Ethics continuing education seems all the more necessary in today’s world, what with the continuing saga of the Rupert Murdoch/News of the World tabloid scandal. Yes, he’s one of the wealthiest folks anywhere, with multiple companies that earn him a grand living many lifetimes over, like the daily News of the World. It is this heretofore highly profitable property that has now become his Achilles Heel.

But why does that relate at all to ethics continuing education? Oh, just that simple kindergarten variety fair play would have avoided all the nonsense to begin with. In the begining, it was just an unfortuantely all-too-ordinary case of a girl gone missing. As interest in her case grew, the tabloid sought to distinguish itself in the media scrum by gaining special insight into the circumstances surrounding her disappearance. This was the motivation behind all the illegal phone-hacking.

Right there that was wrong – but what truly makes this matter so important as an argument for ethics continuing education is that the newspaper went on to erase the messages left once the voicemail account filled up in order to listen in on new ones! And so everyone else was lead to believe that the girl was checking into her voicemail periodically – and thus still alive. Police resources had been squandered on a false lead, in effect.

Fast-forward to the present, where in the ensuing investigations it’s since come out that the News of the World had also hacked into the voicemail accounts of former Prime Minister Gordon Brown and even Queen Elizabeth II herself!

And now the paper’s been shut down by Murdoch in an apparent effort to appease an outraged public and even more outraged lawmakers, who have compelled him to testify before Parliament. Moreover, the tycoon has had the Sky Network acquisition fall through on account of intense concern over his control of the media!