News of the World whistleblower Sean Hoare kicked off a scandal that threatens Rupert Murdoch's media empire, and perhaps the British government. Although the tabloid is no more, the paper's illegal hacking has touched off a scandal that encompasses Murdoch, British Prime Minister David Cameron, and perhaps more powerful interests still to come. But the whistleblower who helped start it all now isn't even alive to see the consequences: Hoare was found dead Monday.
According to All Headline News, police aren't treating the death as suspicious, although it is "unexplained." Yet Hoare did have a history of drug and alcohol problems, which helped him get fired from News of the World in the first place. This turned out to be the beginning of the end for the paper, as Hoare then became the first former employee to reveal its hacking secrets.
In fact, he also made the British government part of the story when he accused then-editor Andy Coulson of encouraging the hacking -- before Cpulson became director of Communications for Prime Minister Cameron. Now Britain's top policemen are resigning, Cameron has to make an emergency statement Tuesday, and both Rupert and James Murdoch will have to appear before MPs.
With Hoare's role in breaking all of this, there are bound to be conspiracy theories on how the former News reporter-turned-whistleblower really met his end. Since this scandal threatens the integrity of the British government and one of the most powerful media empires in the world, Hoare probably made a lot of powerful enemies.
To that end, some may fear for actor Hugh Grant, since he got an ex-News of the World reporter to admit to the hacking practices on audio tape. At this point in the story nothing can be ruled out, as Murdoch's decision to shut down the 168-year-old paper has done little to contain the damage.
But the death of Hoare goes beyond the loss of a newspaper and the firing and resignation of important officials. Even if there were really no suspicious circumstances around his death, the pressure and danger he must have faced had to have taken some toll in his last days. There's still a chance his demise had nothing to do with the scandal, of course, yet no one would be surprised by now if it did.
Ultimately, Cameron and his government and Murdoch and his empire may yet survive the damage done by this scandal. But with News of the World gone and a whistleblower now dead, how much more collateral damage will be caused before the Murdochs and Britain's leaders rest easier again? They have enough to just move on afterward, but many of those caught in the crossfire do not.
Sources
All Headline News- "Police find News of the World whistleblower dead"
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