FOX and the Sharks

[Geee]

National Review:

Fox News haters are circling in the water so furiously that the sharks are calling their lawyers. The phone-hacking scandal that led to the closing of one of the world’s oldest papers, the News of the World, has shaken Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp empire, and the whiff of blood in the water is obviously exhilarating for his enemies.

So we’re visited by that rarest of events: an overseas news story receiving wall-to-wall coverage by domestic news outlets. Any American who hasn’t yet heard that the Murdoch-owned British tabloid hacked into people’s voice mails to gather juicy stories must not be watching MSNBC, listening to NPR, or reading the Daily Beast.

Why, you ask? The answer is simple, and came unsurprisingly from MSNBC’s premier breakfast show, Morning Joe. “Does this jump the Pond?” asked Mike Barnicle, one of the show’s regulars, on Monday. “Does this come to America?” Or, as another regular put it more directly: Will Murdoch properties in the U.S. such as the New York Post and Fox News be investigated?

Voila, the thing did jump the pond yesterday. No, there’s no evidence whatsoever that any of the revolting practices at Murdoch’s British media properties have found a home stateside. But that didn’t stop a handful of U.S. congressmen from calling for an investigation into the doings at U.S.-based Murdoch outlets, which include the Wall Street Journal (where I worked in pre-Murdoch days).

How revolting were the practices in England? Let’s get the horrific facts out of the way first. If the allegations are right, the criminals who committed these acts while working as “journalists” are repugnant, which is why Murdoch himself shut down the News of The World last Sunday. The vampires didn’t just seek salacious tidbits about the lives of Royals and soccer stars, and other celebrities who feed off media attention (not that that would be excusable). They went after non-public figures and hurt people who were vulnerable.

They hacked into the phone of a kidnapped — and, we later found out, murdered — girl. But because her voice mail kept getting full, these “journalists” deleted some messages, giving her parents false hopes she was still alive.

These were crimes. Stealing people’s private property, which is what hacking amounts to, is a crime. Bribing police, also alleged to have taken place, is a crime. It doesn’t matter the context. It’s similar to the futility of “hate crimes.” Hurting other people already is a crime, it doesn’t matter why.

In this case, it may be worse than futile if the result is diminished press freedoms in Britain, let alone here. Prime Minister David Cameron is already muttering darkly about “a revision of regulation of the press.”

More ironic is David Cameron’s promise to end the longstanding, cozy relationship between British politicians and the press by affirming that “the music has stopped.” The irony, of course, is that Cameron has absolutely no intention of pausing, for even a second, the most musical pol-press relationship of all: The government’s anachronistic subsidies for the BBC. After all, what is cozier than sending someone a check every other week?

Not ironic at all has been the reporting in this country. NPR and MSNBC are near giddy with excitement. NPR’s media reporter, David Folkenflik, was dispatched to London posthaste and is treating this story as the second coming of Watergate. Murdoch, like Nixon, must roll. So dizzy has NPR been that they gave full airing to what we now know was a false Reuters report on how News Corp does not pay taxes.

[Casino67]

Seems as though the MSM are failing to mention the real 'Watergate' scandal. The Gunrunner investigation. Wait until they have no more reasons to not report on it.

 

Argyle may have been in the MSnbc chat room when one of the geniuses said it was 'big deal'.

 

When Holder, et al, get perp walked out of their offices they may change their mind.

[Casino67]

Fox show that discusses the way news is covered was on earlier today and went into the Murdock scandal.

 

I am waiting to see if CNN will cover their Piers Morgan scandal of him being in charge of a paper while it was doing the same thing? I am sure they will. Maybe. Maybe not.