As the outrages mount against News Corp. and News of the World, it’s worth pausing a moment to take a deeper look at the original one.

At the center of the scandal -- which has led to the resignation of several news executives and, just this morning, brought down the No. 2 at Scotland Yard -- is the News of the World’s hiring of a private investigator to hack into the voicemail of missing 13-year-old Milly Dowler in 2002. As the Guardian reported earlier this month, not only did News of the World listen to the child’s voicemail, but it also deleted messages, giving the Dowler family “false hope” that Milly herself was deleting them and was still alive.

As the Guardian noted, News of the World “made little effort to conceal the hacking from its readers.” Here’s the text of the News of the World’s April 14, 2002 story on the “Missing Milly ‘hoax’outrage” -- with my bolded text and annotations:

THE hunt for missing Milly Dowler took a shocking twist last night when it emerged a deranged woman has been posing as the missing youngster.

Police believe the sick hoaxer called into a recruitment agency pretending to be Milly.

Sensitivity to the mentally ill isn’t one of the strong points of tabloid culture.

Staff at the Midlands bureau failed to recognise the name as that of the missing girl and took the woman on their books.

It is thought the hoaxer even gave the agency Milly’s real mobile phone number. Police believe she may have got it by gaining the trust of people who knew the schoolgirl.

The agency used the number to contact Milly, real name Amanda, when a job vacancy arose and left a message on her voicemail AFTER the 13-year-old vanished at 4pm on March 21.

Knowledge of a most intimate fact -- the leaving of a voicemail message -- gets printed here without the slightest whiff of sourcing.

Twisted

Let’s review levels of twistedness here. On the one hand, you have allegations that a woman found out Milly’s cell phone number and gave it out to others. On the other hand, you have allegations that a news organization hacked into Milly’s cell phone voicemail so that it could out a “deranged,” “sick” woman.

It was on March 27 — six days after Milly went missing in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey --that the employment agency appears to have phoned her mobile.

Note the level of detailed, unattributed information.

The twisted creature also contacted TV’s Crimewatch programme, claiming to be Milly.

Police say the hoaxer has hampered the investigation and previous high-profile inquiries. Officers have now been briefed on how to spot her.

Given the widespread allegations of law-enforcement bribes paid out by News of the World, the term “police say”should be greeted with suspicion in the archives of News of the World.

A senior officer involved in the hunt said last night: “Our inquiries and those of other forces have been plagued by a professional hoaxer who has much experience of the practices of the police and investigation methods.

“The chances are extremely high that the individual concerned is a rather disturbed lady who needs care.

“This individual has been to a number of force areas and has been quite devious in the attention-seeking methods employed.”

ANYONE with information about Milly should call Surrey police on 01372 471212 or the National Missing Persons Helpline on 0500 700 700 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111

This is the end of the story. Total words: 313. Brevity is a hallmark of tabloid culture and an editorial peeve of News Corp. boss Rupert Murdoch.