summer snowballs & serving up justice

For the first time all summer, I don't have to start working at the god-forsaken hour of 6am. Instead, I start around midday and work through close. In celebration of this near-miracle, thought it's about time to give LCP some more love.

The nefarious Murdoch/Newscorp. scandal snowballs on. Recently I've lacked the wherewithal to stay up-to-date on US political or international news, but this media transgression is too ground-breakingly sinister, and involves too many major players, to keep my head in the sand much longer. Here's a quick recap: News of the World, owned by Rupert Murdoch (the insanely wealthy and powerful Australian media tycoon) has been aggressively hacking British phones and voicemails to dredge up even juicier stories. Obviously, this is criminal, a serious breach of privacy and totally unbecoming of a global media brand.

There is more. It has now come to light that the relationship between English police and News International (the parent company) also warrants further investigation, with the admission that "10 other former News International employees work in the media relations office of the Metropolitan police service, out of a total of 45 people who work in the office."


Murdoch's media empire, as well as the man himself, once seemed an impenetrable, ever-expanding force. With this scandal, that too has changed. Murdoch's iron-fisted control of the company is now being questioned by the newspaper's board of directors. Turns out having such a power-hungry, highly politicized, media baron running the show isn't quite in the interests of freedom of press. Or conducive to turning profits for a newspaper whose image is at an all-time low and boasts a well-documented streak of aggressiveness.

Now, the biggest question is how far with the fallout spread. Who knew what, and when? The investigation and future court proceedings will be a textbook exercise in the plausible deniability strategy. Nevertheless, with resignations from English police and News of the World management pouring in, it's only a matter of time before the blowback ensnares more culprits. I can only hope that Britain takes a harder line towards the perpetrators of these type of white collar crimes than the US has in the wake of the housing crisis and Wall Street scandal.