News and Its Critics (WSJ Editorial on News Corp. investigation)

The Wall Street Journal ^ | July 18, 2011 | Editorial

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...British tabloids have been known for decades for buying scoops and digging up dirt on the famous. Fleet Street has long had a well-earned global reputation for the blind-quote, single-sourced story that may or may not be true. The outrage in this case stems from the hacking of a noncelebrity, the murder victim Milly Dowler.

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The idea that the BBC and the Guardian newspaper aren't attempting to influence public affairs, and don't skew their coverage to do so, can't stand a day's scrutiny. The overnight turn toward righteous independence recalls an eternal truth: Never trust a politician.

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The Schadenfreude is so thick you can't cut it with a chainsaw. Especially redolent are lectures about journalistic standards from publications that give Julian Assange and WikiLeaks their moral imprimatur. They want their readers to believe, based on no evidence, that the tabloid excesses of one publication somehow tarnish thousands of other News Corp. journalists across the world.

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In braying for politicians to take down Mr. Murdoch and News Corp., our media colleagues might also stop to ask about possible precedents. The political mob has been quick to call for a criminal probe into whether News Corp. executives violated the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act with payments to British security or government officials in return for information used in news stories. Eric Holder quickly obliged last week, without so much as a fare-thee-well to the First Amendment.

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Applying this standard to British tabloids could turn payments made as part of traditional news-gathering into criminal acts. The Wall Street Journal doesn't pay sources for information, but the practice is common elsewhere in the press, including in the U.S.

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Do our media brethren really want to invite Congress and prosecutors to regulate how journalists gather the news?

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Some commentary.

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[dirtboy]

Do our media brethren really want to invite Congress and prosecutors to regulate how journalists gather the news?

Actually, I think many of them do, as long as Democrats are the investigators and conservatives are the investigatees.

[abb]

Correct. And there are many, many folks - some here at FRee Republic - that ain’t figured that out yet.

[bert]

The black American pot is the same democrat party calling the kettle names.That specific kettle had a couple from Miami come to Washington and tap the cell phone conversations of US Congressmen, give them to Jim Moran and then to CBS

CBS is still plaguing America with the liberal crap even though Dan and Perky Katie are no more.

[ken5050]

It’s a MSM media feeding frenzy, and it’s goona get far worse..It’s their “in-house” version of the Casey Anthony trial..

[Berlin_Freeper]

Last week my wife sent her work resume to WSJ. I looked at it and saw she added as a qualification that she watches FOX News on the Internet.

I told her: Now we are going to be arrested!

[Lazlo in PA]

Fleet Street has long had a well-earned global reputation for the blind-quote, single-sourced story that may or may not be true.

So this is different than the US Lamestream? This is standard operating procedure at the NY Times. Who cares. As hard as the MSM try to push this story, no one cares. The Press is fully discredited all over. This just confirms what we already know.

[ForGod'sSake]

GREAT commentary! Some very sharp barbs finding their targets. All of which leads me to wonder just how widespread phone hacking is; outside of government sanctioned hacking of course. I'm sure they don't appreciate the competition, particularly from a media operation that is nominally conservative.

[Zakeet]

The Schadenfreude is so thick you can't cut it with a chainsaw. Especially redolent are lectures about journalistic standards from publications that give Julian Assange and WikiLeaks their moral imprimatur ...

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From invoking the "injuring the First Amendment" defense, to the old "the other guys did it too, only worse" defense, to the "it's the cops' fault for letting us get away with it for so long" defense, to the "we deserve a pass this time because of all the good things we've done in the past" defense, to the "our customers are the real judge - not you morons" defense ... these guys have fired a lot of weapons in their arsenal.

With this editorial, News Corp. has put the government and the competition that they are desperate and are not going down without a hell of a fight. Once they bring out the long knives, there is no telling where they will cut.

It's going to be interesting to watch things develop throughout the rest of this election cycle.

[abb]

There is no reason for Rupert to play nice anymore. It’s time for him to cut off Holder and Obama at the knees.

[TheOldLady]

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[Zakeet]

There is no reason for Rupert to play nice anymore. It’s time for him to cut off Holder and Obama at the knees.

... and there's so much material to work with ... they're operating in a target rich environment, as they say in the Air Force ... not since the days of the Clintoons have there been so much low hanging fruit ...

Actually, I view today's tirade as more of a shot across the bow than an actual broadside.

So which is it? Stay tuned, and in a short time, we'll all know for certain.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

Do our media brethren really want to invite Congress and prosecutors to regulate how journalists gather the news?

Actually, I think many of them do, as long as Democrats are the investigators and conservatives are the investigatees.

The dirty little secret is that wire service journalism thinks of "the press" as a title of nobility - or else a priesthood - membership in which is restricted and which has privileges not available to you or me. Ownership of a printing press is not really the marker of membership in that restricted group; you or I can't buy our way into it because it isn't about press ownership, it is about membership in the fraternity. You have to be accepted as being "objective" - meaning nothing other than, being committed to going along and getting along with the fraternity brothers.

The fraternity has the values it does because those values have survival value - they all are slanted to promote journalism. The values are socialist for the simple reason that socialism is neither more nor less that the populist claim that bottom line responsibility is a capitalist plot - and that therefore critics (journalists) should be in charge.

Wire service journalism is about wire service journalism - not freedom of the press, but clout for their fraternity.

[Jenny Hatch]

When has Rupert Murdoch ever played nice?