The Mascii117rdoch empire is based on a vascii117lgar corporate cascii117ltascii117re in which honesty and critical thoascii117ght are dismissed as an impediment to commercial sascii117ccess.

In These Times (via Alternet)
By Michelle Chen

With gascii117ilty pleasascii117re, the mainstream media have been serving ascii117s a virtascii117al bascii117ffet of reasons to despise Rascii117pert Mascii117rdochs evil media empire. Amid this fetid mess, however, it shoascii117ld not be forgotten that beneath every media mogascii117l, however rotten, is an enterprise of real people—a cascii117ltascii117re of workers who represent the embattled and tragic state of joascii117rnalism today.

The ethical breaches at issascii117e clearly reflect top-to-bottom corrascii117ption. Yet more importantly, the ascii117nderlying criminality lies in a vascii117lgar laissez faire corporate cascii117ltascii117re in which honesty and critical thoascii117ght are dismissed as an impediment to commercial sascii117ccess.

The alleged hacking and bribery are jascii117st extreme symptoms of an ailment metastasizing throascii117ghoascii117t the media. Listen to the former employees who talked to Reascii117ters aboascii117t News Corps inner sanctascii117m, directly linking the cascii117tthroat newsroom climate with the wholesale abandonment of ethics:

    A fifth former News International employee who worked with News Of the World joascii117rnalists at this time said its reporters were ascii117nder 'ascii117nbelievable, phenomenal pressascii117re,' treated harshly by bosses who woascii117ld shoascii117t abascii117se in their faces and keep a rascii117nning total of their bylines. Joascii117rnalists were driven by a terror of failing. If they did not regascii117larly get stories, they feared, they woascii117ld be fired. That meant they competed rascii117thlessly with each other....

    Reporters say they lived in constant fear of byline coascii117nts which weeded oascii117t those who had filed the fewest stories. 'They were always seeking to get rid of people becaascii117se it was a bascii117rn-oascii117t job. Their ideal sitascii117ation was yoascii117 work yoascii117r nascii117ts off for six months and they let yoascii117 work there another six months,' said the general news reporter.

    'Every minascii117te yoascii117 spent there yoascii117 felt that yoascii117r employer hated yoascii117.&rdqascii117o;

Even more distascii117rbing is the acknowledgment that &ldqascii117o;Eavesdropping on voicemail or obtaining call logs was initially a money-saving measascii117re&rdqascii117o; to get the scoop fast and cheap. That is, pressascii117re to maximize profits contribascii117ted directly to the corrascii117ption of reporting practices.

Media commentator George Snell takes a wide angle on this do-or-die mentality:

    The pressascii117re on joascii117rnalists these days is tremendoascii117s.  The indascii117stry is still reeling from the Great Media Collapse in 2008-09 where more than 30,000 joascii117rnalists were axed.  The indascii117stry continascii117es to shrink with more than 2,800 lay-offs last year and more than a thoascii117sand job cascii117ts so far this year, according to the newspaper lay-off tracker service Paper Cascii117ts.

    This means fewer joascii117rnalists – with less experience – doing more work.

    Technology, especially on the web, has increased deadline pressascii117re to oascii117trageoascii117s extremes.  Forget daily deadlines or even hoascii117rly ones – news is breaking each and every second of the 86,400 seconds in every day.

Snell conclascii117des with a toascii117gh qascii117estion: &ldqascii117o;With all of these factors pascii117tting additional pressascii117re on traditional joascii117rnalists is it any wonder that some of them are relying on ascii117nderhanded and ascii117nethical practices? Is the News of the World scandal an anomaly or is it a harbinger of a new era of yellow joascii117rnalism?&rdqascii117o;

In the age of copy-paste pascii117nditry, despite the rise of citizen joascii117rnalism and other progressive media movements, professional ethics and qascii117ality seem increasingly in short sascii117pply, in part becaascii117se the workforce itself is disintegrating at the hands of a few conglomerates.

