Rupert Murdoch issue

Rupert Murdoch has been in the spotlight this time not for the right reasons. The famous and influential millionaire who owns the News Corp and has a stake in many big companies has been slammed for his involvement in the phone-hacking scandal of the tabloid that he owns, News of the World. The recent spate of phone-hacking incidents targeted civilians. They either got sensational news from the information received from the hacked phones, or twisted the stories to spruce them up. For example, in the case of Milly Dowler, reports said that she was missing and her case still remains a mystery, while the fact is that she is already dead and some staff from News of the World, including a private investigator, had already been in the know of this. The private investigator, who was the one who found out about the news, deleted the messages that were related to the death of Milly Dowler so as to destroy evidence of what truly had happened. The story that the tabloid had spun up attracted their attention created suspense among readers. This is an example of the many sensational reports by the News of the World which they came up with through hacking phones of civilians.

This incident has sparked the outrage of the British public. Although phone-hacking incidents were not rare throughout British history, it is only in this incident where there is such large-scale upset. This is due to the fact that the scandal this time round targeted civilians, unlike the previous incidents which aimed to get information from royals, politicians and celebrities. This resulted in the public feeling that their privacy is being compromised, and that they could be made used of and be the subject of the news anytime.

Besides public upset, the phone hacking scandal has also revealed ugly side of the British public. During the previous phone hacking incidents, the public was nonchalant just because they did not involve them. To exacerbate the situation, they continued to purchase the tabloid, despite knowing that these information were received through phone hacking and that phone hacking is against the ethics of journalism. This allows these companies to earn more money through receiving sensational news through hacking phones of people and hence encourages the news media to continue such acts. Since they knew that the some companies in the news media use such indecent means to get their news, the public should have stopped buying tabloids from these companies so that their profits will decease and they will find phone hacking not a lucrative business to do. This will put a stop to the hacking of phones to get sensational news. All these actions of the British public show that they are hypocritical, as they do not want their privacy to be compromised but yet either did not care or encouraged the news media to reveal events in the private life of royals, celebrities and politicians.
The incident also showed that politicians were insincere opportunists. When Rupert Murdoch was in power, they tried to get into his good books and did not dare to offend him as he was such a influential figure that he could sway the way the public votes in election. After the collapse of the News of the World, many of these politicians started turning against Rupert Murdoch and some even openly criticized him. This shows that they were “double-faced” people, who curry favour the person in power.