Charles Keating Trial

The original hack

A''HUMBLED'' and apparently shocked Rupert Murdoch has apologised repeatedly for the phone hacking scandal that brought down the iconic British tabloid News of the World, but it's not the first time one of his publications has been linked with phone tampering. Eighteen years ago, one of his then Australian publications, New Idea, scooped the world by publishing an illegally obtained phone conversation between Prince Charles and his lover, Camilla Parker Bowles.

The infamous tampon conversation between the married heir to the throne and the equally wedded Camilla was one of the most damaging British royal stories of the late 20th century.

The story was ''broken'' by New Idea in January 1993. Murdoch's British papers, the rest of Fleet Street and the world media then republished with abandon.

The tape's notoriety was due to Prince Charles's wistful remark that he'd like to be Camilla's ''tampon'', to which she replied: ''You are a complete idiot … Oh, what a wonderful idea.''

The long transcript of the private phone conversation wrecked what remained of Prince Charles's marriage to Diana, the Princess of Wales, eventually ended Camilla's marriage to Lieutenant-Colonel Andrew Parker Bowles, and may have cruelled Charles's chances of becoming king.

Royal biographer Anthony Holden remarked that the bugged telephone conversation ''persuaded most of the nation that the heir to the throne, the would-be Defender of the Faith, was a lavatory-minded adulterer''.

The damage to his personal reputation was so grave that, according to opinion polls, he has never fully recovered public affection in Britain.

In the tight community of Australian correspondents in London there was animated discussion about how a relatively obscure magazine in Sydney had scooped the world.

Old-school journalists who have an inside knowledge of darker newspaper practices will confirm that some stories are too hot to handle.

In such situations the stories are fed to overseas publications where they are faithfully reported and then picked up and republished in their country of origin.

The purpose of this strategy is to escape any possible legal action that might be caused by publishing a story that has risky legal implications.

RAMBLINGS INC: 7 DEGREES OF SEPARATION - CHARLES KEATING

Charles Keating was a quiet and personable man. He never seemed mean and liked to eat well and drink wine along with his lawyers. Our restaurant was small and private so they always sat in the back of the room and go over the day's business; This also kept them away from the media. Their bill was always high by the time they were done, though Keating never paid; It was always his lawyer or family member who handled the bill. In previous posts I have written about this restaurant because it was here where Marcia Clark would sometimes come in and unwind after a rough day during the O.J. Simpson trial and also where Thomas Keller - Chef of the century - moved to after leaving N.Y.

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