Today we address one of the biggest stories in the news business this week, not Trump and the media, or the many hirings and firings going on, but the victory won by Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex, over Murdoch’s News Group Newspapers (NGN).
NGN has apologized to the Prince for “the serious intrusion by The Sun between 1996 and 2011 into his private life.”
This is not about pique over negative press, although there is an element of that. This concerns what appears to be unethical -- indeed, illegal -- practices.
Specifically, NGN has apologized for the “phone hacking, surveillance and misuse of private information by journalists and private investigators instructed by them at the News of the World.”
NGN has also said it is sorry to Lord Tom Watson "for the unwarranted intrusion carried out into his private life” during his time in government.
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“This includes him being placed under surveillance in 2009 by journalists at the News of the World and those instructed by them.”
The hit, at least on the Prince Harry side, is guesstimated at around $20 million.
One has to be grateful for the ethical training given out by J schools -- presumably, it will prevent newspapers in the U.S. from hiring private investigators who are outside the law.
It is one thing to be aggressive in the interest of ferreting out the truth. But there is a line.
Case in point: this reporter has never been a fan of so-called journalists who tape people surreptitiously to create sensation.
Yes, there are politicians who beg for such treatment. But reporters who would object to entrapment when used by police shouldn’t indulge in it themselves.
As for negative coverage, there was plenty of that, too, in this case. NGN “apologizes to the Duke for the impact on him of the extensive coverage and serious intrusion into his private life as well as the private life of Diana, Princess of Wales, his late mother, in particular during his younger years."