When Rupert Murdoch came out ‘very shaken’ with his apology for hacking the telephone of a missing teen, many were sceptical of the News Corp leader’s crocodile tears. We had reason to be sceptical. According to insiders at News International, this editorial from today’s Wall Street Journal is more representative of Murdoch’s true feeling about the scandal. Rupert Murdoch: shaken not stirred.
Full of arrogance and grandiose self pity the editorial shows little remorse, throwing the spotlight on BBC and Guardian for reporting on the story with such precision. It’s a masterpiece of clueless self indulgence and lack of self awareness, laying the blame at the feet of liberals.
What strikes me as odd in these defences from WSJ and Fox News is that nowhere do these people take responsibility for their actions. In the place of true apologies is a haughty defiance so identified with the far right and in the States, the Republican and tea parties. The editorial is the perfect whine, so emblemic of a company – and ideology – run for one reason, that is to make money, no matter what it takes. Being fair is a luxury. There is even less wiggle room for balance.
UPDATE: As usual, John Cole sums it up nicely.
In related news, someone had better call the waahmbulance for the WSJ, because their latest editorial sounds like a teenage girl’s Facebook status update:
We also trust that readers can see through the commercial and ideological motives of our competitor-critics. 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.
