Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News Commands Awesome Power
According to the Writer’s Almanac:
It’s the birthday of international media titan (Keith) Rupert Murdoch…..He has, at various times, owned many American publications, including the Star, the New York Post, the Village Voice, the Chicago Sun-Times, the Boston Herald, New York Magazine, National Geographic, and TV Guide. Murdoch makes no secret of his conservative political views, and the influence he could wield through media is part of what drew him to his profession in the first place: “I sensed the excitement and the power,” he recalls. “Not raw power, but the ability to influence at least the agenda of what was going on.” He founded Fox News in 1996; it provides news, infotainment, and conservative political commentary.
He most certainly does possess that power. I have personally observed people transformed from rational and kind members of the human family to bigots and crackpots. Photo credit for the pic above: me. I laughed so loud I could hardly hold the camera still.
My favorite example: an old friend who retired, sat in front of Fox News for hours on end for a few years, and told my wife last summer that Obama is a Muslim, Kenyan-born socialist who supports ISIS. “Obama’s a terrorist,” he summarized. “Ah. Thanks for clarifying that for me,” my tactful sweetheart replied, before deftly changing the subject.
Now the interesting part of this is not the transformation of a decent person into a hateful idiot, but rather that it’s a case study clearly demonstrating the awesome power that Murdoch wields. I suppose, in a free society, there’s not too much that can be done about that, but it certainly is a regrettable feature of our civilization.
Obviously, not all Fox News viewers are idiots, but they’re not doing themselves any favors, intellectually or morally, by tuning in.
1. Someone said there are equal air time, for different viewpoints, rules maybe to keep a broadcast license.
2. People who listen to FOX and other sources of disinformation are hurting themselves, their country, and HURTING THEIR WALLET. If you don’t have accurate information then you will make wrong financial investments, wrong business decisions, and wrong decisions about going to war and national defense, WRONG DECISIONS ABOUT CLIMATE AND THEIR CHILDREN’S FUTURES.
3. I hate seeing fox on tv in Drs office, banks…… I don’t do business with those places on moral principal. I actually left a bank.
Re: #3, good for you; I boycott places like that too.
While I have had the oppertunity to travel a bit there are other places where I can only rely upon accounts from those who live there. I am told that fox news is provided without cost in Israel. Can we then boycott an entire country based upon their media availability?
I don’t personally like media being pushed but dealing with people who have been influenced by external factors seems like a universal experience not so easily avoided.