Yesterday was a huge day for news about news and the story and comment continues to grow. We've ploughed one path through a swathe of the media to bring you a round up of the latest.
This morning David Cameron announced two enquiries into the phone hacking scandal, one judge-led to look at "why did the first police investigation fail so abysmally; what exactly was going on at the News of the World and what was going on at other newspapers?" and one to look at the ethics and culture of the press, scrapping the Press Complaints Commission and bringing in a new system of regulation.
He defended his former employment of former NOTW editor Andy Coulson as his director of communications, provoking vehement calls for him to apologise for it from the opposition. If you can get behind the paywall, The Times is apparently reporting that Andy Coulson is at a London police station for questioning about the scandal this morning.
Ken Livingstone has weighed in to condemn Boris Johnson's judgement regarding the scandal, particularly his trademark blustery comment last year that the whole thing was "codswallop cooked up by the Labour Party". Watch our Mayor carefully try to backtrack on that in this video from BBC London News.
Thinking about the people who now face peremptory job losses in Wapping, the National Union of Journalists reported that as Sub-Editors at The Sun newspaper walked out of work in protest at news of the closure of NOTW yesterday afternoon, "inside the building, News of the World staff were being told about the redundancies. The company has told staff they will receive a 90 day payment which covers the legally required consultation period for job cuts."
A News of the World journalist spoke to Sky News to give an insider's view, "The first we knew about it was when Rebekah Brooks and James Murdoch came to address staff flanked by two security guards.... I certainly don't want to work for News International ever again." He speaks of the shock and emotion felt by staff.
Plans to make savings across the Murdoch newspapers were - of course - already public knowledge, and the move to close the News of the World is being widely viewed as cynical, sparking a lively BBC Question Time last night as well as a wave of affection for the Prime Minister that never was, Hugh Grant.
The Guardian comments, "numerous questions are still left hanging. There are two important ones: who are these "wrongdoers" whose actions caused the death of one of the most famous newspapers in the world? And how on earth can the executives responsible for this mess possibly convince themselves, let alone a sceptical outside world, that they are the right team to clean it up now? If Rebekah Brooks, the chief executive of News International, was not herself one of the "wrongdoers" then she was guilty of such editorial blindness and managerial ineptitude that she should resign. Mr Murdoch's statement praises the "loyal staff … whose good work is a credit to journalism". But the blunt conclusion is: they go, she stays."
Keep hitting 'Refresh'.
On Murdoch's bid to takeover BSkyB, Reuters report that the "British government said.. it would take the closure of the Rupert Murdoch tabloid at the heart of a phone hacking scandal into consideration when deciding on the mogul's bid to buy BSkyB"
For those sick of reading about the story, the Metro website presents the allegations in pictures.
There's an anti-Murdoch demo taking place in Wapping today at 1pm. Will you be there?
