going… going.. gone…
There is a scandal going on in Britain.
Nothing like this has been seen since the days of Watergate.
A newspaper’s unrelenting investigative reporting has already brought down one newspaper, and it’s just the beginning.
Before it’s over it may bring down Rupert Murdoch’s media empire and possibly a government along with it.
The credit for this achievement goes to The Guardian, a British paper.
The Guardian is one of the most intelligent and progressive papers in the world.
It is run by Alan Rusbridger, how has fearlessly pursued the phone hacking scandal since day one, when no one else would touch it.
Journalists from Murdoch’s News of the World illegally tapped people’s phones to feed their tabloid stories and even paid off the police for insdie information. Clearly all illegal.
Everyone else in Britain lives in mortal fear of Murdoch, the classic Press Lord – and with good reason. Political lives rise and fall based upon what Murdoch writes about them.
But The Guardian is different.
It is underwritten by the Scott Trust, which keeps it whole, financially.
It and its editor had the courage to stand alone, where no one else would.
The BBC is a similar institution – insulated from the need to ‘sell’ stories.
In the US a curious by-product of The BBC has taken shape in the form of BBC America.
This is a commercial channel, even if it carries the BBC name.
A few months ago the management of BBC America decided it would be more profitable to throw their excellent nightly news program under a bus and replace it with the popular but mindless Top Gear show, which they now run 8 hours a day.
The ratings may be up but the quality of public information is in the toilet – unless you want to know what kind of car to buy.
We just spent a week working with the folks at UNHRC – they’re the ones who are rushing off to Kenya now trying to save 10 million lives.
Some of the management of the UN wondered whether people would ‘trust’ news stories shot and produced by UNHCR.
In light of what Rupert Murdoch has done to journalism with News of the World, you have to ask yourself – who would you trust more?
