Here’s a quick lesson in journalism: don’t play dirty. Otherwise, you might wind up pissing off your major sponsors who then end up pulling their ads from your publication. That’s just what happened to British tabloid News of the World, which were found to be guilty of hacking into the voice mail of Milly Dowler, a teenage girl who disappeared in 2002 and was later found to be murdered, according to The Detroit Bureau. Aside from that, they’ve also been accused to hacking into the voice mails of British celebrities and members of the British government.
As a result, General Motors (who advertised Vauxhall), Ford, Renault and Mitsubishi — along with several other European corporations — all pulled their ads from the tabloid. Consequently, 200 people are now out of work.
We should also point out that the owner of News of the World is none other than Rupert Murdoch and his News Corporation (which also runs major American news outlets including The Wall Street Journal and Fox News). In an official statement, Murdoch declared the findings “deplorable and unacceptable” — but then again so was his company’s tax evasion scandal back in 1999, which was revealed by The Economist.
Source: The Detroit Bureau
Comment
One thing i’ve always disliked about tabloids were their elaboration of truths, or flat out fibbing. I’ve always thought they were useless information that one skims through while waiting in line at the groceries. That is until they revealed John Edward’s dirty little secret. No matter, one less sensational tabloid is nothing to cry over