Brooks, Getty Images

Former News of the World reporter Graham Johnson has published a tell-all of his time under Rebekah Brooks called Hack: Sex, Drugs, and Scandal from Inside the Tabloid Jungle. An interview with Vice suggests Rupert Murdoch's former deputy might not enjoy her portrayal.

"The problem is with tabloid journalists, like Rebekah Brooks, and the editors at the Mirror, is they've dished it out constantly, but they never expected to get it back," Mr. Johnson told Vice. "But now they're getting it and they don't like it."

Mr. Johnson also described the corporate environment that enabled reporters to conduct illegal activities like phone hacking and bribery on a wide scale, prompting the U.K. government to launch a major media ethics investigation last year. He said:

It was like the Death Star in Star Wars, fear and repression were tangible, it was like atmospheric pressure under the sea. I remember some girl trying to commit suicide at the News of the World Christmas party. You justify it because you are a stormtrooper. You know, "This is my job, I don't care. I don't care what you think or whether this is immoral." The vice, the immorality has got to be in you and I take responsibility for that. When I started off as a reporter, I had no morals. I was driven by passion and greed and lust and an extremist form of ambition. I went from being a bad reporter and changed to being a good reporter.

There are more gory details and tabloid reporting tips (The Observer's favorite: hire a bunch of photographers to swarm the subject's house and then arrive, camera-less, the sensitive savior-reporter) over at Vice and, presumably, in the book.

Mr. Coulson, far right, flips the bird at Piers Morgan's book party in 2005.

Andy Coulson, the former News of the World editor who resigned over phone hacking allegations (and resigned from his subsequent post as head of communications for David Cameron over the same), is being detained by police for alleged perjury, reports The Guardian.

Talk about tangled webs: Mr. Coulson allegedly lied during another guy's perjury trial, Scottish Socialist politician Tommy Sheridan. To make matters more confusing, Mr. Sheridan was being tried for lying during his £200,000 defamation suit against Mr. Coulson's News of the World. Mr. Coulson was actually a defense witness.

Mr. Coulson has not been formally arrested. He was detained by Strathclyde police in London and is reportedly en route to Glasgow for further questioning.

Colin Myler, failed fixer? (Image via Getty)

We may still be drinking coffee and fantasizing about running into Pat Kiernan on our walk to the L, but our media colleagues across the pond are hours into Day 2 of the second round of the Leveson Inquiry, Britain's press ethics probe, where Rupert Murdoch has fingered Daily News editor Colin Myler in the phone hacking cover-up blame game.

According to the Guardian's liveblog, Mr. Murdoch claimed that the cover-up was enacted at News of the World (i.e. not on an executive, News International level and definitely not by his friends and children), where Mr. Myler, a former New York Post editor, was installed after the first wave of phone hacking allegations took down top editor Andy Coulson.

Without specifically naming Mr. Myler (who jumped to Mr. Murdoch's New York rival after News of the World was shuttered), Mr. Murdoch said that a new editor was brought on at News of the World "with specific instructions to find out what was going on."

"He did I believe put in two or three new steps of regulation but never reported back that there was more hacking than we had been told," Mr. Murdoch said.

Twisting the knife a little, Mr. Murdoch added that Mr. Myler "would not have been his choice," and that he felt there were stronger candidates at the Sun.

Not that he shouldn't have been able to get the job done.

"I would hope Mr Myler would do what he was commissioned to do," he said.

Hi, Rupert

A trio of civil lawsuits will be filed in American courts against Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. Reports in the Daily Mail and Daily Beast indicate attorney Mark Lewis is prepared to file suit on behalf of three unnamed clients in America, claiming the phone hacking, believed to be a U.K. phenomenon until now, took place here as well:

In an exclusive interview with The Daily Beast, Lewis confirmed for the first time that he plans to file three separate lawsuits on behalf of clients who believe their phones were hacked while they were on U.S. soil. At least one of the cases, Lewis adds, involves allegations that the phone of a U.S. citizen was hacked. "This is getting wider," Lewis says. A spokesperson for News Corporation declined to comment.

