Stealing Data To Make The News
Rupert Murdoch‘s credible and upstanding News Corporation (proud owner of such trustworthy outlets as Fox News) seems to have a penchant for “digging deep” to get scandalously-entertaining information:
According to one source with direct knowledge of the Scotland Yard evidence, News of the World journalists were systematically using private investigators who would break the law to obtain information, hacking into thousands of mobile phones and supplying raw material which was then converted into stories that made no reference to their real source.
- Trail of hacking and deceit under nose of Tory PR chief
by Nick Davies for guardian.co.uk
Stealing confidential information for news stories is illegal – basing news stories on entirely confabulated information, on the other hand, is not.
Update 7/11/2009:
Now the shit has hit the fan as more disclosures have surfaced and the English press is full of it. Barely a peep over here. Single column on page 12 of the New York Times. Nothing in the Dirty Diggers papers. And what makes you think the media over here is just one giant collection of scumbags, whether they be right wing or centrist (there’s no left winger papers here.) Thank God for the fucking internet.
- Wizened of oz dodges bullet in US
at AdScam/The Horror!
Thank God, indeed.
A few notable ‘net mentions here in the USA:
- Murdoch press, cellphone hacking, private investigators, celebrities, hoo boy at Wired.com (a property of Condé Nast Publications)
- Tabloid Accused of Hacking Into Private Voicemails of Rich and Famous at ABC News (a property of The Walt Disney Company)