End of the World

Let me be clear: We will vigorously pursue the truth and we will not tolerate wrongdoing. Rupert Murdoch may have pronounced that any time this week. Except,thats from a speech he delivered late last year at the Centre for Policy Studies,London,in praise of Margaret Thatcher. The context was journalistic ethics and the role of the press,wherein he also said: Democracy will be from the bottom up,not from the top down. Even so,a free society requires an independent press: turbulent8230; inquiring8230; bustling8230; and free. Murdoch,who has had his son,James,suddenly and summarily shut from the top down his oldest acquisition in Britain,the 168-year-old tabloid News of the World,is a visionary who imagined a future for the business of news,spanning old media and new,that few had dared contemplate,or had the acumen to build.

Today,his own words are flying at his maw. Had News International not tried to be too clever and kill its offending paper to remove the object of rage,there would have been room for nuancing the debate and vigorously getting to the bottom of the truth. For a man who often sermonises on credibility in journalism,this is a deep dent. If nothing hurts journalism more than bad journalism,nothing hurts business more than bad business. This has been an instance of both.

Rupert Murdoch is a Charles Foster Citizen Kane: nobody knows who he exactly is; his story is told from several pre-prejudiced quarters. But to return to bad business,irrespective of his legendary survival skills,his News Corporations full acquisition of BSkyB is now on hold,as a direct result of whats happened at and to News of the World. Assets and even laid off employees can move to other outposts of the Murdoch empire,but this ultimate reverse ferret,as a commentator puts it,may have come a bit too late. With a public inquiry due and former editor Andy Coulson arrested,News of the World isnt dead yet.