![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp.patheos.com\/community\/sites\/41\/2011\/07\/Most-Dangerous-Game.jpg\")
<\/a>It\u2019s a scene right out of Richard Connell\u2019s vivid short story \u2014 The Most Dangerous Game<\/em>.<\/a> You remember it, right? High school students across the nation still get creeped out by it.<\/p>\nOn the way to hunt big game, Ranisford falls out of the boat trying to retrieve his pipe. This after just telling everyone how glad he was to be the hunter, not the prey.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will be light enough in Rio,\u201d promised Whitney. \u201cWe should make it in a few days. I hope the jaguar guns have come from Purdey\u2019s. We should have some good hunting up the Amazon. Great sport, hunting.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cThe best sport in the world,\u201d agreed Rainsford.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cFor the hunter,\u201d amended Whitney. \u201cNot for the jaguar.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cDon\u2019t talk rot, Whitney,\u201d said Rainsford. \u201cYou\u2019re a big-game hunter, not a philosopher. Who cares how a jaguar feels?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cPerhaps the jaguar does,\u201d observed Whitney.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cBah! They\u2019ve no understanding.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cEven so, I rather think they understand one thing\u2013fear. The fear of pain and the fear of death.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cNonsense,\u201d laughed Rainsford. \u201cThis hot weather is making you soft, Whitney. Be a realist. The world is made up of two classes\u2013the hunters and the huntees. Luckily, you and I are hunters. Do you think we\u2019ve passed that island yet?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n #<\/em><\/p>\n Or maybe it wasn\u2019t such a good thing, after all, because it was there, on the island, that Rainsford\u2019s story took a turn he never envisioned \u00a0\u2014 when he became the prey of General Zaroff.<\/p>\n \u201cSimply this: hunting had ceased to be what you call `a sporting proposition.\u2019 It had become too easy. I always got my quarry. Always. There is no greater bore than perfection.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n The general lit a fresh cigarette.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cNo animal had a chance with me any more. That is no boast; it is a mathematical certainty. The animal had nothing but his legs and his instinct. Instinct is no match for reason. When I thought of this it was a tragic moment for me, I can tell you.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Rainsford leaned across the table, absorbed in what his host was saying.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cIt came to me as an inspiration what I must do,\u201d the general went on.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cAnd that was?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n The general smiled the quiet smile of one who has faced an obstacle and surmounted it with success. \u201cI had to invent a new animal to hunt,\u201d he said.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cA new animal? You\u2019re joking.\u201d \u201cNot at all,\u201d said the general. \u201cI never joke about hunting. I needed a new animal. I found one. So I bought this island built this house, and here I do my hunting. The island is perfect for my purposes\u2013there are jungles with a maze of traits in them, hills, swamps\u2013\u201c<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cBut the animal, General Zaroff?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cOh,\u201d said the general, \u201cit supplies me with the most exciting hunting in the world. No other hunting compares with it for an instant. Every day I hunt, and I never grow bored now, for I have a quarry with which I can match my wits.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Rainsford\u2019s bewilderment showed in his face.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cI wanted the ideal animal to hunt,\u201d explained the general. \u201cSo I said, `What are the attributes of an ideal quarry?\u2019 And the answer was, of course, `It must have courage, cunning, and, above all, it must be able to reason.\u201d\u2018<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cBut no animal can reason,\u201d objected Rainsford.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cMy dear fellow,\u201d said the general, \u201cthere is one that can.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cBut you can\u2019t mean\u2013\u201d gasped Rainsford.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cAnd why not?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t believe you are serious, General Zaroff. This is a grisly joke.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cWhy should I not be serious? I am speaking of hunting.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cHunting? Great Guns, General Zaroff, what you speak of is murder.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n #<\/em><\/p>\n In a twist that only Karma or Connell himself might have predicted, the greedy hunter has become the prey on the move.<\/p>\n As a journalist, I have mixed feelings about all this. I feel bad for the thousands of workers who rise at day break or at \u00a0midnight in their two-bedroom flats or suburban ranch homes to drive into work at one of the many corporations that Murdoch, through genius and ambition, has created. I\u2019ve worked alongside many a good journalist throughout my career.<\/p>\n Journalists who know how to work a beat in an ethical and respectable fashion. I like to fancy myself as such a journalist. I cultivated my sources through hard work and consistency. The world is full of journalists who do this, day in and day out. They work a story the way a story is supposed to be worked \u2014 through \u00a0the relationships one cultivates and that all important tool of any journalist \u2014 integrity.