Amid the recent hubbub over the violent and paranoid rhetoric that stems from much of the American right, one name has been conspicuously absent. We've heard a great deal about Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly - the usual suspects. We've heard very little about the man who employs many of them for his financial and political gain: Rupert Murdoch.
I admire the work that Media Matters and News Hounds do to document the atrocities. But at some point you have to start holding management accountable. That is why I was thrilled when Spocko confronted Murdoch himself at a stockholder's meeting asking what the path to profitability was for Glen Beck, considering that all his advertisers have fled.
After all, Fox News will fire you if you refuse to tell their lies.
And while Murdoch may be the worst, he is not the only plutocrat who promotes liars at the expense of journalists. Until we find a way to hold these people accountable for their assault on our public discourse, our country will continue to go downhill.
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Just business
I thought it was interesting -- and by "interesting," I mean so horrifying and disgusting I feel like stabbing my eyeballs with a fork -- that Murdoch's concluding a deal with Apple to have an app called The Daily pladed on the carefully curated iPad.
If only the Egyptian revolutionaries had carried iPads instead of cell phones.
First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win. -- Mahatma Gandhi
They'd never gotten a damned thing done with iPads
Apple has those suckers locked and given it wouldn't even allow an editorial cartoonist access because he ridiculed public figures. It took his winning a Pulitzer -and the bad publicity for Apple that came with it - before Apple changed its mind.
"Do what you feel in your heart to be right -- for you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be damned if you do, and damned if you don't. " - Eleanor Roosevelt
Exactly!!
My statement was ironic.
First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, then you win. -- Mahatma Gandhi
On the other hand,
A Brit might have a slightly different view of Murdoch. Those with Sky in Britain watched Al Jazeera cover Egypt live; Murdoch owns Sky.
I've never read up on Murdoch, but i think that the real malignant influence at Fox is Ailes. (I'm not giving Murdoch a free pass. I'm just not sure that he's the biggest influence on the Fox News ideology. Obviously Murdoch is ultimately responsible for Ailes.)
Murdoch wants to make money. He'll sell you AJ if you want to buy. He sells the bullshit of Fox News to Americans because that's what they want to buy. IMO, the real tragedy is that none of the other media outlets have the balls/ovaries to call Fox out on anything, and the politicians all kow-tow to it because they're afraid of senior citizens. (the largest, all-day demographic of Fox News)
*It would be helpful to civilization if Murdoch had a conscience but it's not really modern civilization if you have to hope that the powerful will also be benevolent.
“Don’t believe them, don’t fear them, don’t ask anything of them” - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
it is all about power
if Murdoch cared about money he would have fired Beck long ago when all his advertising disappeared. Murdoch is all about power.
Don't Get Angry at the Dung Beetles
That's what O'Reilly, Beck, etc., are. You're right, it's their bosses who are the real problem.
"Do what you feel in your heart to be right -- for you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be damned if you do, and damned if you don't. " - Eleanor Roosevelt
Goebbels
TV is mesmerizing by its flickering monotony.
What has to be changed is our willingness to believe what is easy.
Life (and credibility) is about struggle, conflict, ambivalence, argument and resolution. You might say it is Corrente plus resolution (that is hopefully forthcoming) in macrocosm. That is as it should be.
Somewhere along the line, we became a nation of people who accepted the party line. It is not within our psyche to believe that is not in our best interest.
A nation of couch potatoes (or internet junkies) isn't enough. The TV is the tool of their side simply because of the willingness of our corporate masters to sell the message (which is the medium) to the highest bidder. But the internet is ours--at least until net neutrality becomes an unreality.
You can't overpower money. But you can outwit it. It is dim-witted by its arrogance. If Egypt proves anything, it is that.
It's a new day.
It's about time.