On Thursday, Olympic fans grappled with the horrifying news that Paralympian and Olympian runner Oscar Pistorius may have pre-meditatively shot and killed his girlfriend, South African model Reeva Steenkamp. The public took a collective moment to reconsider previously glorifying (and now chilling) portrayals of the double amputee Olympain as a hero.
But The Sun, a News Corp.-owned, UK-based gossip rag, did not use their front page to take a critical look at the man behind the gun. Rather, the paper used the alleged murder as an opportunity to exploit the dead woman’s body, running a photo of Steenkamp in a bikini:
Almost immediately on Friday morning, a petition popped up demanding The Sun apologize for its “distasteful front cover.” Two other British papers, the Mail and the Star, elicited further outrage for running a full photo spread of Steenkamp in lingerie, despite its impertinence to the pending murder trial.
Just two days ago, News Corp. owner Rupert Murdoch actually responded to criticism about other sexually exploitative content in The Sun — “Page 3,” which runs topless photos of women. Murdoch said he is considering changing that page, since it is “maybe” outdated.
Perhaps because Steenkamp is a model — or simply because she is beautiful — the press has provided details about the woman that seem absolutely unrelated to the case, including that she is a “regular on the South African party scene.” Few mentioned that Steenkamp was also a law school graduate.
There’s a new report out today analyzing climate coverage from Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News and Wall Street Journal. The results likely won’t shock anyone who reads this blog.
After the revelation that newspapers owned by the Murdoch family’s News International division had hacked the phones of everyone from members of the British royal family to the victims of the bombings of London’s subways on July 7, 2005 in pursuit of stories, it was inevitable that the company—and the family—would suffer consequences. News of the World, the paper most deeply embroiled in the scandal, closed last summer after it became clear that advertisers wouldn’t continue to support the publication. And now, James Murdoch, News Corporation owner Rupert Murdoch’s son, has resigned from his position of executive chairman of News International. He’s transferred to New York where, as 
“This is the most humble day of my life.”
Throughout the Solyndra proceedings, one of the biggest perpetrators of the “failing” solar myth has been Fox News. Fox has made wild claims in its coverage of Solyndra, including calling clean energy a “fantasy,” “pointless,” a “hoax,” and that “green energy is failing.” 