<\/p>\n In the world of bylines, we call that credibility.<\/p>\n There were times when mine was called into question but I never worried about it. I knew what those calling my credibility into question\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0\u2014 I never obtained information in any illegal fashion. I took my integrity seriously, even when they were quick to dismiss it.<\/p>\n #<\/p>\n National media descended on Eugene in a matter of hours, setting up satellite vans and dispatching their reporters \u00a0to obtain gruesome details about the murders and about Kip Kinkel and to do it all before deadline. Friends who worked in the region, fellow journalists who did their jobs in a respectable fashion, told me that hospital staff were besieged by the press seeking details about the survivors. They wanted the scoop from the kids who had been trapped in that school cafeteria before five brave souls decided that they would rush Kip and bring him down before he killed anyone else.<\/p>\n Nothing mattered to a few of these journalists other than getting the inside scoop. They reportedly did things like dressing up as hospital workers, or posing as family members \u00a0in order to get at the bedside of the wounded.<\/p>\n I have no idea how many \u2014 if any really \u2014 actually went this far to obtain a deadline story. But that was the first incident when I recall learning the depths to which some journalists will go for a headline story.<\/p>\n The next incident happened to me.<\/p>\n #<\/p>\n I wrote the story like I wrote hundreds of stories \u2014 on deadline. I thought it was interesting but I didn\u2019t think much else about it. It was one of hundreds of human interest stories I\u2019ve written. I never anticipated that the national news media would respond they way they did.<\/p>\n Because the woman was not listed in the phone book the only way the national media had to get to\u00a0her was through me. This was in the day before cell phones. Yes. I know. Hard to imagine. The phones at the newspaper rang for days. Every major news corp out there called to find out how they could get a hold of this lady.<\/p>\n The phone rang so much my editor started referring to me as the \u201cFat reporter\u201d, \u00a0a snide slam, I\u2019m sure. He could be mean like that.<\/p>\n When the television producer for the show EXTRA called, he expected me to be flattered.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are the show from L. A.,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cYes, I know your show.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019d like to get a hold of the woman you did the story on. Can you tell us how to do that?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s the matter?\u201d I replied. \u201cDon\u2019t you have any fat people in L. A. you can profile?\u201d<\/p>\n One of Germany\u2019s top news crews flew in to rural Eastern Oregon to profile the lady with the fat lap. It left me with a bad taste in my mouth for the whole sleazy business of entertainment \u201cnews.\u201d<\/p>\n The sort of news that helped make Rupert Murdoch \u2014 if not rich \u2014 then richer.<\/p>\n #<\/p>\n Now Rupert Murdoch finds himself on the other side of the headline. \u00a0The empire he has so stealthily built upon sand, now crumbling.<\/p>\n Journalists are now saying Murdoch\u2019s style of news was a culture run amuck.<\/p>\n They are saying it\u2019s doomsday for Murdoch shareholders.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019re a major\u00a0shareholder<\/a> of the company, you have a good reason to be worried,\u201d Andrew Schwartzman, senior vice president and policy director of the Media Access Project, a Washington public interest group.\u00a0 \u201cThis could pose a long term threat to the company.\u201d<\/p>\n Investigations \u00a0of Murdoch are underway from London to D.C.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp.patheos.com\/community\/sites\/41\/2011\/07\/Most-Dangerous-Game1-300x232.jpg\")
<\/a>Good thing he noticed that island because after he fell from the boat Rainsford had to swim to it.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp.patheos.com\/community\/sites\/41\/2011\/07\/murdoch-300x190.jpg\")
<\/a>It seems Rupert Murdoch has found himself in the midst of a Richard Connell short story.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp.patheos.com\/community\/sites\/41\/2011\/07\/Kip-300x225.jpg\")
<\/a>Oh, I had certainly heard stories of journalists who pretended to be somebody they weren\u2019t in an effort to \u201cget the story.\u201d \u00a0The first time I heard tell of this sort of behavior was back in 1998 when Kip Kinkel murdered his parents, and then went to Thurston High School (Eugene, Oregon) the next morning and killed two students and wounded 25 others in a \u00a0random act of sheer violence.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp.patheos.com\/community\/sites\/41\/2011\/07\/Baby-Irene-300x225.jpg\")
<\/a>I had written one of those stories I call the \u201cheadless chicken dance stories\u201d. You know the odd thing. It was about a woman who had weighed 1,200 pounds and had through hard work and determination dropped 800 pounds. It had taken her 10 years and had left her with a skin-lap that weighed in at 100 pounds. She was petitioning the state to pay to have the lap removed so that she could have better mobility, so she could get off of state-assistance. Get a job. Have a life.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp.patheos.com\/community\/sites\/41\/2011\/07\/Rebecca-300x209.jpg\")
<\/a>There\u2019s been at least one arrest with more surely to follow. There is rumor of death among the dedicated, and numerous reports of people falling on the sword for Murdoch.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp.patheos.com\/community\/sites\/41\/2011\/07\/Reputation.jpg\")
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