”Our motto is truth; our practice is the fearless advocacy of the truth.” That was the opening statement 168 years before the last issue of News of the World, formerly one of Britain’s largest newspapers, in July 2011. The paper, which was mainly tabloid based, had a scandal of its own. It was discovered that staff members at News of the World were hacking phones of more than 4,000 people including politicians, celebrities, actors, athletes, and more. As a company who projects their findings to the world with every issue, it is ethically and morally wrong to purposely and illegally invade ones private space. A company that vows to tell the truth sent a private investigator to hack into the answering machine of a missing school-girl and deleting messages, giving false hope to friends and family of the girls who then believed she was still alive, which she was not.
The employees knew that they were pushing ethical limits but continued with the hacking, which makes one question what morals News of the World promoted within their office. Is the quest for truth really worth the exploitation and corruption of a business?