Closed captioning of: News of the World makes last run Sunday
>>>
imagine a paper older than "the new york times" and as widely read as "
usa today
," headed by the former
communications director
of the
white house
. and then in days all shut down, its leader arrested. well, that is the equivalent of what has happened in the uk.
rupert murdoch
's media empire's closing the 168-year-old "news of the world" paper with its last edition scheduled for this sunday following shocking allegations of phone hacking. nbc's
michelle kosinski
is
live in london
. michelle, what does the paper's closing mean in terms of the scandal and allegations that are around it? so much reaction so far.
>> reporter:
hi,
richard
. yeah. the investigation really is just getting started. and i love the way you described it. the way you put into perspective just how big this is. right now we're learning that police are looking at the offices of yet another tabloid reported to be "the
daily star
sunday." we don't have a police confirmation of that yet. but the press wires in the uk are reporting that this other newsroom now is being investigated by police. and you have the arrest of a former editor of the "news of the world" this morning who, as you mentioned, was also the press director for the current prime minister,
david cameron
. look at some of these
headlines today
all over the other newspapers, of course. "good-bye
cruel world
." and this one, "hacked to death." a lot of people feel that it was the right thing to do to close the newspaper. it came as a surprise to some but not to others, considering that these major advertisers were immediately pulling out of the "news of the world." and also the company is trying to take over a
pay tv
company that's worth $8 billion, and plenty of analysts thought that it was just the right thing to do to close the "news of the world," not only to sort of save face for the public but also to preserve their interest in buying this other operation. it's been a huge scandal, and as more details emerge we hear things like the documents that have been turned over to police from the "news of the world" included 4,000 names of citizens who were either targeted for phone hacking or who might have been hacked. and police now are also investigating allegations that the newspaper was paying police for information, reportedly to be possibly in the range of hundreds of thousands of dollars,
richard
.
>>
and michelle, the prime minister also going to be speaking on this very issue? that seems uncommon, too.
>>
well, he's been on this for the past couple of days, and he's really had to be. i mean, there's been so much pressure over this, a, because the former editor of the "news of the world," while this voicemail hacking was going on, was then his press director. he had resigned prior from that post, but the prime minister really had to react to that. and the prime minister has stood behind his decision for not only hiring him but for not really commenting on this prior. but also the fact that this whole incident had been investigated in the past, now one of the inquiries that the prime minister has called for as to why the investigation prior didn't turn up all this information just coming out now,
richard
.
>>
thank you,
michelle kosinski
in london with the latest there.
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