JAMES MURDOCH has some explaining to do following revelations that Colin Myler, then the editor of the News of the World, sent an email to him in 2008 highlighting the fact that more than one reporter at the tabloid knew about phone hacking.
Murdoch has always said he did not know what his journalists at the NotW were up to. Today his claim looks shakier than ever. Edward Wasserman, the Knight Professor of Journalism Ethics at Washington and Lee University, said: "This is a fairly damning document that undermines the claim James didn't know about the hacking till later."
The Saturday defence
Murdoch claims he didn't read the entire email sent to him by Myler because he wasn't in the office that day - an explanation Bloomberg is calling the 'Saturday defence'.
That might work for some. But as the boss of News International, Murdoch was ultimately running two Sunday papers - the NotW and The Sunday Times. Did he really not consider himself ‘at work’ on a Saturday? (The 'Monday defence' might be reasonable for people who work on Sunday papers).
The BlackBerry problem
Murdoch apparently received the email on his BlackBerry, users of which might identify with Murdoch's predicament. As CEO of News Corp he would probably receive hundreds of emails a day.
At this point, email etiquette becomes paramount. It is unclear what the subject line of Myler's email was. Did it say 'URGENT: YOU MUST READ THIS' or did it say 'FW: For Neville'? If the latter, why would Murdoch have rushed to read such an innocuous-sounding email?
Myler might have marked his email as important, but is it possible that he used to 'cry wolf' by marking all of his emails to Murdoch 'URGENT' - even pictures of Lolcats?
So let's imagine Murdoch, during a round of golf or whatever he gets up to on a Saturday, uses his BlackBerry to dip into his inbox. Understandably, he skim-reads the first few lines of each email before moving on to the next message. Big mistake. If you do that on a Saturday, the email is quickly pushed down the inbox queue by Monday, and is as good as dead.
When are emails ‘active’?
Murdoch, overwhelmed by the sheer number of emails, might benefit from the advice of a columnist at his favourite newspaper, The Guardian. In his 'This column will change your life' column earlier this year, Oliver Burkeman explained "the secret to winning the war on email".
"Every email that isn't garbage," he explains, "can be categorised as either 'active' or 'reference'."An unpaid gas bill is active, he explains, while a paid gas bill is reference. An unanswered email is active, unless you've decided not to answer, while an answered email is reference, unless you're waiting for a reply.
Burkeman urges his readers to archive all 'reference' emails in order to leave only 'active' missives in your inbox. Clearly an email from Myler, the editor of his most profitable paper, should have been classed as active (Murdoch surely hadn't decided not to answer it?).
If only Murdoch had followed Burkeman's advice, there would have been no 'reference' emails to clutter up his inbox and he might have remembered to follow up the active Myler email - and thereby change the course of newspaper history. ·