Friday, July 15, 2011

RIGHT WING MEDIA BIAS IS JUST THE START OF IT

The shocking and surprisingly sudden implosion of the British tabloid News of the World essentially begs for gloating among liberals. So I shall giddily indulge, and fervently hope that more travails await the individual ultimately responsible for sickening tactics utilized by the paper. That, of course, would be Rupert Murdoch, the arch-conservative Australian, now U.S. media mogul whose most influential American holding is Fox News. 

News of the World reporters and management considered it perfectly reasonable to engage in a variety of smarmy, slimy and clearly illegal activities, including hacking into the phone and internet accounts, not of just celebrities as we might expect, but those of politicians and average citizens, including crime victims, 9/11 victims, and even that of a 13-year old murdered British girl, going so far as to erase messages when her phone message box was full. Fallout from the hacking debacle has subsequently revealed a pattern of bribery of policemen by the paper, paying for telephone numbers and other contacts. Allegations reveal an unseemly coziness between Murdoch and many British politicians, especially the conservatives, including current Prime Minister David Cameron. Turns out one ex News of the World editor was Cameron's communications director. Another News of the World ex-editor was public relations director of Scotland Yard. Both exers are now under arrest. 

The shit has hit the fan in Britain, to the extent that Murdoch himself felt compelled to rush over from his New York redoubt to stem the damage. It didn't work. The puddle of crud was so black and foul not even Magic Murdoch could sort things out, so he pulled the plug on News of the World. And so one of Great Britain's venerable old papers, one that had been around for over 160 years, was ruined by the Murdoch ethic: win at any cost; no tactic is too sleazy. 

Worse for Murdoch, the raging controversy sunk his shot at a lucrative deal for British cable network BSkyB, which would have pumped up his already formidable UK footprint. Adding to his woes, he has been summoned to testify before Parliament to answer for the sins of his spawn. 

It doesn't fly that poor Rupert is himself innocent of these sins. His own son, James Murdoch, was chairman of the News Corp division that controlled News of the World. Les HInton, one of Murdoch's most trusted allies and advisors for over 50 years and most recently chief executive of Murdoch's Wall Street Journal, previously directly oversaw the company's British empire. Hinton has resigned as a result of the scandal. And Rebekah Brooks, a "virtual daughter" of Murdoch's, was one of his primary British lieutenants and had her hands all over News of the World. She, too, resigned, and then was arrested. 

News of the World was busted for hacking back in 2006, so it is simply incredulous that Mr. Murdoch could be unaware of the trend within his organization. Sealing Rupert's culpability is his own mother's disdain for his de rigueur smarmy "journalistic" tactics. As far back as 42 years ago when he purchased News of the World, Dame Elisabeth Murdoch fretted that he would find a way to get himself in trouble with such a tabloid. "It killed me" that he purchased the paper, she claimed. It must say something when your own mother rejects your ethics. 

In all, so far over 10 people have been arrested, and the chief of Scotland Yard has stepped down from his post, admitting that he had no idea of the depth of the depravity involving his department. And now we learn that one of the original whistle blowers, an ex News of the World reporter who would certainly know what was going on, has been found dead. The crap just keeps getting deeper. 

Rupert Murdoch is perhaps the most powerful media mogul in history. As might be expected by such a conquering businessmen, his tactics are often ruthless. Anything goes in his quest to dominate. But in Rupert's case it's not just money he is after, nor even pure power; he is pushing an ideology: the gospel of conservatism. 

Which brings us to Fox News, the American broadcasting kin of News of the World. No, Fox hasn't yet been accused of any such blatant charges. But the clearly unethical behavior of News of the World at last shines a bright light on Murdoch's values, which are very much on display every day on Fox News. Survey after survey reports that Fox News viewers are consistently among the most misinformed of television viewers. That's "misinformed," not "uninformed." Millions of Fox viewers have their screens permanently locked on to Fox News where they are greeted by the slogans "Fair and Balanced" and "We Report, You Decide." In fact, however, these are blatant lies. There has never been an American news channel less fair and balanced than Fox News. And Fox doesn't "report", it distorts, distracts and divides. It lies. Bill O'Reilly's "No Spin Zone" is one of the spinningest television programs in history. 

Fox News is the only major news channel in U.S. history that is owned by a radical political ideologue. It was founded first and foremost to promulgate political ideology. The Fox News chairman is a former conservative political operative, Roger Ailes. There is no equivalent liberal, or even moderate, channel. The early CNN under the direction of the socially liberal Ted Turner never exerted an overtly liberal bent; it has tracked very close to center throughout its existence, its prime motivation to survive to make money, never as an ideological vehicle. Of course, Turner hasn't been at the helm of CNN in decades, and CNN itself, like most major media, has more recently leaned rightwards, particularly through the Bush-Cheney drums of war era. Meanwhile, the more recent advent of an unabashedly liberal-leaning channel such as MSNBC (owned jointly by conservative conglomerates Comcast and General Electric), represents a meager attempt to cull a lucrative, high end demographic - educated liberals - for advertisers, and is but one of hundreds of sources moderates and liberals turn to for their news, while the Fox "fair and balanced" juggernaut monopolizes the died-in-the-wool conservative base. Only Fox offers such a concentrated and uncontested message to its loyal viewers.

