By Lance Selfa*
Credit: Monika Flueckiger – Socialist Worker
When one of the most arrogant men in the world is forced to issue a full-page apology in national newspapers, you know that he feels he has little other choice. That must have been the calculation in the inner sanctum of News Corporation when billionaire media mogul Rupert Murdoch signed off on a full-page ad in several of his (and his competitors’) British newspapers.
The ad, presented as a personal letter from Murdoch himself, led with “We are sorry…” It proceeded to apologize for the “serious wrongdoing” of his News of the World, whose reporters hacked e-mails and phone messages of ordinary people in search of tabloid scoops.
Murdoch even made a personal apology to the family of one of Milly Dowler, a British teenager murdered in 2002. News of the World hacked into her phone to listen to messages, and even deleted some, giving the family false hope that the girl was still alive. Perhaps Murdoch’s lawyers figured a personal apology couldn’t hurt, especially if the Dowler family is considering a lawsuit.
HUMAN WRONGS WATCH 