The U.K.'s investigation into alleged hacking by staffers of Rupert Murdoch's, 'News of the World' tabloid, just got 'curiouser and curiouser'.  Two former News International executives, who have not been called to testify at the parliamentary hearing, issued a statement refuting the testimony of James Murdoch regarding the hacking scandal that has rocked this global media company.

James Murdoch, who headed the U.K. newspaper division of News Corp. at the time hacking occurred, testified that, in 2008, he signed a $1.4 million check in settlement of a privacy intrusion case, without fully knowing details of the case.  The settlement was with soccer executive Gordon Taylor, whose phone had been hacked by persons working for 'News of the World'.  [More about the settlement, below.]

Statement by Former Executives.   Colin Myler and Tom Crone released the statement, saying that James Murdoch, in fact, had been made aware of the details.  An email containing transcripts of Mr. Taylor's voicemail had been flagged for News of the World's chief reporter.  This contradicts Mr. Murdoch's testimony that, at the time, the incident involved only a single lower level reporter.  In making their statement, Myler and Crone suggest that Murdoch was implicit in covering up transgressions committed by the tabloid.

Murdoch's statement that he did not know all the facts of the case appears to be particularly strange, since no prior privacy case involving the News International tabloid had ever exceeded $160,000 - and most ranged between $6,000 to $24,000.  Thus, for Mr. Murdoch to authorize such an extraordinarily large settlement - 10 times the highest previous settlement - would seem absurd. 

Even stranger, and more suggestive that company officials knew something was wrong, is that related story about Mr. Taylor never was published.  The written unpublished article apparently smeared Taylor, alleging that he was having an affair with his assistant - based on a hacked voicemail from the assistant where she said, "Thank you for yesterday."  In reality, as Mr. Taylor's lawyers explained it, the assistant was thanking Taylor for his giving a speech at her father's funeral the day prior.

Myler and Crone contend that New International's executives, including Murdoch, were presented with the transcripts and the damning evidence from Taylor's lawyers showing that the head reporter for 'News of the World' had received transcripts of the hacked voicemail. 

Yes, this story is getting "Curiouser and Curiouser."  

For more information, check out: [NY Times, 7/22/11]  

Also, for C-I's story about the perjury aspects of this story, go to:   [Behind the News, 7/22/11]