The United States has far too many pressing issues, and is far too important a country, and too special a place, for the likes of people who would seek to manipulate the public and foster malice and ill will. No media outlet has gone quite as far to create a misguided patriotism that masks darker, un-American sentiments. In light of the controversies in the U.K., where employees of the Fox have shown a complete disrespect for honest dealing and privacy, we can only wonder how low people are willing to go, and whether those faulty choices extend far and wide.
The fallout threatened to spread to the United States, homebase of Murdoch's News Corp media empire which owns a clutch of prominent U.S. media properties including The Wall Street Journal, the New York Post and Fox Broadcasting.
U.S. Senator John Rockefeller, chairman of the committee on commerce, science and transportation, called for an investigation to determine if News Corp had broken any U.S. laws.
Rockefeller said he was concerned that the phone hacking acknowledged in London by News Corp "may have extended to 9/11 victims or other Americans," in which case he said "the consequences will be(Reuters)
severe."
None of this is entirely a surprise. British papers have long had a freewheeling nature, and Rupert's properties here in the States have shown an ability to be quite crass and unreliable themselves. One thinks of Fox News, which started out with a noble idea--that of being fair and balanced and offering a conservative perspective on issues that the other press outlets often pretended didn't exist. But Fox took the ball and ran, eventually deciding to be a dishonest political player rather than an honest broker of news and multiple perspectives.
Let us hope that this is the day the old fox has met his hound, and receives his comeuppance.
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