British Phone Hacking Scandal Reaches Parliament

The meta-scandal, in which the tabloids themselves are suddenly tabloid fodder, will get a public airing in Westminster today.

The British Parliament is holding an emergency debate today over allegations that the tabloid newspaper News of the World hacked the voicemail of a missing teenager who turned out to have been murdered. Investigations into the tabloid industry's phone hacking have already revealed that the newspapers have hacked the voicemails of celebrities and other public figures, but only in the past week have details emerged about the voicemail hacking of Milly Dowler, a 13-year-old who was found murdered in 2002. Also revealed was that Prime Minister David Cameron's former director of communications, Andy Coulson, had authorized payments to police for information during his time as an editor at News of the World. Parliamentarians are calling for a boycott of the tabloid as the scandal continues to unfold.