Corporate Ethics of Newscorp

No-one can argue with Rupert Murdoch's Newscorp as an institution within global culture. It's influence is imbued within our social consciousness and it acts as one of the great media super powers of today. The influence of Newscorp goes well beyond the realm of any other media conglomerate. Murdoch's media empire has a combined value of $33 billion dollars, holds interests in 70 countries and reaches nearly 5 billion people, that's 3/4 of the global population (Greenwald, 2011).

To say that this kind of level of supremacy in communications and News holds a level of responsibility is an understatement. But as they say power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely as Newscorp fails to hold accountability to any kind of journalistic integrity and instead favor's their own capitalist agenda. It is not only Newscorp's unbalanced reporting that is considered ethically reprehensible but the circumstances and tactics in which it was attained.

Because of their global domination Newscorp had previously remained above investigation, with it's tentacles reached into most facets of information distribution throughout and Murdoch having friends of high political influence, or even the leaders of most first world countries such as the United Kingdom's David Cameron. But this year that ethical absolution finally came to end with the revelation and public scrutiny of Newcorp's dubious investigation techniques.

Founded by Murdoch in 1979 (Columbia Journalism Review, 2005) Newscorp was created as an umbrella to all of his previous acquisitions which included a film company and many newspapers around the world. The internal structure of Newscorp holds a 17 person Board of Directors whom overseen by Chairman and CEO Murdoch. His son James Murdoch acts as deputy Chairman and CEO and there are no less than three immediate relations within the Board of Directors. But despite the existence of this board the 29% of shareholdings owned by the Murdoch family are the majority of the voting shares and thus Newscorp is structured so that only Murdoch himself has ultimate control despite the fact they are a publicly traded company. (CNN, 2011.)

In 1981 Murdoch obtained the United Kingdom's 'Times' and 'Sunday Times' which, although was prohibited by monopolies law "a sympathetic Thatcher government" (Robinson, J. 2010) let him exploit a loophole and since then Murdoch has retained a "close relationship" with the UK Conservative party. Murdoch purchased "News of the World" in 1969 and in the mid eighties reshaped it from a typical newspaper into a tabloid format that would eventually become known for celebrity exposés and set-ups and it's sales began to rise. In 2000 Murdoch appointed Rebekah Brooks 32, as the youngest ever national editor having worked her way up through the magazine from secretary. This was despite or in fact because of, her ethically questionable "tabloid techniques" having made a career in borderline illegal practice in information retrieval and her "closeness to Murdoch.... protected her during scandal" (Lyall, Becker 2011).

In 1994 in the role of deputy editor she had overseen a sting on the royal family in which she prepared for the News Of The World's interview with James Hewitt, a lover of Princess Diana by reserving a hotel suite and "hiring a team to kit it out with secret tape devices in various flowerpots and cupboards" (Morgan, 2011). In 2005, News of the World revealed that Prince William had borrowed a portable editing suite from UK Television Channel ITV's Royal correspondent Tom Bradby. They then concluded that their voicemails were being accessed and an investigation was commenced by Specialist Operations under Royalty Protection. A team of police then searched the London offices of News of the World, leading to the eventual arrest of News of the World's royal editor and a private investigator whom they had hired for their services. Both pleaded guilty to the charges and were imprisoned for four to six months. During the trial News Corp claimed ignorance of these practices and promptly sacked the editors instigated. This shrewdly resolved any involvement or awareness those in News Corp's paper hierarchy had of illegal practices, and the paper was for all sense and purposes able to continue behaving exactly as it had before. 


In September of 2009 News International continued to deny that hacking was widespread. Les Hinton, chief executive of Dow Jones and former executive chairman of Murdoch's newspaper arm in Britain, tells a committee any problem was limited to only one well-publicized case. He tells MPs a review was carried out by the company and no new evidence of wrong-doing was found but pressure continued to mount after the highlighted relationship between Parliament and News Corp and an investigation is again launched, this time by Parliament's own standards watchdog.

In 2010 the New York Times publishes a story in which Sean Hoare, former reporter at the newspaper tells that within News Of The World "Phone Tapping is endemic" and that he was personally asked to do so whilst working there and the Met Police issue a statement saying they too will be launching a fresh investigation into suspected phone hacking by News Of The World, this results in the resignation of David Cameron's press chief and the sacking of News Of The World's senior editor prompting speculation on how far this ethical corruption travels when News Corp finally announces it has decided to approach some of the victims and set up a compensation scheme to deal with "justifiable claims" fairly and efficiently .

During July of 2011 The News of the World is accused of hacking into Milly Dowler's mobile phone and deleting messages, giving police and her family false hope that she might still be alive as well as the hacking of relatives of British soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. As a growing list of companies announce that they are withdrawing advertisement in not only News Of The World but other Murdoch owned papers News Corp Chief executive James Murdoch announces that the paper will close. Rupert Murdoch withdraw's his bid to take over BSkyB as this move is referred to the Competition Commission and their are calls for the resignation of Rebekah Brooks. As it comes under further scrutiny other News Corp publications are investigated across the world, specifically in the United States where the FBI becomes involved and News Corp begins a series of public apologies in all their publications internationally.

For the first time in the entire history of News Corp, Murdoch and the Governance in which his Corporate bodies enacted was called into question and held