This may well be the biggest scandal in British journalism and politics. That is saying a lot in a country that is no stranger to scandal. News of the World, the largest tabloid newspaper by circulation in Britain and one of the largest in the English-speaking world, will be printed for the last time on July 10.
Although the closing comes on the heels of accusations that the paper hacked into the phone of 13-year-old murder victim Milly Dowler in 2002, owner Rupert Murdoch is not closing the 168-year-old paper for ethical reasons. He is amputating the newspaper from his News Corp, a conglomerate of publishing, television and entertainment media, to save his other assets.
This is not an emotional decision but a business decision that is fully in line with Murdoch's character. If someone were to make a modern-day Citizen Kane, Orson Welles's 1941 classic based on U.S. newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, it would be based on the life of Murdoch, the naturalized American media king from Australia.
Murdoch had no choice but to axe News of the World, which has been accused of hacking phones and voicemail accounts, bribing the British police, and having ties with criminals. Furthermore, the newspaper's clients, from Ford and Renault to smaller companies, have pulled their ads from the newspaper, thereby reducing its revenue. Even tabloids, which have a larger circulation than quality papers, cannot live on their readers' interest alone.
A different kind of journalism
The British cabinet and parliament have called for a public inquiry into the Sunday newspaper's illegal actions. News of the World is not the oldest or the most serious and respected newspaper in Murdoch's empire. It is more like cheap beer compared to The Times vintage wine.
News of the World was a big success only because its editors - and Murdoch - knew that on Sunday people want to read about "who's bedded who." It published serious news as a side dish to the sensational main course. But this is what tabloids are for - an unavoidable evil of modern journalism that earns money for other, more serious publications.
To better understand the scandal, one should remember that British tabloids stand apart from the rest of English-language journalism. They differ even from their U.S. and Canadian cousins in that they publish not only social gossip and comics but any juicy news, including political and international stories, in a simple, crude and sometimes vulgar manner. But the average Brit likes it.
It is tabloids and not the highbrow press like The Times, Daily Telegraph, The Financial Times or The Guardian that mold public opinion. This is a different kind of journalism, tailored to the tastes of the people. It is scathing and almost always shoots to kill.
More than phone hacking
The outcome of the inquiry into the newspaper's dealings is not what's most important. Mistakes will be corrected and someone will be put behind bars. Journalists can be forced to mend their ways, like phone hacking and bribes - there are laws and other means to see to it. The disease of corruption and bribery in the British police can also be cured with laws and prison terms.
But why have those laws not led to justice since 2002? Why did no one pay any attention to the charges leveled by the respected newspaper, The Guardian, two years ago?
Something must be seriously wrong with the system. The disease is shameful and will take a long time to cure, yet some treatment must be suggested. During debates in the House of Commons, News of the World and Murdoch were accused of every sin imaginable. "From everything said, News International is in breach of all the 10 Commandments, Magna Carta, the Bill of Rights, the Broadcasting Code and very possibly Newton's Laws of Motion," The Independent wrote on July 7.
Unfortunately, the accusations were made in a parliament whose deputies - though not all of them - accept services and gifts from lobbies, including Murdoch. Relatives of the British establishment have worked or are currently working for the media king's newspapers, radio stations, TV channels, Internet companies, publishing houses and movie studios.
Fate of the empire
There has always been an unholy union between politics and the press. But there comes a day when you say enough is enough.
Conservatives have always been closest to Murdoch's empire, and Murdoch himself has never made a secret of his conservative views.
The atmosphere at 10 Downing Street is said to be high-strung, because it was David Cameron who appointed Andy Coulson, former editor-in-chief of News of the World, his press spokesman after last year's general election. Coulson was forced to resign in January over growing allegations that he authorized phone hacking and bribed the police, and today he was arrested.
It was not only Tories who sought Murdoch's friendship, or rather his money and his influence. He was also befriended by Labor PMs Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, whose administrations included people from Murdoch's newspapers and companies. For example, the daughter of the News of the World's editor-in-chief worked in Foreign Office under Ed Milliband. Murdoch infiltrated the establishment with his "agents" and in turn hired away some of its staff.
He controls 40% of the British press and owns a staggering number of newspapers, magazines and TV stations in Australia, as well as The Wall Street Journal, the ultra-conservative U.S. TV channel Fox News and the film studio 20th Century Fox.
Murdoch owned or owns large stakes in newspapers and TV channels in Asia, the United States, Europe and Africa, including the private Georgian channel Imedi TV, the Russian business newspaper Vedomosti and Latvian TV channels.
It is said in Britain that News of the World will rise from ashes when the scandal dies as a new supplement to the daily tabloid Sun, one of the most popular newspapers in Britain and an asset of News Corp.
Rupert Murdoch's empire will not collapse. It will ride out the current crisis, because with enough money you can do anything.
The views expressed in this article are the author's and may not necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti.
