"The art of our necessities is strange, And can make vile things precious." King Lear, III, ii
Observers of the Murdoch empire and our own right-wing King Lear (yes, you have to read Shakespeare for reference—sorry) have been wondering if the scandal rocking Great Britain could spread to the American empire including the not-fair-and-balanced Fox News that has single-handedly presided over the dumbing down of US politics.
In Great Britain, illegal spying and surveillance of private citizens and public officials authorized by Murdoch lieutenants are stiffening the spine of a political establishment that quaked and quavered before his influence for decades. All is quiet on the Western Front. That would be the area of Field Marshall Roger Ailes, Murdoch's top officer at Fox News in the United States. Fox is the US wing of the Murdoch empire and a much bigger contributor to the profit machine of News Corp. that the shuttered Murdoch newspaper, "News of the World".
There is no direct connection between the turmoil through the phone hacking scandal and subsequent closure of the 168 year old paper at the center of the scandal, however it is impossible to miss the cultural connection between the US empire and the unfolding scandal in Murdoch's Great Britain.
Murdoch has had a greater impact on politics during his ascendancy than any other individual, including presidents, kings, and premiers. His success is based on a finely honed practice extracting profit from the mixture of blood lust, breasts, and human weakness by using droplets of fiction as the catalyst. It is the connection between the separate realms of the media empire and ties directly into Fox News, where goading audience fear and anxiety under the cover of “legitimate” journalism has turned television news largely into an acid bath.
It is not a surprise that executives who populate the Murdoch empire must always temper warm-and-cuddly with a laser-like focus on business profits. But what emerges as a surprise is the emperor without clothes: Rupert Murdoch’s appetite for blood lust in business led his inner circle to activities that are despicable. Whether the same could occur in the United States, through the Roger Ailes/Fox connections, is an unanswered question.
With the "Talk of the World" scandal, millions of Fox News audiences are seeing the wizard for the first time; not so much a business titan as an obsessed billionaire who goaded his top lieutenants in his own Kingdom of Oz. Low brow print newspapers are somewhat different in Great Britain than the United States.
Fox Broadcasting in the United States is the TV equivalent of "Talk of the World" but filtered through American cultural preferences. The erupting scandal shows journalism is not what motivates Murdoch; his traffic is finding human foibles, adding purience and a dose of fiction so friction and heat can generate profit. For all these reasons I have been a long-time enthusiast of the viral campaign to "Turn Off Fox: Bad for News and Bad for America". There is nothing mystical about Murdoch's talent for assessing the character of his audiences. It is a legend how Murdoch directly reached down through layers of management to insert “American Idol” into the Fox lineup. The world will be altered when Murdoch exits, stage left, but in the meantime the empire is less durable than yesterday.
5 comments:
And, the difference between Murdoch & Soros is what? Soros is buying media all over the place.
"There you go again ..."
Those that consider George Soros bad or evil are those that listen to or read or watch conservative sources which are in the back pocket of psycho billionaires, most notably the Koch Brothers, who want to destroy the America we have come to know and love by spreading their vast sums of wealth on buying talk show hosts, politicians, the tea party, think tanks,etc to BS the Amercian people into voting against their own best interests. George Soros has lived in 2 different courntries that went bad, and he see this country going bad and wants to keep that from happening. His Media Matters website is very informative, ie: climate change. While the billionair Koch Brothers, who run an oil and coal firm, have bought all of the politicians they can to kill climate change legislation, and get Fox News and other conservatives like Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, and Alex Jones to lie about the reality of climate change, Soros tell the truth about climate change on Mediamatters.com
Any media outlet that tells you it is "fair and balanced", is not fair and balanced. Fox is not news it is one sided talk that burrows into your brain and makes you a zombie. Murdock is so dangerous. He uses psychology to convince you their news is the right news. Fox should not be allowed on the air.
I am sad that Brits have let Murdoch go unchecked for years. They have known about the phone hacking for years. Royals have been victims countless times. Now there is a mob mentality - so I guess they will get something done about it. The red-head has been arrested now, meaning that she won't be about to testify before Parliament. Timing on that works in Murdoch's favor. Wouldn't put it past him if he set that up to happen this weekend.
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