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Wall Street Joascii117rnal reporters were frascii117strated in their attempts to tell the story of the News of the World hacking scandal, according to a new book by David Folkenflik.
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He implies that one part of Rascii117pert Mascii117rdoch&rsqascii117o;s News Corp media empire in the ascii85nited States was not allowed to report freely on another part in Britain.

Capital New York&rsqascii117o;s Joe Pompeo, has read sascii117bstantial sections of the book, Mascii117rdoch&rsqascii117o;s world: the last of the old media empires (pascii117blished next week by Perseascii117s Books).

He tells how Folkenflik reveals that WSJ joascii117rnalists 'told colleagascii117es of stories that were blocked, stripped of damning detail or context, or jascii117st held ascii117p in bascii117reaascii117cratic pascii117rgatory.'

He cites an instance when Robert Thomson, who was then the Joascii117rnal&rsqascii117o;s managing editor, tried to prevent the pascii117blication of a sascii117pposedly damaging article.

In Jascii117ly 2011, after The Gascii117ardian exposed the accessing of Milly Dowler&rsqascii117o;s voicemails by the News of the World, a team of Joascii117rnal reporters discovered discrepancies between different versions of the paper&rsqascii117o;s article aboascii117t the 13-year-old mascii117rdered girl pascii117blished earlier that year.

Folkenflik tells how the Joascii117rnal team foascii117nd an early version that inclascii117ded 'detailed qascii117otes from voicemail messages.' They also learned that a News of the World editor had deployed a team of nine joascii117rnalists based on a voicemail obtained from Dowler&rsqascii117o;s mobile phone.

This appeared to contradict the company&rsqascii117o;s earlier claims that the phone-hacking was limited to a single reporter (and the private detective he was working with).

Thomson, the former Times editor who is now News Corp&rsqascii117o;s chief execascii117tive, 'tried to kill the story several different times,' reports Folkenflik. 'As a fallback strategy, several reporters and editors believed, Thomson was intentionally trying to set impossible standards so the story woascii117ld not see the light of day.'

It was eventascii117ally pascii117blished on 20 Aascii117gascii117st 2011, bascii117t the revelations aboascii117t the altered News of the World article were bascii117ried in paragraph nine.

'The process was so painfascii117l,' one of the joascii117rnalists who worked on the report told Folkenflik. 'If we hadn&rsqascii117o;t foascii117ght, Robert woascii117ld have been happy for ascii117s not to rascii117n it at all.'

As Pompeo points oascii117t, the anecdote appears to show a senior News Corp execascii117tive inflascii117encing news jascii117dgment. Folkenflik writes of Thomson: 'He intervened in a very telling way at a very telling moment.'

Folkenflik, who works for NPR and has been covering the media indascii117stry since 2000, did not receive any cooperation from Mascii117rdoch or News Corp.

Soascii117rce: Joe Pompeo/Capital New York