• by Thom Forbes , July 6, 2011

Withholding advertising from a media outlet is an old-school cudgel that happens rarely enough that it still makes headlines -- and now Twitter feeds -- when it happens, as it does this morning in the case of Ford et al. v. Rupert Murdoch's News of the World.

But this one seems bigger than your routine we're-going-to-duck-out-of-here-for-an-issue-or-two public-slap-on-the-wrist as evidenced by Financial Timescoverage of the imbroglio. The story leads its news roundup this morning and carries no fewer than four bylines -- George Parker, Ben Fenton and Elizabeth Rigby in London and Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson in New York -- as well as an "additional reporting" credit for Elaine Moore.

The FT team writes: "The News of the World has started to come under pressure from advertisers, some influenced by a Twitter campaign. Ford said it would suspend advertising in the paper, saying it 'cares about the standards of behavior of its own people and those it deals with externally.' Renault also said it had stopped booking advertising." FT also reports Lloyds Banking Group, Everything Everywhere, Npower and Halifax are "reviewing their relationship with the Sunday tabloid."

The story is also on the front page of the New York Times and page B1 of the Wall Street Journal, and figures prominently on the websites of both major trades, Adweek and Ad Age -- (a rarer occasion than you might think nowadays).

News that News of the World "agents" have hacked into the phone records of the subjects of stories is not new. "In fact, it has been under pressure for several years amid investigations into the use of a private detective ... to break into the mobile-phone voice mail of celebrities and political leaders," Paul Sonne and Cassell Bryan-Low report in Murdoch's New Corp.'s own Wall Street Journal.

But the latest allegations involve hacking into the voicemails of a 13-year-old girl in 2002 who was missing at the time and later found murdered. The editor of the paper when the alleged transgression took place, Rebekah Brooks, is now CEO of News International, the News Corp. subsidiary that runs its newspapers in the UK. The "confidant and favorite of Rupert Murdoch" finds herself under fire, as the New York Times points out at the top of its coverage today.

"Ed Miliband, leader of the opposition Labour Party, said Tuesday that Ms. Brooks should 'consider her conscience and consider her position' after the disclosures," write Sarah Lyall and Eric Pfanner. "'It wasn't a rogue reporter,' Mr. Miliband said. 'It wasn't just one individual. This was a systematic series of things that happened, and what I want from executives at News International is people to start taking responsibility for this.'"

For her part, Brooks says she is appalled. Appalled, I tell you. Her statement reads: "It is almost too horrific to believe that a professional journalist or even a freelance inquiry agent working on behalf of a member of the News of the World staff could behave in this way .... I hope that you all realize it is inconceivable that I knew or, worse, sanctioned these appalling allegations."

Or, as the headline atop Alex Massie's column in The Spectator puts it: "Rebekah Brooks: Don't Blame Me, I'm A Victim Too!" She told her staff in an email that despite calls for her head, she intends to hold on to it, the Guardian reports in considerably more words.

Writing for Reuters Breaking Views, which also runs on page D2 of the print edition of the New York Times (second item), Christopher Hughes says that News Corp.'s handling of the crisis has been "inexcusably poor" and "strongly reinforces the impression of chronic governance weakness in Rupert Murdoch's empire."

But Ford, for one, is limiting its damage to News of the World. It says in a statement reported by the Detroit Free-Press: "We are awaiting an outcome from the News of the World investigation, and we expect a speedy and decisive response. Pending this response, we will be using alternative media within and outside News International Group."

The British Press Compliants Commission chairwoman, Peta Buscombe, says she was lied to by the News of the World over phone hacking, James Robinson, Adam Gabbatt, Sandra Laville, Nick Davies and Amelia Hill (phew) report in the Guardian. "Buscombe had said in 2009 that the PCC was not misled by the News of the World during its own inquiry into phone hacking. However, on the BBC's "Daily Politics" show, she admitted she had been 'misled by the News of the World.'"

"[Labour leader] Miliband says that the hacking "represents one of the darkest days in British journalism," the Guardian gang further reports.

But perhaps there is a bright side. Consider all the reporters gainfully employed in covering the scandal and its aftermath.