窃听事件后风雨飘摇的默多克新闻集团

Lord Justice Leveson will want to know not only about the phone hacking itself, much of which took place five or ten years ago, but about News Corporation’s 2007 internal inquiry, which purported to establish that the misdeeds were the work on one “rogue reporter.” From the outside, only two possibilities present themselves. The inquiry was horribly botched, or there was a deliberate coverup.

Leveson法官将会需要知道不仅仅关于这次发生在5到10年前的电话窃听，还包括2007年默多克公司本身进行的内部质询，在这次内部质询中公司认为窃听行为只是某些流氓记者的个人行为。从局外者的角度看，这个结果只有两个可能型。要么这次质询彻底被搞砸了，要么就是有人故意隐瞒些什么。

Leveson, a Liverpudlian with a reputation for independence, is also sure to take an interest in what happened subsequently. News International, the News Corp. subsidiary that runs the British newspapers, reached legal settlements with a number of phone-hacking victims, effectively buying their silence. James Murdoch, it is now known, explicitly approved some of these payments.

Leveson，这位以独立审判著称的利物浦人，也会有兴趣知道在质询之后发生了什么。新闻集团的下属主管英国新闻业的新闻国际通过法律途径和受害人达成了保密协定，买到了他们的沉默。而詹姆斯默多克已经是公认的对此完全知情。

Scotland Yard, meanwhile, will be continuing its investigation into allegations that journalists from the Murdoch newspapers bribed police officers to obtain information about celebrities, the royals, and others. Bribery is a serious charge which carries long prison sentences. Who authorized these payments? Who else knew about them? From 1995 to 2007, the head of News International was Les Hinton, a longtime Murdoch aide who is now chief executive of Dow Jones. In 2009, Rebekah Brooks, who previously edited the Sun, took over as head of News International, a post she still holds, despite calls from all sides for her resignation.

当前，Scotland Yard依然在调查默多克公司的记者所说的新闻集团通过收买警察局的官员来获得关于名人和皇室成员的信息。行贿罪是非常严重罪行，它可能导致极长的服刑期。谁授权了这些收买？哪些人知道这些事情？从1995年到2007年，新闻国际的负责人是Les Hinton，他不仅是默多克的好友，现在也是道琼斯的首席执行官。在2009年，Rebekan Brooks成为了新闻国际负责人，虽然很多人现在要求他下台，但是他还是继续做着他的负责人。

Then there is the U.S. angle, such as it is. Yesterday, Senator Jay Rockefeller, who heads the Senate Commerce Committee, called on the American authorities to determine whether phone hackers tied to News International had targeted U.S. individuals. “I am concerned that the admitted phone hacking in London by the News Corp. may have extended to 9/11 victims or other Americans. If they did, the consequences will be severe,” Rockefeller said in a statement.

随后，美国方面也有反应。昨天，美国的参议员Jay Rockfeller,同时也是美国商业议会的负责人，要求美国官方对于电话窃听进行调查，了结是否由美国公民牵涉其中。他表示：我担心发生在英国新闻国际的电话窃听可能扩展到了美国911的受害人和其他美国人。如果真的是这样，后果很严重。

In short, the Murdochs and News Corp. are going to be besieged for months and years to come. What now are the chances of James Murdoch, or any of his siblings, taking over from his father as chairman and chief executive of News Corp.? The odds are a lot longer than they were this time last week.

短期上看，默多克和他的新闻集团将会经历长年累月的围攻。如果现有由詹姆斯默多克或者他的其他姐妹来接手老默多克在新闻集团的董事长兼首席执行官的职位是否可行呢？可能从这周来看，似乎更大了。