The saying that "truth has a liberal bias" is taken to heart by Fox News. Fox completely separates itself from all other media by intentionally disseminating untruth. It picks and parses real news, and aggressively sensationalizes pseudo news, to support the conservative audience's investment in clan mentality: a propensity toward fear, greed and prejudice. Working with this recipe of distraction, diversion and division, Fox relentlessly injects its political agenda, which boils down to anything and everything that furthers corporate primacy. Most Fox viewers are blissfully ignorant or uncaring of this prime objective, which may very well serve against their own best interests, while remaining hooked to Fox's diet of sensationalism and justification for conservative clan mentality.

It's a toxic mix that has played a critical role in the poisoning of politics in America and corruption of truth, which, of course, is the only way that a coporate aristocracy can achieve the critical mass of support it needs to subjugate the masses. But it doesn't stop there. As with New of the World in Britain, Fox News is in bed with American conservative political leaders, wielding king-making and king-breaking power. It is, in effect, the Republican media outlet, serving as both master and mouthpiece for the conservative collective. The filthy rats nest that has been uncovered at News of the World extends throughout Murdoch's News Corp. It's a culture of deceit, intimidation, coercion and corruption. 

Fox News promulgates the illusion that it is an embattled singularity in a swarm of liberal bias - the "fair and balanced" alternative to the vaunted "liberal media." The liberal media bias is an utter myth, one of many Conservative Myths that form the exoskeleton of the conservative belief system. As mentioned, most other major media are conscientiously seeking the facts. They may not always be perfect in their reporting and delivery, but they are not out to purposefully deceive. Fox News is. So this is yet another example of conservative "projection:" accuse your opponent of doing what, in actuality, you are doing. The grandest example of projection is the rich Republican's cry against "class warfare." It's always class warfare when someone suggests bringing some of that wealth down to the masses in the form of taxes, but it's never class warfare when the money is being sucked upwards and into the coffers of the elite of the elite. 

One brief look at the arch conservative Rupert Murdoch's media holdings (see below) simply blows the legs out from under the silly notion of any liberal media bias. Read it and weep liberals. There is nothing remotely like it. From books to television to newspapers to the internet, Murdoch's smarmy tactics and destructive politics have a hold on almost every corner of the globe. Add to this domination the nearly 100-to-1 advantage that American conservative radio talkers hold over their liberal colleagues, and the full ridiculousness of any liberal media bias becomes crystal clear. 

Likely Murdoch's dark empire will emerge relatively unscathed from the News of the World debacle. But maybe the light of investigation, even if shining for just a brief period, will illuminate the scope of the monster's tentacles and tendencies, and give pause to those who so blithely believe Fox's every word. Like News of the World, like Fox News, Rupert Murdoch is a blight upon a civilized culture. 

ARCH CONSERVATIVE RUPERT MURDOCH'S WORLDWIDE MEDIA HOLDINGS:




Books

[edit]Newspapers

[edit]Magazines

  • News America Marketing (Smartsource) (weekly Sunday newspaper coupon insert/website)
  • Australian
    • Alpha Magazine
    • Australian Country Style
    • Australian Golf Digest
    • Australian Good Taste
    • Big League
    • BCME
    • Delicious
    • Donna Hay
    • Fast Fours
    • GQ (Australia)
    • Gardening Australia
    • InsideOut (Aust)
    • Lifestyle Pools
    • Live to Ride
    • Notebook
    • Overlander 4WD
    • Modern Boating
    • Modern Fishing
    • Parents
    • Pure Health
    • Super Food Ideas
    • Truck Australia
    • Truckin' Life
    • twowheels
    • twowheels scooter
    • Vogue (Australia)
    • Vogue Entertaining & Travel
    • Vogue Living
  • InsideOut (UK Based Magazine)

[edit]Music and radio

[edit]Russia

  • Nashe (50%)
  • Best FM (50%)

[edit]Sport

[edit]Studios

[edit]TV

News Corp agreed to sell eight of its television stations to Oak Hill Capital Partners for approximately $1.1 billion as of 22 December 2007. The stations are US Fox affiliates.[43] These stations, along with those already acquired by Oak Hill that were formerly owned by The New York Times Company, formed the nucleus of Oak Hill's Local TV LLCdivision.

