A Crocodile Dundee Moment

Edit: For some odd reason, this post gets more regular hits than any other.  I'm wondering why.  It occurred to me that some people might think this is a post about knives.  It's not.  They might think it's about Paul Hogan.  Or the Crocodile Dundee films.  It's not.  But thank you for coming to my blog.  Stay a while and read.



News International have been hacked.

Some might say that it was only a matter of time, and possibly timing, because Lulzsec hacked The Sun website. It's a "That's not a knife..." moment. According to claims made by Lulz, who were reported to have disbanded, they not only replaced the website's main page and later diverted it to their twitter feed, they also have emails. Lots of emails. Which they may choose to release.

News International are in so much of a mess right now - what with the arrest, the possibilities that James and Rupert might be asked to step away from the corporation, the possible FBI investigation in the USA and perhaps whispers of one in Australia too- that this hack might well be their smallest concern right now.

On the other hand, they have rather poked the internet with a stick.

In the US, Fox has apparently been playing up the angle that one little incident of less than moral journalists listening to voicemail is not as bad as, say, the cyber record of China. True, that. On the other hand, the PRC is doing what every other nation state is doing: conducting espionage operations against powers and states who threaten their interests. It's only scary because we don't understand it. So let's have a little perspective.

If people from outside the USA hack the Pentagon and steal information, it's almost exactly the same as if they had turned a member of the defense department and got that person to steal and sell secrets. The scary part of it is that they used technology and didn't need to get anywhere near the Pentagon. Of course, the CIA and the NSA have been conducting operations against enemies of the USA. It's a safe bet that these operations have always been going on, and we never get to hear about them. It's National Security, and even if you believe fervently that no one should be doing this sort of thing at all, you can understand why they don't tell you it's going on.

The good news is that the cyberspies of China, or North Korea, or Iran, don't give a tinker's cuss about you. You, as an individual, are not interesting to them. They do not need to go grubbing about in your email for salacious details of your private life.

News International, on the other hand, might. All that needs to happen for News International to invade your privacy is for you to be involved in a 'news' story. Even peripherally. What sort of stories? Let's compare front pages.

The Sun

The Guardian

I could have linked to The Telegraph or The Independent and you'd have seen different approaches to much the same story. The thing is, while News International might have fancied a rummage around in your hard drive or your voicemail, the broadsheet papers aren't interested in you either.

The larger story remains, and will likely get lost in the kerfuffle.

The Murdoch papers and media empire have set themselves up as Kingmakers. All of a sudden, we are aware that politicians owe this company favours...not minor politicians, the actual Prime Minister of the UK is effectively in the Murdoch pocket. The price for delivering assistance in securing an election victory was a Downing Street blessing over News International owning BSkyb and increasing pressure on the BBC.

It seems strange that one can talk about an organisation that is effectively a state broadcaster, set up by Royal Commission, as being a bastion of freedom of speech. But in the last decade, as the power of News International grew, that's what the BBC effectively came to represent.

Having lived in the USA and spent some time around Fox News broadcasts (and the assorted Talk Radio broadcasters), I came to value the surprisingly even handed approach of the BBC. Yes, it leans to the left. It leans to the left like a learner biker on his first attempt at a roundabout. Which is to say "not very hard". But, and this is important, you know it's there. The BBC has often been critical of whichever government is in power, because it's had the access to ask questions of those in Downing Street. Obviously, no sitting government likes that and both Labour and the Conservatives have taken issue with things the Beeb has said.

They've been able to because there are ways to take the BBC to task. But up until very recently, there was no effective way to do the same to News International.

There may not be. It depends what the outcome of all this turns out to be. But it's important we not take our eyes off this story, because it's about one organisation's attempts to own significant parts of the English speaking world's media.