[July 15, 2011] The Morning Call, Allentown, Pa., Paul Carpenter column Tweet Jul 15, 2011 (The Morning Call - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- According to the midday news program of Philadelphia television station WTXF on Wednesday, one of the hot topics of the day was a scandal involving "scammers" who use electronic communication systems to target "unsuspecting people." WTXF ("Fox 29") ought to know something about that, I figured, after reading a story in The Morning Call that very morning. "Will News Corp. contagion hit U.S.?" asked the headline on a story about the way news mogul Rupert Murdoch illegally used electronic communications systems to target unsuspecting people in England. WTXF, based in Philadelphia, is one of three Murdoch-owned television operations' with programming distributed in the Lehigh Valley area via the Service Electric or the RCN cable systems -- in case you thought the Murdoch mess was confined to faraway London. I assumed WTXF would have the lowdown on the scandal, but first I had to sit through a detailed account of how a woman cut off her husband's penis and put it in a blender, with snide culinary jokes incorporated. No surprise there; WTXF is, after all, one of Murdoch's Fox News outlets. Finally, we got to the electronic communications system scandal. "Scammers are capitalizing on the need to find work," warned a WTXF talker. "The Internet, unfortunately, is a haven for con men." Wait a minute! This was about an Internet scam? How about Murdoch's News Corp. electronic eavesdropping flap? There was no mention of that. I watched the WTXF midday news again Thursday. More about the excised penis but zilch about Murdoch. The only items about Murdoch I could find on the station's website were puff pieces that made no mention of his scandal. Step right up and get your "fair and balanced" news on Fox. I also called the WTXF press spokeswoman and left questions about WTXF's coverage of the scandal, but only got a message referring me to a News Corp. flack in New York, who did not call back. Wednesday's newspaper story was mainly on the Murdoch media conglomerate's falling stock prices, and "whether the flames engulfing [his] ambitions in Britain could eventually bring heat to his U.S. operations." (Boy, I sure hope so.) In England, a panicky Murdoch tried to put a lid on the scandal by shutting down his giant tabloid, News of the World, amid revelations that it illegally hacked into mobile phones and other devices to eavesdrop on celebrities, politicians and others. Some targets included families of murder and terrorism victims, or of soldiers killed in battle. There were indications that the hacking activities -- and even the deletions of some data -- interfered with police investigations and misled the families. Also, there were allegations that News of the World "journalists" bribed police officers for private and sensitive information. Another story, on Thursday, said some members of the U.S. Congress were calling for an investigation into whether Murdoch "journalists" here similarly tried to bribe American police officers, including one report that they tried to get an officer in New York to give them phone records for victims in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. In the United States, criminal or unethical conduct is all too common among government officials, but seems to be less so among news people, knock wood. That is why it's so upsetting to see Murdoch slither into previously respectable American news media operations. We knew what his Fox News was all about (I have called it the propaganda arm of the Republican Party's lunatic fringe), but then he went after the Wall Street Journal. I once worked for Barney Kilgore, the father of the modern Wall Street Journal, and he was a giant of American journalism, the opposite of Murdoch in every way. So in 2007, when it was learned Murdoch might gain control of the WSJ, I said that "if the pinnacle of America's journalistic world falls into the filthy hands of this horror, it will be a national tragedy." By all appearances, the WSJ has maintained its quality and integrity, but how long can that last with Murdoch around? A Washington Post assertion that Murdoch's name is "synonymous with sleaze journalism" was, if anything, an understatement. When I see the problems of many newspapers, including The Morning Call (declining circulation, the loss of many good people, etc.), it makes me sad. When I see that some news media have been taken over by a creature like Rupert Murdoch, it makes me sick. [email protected] 610-820-6176 Paul Carpenter's commentary appears Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays. 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