Prof. Kovarik

Breathtaking. The sheer mad genius of the thing.

Journalists bribing security guards.  Tapping cell  phones. Hacking computers. Spying on emails.

And not just once in a while, like the Cincinnati newspaper’s  Chiquita banana episode in 1997, or the Chicago Mirage Bar sting of 1974.

But permanently, as part of an ongoing operation, with an A-list of  targets including British prime ministers, rock stars, crime victims, even the royal family. Like Watergate in reverse gear.

The unprecedented, unmitigated  gall of News Corp. and its cheesy tabloid:  To run a private spy agency and dress it up as a newsroom.

In February, 2012, investigators announced that it wasn’t just the News of the World, but also the Times of London.   Five journalists from Murdoch’s Sun were also arrested.  And what has now become known as the “Leveson Inquiry”  just keeps getting better.

These hacking operations also took place in the US. In fact, they were standard operating procedure for News Corp.  Former staffers of News Corp. papers say they were insulated from direct lawbreaking when News Corp. routinely employed private investigators.

Dan Cooper, formerly of Fox television, told the Nation magazine:

Deep in the bowels of 1211 Avenue of the Americas, News Corporation’s New York headquarters, was … the Brain Room. Most people thought it was simply the research department of Fox News. But unlike virtually everybody else, because I had to design and build the Brain Room, I knew it also housed a counterintelligence and black ops office. So accessing phone records was easy pie.

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The pundits split along predictably political lines when Fox News announced in April 2011 that the Glenn Beck sh0w would be ending. 

“This has caused great joy among some uber-liberals who object to free speech,” said Bill O’Reilly.  Of course he had to leave, said John Stewart.  “Thirty percent of his viewers have abandoned him, his audience’s median age is now dead of natural causes.”

Beck has been called a lot of things in his two-year run on national television, but he is most often compared to Father Charles Coughlin, a Catholic priest whose syndicated radio program reached 16 million listeners weekly at the height of his popularity in the 1930s.

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Questions about the impact of vitriolic political debate, including incitement to violence, are often found in media history.  Possibly the most infamous episode was William Randolph Hearst’s call for the assassination of President William McKinley in 1900. 

Historical perspective helps us understand the reaction to the  Jan. 8, 2011  attack on Arizona Congresswoman  Gabrielle Giffords, in which six people were killed and a dozen others, including the Congresswoman, were seriously injured.

Strong rhetoric during political campaigns, including calls for  “second amendment (gun rights) remedies,” along with graphics depicted Giffords district an a “target” of the “tea party,” were seen as inciting the perpetrator.

For example,  Fox News’ Glen Beck said this on June 9, 2010:

(American Democrats) believe in communism. They believe and have called for a revolution. You’re going to have to shoot them in the head. But warning, they may shoot you. They are dangerous because they believe. Karl Marx is their George Washington. You will never change their mind. And if they feel you have lied to them — they’re revolutionaries. Nancy Pelosi, those are the people you should be worried about. Continue reading →