Hack Attack, Nick Davies
Hack Attack, Nick Davies
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Hack Attack
The Inside Story of How the Truth Caught Up with Rupert Murdoch

Author: Nick Davies

Narrator: Steven Crossley

Unabridged: 18 hr 6 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 02/03/2015


Synopsis

At first, it seemed like a small story. The royal editor of the News of the World was caught listening to the voice mail 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 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 emerged victorious. 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' 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.

About Nick Davies

Nick Davies is an award-winning investigative reporter and the author of several books, including the bestseller 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.

About Steven Crossley

Steven Crossley, a graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, has built a career on both sides of the Atlantic as an actor and audiobook narrator, for which he has won more than a dozen AudioFile Earphones Awards and been a nominee for the prestigious Audie Award. He is a member of the internationally renowned theater company Complicite and has appeared in numerous theater, television, film, and radio dramas.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Neil on September 20, 2014

Freedom of the press and freedom of speech are such fundamental cornerstones in the foundations of democracy that it becomes an affront and outrage to the principles by which we live and are Governed when the Fourth Estate abuses its protections and priviledged position in undermining the very Democ......more

Goodreads review by Louise on September 08, 2014

Don't miss the epilogue of this book. For those of us who followed the phone hacking scandal from the beginning, this was a great overview and a blow by blow rapid-fire account of how it started, developed into the biggest scandal in British journalism, and how it ended. It is also a fascinating stu......more

Goodreads review by Alena on May 09, 2015

"So it was that a whole generation of English men and women were told that they should lose the welfare state and the trade unions and the protective laws for which their ancestors had fought and the balance of power should be tipped backwards by a century and more, because this would make them free......more

Goodreads review by Abhinav on August 22, 2016

First five-star review of 2016. A riveting account of how one journalist from the Guardian dared to take on News Corp, one of the world's biggest media conglomerates and expose the wrongdoings of its British tabloid "News of the World", later known as the 'phone-hacking scandal'. A brilliant work of i......more

Goodreads review by Nick on July 24, 2015

just closed Nick Davies’ “Hack Attack.” It’s the account of the ten year battle to finally bring to light the role of Rupert Murdoch’s News International organisation in using illegal means to acquire information; the way the organisation deliberately attacked individuals and their families if an i......more


Quotes

“First in the Guardian and now in this book, the reporting of Nick Davies has revealed the insidious abuse of power—and the public trust—by the Murdoch press from the top down. The British hacking scandal is the ultimate expression of Murdoch culture run amok: corruption in the Fourth Estate as dangerous to democracy as the worst excesses of heads of state.” Carl Bernstein, Puliter Prize–winning investigative journalist

“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.” New York Times Book Review

“If 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.” New York Times

“Only one reporter has dogged the story from start to finish—deeply sourced among hacking victims, journalists, lawyers, police, and politicians. Davies’ associates say he excels because he can comprehend the big political picture but also never forgets the vast trove of small, telling details.” Los Angeles Times

“Nick Davies is Britain’s greatest investigative journalist…[Hack Attack] is as exciting as a thriller but far more important…This should be compulsory reading in journalism schools and must be read by anyone who wishes to understand how British politics actually works.” Telegraph (London)

“[Nick Davies] has, in his exhumation of this trove of journalistic ordure, done a colossal service to Britain’s democracy…Hack Attack is the book of a very bold reporter about a passage of arms that he won, to our great benefit.” Financial Times (London)

“Davies is the perfect person to corral this massive plume of facts and evasions into a single volume.” Washington Post

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.” Boston Globe

“[Hack Attack] is important, not simply because it is written by a superb reporter who took on a seemingly invulnerable criminal conspiracy, or because it is…the best account we have of the phone-hacking scandal and the attendant police corruption and cover-ups. It is, as well, the story of modern Britain and how its standards and politics have been degraded by one man’s ruthless acquisition of power. Davies has laid it all bare in an exciting, clear and honest narrative.” Observer (London)

“You would expect the Guardian’s Nick Davies, who exposed phone hacking and other criminality among News of the World journalists, to write the best full-length account of the scandal, and so he has. He gives us not just the story…but also the story behind the story, explaining how and why he set about exposing the NoW’s endemic criminality.” Guardian (London)


Awards

  • New York Times   Bestseller
  • Kirkus Reviews’ Best Books