Sean Hoare, a former News of the World employee who said Andy Coulson "encouraged" phone-hacking, "was discovered at his home in Watford, Hertfordshire, after concerns were raised about his whereabouts," the press association said.
"The death is being treated as 'unexplained, but not thought to be suspicious,'" the report quoted Hertfordshire police as saying.
The Guardian reported that Hoare had recently injured his nose and his foot in an accident. It was unclear whether those injuries were linked to his death.
Hoare had publicly accused News of the World of phone-hacking and using "pinging" -- a method of tracking someone's cell phone using technology that only police and security officials could access -- according to the New York Times.
Next, former FOX News producer Dan Cooper is publicly accusing FOX of having a "brain room" -- where the network regular coordinates information operations, including collecting phone records.
According to former Fox News executive Dan Cooper, whose gripes with his former employer run quite deep after being fired in 1996, Fox News chief Roger Ailes allegedly had him design the so-called "Brain Room" to facilitate counter-intelligence efforts and other "black ops."
In a lengthy 2008 diatribe said to have doubled as a book pitch, Cooper claimed his own phone records had been hacked by Fox News employees, who he says used them to pinpoint him as a source used by David Brock, who founded liberal watchdog group Media Matters.
"Ailes knew I had given Brock the interview," he wrote. "Certainly Brock didn't tell him. Of course. Fox News had gotten Brock's telephone records from the phone company, and my phone number was on the list. Deep in the bowels of 1211 Avenue of the Americas, News Corporation's New York headquarters, was what Roger called the Brain Room. Most people thought it was simply the research department of Fox News. But unlike virtually everybody else, because I had to design and build the Brain Room, I knew it also housed a counterintelligence and black ops office. So accessing phone records was easy pie."
(Much more after the jump...)
Implicating FOX News chief Roger Ailes in this mess means that News Corp's US operations may have been in on this massive scandal as well. Meanwhile, Rupert Murdoch and his son James will face uncomfortable questions in front of the UK Parliament today.
The Murdochs' appearance before parliament's media select committee was expected to attract a television audience of millions keen to follow the latest twist in a saga that has shaken Britons' faith in their police, press and political leaders.
"It seems as if there will be standing-room only, that's not surprising as it's the first time Rupert Murdoch has been before a select committee in his 40 years of building up a media empire," said Paul Farrelly, an opposition Labour committee member.
Murdoch's News International British arm had long maintained that the practice of intercepting mobile phone voicemails to get stories was the work of a sole "rogue reporter" on the News of the World newspaper.
That defense crumbled in the face of a steady drip-feed of claims by celebrities that they were targeted.
And all this has resulted in open speculation that Rupert Murdoch will indeed be forced to resign as the company's head.
News Corp. is considering elevating Chief Operating Officer Chase Carey to chief executive officer to succeed Rupert Murdoch, people with knowledge of the situation said.
A decision hasn’t been made and a move depends in part on Murdoch’s performance before the U.K. Parliament today, said the people, who weren’t authorized to speak publicly. Murdoch would remain chairman, the people said.
News Corp. executives who watched Murdoch, 80, rehearse for his appearance were concerned about how he handled questions, according to three people, who weren’t authorized to speak publicly. Murdoch and his son James are scheduled to discuss the company’s role in the alleged phone hacking of murder victims, members of the royal family and others by the News of the World, which was closed on July 10.
More on this as Murdoch faces the music this morning. Meanwhile, Rupert may not be the only one out. People are at least entertaining the idea that this may cost Prime Minister David Cameron his job as well, to the point where we're seeing defenses of his government in the British press.
The old rules still apply in the unprecedented scandal shaking the British press, police and political establishment, starting with the dictum: in public life, it is cover-ups that hurt more than the original crimes.
That is why it is wrong to argue, as do some Labour MPs, some bloggers and tonight's edition of BBC Newsnight, that David Cameron logically might have to resign as prime minister, now that Britain's most senior police officer, Sir Paul Stephenson, has had to quit.
Getting really interesting today in the UK.
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