Green, Ethical & Warm Moneysaving .... Without News International

zeupater

Hi All

Well, for quite a while we haven't been purchasing daily newspapers, partially due to being a little green, partially as a moneysaving measure, but mostly because there is not much worth reading in most daily papers anyway and I don't agree with paying just to read adverts. The regular Sunday broadsheet provokes the occasional thought process and provides almost a week of some form of entertainment for the 'grey-matter', then becomes far more useful as a means to light our log burner.

Well, that sums up the green & moneysaving, what about the ethical issue ?, so here goes ..... in light of recent revelations would there be a general consensus that it would be unethical for anyone to purchase a copy of the NOTW until the current issues have been addressed to the satisfaction of the population at large. Would it also be considered as being ethical to shun one publication, but still support the parent organisation through purchasing other publications whilst the situation continues ?

I'm placing a blanket ban on all publications from the entire publishing stable as of this Sunday, this being my 'ethical' stake in the ground. I reckon that paper sourced by other publishers would burn just as well, so it's no real loss as I'll still have more than enough to read and will still be warm ...... do others have a similar ethical viewpoint on the issue ?

Z

celerity

I think newspapers are living on borrowed time. When I occasionally commute to London I'm more likely to see the typical business person reading their phone, kindle or iPad nowadays.
Personally I haven't bought a paper in ten years - we actually have to ask my mother to save old papers so we can use them in the chicken litter tray .

/\dam

Cardew

I detest the tabloid press; the phone hacking is just the tip of the iceberg.

Is there a 'Public Interest' in revealing which footballer is bonking which wannabe Page 3 'model'?

I really hope that the landlord of the poor girl who was murdered in Bristol wins all his cases against the newspapers. Their treatment of him was appalling.

zeupater

Hi

Well, surprise surprise .... suddenly evidence of wrongdoing has been discovered .... looks like the old 'smoke & mirrors' defence to me .... hold a more damning story involving other bodies up your sleeve just incase the finger starts to point in your own direction.

Regarding a senior executive running the investigation into a subsidiary which they were personally involved in, that looks a little odd too (notice the toning down to 'odd'), surely this issue is now of such a high profile and involves executives at such a senior level that any internal investigation of News International should be conducted and controlled by a senior News Corporation executive, possibly the Chief Compliance and Ethics Officer (http://www.newscorp.com/management/newscor.html) as that's exacly what the issue is, compliance & ethics.

Looks like my ethical withdrawal of monetary support for the publishing group will fall into financial insignificance compared to the list of advertisers who have already withdrawn, or are considering withdrawing, their contracts .... but every little helps !!

Z

Ben84

I don't actually buy any of their publications, but if I did I wouldn't be buying them any more.

Tabloids in general satisfy some of the darker parts of life anyway. Voyeurism, gossip and meanness which they sell as entertainment, often with a lot of direct damage and collateral damage to many others on the way.

MikeyMacbeth

I'd little or no intention of buying News Intnl. products before all this blew up, now I've got even less so...

One downside to this may be if any knee-jerk legislation is passed as a result of this scandal that restricts press freedom to investigate matters that really are in the public interest (i.e. abuses of power, criminal activities etc) as opposed to voyeuristic gossip mongering such as which "celeb" is having it off with another zero-personality oik...

Unfortunately I think that part of the problem is that if there wasn't a market for selling such tattle to the public, then of course there'd be no temptation to resort to such low-life behaviour as we have seen from NOtW and their agents...

There seems to be something wrong with the press and media in this country in that very little of it is independantly owned and independant of economic and political direction, as referenced by this career advice by George Monbiot (a Guardian environmental correspondant) for anyone aspiring to a job in journalism, indeed it strikes me there's quite a lot wrong with our society anyway at present... whether the press/media is the chicken or the egg I shall leave as an exercise for the student ...