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Documents Revive Focus On Phone-Hacking Scandal

DAVID GREENE, Host:

It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. Good morning, I'm David Greene.

RENEE MONTAGNE, Host:

And, David, the documents are being described - or this letter and other documents that have come along in the last few days are being described as devastating and even explosive. Taken together, what do they say?

DAVID FOLKENFLIK: And he challenged his firing in 2007, Clive Goodman, by saying, hey, look, I was told that I would be allowed to keep my job if I kept my mouth shut and I didn't implicate anybody else. I did that. I expect Tom Crone, then the top lawyer for the tabloid, and Andrew Coulson, then the top - who had been the top editor there, to keep their word. That certainly suggests a cover-up.

MONTAGNE: Well, you mentioned the law firm. And of course that's the law firm that Rupert Murdoch has said, you know, was called in to the bottom of this mess. Well, now it has come out saying something rather different.

FOLKENFLIK: The law firm says not at all. We weren't asked that question.

MONTAGNE: Now, Rupert Murdoch's son James has already defended his testimony in effect that he knew nothing and top people knew nothing. What does he and what does News Corp. say now?

FOLKENFLIK: I think it's important to indicate these are allegations, not proven. But they do seem substantive. And, in fact, Goodman hasn't come forward publicly to say this. This was revealed in documents submitted to the committee.

MONTAGNE: What can we expect next?

FOLKENFLIK: Well, the committee has indicated that it's calling back a series of executives and editors for the tabloid. And it's going to be asking James Murdoch - or looking closely at James Murdoch's testimony. And it has indicated it's likely to recall him as well. They really are calling into question some of the testimony that has been received before parliament this summer and in years past.

MONTAGNE: David, thanks very much.

FOLKENFLIK: You bet.

MONTAGNE: That's NPR media correspondent David Folkenflik. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

Renee Montagne, one of the best-known names in public radio, is a special correspondent and host for NPR News.
David Folkenflik was described by Geraldo Rivera of Fox News as "a really weak-kneed, backstabbing, sweaty-palmed reporter." Others have been kinder. The Columbia Journalism Review, for example, once gave him a "laurel" for reporting that immediately led the U.S. military to institute safety measures for journalists in Baghdad.