Rupert comes clean...well, sort of.......

After you wipe the sarcasm off your screen, read this snippet courtesy of Juan Cole at Informed Comment:Also credit to ePluribus Media

Murdoch was asked if News Corp. had managed to shape the agenda on the war in Iraq. His answer?

"No, I don't think so. We tried [...] We basically supported the Bush policy in the Middle East...but we have been very critical of his execution."

Let me repeat this: "We Tried!"

After hearing this confession, how can anyone ever again take seriously Fox News or any of Murdoch's other instruments of bias? How can News Corp. continue to pretend that they are "fair and balanced?" How can any other media company exhibit the slightest expression of respect or patronization

That's a confession and outright lie all in one concise sentence, Rupert. The only way you've been critical of the execution of the war is by criticizing Democrats......Nevertheless, the admission is quite breath-taking for Fox...

Juan riff's on those quotes in a way that resonates deeply with me, and I suspect, with the vast majority of our local party members. The snippets:

"Murdoch's remarks are a good reason for which the news conglomerates should be broken up so that a wider range of views can be published..."

and the "money shot"::

Murdoch's media have done more to cheapen American values and drive the country toward fascistic ways of thinking than anything since the McCarthy period in the 1950s. The airwaves belong to the public, and this man only licenses them. When will the public take them back and use them for purposes of which Washington, Jefferson, Madison and Franklin would have approved?"

A lot has been written in other blogs, and truthfully other blogs which are far more attuned to the legal aspects of Journalism and First Amendment rights than I, about reinstituting the FAIRNESS DOCTRINE which was summarily wiped out during the Reagan Administration. Appparently , the doctrine was originally upheld by the Supreme Court according to Wiki:

In Red Lion Broadcasting Co. v. FCC [1] (1969), the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Fairness Doctrine, under challenges that it violated the First Amendment. Although similar laws had been deemed unconstitutional when applied to newspapers, the Court ruled that radio stations could be regulated in this way because of the limited nature of the public airwave spectrum.


There has been a lot of talk about reinstating the doctrine, especially from Dennis Kucinich,who seems to be making it "his" cause, and I recall seeing something about a version of it going through Congress last week, but will it end the abuses of Fox News? Of Rush Limbaugh? Of Michael Savage?

Give me your thoughts on the matter.