Mr. Lewis wouldn't say much about his American clients but indicated one possible victim had connections to the late Princess Diana, another was involved with a prominent English soccer team and the third was an instance where the alleged victim's contact with a major celeb made them a hacking target as well.

The American cases stem from information found in the notebooks of Glenn Mulcaire, a private eye employed by the now-defunct News of the World.

Mr. Lewis promised the Daily Beast that there could be more phone-hacking cases in American courts soon.

Performance reviews will be conducted over Twitter.

The Sun on Sunday launches next week, making Rupert Murdoch's first UK newspaper available seven days a week, even as its masthead is plagued by arrests and allegations of bribery. Here is a vintage pic of Mr. Murdoch released by The Sun for the occasion.

In a memo obtained by the Guardian, the News Corp. boss pledged his "unwavering support" to the new publication, which is staffed at least in part by employees of the shuttered News of the World.

Memo below, emphasis ours.

Dear colleagues:

I've worked alongside you for 43 years to build the Sun into one of the world's finest papers. It is a part of me and is one of our proudest achievements. The Sun occupies a unique and important position within News Corporation.

I have immense respect for our heritage, your exceptional journalism and, above all, you, the talented women and men who work tirelessly every day to ensure our readers have access to such a trusted news source. I believe this newsroom is full of great journalists and I remain grateful for your superb work and for the stories you uncover to inform and protect the public. None more so than over the last three weeks.

My continuing respect makes this situation a source of great pain for me, as I know it is for each of you.

We will obey the law. Illegal activities simply cannot and will not be tolerated – at any of our publications. Our board of directors, our management team and I take these issues very seriously.

Our independently chaired management & standards committee, which operates outside of News International, has been instructed to co-operate with the police. We will turn over every piece of evidence we find – not just because we are obligated to but because it is the right thing to do.

We are doing everything we can to assist those who were arrested – all suspensions are hereby lifted until or whether charged and they are welcome to return to work. News Corporation will cover their legal expenses. Everyone is innocent unless proven otherwise.

I made a commitment last summer that I would do everything I could to get to the bottom of our problems and make this company an example to Fleet Street of ethical journalism. We will continue to ensure that all appropriate steps are taken to protect legitimate journalistic privilege and sources, which I know are essential for all of you to do your jobs. But we cannot protect people who have paid public officials.

I am confident we can live by these commitments and still produce great journalism.

We will build on the Sun's proud heritage by launching the Sun on Sunday very soon. Our duty is to expand one of the world's most widely read newspapers and reach even more people than ever before.

Having a winning paper is the best answer to our critics.

I am even more determined to see the Sun continue to fight for its readers and its beliefs. I am staying with you all, in London, for the next several weeks to give you my unwavering support.

I am confident we will get through this together and emerge stronger.

Thank you,

Rupert Murdoch

Rupert Murdoch is not happy

Police in the United Kingdom made new arrests Saturday as part of "Operation Elveden." The dead-serious probe with the Tolkienesque name is digging into allegations Rupert Murdoch's Sun paid cops for inside information. News Corp's Management and Standards Committee reported the arrests and took credit in the process:

"News Corporation made a commitment last summer that unacceptable news gathering practices by individuals in the past would not be repeated," the committee said in a statement confirming the arrests of four "current and former employees" of the Sun.

Four suspects were journalists, a fifth was an officer with the Metropolitan Police. Reuters reported that the Sun's crime editor Mike Sullivan, news head Chris Pharo, ex-deputy editor Fergus Shanahan and former Sun managing editor Graham Dudman were among those taken in.

"Operation Elveden" is one of three ongoing inquiries into how News Corp's now-defunct News of the World gathered intelligence.

[Reuters]

(image via Guardian)

Former News International executive Rebekah Brooks and her former racehorse trainer husband announced the arrival of their daughter, Scarlett Anne Mary Brooks, at a private hospital in London today, reports the Independent.

