Among the most deliberate and abhorrent mass violations of privacy committed in recent memory did not come as a result of technology, social services, databases, hackers, thieves, leakers, or governments. It was an act of a news organization, News Corp., which hacked into the phones of a reported 4,000 people, including not just celebrities but dead children and the families of the victims of terrorism and war.
Power corrupts.
The oh-so-rich irony is that this comes from the same company that, through its Wall Street Journal, fancies itself the protector of our privacy. The Journal would have us believe that web sites, technology companies, advertisers, and retailers are the enemies of privacy. No, it was their own corporate colleagues, their fellow journalists.
The solution to this threat to privacy is not to change technology or even the law. It is to enforce the laws, norms, and mores that already exist and hold to account the criminals and those responsible for their actions. That is, the managers of News Corp. That is, the Murdoch family.
This is not a matter of technology but of corruption.
Killing the offending News of the World is -- I agree with the Guardian -- a deeply cynical act. Some relatively small number of the paper's employees was responsible for these acts -- they're presumed to be gone already. Now all of them are out of a job. Now a 168-year-old newspaper is dead -- and it's not as if we have any to spare. But the bosses responsible for the coverup remain.
The Murdochs apparently believe that they have amputated the offending limb and that's that. But the toxin still flows in the bloodstream.
Mind you, I'm not your stock Murdoch basher. I worked for News Corp. in the '90s, when I was TV critic at TV Guide, when the company owned it. I launched a magazine there and then went to work briefly at Delphi Internet when the company bought it (escaping in the nick of time before the first of many News Corp. internet disasters ensued). When News Corp. bought Dow Jones, I told reporters that I had not seen interference from Murdoch the way I had at revered Time Inc. That is to say, I defended Murdoch.
A further disclosure: My next book, Public Parts, was to be published, like my last one, by News Corp.'s HarperCollins. But I pulled the book because in it, I am very critical of the parent company for being so closed. It's now being published by Simon and Schuster.
One more disclosure: I write for and have consulted for the Guardian, which has dogged this story brilliantly and triumphally.
Now having said all that, I'll say this: News Corp. and its culture are simply corrupt. I'll ask you this: Could you imagine such crimes occurring at Google? Wouldn't these crimes mortally damage its brand? Could you imagine News Corp. taking Google's pledge to do no evil? Those are rhetorical questions. The answers are obvious.
I'm most appalled that News Corp.'s crimes occur under the banner of journalism. Ah, professional journalism, which holds itself up above the supposedly nonexistent standards of bloggers and mere citizens and witnesses. Journalism, here to protect, educate, inform, and represent us.
I doubt we'll end up with a Nixonian moment: What did Rupert know and when did he know it? But we can't say the same for his son, James. See the Guardian's annotation of James' statement today (a new form of journalism, by the way), which only raises more questions. He is in charge of News International, the offending division. He is set to take over the company. The company is almost set to take over Sky.
I'm generally a critic of regulating speech and thus media. But the UK regulates media and I can't imagine a better time to do so. What will the government do? If it allows the Sky acquisition to go through, then it makes a lie and laugh of its authority. Meanwhile, what can the profession do to amputate this diseased arm, News Corp.?
I know I sound strident here. I know some will properly accuse me of being late to the bonfire, having just confessed that I'd defended Murdoch. But the two go together. I was willing to give the Murdochs their rope. Now they've hung themselves with it.
The story's a long way away from America. But News Corp. isn't. Now all of us who live under its influence deserve to ask what they will do to fix the company's corrupt culture that allowed these crimes. We can ask. But I don't expect answers.
Follow Jeff Jarvis on Twitter: www.twitter.com/jeffjarvis
"Could you imagine such crimes occurring at Google? Wouldn't these crimes mortally damage its brand? Could you imagine News Corp. taking Google's pledge to do no evil?"
Why, what News Corp did IS IT'S BRAND! This company isn't a news organization, it is a sleeze merchant whose boss is very successful at externalizing his monstrous brain into our world. He only needs a cat and a mini-me to complete his evil empire.
He has screwed with British and American politics to an extent that would make the old owners of yellow journalistic newspaper cry with envy.
His brand is evil, and he has executed his brand perfectly on the stupid and the self serving. Good thing we have a free society otherwise run by people NOT like Murdoch. We would all be in chains. But he needs the adults in the room to keep society otherwise free to puchase his nonsense, often and oftener (sic).
Instead of the "It Watches You TV" its now "It tells on you Mobile Phone'".
Off to HM Prison!
But closing the business? That's a quitter attitude, certainly inappropriate in view of Murdock's
hard-won reputation for strong business acumen. So what's the reason? Can't think of one, UNLESS the publication was doing so poorly financially that this was an "easy out."
I don't think so.
I think this will turn out to be politically correct, but a huge business mistake.
There will be no change to the basic freedoms of the press or the basic rights to privacy. There will, hopefully, be better enforcement of both.
All got Iraq wrong, all continue to print unsubstantiated claims about Iran, none cover Israel fairly, none managed to print the truth about Wall Street or lead to any accountability while regularly blaming the victims, none have covered corporate control of our democracy and courts, and on and on.
Journalism has embraced power and left the reality based community.
Many of the foot soldier journalists remain in denial while their colleagues revel in big paycheck propaganda.
Murdoch is far from solely responsible for the corruption of the profession, though he has done more than his fair share. Taking him down would be a good start, but we can not stop there.
Is there any investigation into the actions of those phone companies in releasing such private information to unauthorized third parties?
I'm not suggesting this reduces the culpability of the so called "journalists" in this scandal, but that the scope of criminality spreads widely beyond the news organization at the center of the scandal.
If it was wrong for the detective to obtain this privileged information, was it not wrong for anyone at the telephone companies to provide it?
Should not those persons also be subject to prosecution?
The scope of criminality is global. It is pervasive and now effects, to a lesser or greater degree, virtually all aspects of our lives.
Corruption has been gnawing away at the foundations of our political, business and religious structures for a long time, but now IT is taking some BIG bites.
1. Members of the Police: these cops were bribed for information and that is now subject of one of the inquiries just announced.
2. The mobile phone companies: The way they operated here was what is known as "blagging". They would obtain the mobile phone number and then call up the provider pretending to either be the owner or their father/brother/cousin and fraudulently obtain the PIN code of the voice mail. So in this case the only thing the phone companies were guilty of was of having lax security. They did not knowingly give away the information.
I have to say its been a beautiful couple of days here in the UK! Just seeing Murdoch exposed for what he really is is very cathartic!
If nothing else Roger Ailes should resign.
Their agenda is obvious, highly biased and extremely prejudicial. They are a 24/7 365 days a year propaganda machine for the GOP and Tea Party. The sooner they are dismantled the sooner we can get back to a democract that is not reliant on the opinions of extreme right wing conservatives.
No one should defend their continued existence, nor the endless bombardment of distortion, bias and bigotry. There should be no question that they should be investigated and that no one from the GOP or Tea Party be permitted to participate.
it is unquestionable that Fox News is was and will continue to be a hazard to this democracy and therefore dissembled forthwith. Any investigation would be to determine whether there was any criminality involved or conspiracy to present the news to Americans to mislead, misrepresent and lie to the American people as to a specific political agenda that jeopardized American national security, foreign and domestic policies that caused harm to the national body.
Therefore it is no surprise that Roger