Aristotle said “ excellence is a habit.” Rupert Murdock has shown that lax morals values become habits as well. In Mr. Murdock’s case, this lack of morals brought down The News of The World. It had become so corrupt under Rupert Murdock’s control that, even with a 168-year history that included decades of honorable reporting nothing could salvage its reputation.
The reverberations reached far beyond the demise of the newspaper and resulted in further consequences. The Murdock News Corporation empire was involved in business negotiations to purchase the remaining shares of stock it needed to possess a controlling interest in the British Sky Corporation cable company. Those negotiations were cancelled.
Further investigation brought to light other legal and moral violations in the British law enforcement, political and legal systems. As a result, individuals from the lower ranks all the way up the ladder to such highly placed personages as the News of the World’s CEO, Dow Jones, resigned as a result.
Rebekah Brooks, the former editor of The News of the World, Mr. Murdock’s son James Murdock and Rupert Murdock himself were called to testify at a Parliamentary Committee hearing. . Then the ripples effect continued into Scotland Yard. When allegations arose that Scotland Yard investigators helped News of the World reporters get access to private voice and e-mails three high-ranking Scotland Yard members tendered their resignations. .
Eventually, the public outcry became so great that the FBI in the United States and the British Prime Minister, David Cameron himself called for a joint policing effort to mandate a full review of the “ culture, practices and ethics” of the press. The reverberations are ongoing as newspapers announced on April 1, 2012 the potential for Rupert Murdock’s resignation as well. . The habit of lax morals resulted in acts that created an International web of corruption. In this affair the individuals caught up in this web did not, could not, have created a network so far reaching on their own. Thus supporting Nietzsche’s concept of the absurdity of causa sui. That Rupert Murdock himself, as respondeat superior, is also called upon to suffer consequences may provide an argument against that. The events are still unfolding.
References
Jennings, M. M. (2011, 9/10). YOU CANNOT TALK YOUR WAY OUT OF A SITUATION THAT YOUR CONDUCT GOT YOU INTO. Corporate Finance Review , p. 37.
Martin, B. (2012, 4 1). Murdock May Step Down as BSkyB Chairman, Sunday Telegraph Says. Retrieved 4 1, 2012, from Bloomberg Reports: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-01/murdoch-may-step-down-as-bskyb-chairman-sunday-telegraph-says.html
The New York Times. (2012, 3 28). British Phone Hacking Scandal. Retrieved 3 31, 2012, from The New York Times: http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/n/news_of_the_world/index.html
The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. (2010, 4 14). Nietzsche's Moral and Political Philosophy. Retrieved 3 31, 2012, from The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/nietzsche-moral-political/
