Ethics continuing education seems all the more necessary in today’s world, what with the continuing saga of the Rupert Murdoch/News of the World tabloid scandal. One of the most monied of patriarchs worldwide, Murdoch makes billions from a diverse portfolio of properties and investments, one of which is the legendary News of the World tabloid. A long-time money-maker for him, this property has now become his greatest challenge yet, both personally as well as professionally.
But why does that relate at all to ethics continuing education? Only that the entire sordid episode would never have existed had someone with a sense of ethics been at the helm. It all started with a missing girl. What with all the demand for the latest information on the case, The News of the World resorted to drastic measures to out-snoop its competition. This was the motivation behind all the illegal phone-hacking.
That was already against the law, but what makes this matter one involving ethics continuing education is that the newspaper went on to erase the messages left once the voicemail account filled up in order to listen in on new ones! And so everyone else was lead to believe that the girl was checking into her voicemail periodically – and thus still alive. She had been deceased all along, however, but it took much more time to determine the fact than would have been necessary.
Fast-forward to the present, where in the ensuing investigations it’s since come out that the News of the World had also hacked into the voicemail accounts of former Prime Minister Gordon Brown and even Queen Elizabeth II herself!
And now the paper’s been shut down by Murdoch in an apparent effort to appease an outraged public and even more outraged lawmakers, who have compelled him to testify before Parliament. Murdoch has also had a ten-billion dollar business deal fall through on account of the scandal – a costly lesson in business ethics!