The Media Conglomerate

Monopolies only serve the elite that own them. They reduce choice while increasing unjustified costs to the consumer. As long as they work "within the law" these increasingly global and increasingly bland enterprises reduce the quality of communication and considered action. Morality is given a bad name by all the false moralising, but the constant reminders that a tabloid may invade anyone who dares to rise into the public eye is a powerful reason to fear changing the status quo.

The committee seemed to want to simply ask for an admission that there was executive complicity with law breaking; crime by an individual is the assertion given in the defence of corporate malfeasance, but you only need look at the product of the organisation to realise our emotional responses are what they have become so expert at producing, because there is no other real value in exposing celebrity underwear than inducting a path for the lowest common values we all fear.

When you balance the thousands and thousands of unknown individual affected by privacy intrusion, it is a corporate liability of billions that Murdoch has confirmed is still to be settled. It happened as a result of the organisation's goals and activity. It is not a culture of corruption, that is still a euphemism. It is policy and it must start at the very top as the entire organisation is in the business of emotional manipulation, also known as entertainment.

Pandering to the lowest common denominator is the market. The "bell shaped curve" justifies the policy of producing media that anyone can digest and be drafted into prejudice. It is true that on occasion the product of the lurid investigations conducted explore areas too taboo for the mainstream, breakthroughs in reactionary media tend to be exposure of political corruption by embarrassment or of "criminal masterminds" and pedophiles - using the profane not just for its shock value but its induction of the herding instinct.

The basis of such attacks is to threaten hunger and isolation. It is not seen as a criminal activity due to the inherent popularity of its voices. But when that popularity is the product of what is in essence a pornographic portrayal of celebrity, or mud raking, it is inherent in the structure of the organisation.

See Guardian article

And listen to what Jon Stewart has to say. The Murdoch empire has more impact on US politics with its Murdoch owned Fox News outlet that makes News of the World look less committed to its cause. Freedom of speech is a wonderful thing, but freedom to distort is not.