In summer 2011, investigations into Rupert Murdoch’s paper News of the World revealed that for years, its reporters routinely hired investigators to hack into the phones of their subjects and listen to their voicemails.  Those targeted included not only the rich and powerful, such as politicians and members of the British royal family, but also ordinary people like Milly Dowler, a teenage murder victim.  The hacking of Dowler’s phone struck a nerve because it was reported that the hackers deleted some of her messages, giving her parents false hope that she was still alive.  (Later evidence suggested the messages were deleted automatically.)

Murdoch closed News of the World following a public outcry, but most of the people responsible for the hacking faced no consequences.  James Murdoch (Seth Numrich), chairman of News Group Newspapers, and Rebekah Brooks (Saffron Burrows), who had been the editor of News of the World and was by then chief executive of its publisher, News International, both resigned.  A few years later, they had their old jobs back.

J.T. Rogers’ Corruption follows the scandal from the perspective of Tom Watson (Toby Stephens), a Member of Parliament who led an investigation into News of the World.  He is joined by a reporter for the Guardian (T. Ryder Smith) and one from the Independent (Sanjit De Silva), and their work culminates in a public interrogation of James, Rupert, and Rebekah, among others.  Tom calls it a David and Goliath story.  It is, except everyone has forgotten about David and Goliath emerged unscathed.

Rogers’ last play, Oslo, about the 1993 peace accords, tackled another historical subject with a large cast of characters and a large number of important details.  There, he had a point of view, and he was able to arrange events into a digestible dramatic whole.  After almost three hours of Corruption, I still don’t know what he thinks this story is about.  Is it about how newspapers value profit over truth?  About the erosion trust between the public and the press?  About our need to consume scandal, even at the cost of an honest media?  Sure, it could be about all three, but Rogers never quite harmonizes these separate threads.  At one point, a lawyer for Murdoch (Dylan Baker) claims that the truth is “malleable now.”  Sure, but what does that have to do with the hacking?  News of the World did lie about some of its subjects, but isn’t the main point here that they violated journalistic ethics to uncover the truth?

Still, even if it all made sense, if all the pieces fit, I’m not sure that the result would be dramatically satisfying.  These are, after all, media clichés, truths apparent to anyone in the audience.  Newspapers thrive on sensationalism, and their readers feed on the exploitation of tragedy.  What else is new?

Corruption runs through April 14th at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater.  150 W. 65th Street  New York, NY.  2 hours 40 minutes.  One intermission. Photograph by T. Charles Erickson.