Zach Quinn
Professor Eric Leake
Writing 1122
27 February 2012
Essay 2: Following a News Story
Rupert Murdoch developed his company, News Corporation, to make it one of the largest media corporations in the world. The economist describes him as being the inventor of the modern tabloid and the last media mogul. (Economist) Lately however, the press that Murdoch doesn’t control has not shed upon him a warm light. It appears that the modern tabloid he invented, took its work a little too far. Specifically News of the World, a British tabloid, faced allegations of hacking voicemails messages. In addition, its sister newspaper, the Sun faces current investigation of bribing public officials. Though this investigation, the Leveson Inquiry, started years ago, I will be discussing how recent news about it has spread. It will be interesting too look at how British news sources, American news sources the blogosphere and twitter interact.
This news story came to my attention via the New York Times, which I read frequently. It would be ignorant to think however that the NYT was the first and last source of this information. Quite the contrary as the Times isn’t even the main source covering this story. We must start at The Leveson Inquiry: Culture, Practice and Ethics of the Press, a website that has been developed that “aims to provide the latest information on the Inquiry, including details of hearings and evidence, to the public and interested parties.” (Leveson Inquiry) Here we find daily transcripts and video footage from the hearings themselves. This information is the primary source of this news. Perspective spins have not been placed on these sources yet and quotations are in their original context. From viewing the video we hear the Deputy Assistant Commissioner, Sue Akers say, “There also appears to have been a culture at the Sun of illegal payments and systems have been created to facilitate those payments whilst hiding the identities of officials receiving the money.” (Leveson Inquiry) This information can also be accessed in transcript form on the website. Question and answer portions are also available where we can read Sue Akers respond to counsel members. The senior counsel for the inquiry, which means the prosecutor asks, “In your own word, what has happened to that line of enquiry?” Akers responds, “We’ve identified a number of ex-senior managers who were – and indeed arrested them – for authorizing or facilitating the payments, but we haven’t yet identified the police officers.” (Leveson transcript) Her Akers is commenting on the arrests made of managers at the Sun but also says that they have yet to find out who the police officers were that received the payments.
Moving from the primary source on to other news organizations we must first consider Britain’s newspapers and media sources. The Guardian, a British Paper, reposts a part of the video from today’s hearing on its website. The video is headed with a paragraph explaining it:
Met deputy assistant commissioner Sue Akers tells the Leveson inquiry there was ‘a culture at the Sun of illegal payments'. She also tells the inquiry of emails indicating multiple payments made to individuals amounting to thousands of pounds. In addition, she confirms that a system was implemented to hide the identities of those receiving payments. (Guardian)
In this summary we begin to see some reformatting of quotations. There doesn’t seem to be an obvious bias in this paragraph, however. It is left to the viewer of the video to watch Sue Akers main point about what corruption went on at the Sun. This is only one part of the Guardian’s coverage of this story. The Guardian dedicates an entire page to the Leveson Inquiry. As we just discussed there is a latest video section. In addition there is a Live blog, a Top stories, an Interactive guide section and many others. These resources contain all of the information about the hearings, witness statements, latest news on events surrounding but not inside the inquiry, and analysis of statements made by those involved. If one wanted a complete work up of the inquiry along with analysis, the Guardian’s website would be the place to go.
Venturing away from the Guardian and onto the BBC, we also find that today’s news story about the Inquiry is on the main page. In addition, upon searching on the site, there is a question and answer part, which tells readers about the basic information surrounding the trial. One question, what is the Leveson Inquiry, is responded to with:
The inquiry is into the culture, practice and ethics of the press. Prime Minister David Cameron set up the inquiry after the News of the World admitted intercepting voicemail messages of prominent people to find stories. (BBC)
This page seems important for readers that don’t have much background information on the current news stories and want to learn more. The BBC also links to another page, Democracy Live, which seems to be an affiliate news organization. It contains videos of statements made by those involved such as key witnesses. Moving on to the BBC’s main news on the hearing on the 27th, we find an article formed much more like a secondary source rather than links and videos of primary sources. The left-hand column of the article is a rephrasing of Sue Akers testimony while the right-hand side is an analysis by BBC news journalist Peter Hunt. Hunt writes, “Only yesterday, Rupert Murdoch launched his latest product, the Sun on Sunday. Now his company is digesting the sobering testimony about alleged illegal activity at his cherished tabloid.” (BBC) This analysis is essential as we are getting into opinionated versions of the news.
