The News Corp Witch Hunt

The mainstream coverage of the News of the World scandal has begun to look like the publication’s own coverage of celebrities, sensational crimes, pictorials of nearly naked ladies, and any other tawdry content that might draw reader interest. Reuters and the Financial Times have speculated that Les Hinton, current head of Dow Jones and past chief of News International, the parent of News Corp’s newspaper operations in the UK, may be “sacrificed” to satisfy British government officials and some members of Parliament. Hinton may be guilty as sin of a cover-up of News of the World‘s phone hacks and police bribes. He may also have not had one iota of involvement in the incidents. Reuters and FT editors know that very well.

Rebekah Brooks, editor of News of the World between 2000 and 2003 and current head of News International, is the press favorite as the most likely Murdoch executive to be thrown aside to save the reputation of News Corp and allow the completion the of BSkyB takeover. Observers of the Murdoch troubles can hardly believe that he actually threw his arm over her shoulder in London as a sign of support. That is bad judgment by Murdoch. Brooks was at the center of management of the paper when reporters, and perhaps editors, were bribing policemen and tapping the phones of dead people and their families. News Corp may indeed sacrifice her yet. She may also be found innocent of charges brought against her in the press. Or, she may go to jail because of transgressions. The bets on that are no better than dead pools for people who are over 90.

The highest level executive that the press says could be pulled under by the scandal is James Murdoch, son of Rupert, heir apparent, and former BSkyB and News International executive. He, along with Hinton and Brooks, at one time or another said they thoroughly investigated the misdeeds of the News of the World editors and writers, and that all those guilty of illegal or unethical activity had been weeded out.

There is precedent for senior management at newspapers leaving in disgrace because of horrible mistakes made by subordinates that went undetected by senior newsroom officials. New York Times executive editor Howell Raines and his right hand man Gerald M. Boyd resigned in June 2003 after Jayson Blair, a staff reporter, invented sources for some of his stories. Granted, what Blair did was not criminal. There is a chance that Brooks and Hinton did not break the law. But the law was broken on their watches, a greater sin than Blair’s. That brings the argument around to whether unethical behavior or illegal behavior by subordinates is a proper test for the ongoing employment of management.

In other incidents, reporters broke the law without it affecting the jobs of senior managers. The most notorious of these happened at The Wall Street Journal itself, long before Murdoch bought it. “Heard on the Street Column” R. Foster Winans was prosecuted by then U.S. Attorney Rudolph Giuliani for insider trading. Winans went to prison. His bosses kept their jobs.

Of course, Brooks, Hinton and Murdoch may have all been complicit in the illegal actions of News of the World reporters and editors, but there is no way to tell that today. The editorial management at media like Reuters and the Financial Times know it. Mainstream media can speculate who knew what and when. The media can also speculate about who should and who will resign because of the scandal. None of that makes hard news.

Gallup released a poll last month about which institutions were the most and least trusted in America. Those results might well reflect similar feelings among the average people in the UK. Only 28% of those queried expressed a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in the press. Those numbers were low compared to most other industries. The low ratings are deserved, not just because of the actions of press institutions like the News of the World, but also because of the mainstream presses’ speculation about who is guilty in the hacking and bribing case and who is not. Most people must think that the news media should reports the news and not a great deal more.

Douglas A. McIntyre