Justice is Moving Slowly in the British Phone Hacking Case Involving Fox News Parent- But It is Moving

Executives Will Likely Plead Ignorance Despite Guilty Pleas from Others

Greg Miskiw, Neville Thurlbeck and James Weatherup have pleaded guilty to conspiracy to illegally access voicemails (Getty)

Over a number of years the British Newspapers controlled by Rupert Murdoch, the Australian who also controls Fox News through the News Corporation hacked into the private lives of celebrities and in at least one case hacked the cell phone of a teenage murder victim.  Finally after years of delay the accused are being tried.

The court heard that News International had publicly admitted that, and issued a statement including an unreserved apology to people in cases meeting certain criteria.

The prosecution claims that former News of the World editors Brooks and Coulson, and ex-managing editor Kuttner, must have known that phone hacking was taking place.

So there is no question the crimes took place.  The issue is what did the senior executives know.  It would seem that they can only plead ignorance, that they had no idea what was going on or why various people were getting huge amounts of money.  Well that is a hopeful position for the defendants  if any of the jurors are familiar with Murdoch operations, that idea that those running the show were ignorant is not unreasonable.