How News International worked towards its own downfall

[CHIMO]

Let's just assume, for the sake of argument, that Rupert Murdoch, James Murdoch and Rebekah Brooks really were being as honest and forthcoming as they could be, under the circumstances, during Tuesday's select committee hearing. The only conclusion one can draw under this admittedly controversial settlement is that all three of them are careless, stupid and vainglorious. Actually, I find this contention surprisingly persuasive. It's a good way of explaining how none of the trio spotted the inadequacies of the other two.

True, it has long been rumoured that Rupert doubted the capabilities of James. But how much? Rupert placed his son in charge of a journalistic territory that, even before the phone-hacking scandal broke, was well known to be one of the most "unruly" in the world. He also nurtured and promoted Brooks, eventually placing her by the side of a son he considered vulnerable. The appointments, it is safe to say, have not worked out tremendously well.

What made Rupert so certain of Brooks's great talent and flair, when it remains imperceptible to everyone else? Not, surely, her love of news-papers, a love that Rupert is supposed to share yet quite quickly resulted in the summary execution of a long-established title, and left three others wounded. If one is to accept Brooks's own narrative, then she does not have a journalistic bone in her entire body. Good journalists are curious about the world. They are curious, especially, about journalism. Yet this woman claims to have edited a couple of national newspapers without ever considering how her team might have been getting the stories she was splashing with such enthusiasm.

How did Brooks impress Rupert, then? The only possible conclusion is that Brooks was "working towards the Führer". The phrase is borrowed from the historian Ian Kershaw, who coined it to explain how Hitler motivated others to formulate policies without considering anything at all except how they would play with him. (This is not, by the way, an invitation to extend a metaphor and compare Murdoch to Hitler. "Working towards the Führer" is just the most apposite way of describing a culture that places competitive second-guessing at its core, thereby risking a race to the bottom.)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/jul/20/deborah-orr-murdoch-downfall

[rpannier]

1. For me, the best part of the article

If either was the case, then it was because of the strenuous efforts of all concerned, especially themselves, to keep it that way. Rupert admitted as much when he suggested that the people he had trusted had been let down by the people they had trusted. It's an interesting viewpoint, in which the more lowly you are, the greater a moral responsibility you bear. It is, quite plainly in the particular case of News Corp, a fatal inversion.