I confess I am watching the Murdoch Media scandal unfold with what can only be described as unmerciful glee.

I was once a news junkie.  I loved investigative reporting.  To me the 60 Minutes gang were sexier than the Rolling Stones.  I believed in the myth of the roving reporter willingly sacrificing him or herself to get to the bottom of things, to find the Truth, and that was truth with a capital T!

I believed that only through the press could the corruption of power be held in check.

Then something changed.  I can't really put a date to it but the stories being investigated no longer seemed important, no longer seemed to be about things that mattered.  There was a creeping of celebrities on to the front pages and top stories.  It appeared that when there was a whisper of government or corporate scandal, there would suddenly be a media storm of celebrity scandal.  The National Enquirer was given source credibility!

I do remember the day I stopped watching televised news. It was October 2001. I was watching CNN and one of the anchors - not a commentator - made the most racist statements I had heard in a long long time.  I do not believe my standards of journalism are too high - anchors and reporters are supposed to be objective; commentators can wear their bias on their sleeves.

This is a bit of background to why I am gleeful at the Murdoch empire's collapse.  Coinciding with the change in newstories was a change in newspaper and media ownership.  What had once been a collection of independently owned - and yes ferociously competitive - outlets were being bought up by a small group of individuals.  News was no longer thought of as a pursuit but was now a commodity.

At the epicentre of this movement was Rupert Murdoch.  He epitomized the new media modus operandi of 'scoop at all cost' and turned his outlets into grotesque caricatures of tabloid press.

In a NYTimes op ed column (and yes, here one can wear their bias) Joe Nocera wrote (bold emphasis mine):

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The kill-or-be-killed culture he created at his newspapers helps explain, for instance, why his New York Post was willing to publish an article last week, based on the thinnest of sourcing, claiming that the hotel housekeeper Dominique Strauss-Kahn was accused of sexually assaulting was actually a prostitute. (The woman has since sued The Post.) It helps explain why Robert Thomson, the editor of his Wall Street Journal, sent out a memo a few years ago saying that Journal reporters would henceforth be judged not on their ability to report deep, thoughtful stories — long The Journal’s strength — but on whether they regularly broke news, even by a matter of “a few seconds,” for the Dow Jones Newswires.

And, of course, it helps explain why his News of the World will cease to exist after this Sunday’s edition.

The News of the World phone hacking scandal, which has heaped such disgrace not just on the paper but on Murdoch himself, making him the object of an entire nation’s disgust and anger, is at once inexplicable and predictable. On the one hand, reporters who work at pressure-packed scandal sheets quickly become inured to crossing lines and destroying lives; it’s what they do. On the other hand, it’s still hard to believe that not a single reporter or editor at The News of the World had the sense to realize that tapping into the cellphone of a murdered teenager was deeply wrong — no matter how many great scoops resulted. That, however, appears to be the case. The Murdoch culture had stripped them of their conscience.

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The corporate media outlets have amassed such war chests that it doesn't matter if people successfully sue them, they can pay the price for their lies.  They have achieved so much power that Prime Ministers and CEOs court their favours.  The watch dog has become the hunter and who is left to watch over them.

The simple answer is the same as who always hold the power: We, the people.

We don't think we do because we are told by those holding the reins that we can't.  But stop and think about that for a minute.  Who granted them that power - Us!

It was the momentum of individual outrage that led to the collapse of Murdoch's flagship News of the World and may, as it shows no signs of diminishing, lead to the demise of his empire.  It certainly has tightened the reins on his political influence.

I have watched over the years the relentless paparazzi pursuit of a princess to the death.  The world cried but demanded nothing.  I have watched the media gloss over the lies of politicians that have led us into war and ended the lives of thousands.  The world grumbled but demanded nothing.

I hope that the people of the world will be offended enough by the idea of causing a murdered teenager's parents more grief by giving them a false sense their daughter was still alive that our collective conscience will rise up and say, Enough!

And I know this has been a lengthy discourse and if, gentle reader, you have stayed with me this far I end with this:  In a LATimes article Laura Martin a media analyst for Needham & Co. was quoted as saying There is no question that Rupert will go down in history as one of the best businessmen and most accurate visionaries of his age.

We, the people, the consumers, have the power to rewrite history.  Let us do so now.  Let us say that Rupert was the most corrupt and corrupting forces of our age and deserves to be tossed in history's dustbin like a day old fish wrapper.

And let us take down *all* the king's horses as well.