{"id":898,"date":"2011-07-12T09:01:03","date_gmt":"2011-07-12T16:01:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.clarkjudge.org\/?p=898"},"modified":"2011-09-06T18:54:07","modified_gmt":"2011-09-07T01:54:07","slug":"news-of-the-world-scandal-murdoch-should-take-ronald-reagan-as-his-model","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.clarkjudge.org\/wordpress\/2011\/07\/12\/news-of-the-world-scandal-murdoch-should-take-ronald-reagan-as-his-model\/","title":{"rendered":"News of the World Scandal: Murdoch Should Take Ronald Reagan as his Model | HughHewitt.com | 7.11.11"},"content":{"rendered":"

The two big stories of the past week have been the budget negotiations between the President and Congress and, amazingly enough, a scandal at a British tabloid all but unknown to most Americans, News of the World<\/em>.<\/p>\n

By now most Americans know the top line facts about the News of the World<\/em> fiasco. \u00a0The paper is owned by Rupert Murdoch\u2019s Newscorp. \u00a0The paper was (Murdoch shut it down, effective after yesterday\u2019s edition) the archetypal London tabloid. \u00a0It carried a lot of celebrity gossip, hounded Royals to the point that surely made them yearn for medieval powers of retribution if only for an hour, and sported screaming headlines. \u00a0Its former editors went on to positions of power both inside their corporation and in the British government. \u00a0The scandal is over revelations that investigators for the paper hacked not just into Royals\u2019 phones but those of a murdered child and victims of the 9\/11 attacks. \u00a0Everyone in the UK who has a score to settle with Murdoch \u2013 it\u2019s a long, long list \u2013 is jumping with glee and doing all they can to stick in another knife.<\/p>\n

So here is the question I ask: If you were Rupert Murdoch, what would you do? \u00a0He fumbled his first move. \u00a0He appointed to investigate the scandal the paper\u2019s former editor, who later became the senior Newscorp executive in the U.K. \u00a0He has pulled back from that error now. \u00a0But the second move \u2013 closing the paper \u2013 looked like what you would do if you had no better ideas: take away the offending brand, if only to stop reminding the public of the story.<\/p>\n

The stakes have become immense, and could get bigger. \u00a0Murdoch could lose his bid to take full ownership of British Sky Broadcasting, a major strategic move for his company. \u00a0Some are saying that criminal liability over the hacking reaches into his inner circle. \u00a0Some are surely hoping that the liability goes to the very top.<\/p>\n

My advice? \u00a0Look at how Ronald Reagan handled Iran-Contra, perhaps the best management of a major scandal in our lifetimes. \u00a0I have written before that the first task for a CEO in a crisis is to have actions he initiates become the standard of truth. \u00a0Iran-Contra is the best example on record of how to do that under extreme circumstances.<\/p>\n

The Contra part of the story had clearly caught Reagan unawares. \u00a0He had known of and directed negotiations with Iran. \u00a0But he had not approved or even been told of the use of funds from the sale of weapons to Iran to finance the anti-communist Nicaraguan freedom fighters. \u00a0Briefed by a compromised staff, he made statements at an early press conference that were revealed to be false almost as soon as the cameras cut to outside commentary.<\/p>\n

From the start, Reagan realized he had to go beyond the White House staff both for information and to regain control of events. \u00a0As Watergate had demonstrated, anything that even looked like a cover-up would deepen the crisis. \u00a0He made two moves that changed the game and ultimately allowed his presidency to proceed to its triumphant conclusion.<\/p>\n

The first came as soon as Reagan had a sense that something was amiss. \u00a0He appointed Attorney General Edwin Meese to conduct the internal investigation. \u00a0The second came after the disastrous news conference with the creation of the Tower Commission. Here is what these actions should tell Rupert Murdoch.<\/p>\n

Edwin Meese was Reagan\u2019s longest-standing official confidant, having served as his chief of staff in Sacramento and counselor to the President in the first Reagan presidential term. \u00a0While controversial in Washington, his honesty was unquestioned. \u00a0He knew the ins and outs of the national security process, but was not directly involved with the staff of the National Security Council. And once becoming attorney general, he was outside of the White House.<\/p>\n

In other words, the internal investigation was headed by someone who was informed, trusted and independent. Meese\u2019s report was so thorough that Reagan was able to say from then on that nothing new was learned from any quarter beyond what the attorney general initially discovered.<\/p>\n

Where would Murdoch find his Meese? \u00a0Not in his British inner circle. \u00a0He should look to his most respected journalistic holdings outside the U.K. The staff of the U.S.-based Wall Street Journal<\/em> would be one such place, though there may be others. \u00a0He should look for a widely known and respected figure who has had management as well as reporting experience — someone like a Dan Henninger (deputy editorial page editor of the Journal<\/em>), a William McGurn (a columnist who also has management responsibilities) or, most likely, a Gordon Crovitz (a columnist who ran much of the Dow Jones Asian operations before becoming the Journal<\/em>\u2019s publisher and creating much of its successful online strategy, all prior to Murdoch\u2019s taking over and putting in his own team). \u00a0Run by an insider who is also an outsider, a Crovitz-style investigation would carry credibility in all quarters.<\/p>\n

The equivalent of the Tower Commission would be an independent group from outside the company who could review the journalistic practices of Murdoch\u2019s other UK holdings. \u00a0Murdoch\u2019s other properties, particularly his other tabloid, The Sun<\/em>, may harbor surprises. \u00a0Better that a well-regarded group of Murdoch appointees find them and suggest reforms than that the story of one out-of-control paper become the story of an out-of-control empire. \u00a0Also, while the commission was working, Murdoch could defer answering questions, saying he was waiting for the results, buying time to determine what to do once the results were in.<\/p>\n

Both the internal investigation and the independent commission would have to move quickly. \u00a0The British and global media are hot on this story. \u00a0But Murdoch needs to take initiative. \u00a0Ronald Reagan should be his model for how to do it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The two big stories of the past week have been the budget negotiations between the President and Congress and, amazingly enough, a scandal at a British tabloid all but unknown to most Americans, News of the World. By now most Americans know the top line facts about the News of the World fiasco. \u00a0The paper […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[12],"class_list":["post-898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-communication-strategy","tag-hugh-hewitt"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clarkjudge.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clarkjudge.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clarkjudge.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clarkjudge.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clarkjudge.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=898"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.clarkjudge.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":998,"href":"https:\/\/www.clarkjudge.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898\/revisions\/998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clarkjudge.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clarkjudge.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clarkjudge.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}