WSJ attacks News Corp critics

[OKIsItJustMe]

Source: Bangcock Post

WSJ attacks News Corp critics

Published: 18/07/2011 at 11:32 PM

The News Corp.-owned Wall Street Journal blasted critics Monday for double standards and insisted that the phone-tapping scandal in Britain should not tarnish all of Rupert Murdoch's media empire.

The powerful Journal, the flagship of Murdoch's US print operations, also warned that pressure to investigate News Corp. under US laws against bribing foreign officials could backfire on the entire media.

"Do our media brethren really want to invite Congress and prosecutors to regulate how journalists gather the news?" the country's leading financial newspaper asked in an editorial.

…

The editorial pushed blame for the scandal, which has seen numerous arrests and the resignations of two top London police officials, onto British police, British politicians who curried media favor, and British media in general for "decades" of "buying scoops and digging up dirt on the famous."

…

Read more: http://www.bangkokpost.com/breakingnews/247644/wall-street-journal-attacks-news-corp-critics

[ck4829]

1. Short version: "Whatever you do, do not investigate Wall Street Journal! Nothing to see here!"

[OKIsItJustMe]

17. Longer version: “Don’t blame us for committing crimes. Blame the people who let us!”

“The abuses of the freedom of the press here have been carried to a length never before known or borne by any civilized nation”

—Thomas Jefferson
to M. Pictet. iv, 463. (W., 1803.)

[kestrel91316]

2. "...News Corp.-owned Wall Street Journal..."

"...the flagship of Murdoch's US print operations..."

[bulloney]

15. Beat me to it! It would be like Exxon officials attacking critics of Mobil.

[Downwinder]

3. How far the grand have fallen. This is the story.

[Journeyman]

4. No. I don't want Congress to regulate how journalists gather the news. . .

but I do want the duly constituted authorities to vigorously prosecute illegal wiretapping, unauthorized computer hacking, and bribery of elected officials (among a host of other laws intended to protect the privacy and legal activities of the nation's citizens).

[JDPriestly]

23. Yes. As usual, Fox/WSJ are confusing the issues.

Apples and oranges are both round, so they have to be the same thing, right?

[wtmusic]

5. Ah, the J. Edgar Hoover approach to justice.

"We've got dirt on you too, so don't fuck with us."

Time to take News Corp. down.

[Downwinder]

6. The Guardian's dissection.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/richard-adams-blog/2011/jul/18/wall-street-journal-hacking-editorial?INTCMP=SRCH

[Kolesar]

13. where believing as many as six impossible things before breakfast is standard operating procedure

It's a great read :thumbsup:

[reformist2]

7. They're feeling the heat! LOL

[Moostache]

8. Shut them down....ALL of them...if you fly the flag, you own the consequences.

News Corp is tainted, dirty and exposed.

The "everyone-else-does-it-too" defense is something that should be learned as invalid in CHILDHOOD!!!

Its time for them all to go spend some quiet time in the corner and also lose their toys...

[damntexdem]

9. What else would the Wall Street Urinal do?

"Do our media brethren really want to invite Congress and prosecutors to regulate how journalists" break the law, including the bribing (and corrupting) of foreign officials?

[C_U_L8R]

10. playing the victim and complaining too much

an unfortunate trait of conservative crooks
and very unbecoming of the (old) WSJ

[OKIsItJustMe]

11. The Journal Becomes Fox-ified

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/16/opinion/16nocera.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Op-Ed Columnist

The Journal Becomes Fox-ified

By JOE NOCERA
Published: July 15, 2011

…

It took Rupert Murdoch only three and a half years to get there, starting with the moment he acquired the paper from the dysfunctional Bancroft family in December 2007, a purchase that was completed after he vowed to protect The Journal’s editorial integrity and agreed to a (toothless) board that was supposed to make sure he kept that promise.

Fat chance of that. Within five months, Murdoch had fired the editor and installed his close friend Robert Thomson, fresh from a stint Fox-ifying The Times of London. The new publisher was Leslie Hinton, former boss of the division that published Murdoch’s British newspapers, including The News of the World. (He resigned on Friday.) Soon came the changes, swift and sure: shorter articles, less depth, an increased emphasis on politics and, weirdly, sometimes surprisingly unsophisticated coverage of business.

Along with the transformation of a great paper into a mediocre one came a change that was both more subtle and more insidious. The political articles grew more and more slanted toward the Republican party line. The Journal sometimes took to using the word “Democrat” as an adjective instead of a noun, a usage favored by the right wing. In her book, “War at The Wall Street Journal,” Sarah Ellison recounts how editors inserted the phrase “assault on business” in an article about corporate taxes under President Obama. The Journal was turned into a propaganda vehicle for its owner’s conservative views. That’s half the definition of Fox-ification.

The other half is that Murdoch’s media outlets must shill for his business interests. With the News of the World scandal, The Journal has now shown itself willing to do that, too.

…

[meegbear]

12. It could backfire on the entire media?

I'm willing to take that risk.

[The Green Manalishi]

14. "These aren't the droids you are looking for"

[99th_Monkey]

16. WSJ thinly veiled threat: "Sshhhh. If you tell on us, we'll tell on you" ~nt

[myrna minx]

18. What a joke.

:rofl:

[cstanleytech]

19. WSJ proving its clueless because the first amendment isnt a shield to commit a crime

which this might well be if they did this themselves or hired someone else to hack into someones phone messages.

[saras]

20. An ex-Fox exec says otherwise

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4924652">This DU thread links to http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/07/17/995568/-Fmr-Fox-News-Executive:-Americans-Phones-Were-Hacked?via=tag">this Daily Kos article.

[OKIsItJustMe]

21. This is actually an old story

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=4924652&mesg_id=4925027

[JDPriestly]

22. What irony! As I recall it was Fox News that was calling for Julian

Assange's head just a few months ago.

Julian Assange received reports and documents from whistleblowers mostly the wrongdoing or machinations of various governments.

News of the World actually hacked the phones of whomever whenever including people close to the royal family.

This would be funny if it were not so sad.

[goforit]

24. Fear mongering Murdoch...."Lions, tigers and bears ..oh my"

Is Murdoch above all laws??????????

[Romulox]

25. Methinks WSJ doth protest too much. WAY too much!

That editorial was cringe-worthy in its deflection and everybody's-doing-it logic.