According to the news, James Murdoch has decided to resign from his post as the head of News International. About time! But :-
- Why was he allowed to resign rather than being fired ?
- Why is he being allowed to take up a cushy number with News Corp ? It hardly seems much of a punishment for him to resign from a job in an industry he dislikes only to take another job in an industry that he likes in what is effectively the same corporate empire.
- Why didn’t he go ages ago ?
- And when is Rupert Murdoch going ?
The two Murdochs (and their countless minions at News International) were the people in charge of a corporate empire that allowed one part of it to break the law not just occasionally but routinely for stories that were not in the public interest (in the sense of stories that the public should know rather than just what they want to know). Whether or not they knew what was happening, they set the tone for a corporation that apparently valued results over ethical behaviour.
They are responsible for allowing such a corporate culture to grow unchallenged for at least a decade.
Did they know what was going on ? Perhaps not – particularly in the case of Rupert Murdoch, but they should have known. And in the case of James Murdoch, it seems probable that if he did not know what was going on, he intentionally avoided knowing.
Both should go.