News International

[Captain Haddock]

Sorry but I had to post this, the whole phone hacking scandal in the UK involving News of the World (a News International paper) has kind of taken on mental proportions. This is a link to the Telegraph a rightwing UK paper that would normally be very pro a Conservative Prime Minister like David Cameron and would have no time for a leftie paper like the Guardian. For them to be saying this is just mad, it's a bit like I don't know Fox News turning on Bush and then praising the New York Times.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/peter ... l-friends/

[teggacat]

wow, I wasnt even aware of this situation, and I listen to alot of news at work,
a bit un-nerving I'd say......
[fox turn on bush-never!then-gulp-praise the NYTimes????????Ack!]
Sounds very messed up...

[Captain Haddock]

Yeah it's all very messed up the paper has been caught basically hacking into the phones of parents who's kids have been murdered, killed in a warzone you name it they've done it basically. Gotta love Murdoch!

[sensei]

My dad always liked to say, "Newspapers aren't in business to report the news. They exist to sell newspapers." Despite all the lofty codes I've heard expressed by many journalists, to some extent that is sadly true. If you don't provide what your target audience expects, then you're out of a job.

But it is on some level poignant. I spent several days in the newspaper collection of the British Library at Colindale looking through contemporary reports of the "Satanic cult" scares of the 1960s and early 70s, and if there was any juicy apocryphal rumor about, then News of the World could be depended upon to report it in full (with photos). One of the folks I interviewed even sued them successfully for libel (they claimed he'd sacrificed a kitten on some Satanic holy day surrounded by naked virgins).

[Captain Haddock]

That reminds me Sensei of an example of what your talking about. When I was in college I was shown 2 articles about the same thing the Eurozone from the Irish and English editions of the same paper called the Sun (also a News Corp paper). Now the English version of the paper ran a rabidly anti eurozone line, yet the Irish version ran a gleemingly pro Eurozone position. It was the first time I saw just how cynical journalism could be, created not for any ideological reason just purely whatever was going to be popular and sell papers in a particular market. Very sad really.

Yeah in general though there is almost an anything goes kind of mentality to our press, which because of recent events the government has been forced to finally (begrudgingly) pay attention to.