Rupert Murdoch, CEO of News Corporation, makes the valid point that he is not directly responsible for the specific actions taken by trusted top executives in his vast empire, consisting of over 50,000 employees and scores of newspapers and including Fox News.
But where he is directly culpable, especially considering that he has headed his company for over half a century, is the business ethics of those leaders.
The moral tenor of a company reflects the values of its boss. In the case of the Murdoch empire, the goal has always been to find a public and pander to its prejudices. American examples of this are the New York Post, Fox News channel and, sadly, more recently the decline of news coverage of the recently acquired Wall Street Journal.
Murdoch knowingly and willingly gave the now closed The News of the World free reign to compete in its highly competitive, sleaze industry. His message has been the only value that counts is making money. This attitude cannot but permeate his entire empire.
What happened to News Corporation in a big way is little different from what occurred here in Lancaster during the run up to the Convention Center project. Fortunately the Lancaster Newspapers have returned to their traditional values. Unfortunately the damage has been done to the community in the way of missed other opportunities, lost real estate tax revenue, un-reimbursed municipal services, discouragement of tourist trade due to the hotel room sales tax, and, for all we know, the worse is yet to come resulting from county and city bond guarantees respectively of the convention center and the Marriott Hotel.
