Kelvin MacKenzie must rank as the most successful editor ever to work for Rupert Murdoch. He guided The Sun to its highest circulation and was responsible for many of its memorable iconic headlines.
He regarded Murdoch, the man he affectionately called “boss”, as the world’s greatest newspaper owner.
When the phone-hacking scandal broke in 2011, MacKenzie was among the most forthright supporters of Murdoch’s company. In the course of several TV and radio appearances, he echoed the News International line that a single “rogue reporter” had been responsible for voicemail interceptions.
It has long been known that MacKenzie was deeply upset when the truth about the scale of hacking finally emerged. But he maintained a silence in public until his appearance on ITV documentary The Real Hack – the companion to a seven-part drama series, The Hack. He has now revealed just how angry he was to discover the fact that hundreds of people had been hacked by journalists working for the News of the World.
He said: “I wrote a note to Rebekah Brooks [then, as now, the chief executive of Murdoch’s UK company] saying look, I’d been a dupe… you guys pushed the line that there was one rogue reporter. Well, it’s clearly not true. And I don’t like being used in that way, so I’m off-ski.”
Previously, MacKenzie had been forthright in his denunciation of The Guardian for its hacking revelations. He had dismissed the story as “a load of socialist claptrap… got up by a collection of old dinosaurs”. He argued that the paper’s reporters had not produced “a scintilla of evidence”.
In his latest statement, however, he praised The Guardian’s journalism. He did not reveal the exact moment he changed his mind. Instead, it appears to have been a gradual realisation, even though he admitted that the hacking of the murdered girl, Milly Dowler, “was a total shock”.
He said: “I felt increasingly uneasy about it all. I didn’t like the idea that I was popping up on Sky News every night, saying it’s just one rogue and The Guardian’s a load of left-wing shitbags.
“I’d fallen for the [News International] line hook, line and sinker. I felt I’d been used. What they were doing was plainly wrong. Thanks to some decent journalism by The Guardian, and I can’t say I’ve said that many times, the whole thing blew open.”
MacKenzie said: “Knowing how the company was run, [I realised this line] was a complete load of old rubbish, that there was a lot more depth to all this than was being acknowledged.”
Asked whether there was a cover-up, he replied: “Absolutely. The great thing about the Murdoch empire, it’s all keep it quiet, it’s all cover it up, it’s just the way it is. It’s in Rupert’s personality.”
MacKenzie also spoke about Murdoch’s appearance before a parliamentary select committee in the wake of the hacking revelations, in which he famously said: “This is the most humble day of my life.”
“Total act, that,” said MacKenzie. “He had empathy extricated by a major surgeon in New York City when he was about 22. I admire him for his acting ability.”
But MacKenzie defended Andy Coulson, the former News of the World editor who was found guilty in 2014 of conspiring to intercept voicemails and sentenced to 18 months in prison.
He said: “I’ve always felt sorry for Andy. The idea that he turns up as editor of the News of the World [in 2003] and suddenly starts organising this off his own bat is ridiculous.”
What about Rebekah Brooks (the current CEO of News UK and former editor of the News of the World)? After a pause, he said: “Well, she has been cleared at the Old Bailey.”
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