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mulberry bagsAmobi, who rates the News Corp. as a buy, thinks investors are overacting and that the company's global operations are sound. "Right now, the sell-off seems overdone," he says.

Major investors, such as Saudi Prince Al Waleed bin Talal, whose Kingdom Holding's 7% stake is News Corp.'s largest non-family shareholder, told the Financial Times that he still backs Murdoch.

But on Monday, other News Corp. shareholders, including Amalgamated Bank and several municipal and union pension funds, filed an amended claim against News Corp. in Delaware court, accusing the company's board of directors of failing to exercise oversight and take action since news of the hackings surfaced. (An earlier complaint challenged New Corp.'s acquisition of Shine Group Ltd., a film and TV producer that provided a $250 million windfall for Murdoch's daughter, Elizabeth.)

mulberry purses"News Corp.'s behavior has become an egregious collection of nepotism and corporate governance failures, with a board completely unwilling to provide even the slightest level of adult supervision," says co-lead counsel Jay Eisenhofer. "The result has been a piling on of questionable deals, a waste of corporate resources, a starring role in a blockbuster scandal and a gigantic public relations disaster."

mulberry walletThe British scandal has its underpinnings in an ultra-competitive market for eyeballs and readers.Stephen Ward, director of the Center for Journalism Ethics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, saw how the British tabloids operate when he spent five years in London as a correspondent for The Canadian Press.

"There are some very good journalists over there, but there's more public tolerance for the British tabloid, anything-goes culture of news," he says. "The tabloids set the agenda."

Nothing in North America compares to British tabloid tactics — yet. "Our media, in tone and characteristics, are moving toward a British/Euro model, becoming increasingly competitive and more ideological and partisan" as revenue and resources decline, Ward says.

Phone hacking is illegal in the USA, and goes against journalism ethics. Such an incident occurred in 1998, when TheCincinnati Enquirer — which like USA TODAY is owned by Gannett — paid a multimillion-dollar settlement and was forced to retract a report on Chiquita Brands International after a reporter hacked into thousands of corporate voice messages.

"This is a classic example of what happens when you do dishonest things and how it can undermine your story," says Kelly McBride, who teaches ethics at the Poynter Institute, a journalism think tank.