MEDIA MORALITY AND BEYOND

If Rupert Murdoch and his staff is to be believed, News International is totally innocent of the accusation that his people hacked into the phones of murder victims.  If that is not offensive by itself for the intrusion, it is further claimed that evidence was erased that interfered with the work of the police.

Henry Chu of the Los Angeles Times, on 7/5/11, wrote that the phone hacking scandal involving a kidnapped girl was roiling Britain.  Murdoch staunchly supports Rebekah Brooks, his CEO.and confirms that she is doing all that is possible, with his support, to investigate this claim.


Where did good journalism go to die?  It is too late in a world of technology to bring it back to daily papers delivered to your door so that you can eat breakfast and read the news that happened yesterday.  Now you can watch it on TV as it happens or Google it and get the sources that tell you all about it.  In order to keep TV news outlets surviving on ads, viewers must be pleased.  When readers prefer to watch weeks of slow moving testimony in a court case in Florida to decide whether a young woman already imprisoned for three years before any judgment of guilt or innocence should be put to death, I shudder at people's priorities.


Now, media has resorted to illegal invasion of telephone privacy by hacking phones.  As if that was not diabolical enough, they actually deleted information that might have been used as evidence in court trials.Tampering with evidence is not looked on as something benign.  And what was the service for which it was done?  It seems it was just to please the audience with exclusive information.


It would appear that, today, no one can expect the media to respect their personal grief, ardor, achievements, failures, or any part of the personal life.of their prey.  For those of you who read 1984, the lack of privacy is quite similar.  There are cameras everywhere and they are watching you!