(Image Source: The Guardian)

BY: STEVEN HSIEH

You're watching multisource world video news analysis from Newsy. 

Prime Minister David Cameron is answering questions about a former aide now in custody over his alleged role in the News of the World phone-hacking scandal.

The tabloid’s former editor Andy Coulson turned himself in to authorities Friday morning.  He’s being accused of phone hacking and bribing Metropolitian Police to cover up the practice.

Coulson left his post at the tabloid in 2007 over a previous hacking scandal.  Four years later, he resigned as Prime Minister David Cameron’s press secretary over related issues.  A writer for the Guardian says there’s no recovering this time:

“News International tried to aim attention at alleged misdeeds during his editorship, rather than that of his predecessor as News of the World editor, Rebekah Brooks, now the company's chief executive. It is a distinctly gloomy potential conclusion to a once glittering career that saw Coulson reach the peak of the gung ho tabloid world in his early 30s.”

While Coulson remains in custody, the media is grilling his former boss – the Prime Minister.  In a press conference, Mr. Cameron explains the decision to hire Coulson.

“He resigned from the News of the World because of the things that happened on his watch.  I decided to give him a second chance, and no one has raised serious concerns about how he did his job for me.  But the second chance didn’t work out, and he had to resign all over again.  The decision to hire him was mine, and mine alone, and I take full responsibility for it.”

A blogger for the Economist says Mr. Cameron may not get off the hook that easily.

“This was a wretched defence…Half the political editors and reporters in the room this morning knew of people who had warned Mr. Cameron and his closest aides that hiring Mr. Coulson was a grave error…That explains the sense of real frustration on the side of the press: this clever man at the podium was defending a nonsensical argument.”

And a commentator for the Telegraph says the prime minister’s associations raise serious questions of character and potential influence on Downing Street.

“It’s the catastrophic moral judgment of the Prime Minister to get close to News International – to Andy Coulson, to Rebekah Brooks and so forth – which has turned it into a pressing question for government, all the more so because the government has been making very, very, sensitive, important, monopolous decisions, and so far, they’ve been giving the green light to Rupert Murdoch’s desire to entrench his monopoly hold over the British media.”

Back to Coulson.  Humorist Martin Lewis says the big boss – Rupert Murdoch – is using the former editor as a deflection.  Lewis suggests, perhaps, a vengeful way out for Coulson.

“…to save his precious News International takeover of BSkyB, his company shares and the woman he dare not fire (Rebekah) you have been thrown to the wolves…You have one chance to save yourself. Reveal to the police everything you know about Murdoch, Wade and the entire rotten state of News International. Sing like a canary. An Essex-born, Tory-voting, shallow, callow canary.”

Coulson has denied any wrongdoing. And, Murdoch -- has made the decision to close the doors of News of the World.

Transcript by Newsy.