[edit]Broadcast

  • News Corp Europe
    • bTV, a broadcast television network in Bulgaria. They sold this to CME in February 2010.
    • B1 TV (12,5%), a broadcast television network in Romania, in partnership with Ismar International NVkkkk
    • Fox Televizija, a broadcast television network in Serbia (49%). They sold this to Antenna Group in January 2010
    • Fox Turkey, a Turkish terrestrial channel (56,5%) (formerly TGRT)
    • Imedi Media Holding (100%), a Georgian radio and TV broadcaster.
      • Imedi Television
      • Radio Imedi
    • Israel 10 (9%), a terrestrial channel in Israel.
    • LNT (100%), a terrestrial channel in Latvia
    • TV5 Riga (100%), a terrestrial channel in Latvia
    • Cielo (100%), a free channel in Italy

[edit]Satellite television

[edit]Cable

Cable TV channels owned (in whole or part) and operated by News Corporation include:
PLATFORMS
  • India
    • Hathway Cable & Datacom (22.2%), India's 2nd largest cable network through 7 cities including Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai & Pune
  • Taiwan
    • Total TV (20%), Pay TV platform with JV partner KOO's Group majority owner (80%). News Corp also has a 20% interest in the KOO's Group directly

[edit]Internet

  • Fox Interactive Media
    • Foxsports.com – website with sports news, scores, statistics, video and fantasy sports
    • Hulu (27%) – online video streaming site in partnership with NBC Universal and The Walt Disney Company.
    • Flektor – provides Web-based tools for photo and video editing and mashups.
    • IGN Entertainment – Internet entertainment portal (Includes the sites IGN, GameSpy, TeamXbox, 1up.com, and Askmen.com)
    • Giga.de
    • Slingshot Labs – web development incubator (Includes the sites DailyFill).
    • Strategic Data Corp – interactive advertising company which develops technology to deliver targeted internet advertising.
    • Scout.com
    • WhatIfSports.com – sports simulation and prediction website. Also provides fantasy-style sports games to play.
  • Indya.com – 'India's no. 1 Entertainment Portal'
  • ROO Group Inc (5% increasing to 10% with performance targets)
  • News Digital Media
  • REA Group (60.7%)
    • Realestate.com.au
    • Casa.it (69.4%), Sky Italia also holds a 30.6% share
    • atHome group, operator of leading realestate websites in Luxembourg, France, Belgium and Germany.
      • Altowin (51%),provider of office management tools for realestate agents in Belgium.
    • Propertyfinder.com (50%), News International holds the remaining 50%
      • Sherlock Publications, owner of hotproperty.co.uk portal and magazine titles 'Hot Property', 'Renting' and 'Overseas'
      • ukpropertyshop.co.uk, most comprehensive UK estate agent directory.
    • PropertyLook, property websites in Australia and New Zealand.
    • HomeSite.com.au, home renovation and improvement website.
    • Square Foot Limited, Hong Kong's largest English Language property magazine and website
      • Primedia – Holding co. of Inside DB, a Hong Kong lifestyle magazine.
  • TadpoleNet Media (10%) Hosts of ArmySailor.com
  • New Zealand

[edit]Other assets

  • NDS – Conditional access technology and personal digital video recorders (PVRs) (49%)
    • Jungo
    • Timothy Coville
    • ITE, publisher of PlayStation and Mobile games, and interactive television
  • Broadsystem Ltd (UK) – Telephony provider for media companies, bought in 1991
  • Broadsystem Australia (Australia)
  • Broadsystem Ventures (UK) – provider of cheap-rate telephone calls, particularly for customers of Sky Television. Bought outright in 1999.
  • Jamba! – Mobile Entertainment/Mobile Handsets Personalisation/Games.
  • News Outdoor Group – Largest outdoor advertising company in Eastern Europe with over 70,000 ads including billboards and bus shelters, operating in Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, India, Israel, Poland, Romania, Russia (96 cities), Turkey & Ukraine.
    • Maximedia Israel (67%)
    • Mosgorreklama (50%) – Russia sign and marketing material manufacturer
    • Kamera Acikhava Reklamclik (?) – leading outdoor advertising company in Turkey
  • Australian Associated Press (45%) – real time news service.
  • Stats Inc (50%) – worlds leading provider of sporting information and statistical analysis (a JV with Associated Press)
  • Fox Sports Grill (50%) – Upscale sports bar and restaurant with 7 locations – Scottsdale, Arizona; Irvine, California; Seattle, Washington (U.S. state)|Washington; Plano, Texas; Houston, Texas; San Diego, California; andAtlanta, Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia.
  • Fox Sports Skybox (70%) – Sports fan's Bar & Grill at Staples Center and 6 airport restaurants.
  • News America Marketing (US) – (100%) – nation’s leading marketing services company, products include a portfolio of in-store, home-delivered and online media under the SmartSource brand.
  • Rotana (9%) – Largest Arab entertainment company owned by Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal
  • The Daily – iPad only newspaper delivered daily.
  • Making Fun – social game developer for making games for social networking sites, smartphones, tablets and other devices.[44]
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