Writing it in a headline doesn’t make it true. The NoTW phone hacking scandal does tarnish every journalist at News Corp. Every journalist period, really. Whether it should is the question.
Here’s where you start to feel bad for every honest journalist. They do deserve a defender. They do deserve editorials extolling their virtues. But this is not that editorial. Just look at WSJ’s defense of Les Hinton, the former publisher and CEO of Dow Jones who resigned on Friday.
In nearly four years at the Journal, Mr. Hinton managed the paper’s return to profitability amid a terrible business climate. He did so not solely by cost-cutting but by investing in journalists when other publications were laying off hundreds. On ethical questions, his judgment was as sound as that of any editor we’ve had.
It’s not hard to see the institutional priority here. Sure, Hinton was ethical (well, relatively ethical). But what’s more important? He put the company in the black. Defending Hinton’s ethical judgment comes second to his alchemy, his ability to spin gold from a product that most everyone is calling straw. Isn’t that mentality partly why Murdoch is in this mess to begin with?
Notes
-
nhmortgagebroker liked this
-
ctmortgagebroker liked this
-
mamortgageexpert liked this
-
ytirucespkimer liked this
-
dannygronerportfolio liked this
-
sarahlee310 liked this
-
thelategreats reblogged this from peterfeld
-
hookersorcake liked this
-
monarchslager reblogged this from jaketbrooks
-
capitalnewyork liked this
-
lorim liked this
-
peterfeld reblogged this from jaketbrooks and added:
Every journalist who works for Murdoch — and that includes a few of my friends — has to think real hard right now....
-
twentysixtypes liked this
-
This was featured in #Politics
-
peterfeld liked this
-
jaketbrooks posted this
