Source:
Washington PostBut as the phone-hacking scandal here explodes, the bobbies of Scotland Yard are weathering their worst crisis in years, one that has portrayed some of the force’s highest-ranking officials as bumbling Keystone Kops and painted others as woefully corrupt beat cops willing to accept bribes in excess of $160,000 to pass on juicy tidbits to the press.
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The scandal centers on allegations that Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World tabloid for years used illegal methods for newsgathering, including passing fat envelopes of cash to officers and tapping into the private messages of thousands of British citizens, from crime victims to celebrities to members of the royal family.
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The scandal is laying bare the seedy world of British tabloid journalism and the pivotal role corrupt police officers have long played in it. Rebekah Brooks, the high-powered News Corp. executive who resigned Friday in the wake of the scandal, had testified in Parliament as early as 2003 that News of the World had paid police officers for information. The Met, however, says that since 2000, only two officers have been investigated for taking bribes from any British publication. And both were cleared of wrongdoing.
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“That was true especially with Diana,” McMullan said, referring to the late Princess of Wales. “We would get calls from our police contacts telling us what airport she was landing in, and who was with her. That kind of information was worth several thousand pounds.”
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/in-britain-phone-hacking-sullies-famed-scotland-yard/2011/07/16/gIQAJBqJII_story.html