Keller @ Large: News Of The World Scandal Casts American Journalism In Favorable Light
BOSTON (CBS) - Rupert Murdoch built an international media empire off tabloid reporting but is now facing the backlash after some of his reporters went too far.
What does this mean for American journalism? We look pretty good by comparison.
Whatever the warts of the news-gathering process in the United States, we don't illegally hack into the voice mails of murder victims and families of dead soldiers, the way some of Murdoch's troops are accused of doing.
All of a sudden, the master of tabloid-style journalism is himself a press target, mocked in the streets of London, and denounced in parliament.
WBZ's Jon Keller is at large:
Pulitzer Prize winner Tom Fiedler, the Dean of BU's College of Communication, sees Murdoch's troubles just beginning, and likely headed to the U.S. now that members of Congress and 9/11 victims' families are demanding to know if we were hacked illegally, too.
But, he said the scandal also casts American journalism in a favorable light.
"To be a journalist in in Great Britain in many cases is to truly be close to being a scoundrel," said Fiedler.
A century ago we, too, were known for our yellow journalism, and ethical scandals still pop up.
But, Fiedler said our media's reliance on ads over newsstand sales and our self-policing journalism culture make a difference.
"The kind of behavior that has apparently been rather widely indulged in in Great Britain is behavior that would not only be roundly condemned here, but be unthinkable here," said Fiedler.
On Wednesday, Murdoch bailed out of a major business deal that ran afoul of the uproar in Britain, and Fiedler said they've got to be worried about fallout here in the newsrooms of some of his U.S. properties, including Fox News and the New York Post.