Ms. Brooks was arrested in Scotland Yard's phone hacking and police corruption investigations two days after she resigned from News Corp.'s European newspaper group. She is currently out on bail and maintains her innocence.

Sadly, Ms. Brooks was not ingeniously hiding a pregnancy this whole time. The couple used a surrogate.

Since the Murdochs' appearance before Parliament in July, letters from former News of the World employees Tom Crone and Glenn Mulcaire suggest that, contrary to their testimony, the Murdochs were informed that phone hacking practices were used by more reporters than "rogue" royals editor Clive Goodman.

David Cameron, Rebekah Brooks, and Andy Coulson could also be expected to provide evidence. Lord Justice Leveson, who will hold the inquiry, said it could take up to a year. It will kick off at the end of this month with a series of seminars for senior journalists on topics including the law, ethics, practice and pressures of investigative journalism.

Catch up on the complete News Corp. phone hacking scandal here.

All of the above is inarguable. But, of course, for some critics, the story is a good deal larger than all of that. For them, the story is about Mr. Murdoch. According to his critics, there is no evil to which he will not descend. The scandal at the News of the World has touched off nothing less than a media crusade against Mr. Murdoch, with the publisher’s oh-so-innocent enemies assuming the moral high ground as they attack not just the tactics of rogue journalists, not just the culture of British tabloid journalism, but the very character of Rupert Murdoch.

Please, spare us.  While it’s clear that many things were amiss at the News of the World, and while many questions remain to be asked of the relationship between British reporters (including those who don’t work for Mr. Murdoch) and Scotland Yard, it is simply wrong to assail Mr. Murdoch simply because of his politics. Yes, he was a part of London’s tainted tabloid culture, but that does not make him a symbol of that culture.

Rupert Murdoch has apologized, profusely and with genuine humility, to the family of Milly Dowler, the young murder victim whose phone was hacked into by reporters from News of the World. The family’s attorney said that Mr. Murdoch put his head in his hands as he expressed his grief. What more could he have done? How many publishers have apologized to families whose suffering has been exacerbated by media coverage? How many publishers would have closed a valuable property like News of the World? Mr. Murdoch did that, and more—he dropped his bid to purchase B Sky B, which was extremely important to him.

Mr. Murdoch clearly is one of the most powerful people on the planet. He is unabashed about his politics and he is willing to spend billions to underwrite media properties that reflect his world view. Those who disagree with it are free to read another newspaper or flip to another channel. Despite what you might have read or surmised from coverage of the scandal, Mr. Murdoch has no monopoly on news and opinion—in this country, in the U.K., in Australia, or on Planet Earth. Nevertheless, he is a big target for those who disagree with him—or who simply cannot compete with him.

They have piled on in recent days, with untoward enthusiasm. The scandal in Britain is a tragedy on many levels, for the Dowler family, for the families of journalists who are now out of work in a terrible economy, for the integrity of the Metropolitan Police in London  and surely for the Murdoch family. But there is no sense of sorrow in the tone of Mr. Murdoch’s critics. Instead, they gleefully insist that the scandal is a reflection of his personal failings.

Mr. Murdoch surely is not perfect. But he happens to be a world-class visionary who has revived dying newspapers (against the advice of his more-practical advisers), supported alternative vehicles for political and cultural criticism from Fox News to the Weekly Standard, and improved the readability of properties like The Wall Street Journal. He has been a staunch supporter of Israel and a crusader for education reform in New York.

Rupert Murdoch’s opinions are not to everybody’s taste. They are not intended to be. But New York newspaper readers should realize that there is a reason why this city is home to one of the world’s last newspaper wars, why there is greater diversity of opinion in this city’s newspapers than there was a quarter-century ago, and why politicians of both parties have had good reason to fear a phone call from the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal.

That reason is Rupert Murdoch, who came to New York in the 1970s and singlehanded revitalized the city’s newspaper landscape.

He has done this city a service. It is important to remember that as his critics seek to portray him as the media’s world king of darkness.

ddaddario@observer.com :: @DPD_