Rupert Murdoch's grovelling public apology over the phone-hacking scandal was, it pains us to disclose, not genuine. Those soft-focus advertisements, in which Rupert himself evinces his contrition, cannot be taken for good currency. Given the inevitable flurry of obfuscation and denials that will surround the transcript, it is worth getting a few things straight:

1. News Corporation's statement about this recording does not deny its authenticity. It says that Murdoch simply shows "understandable empathy" with his staff, the implication being that his words can be treated as simply a concession to the sensibilities of hacked-off Sun journalists. There is perhaps an element of truth in this, as Murdoch can be heard cannily identifying with his employees' grievances and deflecting the blame for their sudden misfortunes (a situation for which the internet term "lol" seems to have been invented) on to everyone else: the lawyers, the government, whingeing lefties, and so on. This, in microcosm, is essentially what the Sun does to its readers. But he doesn't simply display empathy. Murdoch belittles the charges against them – "next to nothing" – swears he has withdrawn co-operation with the police, and promises to hit back when the time is right. In the recording, he promises to see his staff right even if they are convicted, and to hit back when possible.

2. The statement effuses about "unprecedented" levels of co-operation with the police. But in its lawyered language, it states that it "continues" to co-operate "under the supervision of the courts". That last phrase could mean many things, but one possible interpretation might be, as Murdoch put it in the recording, "No, no, no – get a court order. Deal with that."

3. The investigation of News Corp is not, as Murdoch claims, about "paying cops for news tips": it is about systemic corruption. The deputy assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan police at the time, Sue Akers, explained early last year: "The cases we are investigating are not ones involving the odd drink, or meal, to police officers or other public officials. Instead, these are cases in which arrests have been made involving the delivery of regular, frequent and sometimes significant sums of money to small numbers of public officials by journalists."

One of the decisive moments consolidating Murdoch's relationship to the Metropolitan police was the use of police as armed strikebreakers in the 86-87 Wapping dispute. Margaret Thatcher herself had assured Murdoch that the police would be at his disposal, and their collusion in breaking the strike required an operation costing £14m.

As the Guardian journalist Nick Davies pointed out, this was never simply a matter of criminality. It was always about power. The networks of collusion, bribery and complicity that began to be established in the Thatcher era are beginning to be unravelled.