BARBELITH underground
 

Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.


Underground > Switchboard >

The centralization of media power (within the U.S.)

  
 
Francine I
01:48 / 07.04.04
News Corporation, owned by Rupert Murdoch, owns 83% of Fox News -- president George W. Bush's favourite channel for 'Fair and Balanced' coverage:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,3604,1187162,00.html

News Corporation started out as an Australian outfit, managing local newspapers. The primary mode of growth for News Corporation has thus far been aquisition. Recently, as mentioned in the article above, it has become fiscally appreciable for News Corporation to run their shop from within U.S. borders.

So does this represent a potentially dangerous consolidation of interests and controls?

----

Some backround: Rupert Murdoch has quite an impressive record of aquisition. In the '60s, News Corp. acquired Sydney, Australia's "the Mirror" and London's "the News of the World" and "the Sun". In the '70s, News Corp. got ahold of NY, NYs "New York Post". In the '80s, 20th Century Fox and Fox TV. In the '90s, Murdoch gained domination in Asian markets, gathering under his fleet of powerful media organizations "Star Television". And these are merely the aquisitions Time magazine found most impressive.

----

So such potent conglomeration is not very comforting in general. I personally feel like we could all take some small comfort from the fact that News Corp. wasn't based in the U.S. -- now that it all ties back, does this change things? Does anyone find this consolidation of media power any more threatening due to this news, or it just more of the same?
 
 
Joetheneophyte
06:11 / 07.04.04
I don't think it makes any difference as the speed at which communication is possible, Murdoch could sit on an Island in the pacific ocean and still dictate his views to his empire

Persoanlly I despise Murdoch

Australian National......who takes on US citizenship to allow him to own a US TV station.....he is contacted by Tony Blair and his opposition counterpart Michael Howard regularly , as they know they need his influence to win an election

So we have an Aussie who was willing to give up his nationality for financial and 'power and influence' gain

dictating to the British Government, policy matters

Don't you just love democracy?

and make no bones about it, Blair was just looking for an excuse to have a go at the BBC, on behalf of his friend Rupert

the BEEB Boobed in it's handling of the Andrew Gilligan matter (David Kelly and the dodgy dossier) but Blair and his cronies had been looking for an excuse to potentially split the BEEB or damage it anyway.

Whilst I think the BBC has deteriorated over the last ten years....I would still believe it over Sky/Fox ANY DAY OF THE WEEK
 
  
Add Your Reply