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# Five (random) thoughts about phone-hacking and ethical standards
- URL: https://onemanandhisblog.com/2011/07/five_random_thoughts_about_phone-hacking/
- Published: 2011-07-06T14:46:23.000Z
- Updated: 2015-04-08T15:14:57.000Z
- Author: Adam Tinworth
- Tags: ethics, Journalism, standards

Phillips, Hari, News of the World. Not been a great week or so for journalism, has it?

Five thoughts, and then I’m stepping away from this for a while:

- You *really* don’t need 1000 words from me on this topic, because every other journalism blogger will already have done it.
- Journalists are normally quite ready to tar whole groups of people with the same brush: football fans, bloggers and immigrants all know this well. Yet, suddenly, when it’s our reputation on the line, it’s important to distinguish the bad few from the good majority…
- Those old arguments about journalists being so much more professional and ethical than bloggers have had a grave dug for them by Johann Hari, and the *News of the World* folks are busy burying the coffin.
- It’s natural that journalists have a slightly skewed sense of how important “the story” is. What’s building suggests a systemic problem where “the story” becomes more important that ethics or facts. Our industry needs a perspective check.
- *The Guardian* deserves respect for [pursuing the phone hacking story with such vigour](http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/phone-hacking?ref=onemanandhisblog.com), and the *New Statesman* has earned my respect for not letting Hari off the hook [just because he’s “one of” them](http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/steven-baxter/2011/06/hari-serious-casual-excuse?ref=onemanandhisblog.com).