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Memo Sent, Received & Transmitting.
Author: Raine    Date: 07/18/2011 12:54:00

Yesterday the head of Scotland Yard resigned over bribery in a phone hacking scandal, a scandal that involves the Rupert Murdoch owned News Corp. As this story is still unfolding, the fine folks over at Fox and Friends decided to cover the story. Watch if you have not already:
Hacking is the problem -- not News Corp., and this is a really important point. Personally, think Fox & Friends have little credibility, so I laughed this little exchange off as another example of silliness.

That said, The Wall Street Journal has an Op-Ed piece today that a Managing Editor from another newspaper called "Jawdropping". I tend to agree, How about you? It not a very long piece and worth reading in its entirety so here are a few snippets:
At least three British investigations into phone-hacking and payments to police and others by the now-shuttered News of the World tabloid are underway, with 10 arrests so far. News Corp. and its executives have apologized profusely and are cooperating with authorities. Phone-hacking is illegal, and it is up to British authorities to enforce their laws. If Scotland Yard failed to do so adequately when the hacking was first uncovered several years ago, then that is more troubling than the hacking itself.
***
In braying for politicians to take down Mr. Murdoch and News Corp., our media colleagues might also stop to ask about possible precedents. The political mob has been quick to call for a criminal probe into whether News Corp. executives violated the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act with payments to British security or government officials in return for information used in news stories. Attorney General Eric Holder quickly obliged last week, without so much as a fare-thee-well to the First Amendment.
***

The last time the liberal press demanded a media prosecutor, it was to probe the late conservative columnist Robert Novak in pursuit of White House aide Scooter Libby. But the effort soon engulfed a reporter for the New York Times, which had led the posse to hang Novak and his sources. Do our media brethren really want to invite Congress and prosecutors to regulate how journalists gather the news?
***
Phone-hacking is deplorable, and we assume the guilty will be prosecuted. More fundamentally, the News of the World's offense—fatal, as it turned out—was to violate the trust of its readers by not coming about its news honestly. We realize how precious that reader trust is, and our obligation is to re-earn it every day.
Schadenfreude indeed. Fox and Friends seems to have gotten the same memo that was published this morning in the WSJ.

It appears that everyone else is guilty of bad journalism except the enterprises held under the umbrella of News Corp. I'll add more as the day progresses. One thing I know, is that this certainly doesn't appear to be the type of Op-Ed that will rally the journalism world to their side. What do you think?

and
Raine
 

83 comments (Latest Comment: 07/18/2011 23:52:27 by livingonli)
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