Murdochs have lost $1bn from stock free-fall due to scandal

British PM’s former communications director arrested.  

Schadenfreude, via the Financial Times.

The value of the Murdoch family’s shareholding in News Corp has fallen by $1bn since the political firestorm erupted over the phone-hacking scandal at the News of the World.

I hadn't realized that the British Prime Minister's former director of communications, Andy Coulson, had resigned over this affair, and was just arrested as a result of it.

Coulson was the editor of the News of the World from 2003 until his resignation in 2007, following the conviction of one of the newspaper's reporters in relation to illegal phone-hacking.

He subsequently joined David Cameron's personnel as communications director, until announcing his departure on 21 January 2011 because of continued media coverage of the phone-hacking affair. He was replaced on 2 February 2011 by former BBC Global News Controller of English Craig Oliver. Coulson was arrested by the Metropolitan Police Service on 8 July 2011 "in connection with allegations of corruption and phone hacking".

Imagine the field day that Fox News, and Rupert Murdoch himself, would have had had Dan Pfeiffer, Obama's communications director, been arrested for his involvement in a scandal of this magnitude.