News Stories of the Week

The biggest news this week (at least the way has been covered) has been the death of Amy Winehouse.  Its sad that she is gone, but is not all that surprising.  Her lifestyle was always that, that would make one expect her to die young.  Its sad that she died, but I am not surprised, especially if it is found out that she overdosed or died from complications from the medical conditions she has had caused by her drug use.  I have seen a lot of people react by saying things like "its sad she died, but I thought she was already dead".

I get how its a big news story, but she has been out of the public eye for a few years which is why the reaction was a bit surprising.  In her short time in the public eye, she had a very lasting effect on music and fashion that was not noticeable until something like this happens and you are reflecting.  Karl Lagerfeld (creative director of Chanel) even has talked about how she is a style icon and he used her as an inspiration.  She also influenced the music of Adele who has recently become big.  I think the allure of her is that she is a throwback to a more 60s style. 

The next story actually ties in a little bit about the death of Amy Winehouse.  Rupert Murdoch of NewsCorp is on trial right now for phone hacking and other intrusive charges that his corporation performed.  The reason its relevant is that the British tabloids his company ran were one of the biggest intruders into Winehouse's drug use.  Still, while Murdoch is probably not the nicest guy or might have built an empire on gossip and sensationalism but does that make him guilty of that.  There are definitely some practices of NewsCorp that I don't like including this, but I am not ready to make Murdoch guilty.  While I can see Murdoch having a hand due to the kind of news person he seems to be, but does it go up all the way to the top?  Chances are they don't go all the way to him and the circus trial truly is a circus.

"piled on or pied on?"

He is CEO of one of the biggest corporations in the world.  Generally, CEOs of even smaller companies do not get involved in more day to day operations like the phone hacking seems to be.  CEOs often do much more big picture stuff while what he is accused of sounds more like the responsibilities of the COO or the CIO.  It probably doesn't go all the way to the top, but he should be held responsible for letting this happened through negligence.  The whole thing seems like an opportunity to pile on Rupert Murdoch by people who don't like him.  It happens all the time when someone this controversial is in trouble