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Main Content
Screws of Journalism
Bowing out over a resounding phone hacking scandal, the News of the World could not resist offering its 7.5 million readers a last dose of drama
“We’ll miss you more than words can express” is how Britain’s biggest-selling Sunday newspaper bid farewell in its final edition on July 10. In an editorial bereft of the slightest modesty, the red top tabloid raised itself to the rank of “national heritage” that has been for 168 years “as central to Sunday as a roast dinner”. And in a half-hearted apology –with more pride than sadness– it admitted “having lost its way”. That will not do.
No one can deny that the NoW has lived an ongoing success as part of News International, the British subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch’s multimedia conglomerate. With a circulation of 2.7 million copies a week, the tabloid surely held up the competition, and its sales of 4.5 millions on the day of its fall may have seemed to many editorial teams a long-abandoned target. But the NoW has gone way beyond the boundaries of acceptable journalistic investigation and the scandal, which has aborted Murdoch’s project of taking over BSkyB and forced the resignation of both Rebekah Brooks (News International’s chief executive) and Paul Stephenson (the head of Scotland Yard), is showing the limits of a business model that, in the name of the right to information, has long disregarded ethical considerations.
The Rise of Rupert Murdoch’s Empire
The NoW’s success lies in its thrilling coverage of sex, crime, sports and scandals, with sensational headlines and eye-catching pictures, which owed it the nickname “Screws of the World”. This proven formula was embraced by Rupert Murdoch early in his career as a publisher and media entrepreneur. Starting off as an editor at the Daily Express, where he gained first-hand experience of sensationalist journalism, he then turned The News –an Adelaide paper inherited from his father– into a sex-and-scandal sheet.
In the early 1970s, he purchased his first two British papers, the News of the World and The Sun. Set out to conquer the American market, he bought the afternoon tabloid New York Post in 1976, which he sold and then re-purchased in 1993. In the 1980s and 90s he sought to diversify his business and started looking into more respected titles (The Times of London and the Sunday Times which he acquired in 1981) and other media ventures like television channels (Fox News) and film companies (Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation).
Rupert Murdoch is undeniably of the visionary kind. Adding up to his shrewd business acumen, his ability to spot precisely where demand lies has established his supremacy in the media industry. In recent years, he has set up two main targets for News Corps: financial news and the Web. Because launching Fox Business was not enough to pit himself against CNBC, the financial branch of NBC, Murdoch took over the Dow Jones Company and the Wall Street Journal in August 2007. A month later, sensing the desire of many Americans to take refuge in faith in a rather dreary socio-economic context, he acquired Beliefnet, the biggest website about spirituality and religion.
The Tabloid Phenomenon
But the very soul of his media empire, as he himself reckons, are tabloids. Murdoch understood very quickly that rags were geared up better than any other newspaper to resist what has become a very hostile environment for the printing press. With advertising proceeds migrating to the Internet, most daily broadsheets across the developed world are in a financial impasse. Tabloids, however, are holding up the challenge because they have managed to create a niche for themselves, which secures them a high circulation and allows them to attract advertisements.
They are thriving because they appeal to a vast audience by offering both dramatic content and sporting news and because they serve a popular inclination for voyeurism. In doing so, as Ryan Linkhof writes in the New York Times (July 19), “they are breaking down the barriers of access that keep social elites at a remove from ordinary people”. For him, tabloids play a crucial role in our modern societies, acting as a catharsis against the discontent or frustration arising from persisting inequalities. By showing the misfortunes or erratic behavior of celebrities and politicians, they help mitigate social tensions in democratic societies.
As shown by the recent phone hacking scandal, however, the success of tabloids also poses ethical questions. Their quest for scoops has gone out of control, prompting journalists to dig always deeper into the private lives of high-profile public figures. News Corporation is reported to have paid out $655 millions to hush up charges of espionage and just a few days after the NoW closed, the head of Scotland Yard, Paul Stephenson, handed his resignation over allegations of corruption within the police.
Financial collusion between the media and the police and illegal hacking by journalists could be explained in part by the fact that it has become almost impossible for any newspaper to offer information that no one else has. With the speed at which information is spread on Internet and the emergence of citizen-reporters who make use of new technologies to feed newspapers with pictures and news every minute, crony journalism might have emerged as the most convenient way of finding exclusive news.
The Scandal
The origin of the hacking scandal at the NoW goes back to January 2007 when two journalists were jailed for having targeted Prince William’s aides. This led to the resignation of Andy Coulson, editor of the tabloid at the time. Hushed up in 2009 despite revelations by The Guardian that journalists of the NoW had hacked the phones of up to 3,000 celebrities, the scandal resurfaced in July over allegations that the NoW had deleted messages on the voicemail of a teenager murdered in 2002 in order to free up space for more, offering false hopes that she was still alive.
Prime Minister David Cameron, who has been unsettled by the case due to his acquaintances with high-profile members of News Corporations including Rupert Murdoch himself, has commissioned an inquiry on media ethics and practices. But this should hardly lead to anything. Two former executives of News International said they had warned James Murdoch in 2008 of evidence of widespread hacking at the NoW. Unless written proofs of these allegations are found, it will be one party’s words against the others. Besides, it is unlikely that some kind of sanction could be imposed on ill-behaved journalists or corrupt policemen in any sustainable way, and whether some politicians may have turned a blind eye to the practices of merciless tabloids should not be the gist of this affair.
The Moral
Instead what should be retained from this scandal is that it is revealing of a rogue corporate culture which, driven above all by profits, has forgotten what journalism is about: offering citizens accurate, balanced and timely information, investigating cases of corruption or abuse of power that breach the confidence that people place in their politicians or in the law, getting round stonewalling or opening up new horizons... By contrast, digging into the lives of celebrities and miserable people –like the families of victims of terrorist attacks or murders– however profitable, is dumbing down journalism.
It is time for newspapers to accept that competing with the Internet on the basis of quantity is vain but that they can raise the competition on the basis of quality. There are other readership niches to reach out, as the unrelenting flow of approximate news, rumors and opinions on the Web has revived the demand for thorough investigations and in-depth analyses on serious issues. Fishy practices, if they cannot be fought, should at least be put to good use. Journalists (the rogue ones) will then be praised or feared for a good not a despicable cause.