There's a shameful history of reportorial misdeeds of which the defunct News of the World and other News International properties are now a part. The mushrooming scandal in Britain involves accusations of bribery and Murdoch's newspapers illegally obtaining confidential information about crime victims and even former Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
Many previous episodes involving reporters and editors were relatively isolated incidents, with one or two people deviating from accepted professional codes. "Here we have a pattern of scandalous behavior."
Fake news reports reach back even to America's Revolutionary War, when a Philadelphia newspaper reported in 1776 about a ragtag contingent of American colonists beating experienced British forces in battle. It turned out the American force was much bigger than reported, and the British soldiers far less experienced.
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