News Corp. Secretly Romances Monopoly
As the title suggests, Murdoch and co. are seeking to tighten their grasp on U.S. media, including the L.A Times & the Chicago Tribune, to close the gap between opposition and proposition; objectivity (what’s left of it at least) and total subservience. And who, or what, is their method of trying to achieve this clandestine goal? Well, none other than the FCC, that’s what! You see, again as the title suggest, this is being done in secret. This snippet gives some grim details of what is possibly to come:
"Murdoch is currently jockeying to buy the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune, which just so happen to be the largest newspapers in the nation’s second and third largest cities. That will add to his current media empire in the United States, which includes the most watched cable news network in the nation, Fox so-called News, and the most circulated newspaper in the nation, The Wall Street Journal.
The only thing standing in Murdoch’s way of full-spectrum media domination in America are Federal Communication Commission rules that forbid one company from owning both a newspaper and a television station in one community. Murdoch already owns local television stations in both Chicago and Los Angeles." 1
The kind-hearted man of integrity Julius Genachowski, the Chairman of the FCC, is opening loopholes wider than usual and outright stemming any tide that could put a crimp in this effort. Some of those details are as follows:
"According to commission sources, FCC chairman Julius Genachowski has circulated a media ownership order that loosens the newspaper/TV cross-ownership ban in the top 20 markets and gets rid of the ban on radio/TV cross-ownership and radio/newspaper cross-ownership.
The FCC will loosen the newspaper-TV cross-ownership ban by finding that cross-ownerships in the top 20 markets are presumptively in the public interest, along the lines of changes made by the FCC under former chairman Kevin Martin in 2007.
Broadcasters had been pushing the FCC to scrap the ban, rather than just loosen it, and to provide some relief from local market ownership caps." 2
The FCC has always been a detrimental force to the efforts of media conglomerates, such as News Corp., the Turner Broadcasting System, Time-Warner, Universal, and many others around the world. It was a buffer between the efforts of monopolization, which if achieved on anyone’s part, can change the rules of the system in drastic, often malignant or criminal ways. Just look at the history of Silvio Berlusconi, former three-term (almost three complete terms) Prime Minister of Italy. Once a lounge singer and hustler, he had the fortune to buy a newspaper, then a TV station, then radio station, and continued to grow. He had at a point owned 95% of any media in the country he ran with an iron fist. He then ran for PM.
He won, of course. Since most of the media were looking out for his best interests, pretty much none of his scandalous extra-curricular activities received objective attention from the press, which include sexual activities with minors during parties. The country suffered numerous blows to its dignity as a nation, and had to deal with an outright criminal as their leader with little ability to get him prosecuted or even at the very least investigated; all thanks to a media monopoly.
Rupert Murdoch is a champion of Ronald Reagan and the policies & philosophies of his administration. He’s the reason that Fox News celebrates Ronald Reagan yearly, in fact, which trickles down through the hierarchy of the company he owns. He’s anointed multiple Republican politicians, such as Karl Rove (who suffered a ‘blackout’ of sorts for being a blatant Mitt Romney pollster, alongside Dick Morris the Hooker toe-sucker), Sarah Palin, Ralph Peters, and the President of Fox News himself, Roger Ailes. The latter served as a top advisor for Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, and even George Bush the senior. It’s obvious where Murdoch’s loyalties lie. Just watch five minutes of the most hard-hitting commentaries found daily on Fox News and you’ll know exactly what the modus operandi is.
Yet the Obama-controlled FCC is trying to discreetly hide these efforts to curb objectivity (again, what’s left of it) from American news media. If the floodgates are opened, then all matters of informational horrors will come to pass. If you think the lack of informed voters, for example, is shameful enough, then you don’t even have to picture how much worse it’ll get if such a development happens. Rupert Murdoch holds so much power in the world media already, like the infamous Fox News, the most-circulated newspaper in the U.S. in the Wall Street Journal, and the New York Post. Many of his operations have been wrought with scandal after scandal, which shows that lack of ethics and integrity are not going to stop with this man. News of the World with the phone-hacking, Fox News with the political conflict of interest for George Bush’ election results, and more, are stunning examples of misconduct. Hell, even The Daily Beasts’ Tunku Varadarajan said that he is "the man whose name is synonymous with unethical newspapers." 3
What is necessary is public pressure, stink-raising, and general disapproval to further sully the information circuits by News Corp.’s majority shareholder. People need to write to the FCC and tell them what they think of this effort. It’s obvious that those directly involved know just how wrong this move is if they have to hide it as best they can from the public. They’re supposed to look out for everyone, not just one guy and his assets; so people, remind them what their duties are.
Sources
1) "Obama’s FCC Set to Give Rupert Murdoch a Media Monopoly"; Truth-Out.Org, 29/11/2012
2) "FCC Proposes Loosening TV/Newspaper Cross-Ownership Ban…Again"; Broadcasting & Cable, 11/14/2012
3) "Nationalization and Necrophilia. Till Death Do Us Part"; Tunku Varadarajan, The Daily Beast, 30/04/2012
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