New York Post comes under scrutiny

NEW YORK POST UNDER SCRUTINY: The Wall Street Journal reports: "News Corp.'s legal department on Friday issued a notice to New York Post staff asking them to save any information related to phone hacking and bribery of government officials, as the company faces ongoing scrutiny in a reporting-tactics scandal stemming from its News of the World U.K. tabloid." I think very few people hadn't seen this coming. There was bound to be extra pressure on Murdoch's other newspaper holdings before long; the Post seems like a natural choice. It'll be interesting to see what (if anything) transpires as a result.

In explaining the move, News Corp.'s memo, sent by its in-house legal counsel, cited "press accounts" of inquiries into whether News Corp. employees, agents or subsidiaries had either accessed telephone or other personal data without authorization or made unlawful payments to government officials to obtain information. "Given what has taken place in London, we believe that taking this step will help to underscore how seriously we are taking this matter," the memo said.

Such serious is welcomed by regulators, no doubt. Internal investigations might even remove the need for outsiders to come poking around Murdoch's holdings in New York – something they will definitely wish to avoid.