Ethics continuing education might have been useful in preventing Rupert Murdoch’s latest and greatest problem with money and the law. 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. Highly profitable, it is this company that has become his own personal Sword of Damocles now.
And so how does all that relate to the topic of ethics continuing education? Only that the entire sordid episode would never have existed had someone with a sense of ethics been at the helm. In the begining, it was just an unfortuantely all-too-ordinary case of a girl gone missing. As interest in her case grew, the tabloid sought to distinguish itself in the media scrum by gaining special insight into the circumstances surrounding her disappearance. 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! This created the impression to investigators that the girl was still alive, checking in and deleting old messages. Unfortunately, the girl had been long dead, and even more unfortunately for the News of the World, their hacking was soon found out.
Not even the royals and their prime minister were immune from Murdoch’s prying henchmen (and women)!
As a response, Murdoch simply shut down the century-old paper, only to have further calls for further inquiries. Murdoch has also had a ten-billion dollar business deal fall through on account of the scandal – a costly lesson in business ethics!
