Shocking News: Tabloids are sketchy!
I am not sure why the News of The World story is being regarded as such a scandal. I mean, the paper was a rag to start with. The fact that a rag tabloid broke the law? Not really shocking.
The News of the World in the UK is pretty much equivalent to The National Enquirer over here. Maybe a little better, with fewer alien baby stories, but The News of the World getting sued for liable is about as regular as Berlusconi facing sexual abuse allegations, and about as surprising.
So what did they do? Well, they hacked into phones - which is really not all that hard, and they paid off cops for information. Both of these are illegal, underhanded, sleazy violations of rights. But they are not surprising, at least not to me. I have no more faith in the integrity of journalists than I have in the integrity of used car salesman. Actually, more used car salesman probably have some integrity than journalists.
I used to work in securities lending - short selling. I worked there in the bad 'ol days of about three years ago when there were very limited regulations in the US about how and when you could short a stock. The collusion between elements of the financial media and certain hedge funds was so damn obvious that it took no skill at all to see it (proving it in court would be a whole different kettle of rotten fish). So maybe I got jaded, seeing 'journalists' taking kick backs from hedge funds in order to profit off of the falling share price and sometimes collapse of good companies.
I in no way condone what the News of the World did - especially the wire taps, that is a massive violation of rights. But I just don't find it that surprising. Does it say anything about the rest of News Corp? Well - not really. Yeah, News Corp should have been taking a closer look at what was going on, but really, it is wildly unlikely that News Corp proper and Murdoch especially had any damn idea about what is going on. Comments about how this reflects on the WSJ etc are just idiotic.
The News of the World in the UK is pretty much equivalent to The National Enquirer over here. Maybe a little better, with fewer alien baby stories, but The News of the World getting sued for liable is about as regular as Berlusconi facing sexual abuse allegations, and about as surprising.
So what did they do? Well, they hacked into phones - which is really not all that hard, and they paid off cops for information. Both of these are illegal, underhanded, sleazy violations of rights. But they are not surprising, at least not to me. I have no more faith in the integrity of journalists than I have in the integrity of used car salesman. Actually, more used car salesman probably have some integrity than journalists.
I used to work in securities lending - short selling. I worked there in the bad 'ol days of about three years ago when there were very limited regulations in the US about how and when you could short a stock. The collusion between elements of the financial media and certain hedge funds was so damn obvious that it took no skill at all to see it (proving it in court would be a whole different kettle of rotten fish). So maybe I got jaded, seeing 'journalists' taking kick backs from hedge funds in order to profit off of the falling share price and sometimes collapse of good companies.
I in no way condone what the News of the World did - especially the wire taps, that is a massive violation of rights. But I just don't find it that surprising. Does it say anything about the rest of News Corp? Well - not really. Yeah, News Corp should have been taking a closer look at what was going on, but really, it is wildly unlikely that News Corp proper and Murdoch especially had any damn idea about what is going on. Comments about how this reflects on the WSJ etc are just idiotic.
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