Wednesday 3 August 2011

CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?


So let me get this straight, the man that through a foam pie in Rupert Murdoch’s face while he testified over the British phone hacking scandal has received six weeks in jail; meanwhile, Rupert himself has received nothing in the way of punishment for being at the helm of News Corp - the company that governs News International, who is responsible for the phone hacking in the first place. Sorry, I realize how confusing this is, so let’s back up a bit.

The UK newspaper, News of the World has recently been under the microscope for a phone hacking scandal that has rocked the country. Basically, this tabloid newspaper hacked the phones of various celebrities, the Prime Minister of England (yes, the head of the sodding country!) a young murder victim, and the Royals…to name a few, I figure if there is smoke, there is definitely fire and many more fell victim to this operation.

As if the media isn’t insidious enough, in this case a large batch of journalistic vipers thought that they would simply move the line of investigative reporting and violate one of the most sacred privacy laws, not to mention commit a variety of other criminal offenses in order to obtain leads on investigations, salacious celeb scandals, and [I’m assuming] matters of a sensitive political nature by listening in to the leader of the UK. I’m thinking these reporters, editors and executives in question missed the memo that said, thou shall not act like fascists and invade the public’s privacy like a group of KGB operatives. Sorry, no offense KGB. I mean, seriously, couldn’t the News of the World leave the phone tapping to the government?

So back to Murdoch; under intensive questioning in front of Parliament he claimed that he had no knowledge of the phone hacking of various individual’s voice mails whatsoever. Of course he didn’t. Cause being involved in what goes on in one’s own company would mean he was far too aware and on top of things. And clearly, being the Chairmain and CEO means you reap all of the rewards, but do not have to do much work or know what is going on within your own company. I suppose the mystery is, how is it that when a large corporation does well and brings in enormous profits, the head of the company takes all the credit for being a ingenious media tycoon, but when sh*t hits the fan inside this very company suddenly, said baron has no knowledge of such events or culpability? 


I'm sure foam pie man is sitting in his cell wondering the very same thing. 

Of course Rupert Murdoch and News Corp’s answer to the inquiry was to close down the entire paper in a blink of an eye and all the evidence that went along with it. Rupert Murdoch may be a criminal neo-con, but he’s far from dumb. Then again, his company did get caught in one of the biggest scandals of the day, so perhaps - and thankfully - he’s losing his edge. 




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