Britain's media earthquake

Britain is in the grip of a far-reaching scandal involving the Rupert Murdoch media empire. It has come out that employees of one of the country's largest newspapers, the notoriously-trashy News of the World (a Murdoch paper) have, for years, been hacking into the phone messages of thousands of people deemed newsworthy, ranging from celebrities to families of terrorism victims and of soldiers killed in action to a former Prime Minister. There have also been accusations of bribes paid to the police and deliberate destruction of evidence.

Britain's leading left-wing newspaper, The Guardian, is doggedly pursuing the story. The scandal has forced News of the World to go out of business, and may even have political implications. The paper's editor Andy Coulson, who has just been arrested, was until recently Director of Communications for the present Conservative Prime Minister, David Cameron -- who has ties with other figures from the Murdoch empire as well.

It's still unclear whether the Conservative government will be damaged by association -- but Murdoch's position is starting to look shaky.