Last year, News Corp, the global media empire headed by Rupert Murdoch, was the target of worldwide condemnation (and more than a bit of schadenfreude).
This all stemmed from truly shocking revelations that one of its London tabloids, News of the World (NOTW), had routinely hacked the phones and email accounts of everyone from celebrities to the grieving relatives of murder victims to gather fodder for the sensational stories that were its cash cow.
This practice was so immoral that Rupert felt compelled to excise NOTW to save his other UK publications the way a surgeon would excise a malignant tumor.
But this drastic (and dramatic) attempt at damage control did not prevent the British government from holding public hearings on the hacking at NOTW. And, not surprisingly, those hearings turned out to be every bit as sensational as some of NOTW’s stories – complete with Rupert’s wife Wendy pouncing to protect him from a prankster who tried to throw a pie in his face while members of the hearing committee were grilling him.
At any rate, while Rupert, the British government, and much of the media were treating NOTW as the only tumor in this respect, I sounded this cautionary note:
When news of the hacking first broke … most commentators focused on the tolling of the death knell for the country’s most popular tabloid [NOTW]. But I was convinced from the outset that there had to be much more to this scandal and that NOTW was not the only tabloid involved.
(“Former PM fuels public anger against Murdoch…,” The iPINIONS Journal, July 13, 2011)
I reasoned that, if just one investigator hacked 4,000 people for just one tabloid (as was reported), the practice had to have been far more widespread, given the competitive and hyena-like nature of Britain’s tabloid press.
Well, now come reports that another of Rupert’s tabloids engaged in even more egregious practices to gather fodder for its sensational stories.
Specifically, three of the top editors at The Sun were arrested on Saturday on suspicion of hacking emails, phones, and other confidential databases. They are also suspected of bribing police officers and covering up their hacking crimes by deleting data from corporate servers.
If proved, such conduct would be serious because it could see the courts imposing long prison sentences; and because it could have been sanctioned by senior employees and directors.
(The Guardian, January 29, 2012)
Frankly, at the risk of betraying my modesty, the more these revelations drip out, the more prescient and wise the admonition I gave Rupert over six months ago becomes:
He excised NOTW like a tumor in a drastic attempt to save his UK publications; he may now have to excise his UK publications in an even more drastic attempt to save his global media empire [which includes such notables as the Wall Street Journal and FOX News].
(“Former PM fuels public anger against Murdoch…,” The iPINIONS Journal, July 13, 2011)
Accordingly, I admonish now that he would be well-advised to sell The Sun, The Times, and The Sunday Times before he has to close all three in NOTW ignominy.
Related commentaries:
Former PM fuels public anger…
Phone hacking parliamentary hearing…
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