting giddy in a post headlined “Could we soon see a world without Fox News?” It's apparently all over for FNC: "In less than a week the News of the World Wiretapping and Bribery Scandal has quickly metastasized into a Multi-Headed Dragon of Death for Murdoch Empire and simply lopping off one head, doesn't seem to be enough - the infection has already spread." Now that Fox-hating liberal interest groups, bloggers, and Democrat politicians are vowing to investigate, the Kosmonauts think Murdoch's "criminal enterprise" is about to collapse:...

Something rather weird happened in London last week. For some time, The Guardian, a liberal, broadsheet, "respectable" newspaper, has been hammering The News Of The World, a populist, tabloid, low-life newspaper, over its employees' penchant for "hacking" the phones of Royals and celebrities – Prince Harry and Hugh Grant, for example. This isn't as forensic as it sounds: Until recently, most British cellphones were sold with the default password set either to 0000 or 1234, and most customers never bothered to change it.

Murdoch Folds News Of The World Over Hacking This Sunday's News Of The World will be the last ever issue of the tabloid, News International chairman James Murdoch has announced. He said this newspaper would not run any commercial adverts this weekend, adding the advertising space would be donated to causes and charities.

News of the World reacted to the unexpected arrest of one of its most senior reporters by clearing his desk. Despite the paper having promised that it would co-operate fully with police inquiries, executives descended on the desk of former news editor James Weatherup moments after learning of his arrest. Under the eyes of their legal team, they bagged up notebooks, papers and recording machines and removed them "via our lawyers", a firm whose identity the publisher refused to confirm. A few hours later, the police arrived and took the bags to Scotland Yard. The unexpected arrest of Weatherup, one...

After a chance meeting with a former News of the World executive who told him his phone had been hacked, Hugh Grant couldn’t resist going back to him – with a hidden tape recorder – to find out if there was more to the story ... When I broke down in my midlife crisis car in remotest Kent just before Christmas, a battered white van pulled up on the far carriageway. To help, I thought. But when the driver got out he started taking pictures with a long-lens camera. He came closer to get better shots and I swore at...

The Duchess of York is "devastated" and "regretful" after she was filmed apparently offering to sell access to her ex-husband Prince Andrew for £500,000, sources said today. A News of the World video showed Sarah Ferguson promising to introduce an undercover reporter posing as a wealthy businessman to the Prince, who has been the UK's special representative for international trade and investment since 2001. The Duchess who said she could 'open doors' is expected in Los Angeles later today where she is scheduled to pick up an award for her charity work.