I would like to thankNews of the Worldfor flinging its filth all over newspapers in the United Kingdom and beyond.
The 168-year-old British tabloid –I refuse to call it a newspaper –published its final edition last week, but not before sowing seeds of doubt among readers everywhere.
The tab, known for its muck-raking and sensationalism, finally went too far. Its so-called journalists, who to be fair did occasionally perform useful investigative journalism, have apparently used hacking techniques to invade the cellphone message systems of not just celebrities, but of families who lost soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan and of a young murder victim.
Read Also
Agriculture needs to prepare for government spending cuts
As government makes necessary cuts to spending, what can be reduced or restructured in the budgets for agriculture?
Worse, they deleted some of these messages –in some cases destroying evidence –just so other tabloids could not gather the same information.
What makes the entire situation much, much more serious is that it has highlighted the connections between Rupert Murdoch, owner of the greasy publication, his editors, his reporters, and the political establishment. There are also allegations that journalists were bribing the police.
This is supposed to be an enlightened, First World country. What has happened in Great Britain that has allowed such corruption to take place? Because it is corruption; this is the kind of behaviour one would expect in a failed state. Bribing and hacking are not just unethical but illegal, in case they hadn’t noticed.
Then there is the problem of overweening influence. It’s said that British politicians are terrified of Murdoch. If he likes you, you win elections. If he doesn’t, not so much. Connections were pretty tight with his editors, too.
TheGlobe and Mailreported that David Cameron, now the prime minister; Gordon Brown, the former prime minister; and several other members of Parliament attended formerNews of the Worldeditor Rebekah Brooks’ wedding in 2009.
If this scandal does not convince people that the state and the fourth estate must remain separate and distinct, nothing will. It is often said that journalists have no friends. Apparently, the modern case is that good journalists have no friends –not in politics, nor in law enforcement.
For the record, I know not one journalist who ever has, or who ever would, stoop to these tactics.
