By CASSANDRA VINOGRAD 7/18/2011
LONDON (AP) — Police say Sean Hoare, the whistleblower reporter who alleged widespread hacking at the News of the World, has been found dead.
Police said Hoare's death at his home in England was not considered to be suspicious, according to Britain's Press Association news agency.
[The same police who didn't investigate the original reports several years ago. Are we supposed to trust them about this?]
Hoare was quoted by The New York Times as saying that phone-hacking was widely used and even encouraged at the News of the World tabloid under then-editor Andy Coulson.
Coulson — who most recently served as Prime Minister David Cameron's communications chief, was arrested as part of the widening investigation into phone hacking and police corruption.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
[.....]
Prime Minister David Cameron, feeling the political heat from his own close ties to Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. media empire, cut short his trip to Africa and called an emergency session of Parliament for Wednesday so he could address lawmakers on the scandal.
The crisis has triggered upheaval in the upper ranks of Britain's police. Monday's resignation of Assistant Commissioner John Yates — Scotland Yard's top anti-terrorist officer — followed that Sunday of police chief Paul Stephenson — both for links to an arrested former executive from Murdoch's shuttered News of the World tabloid.
[...]
The scandal over Murdoch journalists hacking into cell phones for scoops and paying police for information has taken down top police and media figures with breathtaking speed and knocked billions off the value of Murdoch's News Corp. The media baron was already forced to shut down the 168-year-old News of the World tabloid, accept the resignations of top deputies in Britain and the U.S. and abandon his dream of taking full control of a lucrative satellite broadcaster, British Sky Broadcasting.
Britain's police watchdog on Monday said it had received allegations of potential wrongdoing in connection with phone hacking against four senior officers — Stephenson, Yates and two former senior officers. One of the claims is that Yates inappropriately helped get a job for the daughter of former News of the World editor, Neil Wallis, one of 10 people arrested in the scandal.
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