It is important now to cross the Atlantic in analyzing this news story. Inside the U.S. the Huffington Post is viewed as a liberal news organization. Regardless, it’s a recognized source for news and in publishing a story about the UK should have no bias. As well, interestingly enough, the Huffington Post has a separate United Kingdom Edition. On the U.S. version, the article on the hearings is titled, “Leveson Inquiry: 'Culture Of Illegal Payments' At The Sun; Rebekah Brooks Tipped Off About Extent Of Hacking Probe.” (Huff Post) The UK version on the other hand has a similar article titled, “Leveson Inquiry: Sue Akers Reveals £80k Payments Were Part Of 'Culture Of Illegal Payments' At The Sun.” (HuffPostUK) The difference in titles is interesting, considering that their contents are much the same. It is also important to note that the Associated Press wrote the U.S. article while an author, Dina Rickman, wrote the UK article. The Huffington Post does an interesting thing in providing a timeline at the bottom of the article that catalogues the major events in the Inquiry. This provides an easy way of getting into the background information and other past events having to do with the current article.
Back to where I started with this news story we must look at the New York Times. The article, posted on the homepage of the Times, is titled, “Inquiry Leader Says Murdoch Papers Paid Off British Officials.” (NYT) Up until this point, Rupert Murdoch’s name hardly came up, especially in a title. Most of the British newspapers focused on Murdoch’s companies and used names of those involved in the inquiry. It is interesting to note that the perspective provided by the Times is the first one to target Murdoch himself. In looking at the paper that provides what generally is the opposite perspective of the NYT, we turn to the Wall Street Journal. Without a subscription, I cannot access more than the first two paragraphs. However, we can see the obvious differences even in just the title. The WSJ’s article is titled, “Sun accused of Culture of Illegal Payments.” (WSJ) The article goes on to say, “The U.K. police official leading criminal probes into alleged wrongdoing at News Corp.'s U.K. newspaper operations said that the company's tabloid, the Sun, had a "culture…of illegal payments" by journalists to a wide array of public officials.” (WSJ) This perspective has left out Murdoch’s involvement completely and took on a tone using words like ‘alleged.’
Out of curiosity I wanted to know how Murdoch run news organizations reported on their affiliates. Upon searching Fox News’s website, the latest article having to do with the story was written on the 26th. It is titled Rupert Murdoch Oversees First Edition Of 'Sun On Sunday' –BBC. This article only contains information on Murdoch’s launch of his new tabloid. Even upon looking at the Economist, I found it to contain no new article on the story. The only article they had was from the 25th and contained only the information of the Fox News article. CNN had also not touched on this new story.
As we approach what for now has been the life of this story, we must take a look at what is feeding on twitter. British actress Susan Penhaligon and actor Daniel Brocklebank both commented on the inquiry. This is where we begin to get opinionated comments on the story. Penhaligon writes, “They went too far, those tabloid Sun writers, too far. It says much for British morality that we say, enough is enough #levesoninquiry.” Jim Old, a field producer for Sky News, which is also owned by Murdoch, spent the day commenting on the hearings. His tweets included things like “Lord Prescott's evidence is drawing to a close. The shorthand writer looks like she needs a drink. #LevesonInquiry.” Other less reputable tweeters wrote tweets such as, “Time to close Murdoch's empire totally, and replace the corrupt met #levesoninquiry.” Such perspectives and comments are interesting to see on a news story.
From starting at primary sources such as videos from the hearing and transcripts of statements, this news story morphed itself greatly. Media sources such as the BBC and the Guardian provided background information and other valuable links. The Huffington Post, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal all placed their perspectives on the story. Those owned by Murdoch’s parent company, News Corp, have largely avoided this story thus far and will probably continue to. Lastly, important as well as non-influential people have their ways of getting their own opinions out there. Twitter provides the route for those to express their perspectives, biased or unbiased. News stories today do not go from source to journalist and then straight to the reader. The life of this story exemplified Jeff Jarvis’s Press Sphere perfectly. Readers were writers and sources as well as perspectives came from many different places.
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