New York CNN —
Rupert Murdoch’s media empire just did something incredibly unusual: It said sorry.
The conservative media mogul’s British newspapers division, known as News Group Newspapers (NGN), offered a “full and unequivocal apology to the Duke of Sussex for the serious intrusion by The Sun between 1996 and 2011 into his private life, including incidents of unlawful activities carried out by private investigators working for The Sun.”
And that was just the first sentence. The apology to Prince Harry and former Labour Party lawmaker Tom Watson went on for another four paragraphs.
The rare public apology was a key part of a settlement deal announced Wednesday in an 11th hour agreement to avert a high-stakes trial. Prince Harry, who spent five years pursuing Murdoch’s papers, declared it a “vindication for the hundreds of other claimants who were strong-armed into settling, without being able to get to the truth of what was done to them.”
The move was especially striking because it came at the behest of Murdoch, the hard-charging magnate who has wielded his papers like weapons for decades. Murdoch is not exactly a man known for apologizing. His pugnacious media brands tend to resist any whiff of weakness or wrongdoing. When Murdoch’s Fox News Channel was sued for defamation by Dominion Voting Systems over lies about the 2020 U.S. election, Fox settled for a whopping $787.5 million, but did not say sorry.
In that case, a public apology on Fox’s airwaves was never a top priority for Dominion’s lawyers. They believed it wouldn’t seem genuine in any event. “I don’t think a forced apology is worth a nickel,” co-lead counsel Stephen Shackelford remarked afterward.
Wednesday’s settlement in the UK was similar to the Dominion case in one way – it allowed Murdoch to avoid the embarrassing spectacle of a trial. But Murdoch’s tabloids have been held accountable, nevertheless, because the apology included an admission of wrongdoing in detail.
This was, in essence, what Prince Harry had said he wanted: “Truth and accountability” for the phone hacking scandal that shocked the United Kingdom more than a decade ago.
The wide-ranging scandal centered on private investigators who illegally hacked into the voicemails of news subjects and gathered information for Murdoch’s tabloids.
The company issued a blanket apology, back in 2012, when Murdoch was hauled before a British parliamentary committee. In a full-page ad titled “we are sorry” and published in all of Britain’s national newspapers, Murdoch said, “we are sorry for the serious wrongdoing that occurred” and “deeply sorry for the hurt suffered by the individuals affected.”
He repeated the apology on camera during his testimony.
In the years since, Murdoch-owned media companies have paid out more than $1 billion to claimants relating to what it called “voicemail interception.” But those settlements did not include specific admissions of wrongdoing.
Prince Harry rejected NGN’s earlier settlement overtures and pushed for a trial that would allow for the presentation of new evidence in public.
A lawyer speaking on behalf of the claimants called the settlement – with its admissions of wrongdoing – “a monumental victory.”
The newspaper group said it is paying both Prince Harry and Watson “substantial damages.” But the public apology might be priceless.
According to The Washington Post, Prince Harry texted his brother Prince William in 2019 about pursuing the lawsuit, writing “obviously my aim is to expose all their lies and manipulation to the public, to get a public apology for all of us and to get some justice.”
Accordingly, Wednesday’s apology note went into detail.
It notably referenced The Sun newspaper, not just News of the World, a tabloid that the Murdochs shut down in 2011 amid the public outcry about phone hacking. (NGN emphasized it was “private investigators working for The Sun,” not the newspaper’s journalists, who conducted “unlawful activities.”)
As for the News of the World, the newspaper group apologized to Prince Harry “for the phone hacking, surveillance and misuse of private information” by both journalists and private investigators there.
And it acknowledged the damage done to the royal family.
“NGN further apologizes to the Duke for the impact on him of the extensive coverage and serious intrusion into his private life as well as the private life of Diana, Princess of Wales, his late mother, in particular during his younger years,” the company said. “We acknowledge and apologize for the distress caused to the Duke, and the damage inflicted on relationships, friendships and family.”