The News of the world scandal and mission statements
I’m sure you’ve read enough about the current goings-on at the NOTW to choke a hippo, but can I arrogantly suggest this angle may differ from the others?
What interests me is the defence of the current NOTW as a well-intended bastion of investigative reporting.
Leaving aside the question of whether or not Shane Warne + Liz Hurley is actually worth investigating, the whole stance is comepletely disingenuous.
The News Of The World exists for one reason alone: to sell copies of the News Of The World (and, by extension, make money for News International/Rupert Murdoch). They can’t claim to have had a mission of seeking out and exposing corruption (eg: Jeffrey Archer paying a hooker) because they ignored their own; they can’t claim to speak for the disadvantaged (eg: campaigning for compensation for 7/7 victims) because they hounded at least two to suicide:
And if there is no consistent thread of motivational behaviour for this newspaper, other than the making of money, then their campaign to expose paedophiles rings rather hollow. If their readers didn’t really care about that issue then the NOTW would not have pursued the matter. It’s just another attempt at providing something that they think people want to read about. It’s as deeply ingrained in their raison d’etre as Rebecca Loos wanking off a pig, a picture of Michael Jackson’s deathbed or whatever they learned from the voicemail of a murdered schoolgirl.
And that’s a dangerous path to go down: you ask the question, ‘Will this sell us lots of copies?’, and if the answer is ‘Yes’, you do it, no matter if it’s illegal, immoral or indefensible.
Many companies have a mission statement for how they go about their business. But is it the truth, or is it what they want their customers to think is the truth?
I think that we’d find, depressingly often, that the latter is more often the case than the former.
Clever and incisive. You should try real journalism. Because you’re not an idiot. You could probably do it.
did you catch the keira knightley ad in the paper?
i didn’t think it was possible to hate someone who was supporting a charity so much.
really fucking weird ad – almost borrowed perfume image last minute for a water charity. (or something)
Do you think this theory is equally applicable to a newspaper such as The Guardian?
I think it’s applicable to anything, but the Guardian’s mission is obviously not to sell newspapers (it loses an absolute fortune every year). I don’t know exactly what it claims it’s trying to accomplish, but I think the relationship between professed and actual missions is closer than it ever was for the NOTW.
I didn’t see the Keira Knightley ad. I did buy the paper out of curiosity, but I didn’t read it very closely.
Thanks Lorem Ipsum. I think I could bash out a weekly column, but anything beyond that seems like a bit of an arse. My dad’s a journalist, so I’ve seen close up that it requires a level of dedication I just don’t possess. Interestingly, he tells me that most of my whinges about the advertising industry could equally apply to journalism, a career that is a shadow of what it once was.
The paedo list was my favourite bit of sanctimonious ‘scoop’. Forget the fact the wrong people were on it, by publishing the actual details of sex offenders, the Probation Service had to move overnight a massive amount of high-risk offenders to different secure accommodation sites – of which there aren’t enough anyway.
It’s way harder to earn a decent crust as a journalist. But then, the quality of most journalism is not that high.
Was I the only person feeling guilty for buying the Sunday Times yesterday (and obviously taking the NoTW coverage with a Lot’s-wife-sized pillar of salt)? I wish I could like the Observer more and I would rather poke my eye out with a sharp tool (Andy Coulson?) than buy the Sunday Telegraph or the Sindy.
Well, I watched The Pick Up Artist (shitty 80s movie with Robert Downey Junior and Molly Ringwald) and when the 20th Century Fox logo came up I felt a bit grubby.
I don’t know where to draw the Murdoch line, but I too bought the ST. I quite like The Observer, though, but it doesn’t quite satiate my need for pointless shite to read on a Sunday morning.
It’s difficult for anyone to claim the moral high ground when they’ve just put up the link entitled “Things I did last night”.
Was that immoral?
Forget all this nonsense.
The biggest crime that has been committed in recent months is Colin Farrell’s ‘Geezer’ accent in London Boulevard.
Almost as shite as the film.
Had to get that off my chest.
I think you should do a weekly film weview, Jonathan Woss style Ben.
Paul McMullen looks like someone whose soul died some time ago, and the empty shell that remains is running a pub in Kent.
what the notw did was not investigative journalism. at all.
as you rightly pointed out it was about selling as many copies as possible and selling ad space. being a power of influence for power’s sake.
enjoying a place in the sun (no pun intended), having phony politicians
fawning over them who want to benefit from this charade. and so on, and so forth. in short: disgusting, but nothing alien to the business world either.
“Many companies have a mission statement for how they go about their business. But is it the truth, or is it what they want their customers to think is the truth?”
the latter, in too many cases. how can one not come to this conclusion i wonder? open the papers, switch on the tv, look around online. and then make a reality check. a fact check. one must in decent journalism. et voila, it turns out, basically its all shit. people expect nothing else.
what amazes me the most is that this practice of crapping on people’s intellect is still an option. but then i remember the emperor’s new clothes and that in meetings in ivory towers usually are no kids around.
A weekly film review? They’d have to pretty old. I don’t get to go to the movies as much as I’d like.
i think i want to correct myself. some people might expect somethin else. because they are full of hope and belief and trust. im not one of them.
especially since i just read the last shit leaving dc’s mouth. or that of his pr whacko who knows. lets end the states monopoly over public services. yeah, fuck off you c*nt.
Holy shit. Liz Hurley’s with Shane Warne!
If you could have me hack into any ad person’s mobile for some juicy stuff whose would it be?
I cannot conceive of any juicy adman stuff that I’d want to know about.