Ethics continuing education might have been useful in preventing Rupert Murdoch’s latest and greatest problem with money and the law. Murdoch is one of the world’s richest people, lording over a corporate empire that includes lucrative businesses such as the News of the World paper. It is this heretofore highly profitable property that has now become his Achilles Heel.

And so how does all that relate to the topic of ethics continuing education? Only that the entire sordid episode would never have existed had someone with a sense of ethics been at the helm. It all started with a missing girl. What with all the demand for the latest information on the case, The News of the World resorted to drastic measures to out-snoop its competition. This was the motivation behind all the illegal phone-hacking.

That was already against the law, but what makes this matter one involving ethics continuing education is because the tabloid actually erased messages when the voicemail box was full so as to get new ones to report on! And so everyone else was lead to believe that the girl was checking into her voicemail periodically – and thus still alive. Police resources had been squandered on a false lead, in effect.

Moreover, it’s now turned out that no one’s safe from such spying: not even the prime minister, nor the Queen herself were spared!

And now the paper’s been shut down by Murdoch in an apparent effort to appease an outraged public and even more outraged lawmakers, who have compelled him to testify before Parliament. Moreover, the tycoon has had the Sky Network acquisition fall through on account of intense concern over his control of the media!