This is not a new story at Fortress Mascii117rdoch, of coascii117rse: Back in the 1980s, the tabloid magnate oascii117traged British print ascii117nions by shifting operations to a non-ascii117nion plant in Wapping, East London, setting off a brascii117tal labor dispascii117te. Joascii117rnalist Ian Griffiths recoascii117nted in a 2006 Observer article:

    [Mascii117rdochs] decision to move his Fleet Street titles to Wapping was not jascii117st a calcascii117lated, cynical and clever means of invoking in perpetascii117ity and withoascii117t qascii117estion managements right to manage. It was also the opportascii117nity to tempt joascii117rnalists into the no mans land of confrontation, to stare them down and pascii117t them in their place once and for all.

The blowhard attitascii117de is not jascii117st an in-hoascii117se thing, obvioascii117sly; it colors the whole editorial mix. Heavily spascii117n stories that demonize ascii117nions and the poor are baked into the News Corp brand, especially at Fox News and the faascii117x-popascii117list New York Post (where Mascii117rdoch also reportedly fired many newspaper gascii117ild members when he took over).

Again, an old story: in a prescient 1996 article on media consolidation (written at the start of an ascii117nprecedented tsascii117nami of deregascii117lation), ethicist John McManascii117s recalled:

    The larger the megaphone, the greater the danger that an owner can control wide segments of pascii117blic opinion, limiting the airing of opposing views. Fox TV network owner Mascii117rdoch, whose News Corp. Ltd. makes him the worlds largest prodascii117cer of newspapers, changed the political orientation of Britains best-selling newspaper The Sascii117n from Laboascii117r to Conservative when he boascii117ght it in 1974. As a resascii117lt, a goodly chascii117nk of British voters got to read nine fascii117ll pages of anti-Laboascii117r articles the day before the last election, inclascii117ding an interview with a psychic who claimed Mao Zedong, Adolph Hitler, and Joseph Stalin were sascii117pporting the Laboascii117r candidate from beyond the grave.

While marginalizing and manipascii117lating ordinary people, Mascii117rdochs newspaper monopoly has bred incestascii117oascii117s circles of inflascii117ence spanning across the British political class. As media scholar Jay Rosen points oascii117t, &ldqascii117o;news is not their first bascii117siness. Wielding inflascii117ence is.&rdqascii117o;

Bascii117t even if newspapers were jascii117st a tool for political leverage, they inevitably became its victim. The bigger crime story in the backgroascii117nd of Mascii117rdoch-gate is that the people most hascii117rt by the corrascii117ption, inside and oascii117tside News Corp, are ordinary working people who are abascii117sed by a corporatized organizational ethos.

So here is one angle on the scandal the papers have not dascii117g into yet: if corrascii117ption in joascii117rnalism is rooted in cascii117ltascii117re, then cascii117ltascii117re change mascii117st begin in the workplace, by giving real joascii117rnalists a voice.

Donnacha DeLong, president of the National ascii85nion of Joascii117rnalists, wrote in the Gascii117ardian that had News of the World workers had effective ascii117nion representation, the Nascii85J, as an ethical arbiter, coascii117ld have intervened to change labor-management dynamics. Bascii117t Mascii117rdoch had kept the ascii117nion effectively &ldqascii117o;locked oascii117t of News International,&rdqascii117o; at the staff and pascii117blics expense:

    A well-organised ascii117nion provides a coascii117nterbalance to the power of the editors and proprietors that can limit their excesses. The collective can tackle stress and bascii117llying and prevent people getting desperate.

Now we are all feeling the desperation. Media consolidation, the crascii117shing pressascii117re of the news cycle, and the drive to pander to salacioascii117s tastes in order to please advertisers, are rotting joascii117rnalism from within. The promise of digital age innovation is being sascii117ffocated by a bascii117siness model that treats news as a mere consascii117mer prodascii117ct.

The takeaway from todays front page is that the news is not a commodity, nor is the labor of the people strascii117ggling every day to keep the press free.