Is Murdoch Scandal Spreading To Fox ?

The Murdoch/News Corp scandal is still getting worse every day. Yesterday another high-ranking member of the London Police, this time the assistant chief, has resigned because of his cozy ties to the Murdoch media empire. The day before it was the chief. And a potentially even worse thing happened -- the Murdoch employee who blew the whistle on the hacking scandal was found dead in his home. This is now far worse than just a PR problem for Murdoch and his media cronies.

And it look like the problem may include Fox News. The Business Insider is reminding us of a story that broke in 2008, where a former employee of Fox News says the company has a "brain room" in the bowels of it's headquarters that is capable of hacking into phones and other electronic equipment. The story was pretty much ignored at the time because there was no verification from other sources, but after the current hacking scandal it's looking a lot more like it is true. Here is some of the Business Insider story:

According to former Fox News executive Dan Cooper, whose gripes with his former employer run quite deep, Fox News chief Roger Ailes allegedly had him design the so-called "Brain Room" to facilitate counter-intelligence efforts and other "black ops."


"The brain room is where Willie Horton comes from," says Cooper, who helped design its specs. "It’s where the evil resides."


"If that sounds paranoid, consider the man Ailes brought in to run the brain room: Scott Ehrlich, a top lieutenant from his political- consulting firm. Ehrlich—referred to by some as "Baby Rush"—had taken over the lead on Big Tobacco’s campaign to crush health care reform when Ailes signed on with CNBC."



While none of these claims have been substantiated, they seem increasingly plausible given the widening coverup of Murdoch's British hacking scandals, which have grown from the desk of just one allegedly "rogue" journalist to topple some of Murdoch's top deputies, including the former publisher of The Wall Street Journal and the chief of News International, which oversees News Corp.'s British newspapers.



Cooper's phone records as well would not be the first time Fox News or U.S. News Corp. employees have been accused of hacking. According to The New York Times, a New Jersey company called Floorgraphics accused News Corp. in 2009 of hacking into their password-protected computer systems to obtain proprietary information, then allegedly spreading "false, misleading, and malicious information" about the firm, causing them to lose important contracts.



News Corp.'s response to the scandal was to buy Floorgraphics outright, after offering a $29.5 million settlement.



Cases like Floorgraphics' are hardly unique: in recent years, the Times noted, News Corp. has paid over $655 million in settlements and hush money to keep allegations of anti-competitive and illegal behavior under the rug.