One of the biggest scandals to
ever hit the journalism world recently occurred within Rupert Murdoch’s own
News Corp world. The News of the World, the 168-year-old tabloid, officially closed
its doors after a phone-hacking scandal rocked the newsroom. With nowhere to hide, the figures in charge
(including chief executive Rebekah Brooks and Rupert’s own son James) admitted
to phone-hacking hundreds of celebrities, individuals (including victims of the
London bombings and Milly Dowler’s voicemail, a young girl who was kidnapped on
her way to school, politicians, and even the British royal family; bribing the
police; and also to covering up other unethical practices in the newsroom. Over 200 people were fired from the company
as a result and recompense was made to every individual victim of the scandal.
This is a perfect example of
what not to do in the newsroom.
Reporters at The News of the World
completely bypassed Poynter’s 10 questions – all ten of them. There was no justification, no thought as to
what the consequences would be for them and the individuals, no attempt to “maximize…truth
telling…[or] minimize harm” (1), nor considered what company policies to abide
by (although the tabloid already had a less-than-stellar reputation as it was). James Murdoch himself said, “These actions do
not live up to the standards that our company aspires to everywhere around the
world, and it is our determination to both put things right, make sure these
things don’t happen again, and to be the company that I know we’ve always
aspired to be” (2). The following court session is rather odd, actually; Rupert
Murdoch himself states what a humbling time in his life this is and wants to
make sure the correct individuals are put in place next time to run the company
right. Why, then, were they not placed
there in the first place? Why did this
happen for the duration of time that it did and on such a large scale? Why were guards not put in place to prevent
these things from happening?
The phone-hacking scandal under
News Corp is through-and-through the perfect example of what not to do. Even though it was a trashy tabloid, The News of the World did not even stop
to think about their actions and their consequences, nonetheless never felt
sorry for what they had done. The response
was unanimous throughout the world, as portrayed in the following newscast (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yqtcwr6WN9g
). Rupert continues to claim he knew nothing
about the phone-hacking going on in his newsroom, and the News Corp world
continues turning as if the News of the World
never happened.
(3) http://cakeordeathcartoon.wordpress.com/tag/news-of-the-world/
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