Rupert Murdoch, the most outspoken of media moguls, is not one to couch words or shy away from expressing an unpopular opinion. The chairman of both News Corp. and 21st Century Fox is sort of a natural at Twitter, using its 140-character limit as digital media op-eds that almost always go viral.
Like his latest tweet, posted Saturday night, in which he questioned whether or not Google was an ethical company in light of recent reports that it knew about but failed to alert the government to the so-called Heartbleed security bug.
Google attack on NSA extreme nerve. Google has more data on all of us and uses it. No evidence of NSA doing this. Ethical company?
Only problem is, while Rupert may have put behind him the phone-hacking scandal that nearly brought down News Corp in 2011 and 2012, most everyone else hasn't. Back then, to refresh your memory, journalists at News Corp's News of the World tabloid in London were found to have hacked into the phones of celebrities, politicians, and even a missing 13-year-old girl. The scandal forced Murdoch to close the paper, abandon a bid to acquire full control of BSkyB, pay tens of millions of dollars in fines, and make an embarrassing appearance before Parliament.
On Saturday night, Twitter was more than happy to remind Murdoch that his questioning another company's ethics was rich with irony.
@rupertmurdoch I know a company that unethically spied on people. Can you guess what it is?
@rupertmurdoch Because @newscorp is the definition of ethical? #hypocrite
@rupertmurdoch ...lol
@rupertmurdoch If this is the real Rupert Murdoch, you must be joking.
FMD @rupertmurdoch having a crack at another company about being "ethical" #CouldntMakeThisShitUp
@rupertmurdoch Who are you to complain of lack of ethics? You bring govts down if not doing what YOU want for self-serving needs. #auspol
.@rupertmurdoch LOL. Hacks a dead kid's phone, lectures on ethics.
@BernardKeane @rupertmurdoch News Ltd claiming to be an ethical company? pot meets kettle
If you want a laugh, check out Rupert Murdoch on twitter. He's calling out Google as being an unethical company.... http://t.co/4u6RebfoYC
Rupert Murdoch questioning Google's use of personal info it collects on its its user. Of course, NewsCorp would never do that! #Srsly
RT @TheMurdochTimes: Rupert Murdoch questioning Google's use of personal info it collects on its its user. Of course, NewsCorp would never …
@rupertmurdoch Ah Rupert dear, please use your napkin...you're dribbling again
Sometimes @rupertmurdoch on Twitter is like the half-senile grandpa that just blurts random stuff out.
jeezo thankfully i didn't own a newspaper that ravaged privacy and an that innit ha ha ha , phew. @rupertmurdoch
who knew @rupertmurdoch was a comedian