‘This is the dark art’: new book claims pattern of personal attacks by Murdoch media empire

Getting Murdoched authors Andrew Dodd and Matthew Ricketson argue that Rupert Murdoch’s sprawling global media empire has perverted the fourth estate function of journalism. Photograph: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

In 2009, David Nutt, a professor of pharmacology who had served as the chief drugs adviser to the British Labour government, remarked at a public discussion about legalising drugs that alcohol was a serious social problem, more so than psychedelic drugs.

Soon after, he received a call from a reporter for the Sun, then the UK’s most prolific tabloid newspaper. The reporter asked: “What would you say if I told you we are going to do an exposé on your children’s drugs and drinking habits tomorrow?”