Hack Attack: The Inside Story of How the Truth Caught Up with Rupert Murdoch

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About Hack Attack: The Inside Story Of How The Truth

About the Author Nick Davies is an award-winning investigative reporter and the author of four books, including the bestselling Flat Earth News. He has been named Reporter of the Year, Journalist of the Year, and Feature Writer of the Year at the British Press Awards, and has won eight additional prizes for his work uncovering the phone hacking scandal. He is a special correspondent for The Guardian. Product Description The definitive book on how the News of the World phone-hacking scandal reached the highest echelons of power in the government, security, and media in the UK, from the journalist who broke the story. At first, it seemed like a small story. The royal editor of the News of the World was caught listening to the voicemail messages of staff at Buckingham Palace. He and a private investigator were jailed, and the case was closed. But Nick Davies, special correspondent for The Guardian, knew that it didn't add up. He began to investigate, and ended up exposing a world of crime and cover-up, of fear and favor―the long shadow of Rupert Murdoch's media empire. Hack Attack is the mesmerizing story of how Davies and a small group of lawyers and politicians took on one of the most powerful men in the world―and beat him. It exposes the inner workings of the ruthless machine that was the News of the World, and of the private investigators who hacked phones, listened to live calls, sent Trojan horse emails, bribed the police, and committed burglaries to dig up tabloid scoops. Above all, it is a study of the private lives of the power elite. It paints an intimate portrait of the social network that gave Murdoch privileged access to government, and allowed him and his lieutenants to intimidate anyone who stood up to them. Spanning the course of the investigation from Davies's contact with his first source in early 2008 to the resolution of the criminal trial in June 2014, this is the definitive record of one of the major scandals of our time, written by the journalist who was there every step of the way. Review “[I]f any one person deserves to place himself squarely at the center of this tale, it is Mr. Davies, who spent three years chipping away at a tower of lies, enduring attacks on his credibility and overcoming stonewalling of the first order to produce his account of tabloid criminality and British officialdom's role in covering it up . . . As Mr. Davies pursues his quarry, readers are introduced to the seamy underside of Fleet Street, a brutally transactional place of ‘casual treachery' where people volunteer ‘to sell the secrets of those who most trust them' . . . It's journalism noir, and it's not surprising that last week George Clooney announced that he plans to direct a film version of ‘Hack Attack' . . . As Mr. Davies puts it, ‘Power enjoys secrecy, because it increases its scope.' It takes tenacious muckrakers like Mr. Davies to upend that dynamic.” ―Jo Becker, The New York Times “There is so much excess and human pathology on display here, it makes ‘Bonfire of the Vanities' seem restrained . . . [Davies] is, as it turns out, just the kind of person you want to have on your tail. It's less about his strategic brilliance and more about an innate refusal to give up--ever.” ―David Carr, The New York Times Book Review “Hack Attack is an important reminder of the evils that can result when the media itself becomes so powerful and corrupt that it is accountable to no one--least of all to the public whose interests they are intended to serve.” ―Dan Kennedy, The Boston Globe “Davies has an astonishing tale to tell, which he deserves full credit for unearthing.” ―Geoffrey Wheatcroft, The New York Review of Books “Davies is the perfect person to corral this massive plume of facts and evasions into a single volume.” ―Erik Wemple, The Washington Post “This book is a major achievement: a master class in investigative journalism made all the more fascinating by the wealth of color that's like something from another era.” ―R