Tim Rogers: Journalism's black eye

Good morning.

Perhaps the two most dominant media figures during my journalism career have been Al Neuharth and Rupert Murdoch — Neuharth for what he did to transform the newspaper business and Murdoch because he is truly the media giant of our day.

Neuharth isn’t actively involved in the media business anymore. But as the head of Gannett, he was the founder and moving force behind USA Today, which changed forever the face of the U.S. newspaper industry when it was founded in 1982.

Neuharth forced American papers to use more color, focus on writing shorter, tighter stories and brought national competition — particularly in sports, entertainment and business — to many big city dailies that hadn’t had competition before.

He was a controversial figure, unafraid to state his opinions, who gambled correctly that this country would support a national paper. He is now more than 85 years old and has been officially retired for some time. But you can still read his column every week in USA Today and he is still a figure whose opinions carry weight.

While many people may never have heard of Al Neuharth, I’m betting that Rupert Murdoch is a name familiar to most of you.

And even if you have never heard of him, you certainly have watched one of his television networks or read one of his papers.

Murdoch’s media empire, which started in Australia, stretches across the globe and reaches into every facet of the media. In America, he founded the Fox Broadcasting Co. in the 1980s and in 2007 purchased the Dow Jones Co., the owner of the Wall Street Journal. Murdoch, who became an American citizen to allow him to expand his media holdings here, regularly makes the lists of the most powerful and influential people in the world and it is not an exaggeration to say that he is the single most dominant media figure in both the United States and the United Kingdom.

He cracked the CBS/ABC/NBC triumvirate and made Fox the fourth major network by acquiring the rights to broadcast the NFL and by airing shows such as “The Simpsons,” “Married with Children” and “24” that have redefined what we now watch on TV. He also took on cable news business by creating Fox News to give viewers an alternative to CNN and MSNBC.

His vast holdings and influence have over the years also made him a target for critics.

Many people have said for years that he is too dominant a media figure, too controlling of the content that his papers and news stations produce. They have been waiting for a chink to appear in his seemingly impenetrable armor.

Improbably, that has happened.

For those who haven’t been following the story, Murdoch has been forced to close one of his highly profitable and popular British papers, News of the World and sack many of his top lieutenants because of a spreading phone hacking scandal that involves journalists employed by his papers.

On Friday, the publisher of the Wall Street Journal and the chief of his British news organization were both forced to resign because of the scandal and several of Murdoch’s other news leaders in the United Kingdom had already had to step down.

Make no mistake about it, for journalism this is as bad a breach of public trust and ethics as it gets. And if everything that is alleged is proved true, people will go to jail because they will have violated criminal laws.

What is known is that journalists with the News of the World hacked into the phones of both public and private figures, including that of the family of a British schoolgirl who was murdered in 2002. What isn’t known is how far this hacking went, who knew about it and who gave it their blessing. Most importantly is the question of whether Murdoch himself know anything about it.

There is an extensive investigation going on in Britain into this, and the end of last week it was announced that the FBI has opened an investigation in the United States into whether the families of 9/11 victims had also been targeted by journalists working for Murdoch’s papers.

On Saturday, Murdoch ran an apology for his company’s actions in every major paper in Britain, but in this case an apology may not be enough.

As improbable as it may seem, some are suggesting that this may be the end of the Murdoch empire.

I don’t know if that is going to happen, but this is a story worth watching. It has all the hallmarks of a best-selling thriller, but in this case it is real life that is unfolding right before our eyes.

Tim Rogers is editor of The Daily Citizen. He can be reached at timrogers@daltoncitizen.com or 706-272-7735.

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