Murdoch, Media and Buying Influence

I defer to Lewis Black (one of my favorite comedians, tied with Chris Rock), who pointed us all to the offensive video above. The slander of Obama, in which the likes of Ann Coulter delights, was kicked off by none other than Roger Ailes, the chief Republican at the top of Fox “News,” Rupert Murdoch’s signature media trophy, when Ailes compared Obama to Osama. Though Fox isn’t the only network complicit in these types of insults. But it’s not just about cable and the big three networks, because media ownership goes all the way down to the roots, particularly the way the deck is stacked throughout terrestrial radio. Murdoch’s example, however, is the most powerful in how media ownership doesn’t work for we the people.

It’s infuriating when people opine about talk radio, especially when they don’t
know what they’re talking about. Exhibit A the other day was Bob Beckel. On Ken Doll
Sean Hannity’s radio show, Mr. Beckel went on and on about how no one wants
to listen to liberal talk radio. He said conservatives were winning the radio
game, but that there wasn’t any “conspiracy” or anything. It’s just
that people like listening to one-sided, propaganda-laced, lacking in facts,
xenophobic wingnuts. Right. If only Beckel knew what he was talking about. He
doesn’t, but that doesn’t keep him from opening his yapper.

Meet
Mr. Murdoch. This is how media ownership works. It’s the same in radio, believe me, with the same buying off of elected officials. It’s been that way for some time.

Over time, Mr. Murdoch has shown an ability to adapt to changing political winds. In Britain, his newspapers had a long history of being pro-Tory and anti-Labor, and he was personally close with former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. But in 1997, two of Mr. Murdoch’s papers endorsed Tony Blair for prime minister. Mr. Murdoch became a frequent guest at No. 10 Downing Street, “effectively a member of Blair’s cabinet,” said Lance Price, who was a Blair spokesman from 1998 to 2001. Mr. Murdoch had reason to court Mr. Blair: ensuring that the new government would allow him to keep intact his British holdings, which by then included The Times of London, multiple tabloids and a stake in Sky News. Many in the Labor Party under Mr. Blair favored the enactment of media ownership limits, which could have forced Mr. Murdoch to divest some of his interests. But Mr. Blair “quietly dropped the policy,” Mr. Price said. “Blair’s attitude was quite clear,” Andrew Neil, the editor of The Sunday Times under Mr. Murdoch in London from 1983 to 1994, said in an interview. “If the Murdoch press gave the Blair government a fair hearing, it would be left intact.”

Senator Tedd Kennedy spanked Mr. Murdoch in 1987 and he never forgot it. He
even hired one of Kennedy’s aides to help him in the future.

Then Mr. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, stepped in. Mr. Kennedy’s liberal politics had made him a target of Murdoch-owned news media outlets, particularly The Boston Herald, which often referred to Mr. Kennedy as “Fat Boy.” He engineered a legislative maneuver that forced an infuriated Mr. Murdoch to sell his beloved New York Post. Mr. Murdoch was able to buy back the tabloid five years later, but the sale represented a rare and, some say, transforming defeat.

Murdoch is one example of what’s going on in media, but it’s very real. He’s
getting scrutiny again because of his bid for Dow Jones. Read about what Murdoch
did in the Nielsen fight, when the company was changing it’s policies that would
have the outcome of proving Murdoch’s shows were losing minority viewers during
sweeps week, when advertising rates were set.

But Dale Snape, who lobbied for Nielsen, said: “It was a classic example of him using all his resources to try to politically influence an outcome — he bought a Hill debate. It was scorched earth, and it was all about money. They created a public interest furor where there was none.”

But buying Republicans is his specialty.

Media Ownership Rules For more than 70 years, the federal government has regulated media ownership to protect against any entity gaining too much power over the dissemination of information. And for much of the last two decades, Mr. Murdoch has chafed against those restrictions, winning exceptions and easing regulations. Again and again, Mr. Murdoch won crucial skirmishes with the Federal Communications Commission. In this he was helped most by his Republican allies, including former Speaker Newt Gingrich and the Bush administration, which has promoted measures to allow more consolidation. (snip) In the end, the F.C.C. found that the deal had violated the rules. But Mr. Hundt declined to strip Mr. Murdoch of his licenses, reasoning that the fault lay with the Reagan-era F.C.C. for approving the acquisitions in the first place. Mr. Padden, who has left the News Corporation, refused requests for an interview. It was the first of many victories for Mr. Murdoch in the new political climate that swept into Washington in 1994 when the Republicans won control of Congress. It was a fortunate time for Mr. Murdoch, whose business interests and political ideology were in ascendancy. (snip) Mr. Lott, an outspoken critic of media consolidation, agreed to the increase because it was still lower than what Mr. Powell had proposed, said his spokesman, Nick Simpson. Mr. Simpson added that Mr. Lott did not want to force companies to sell stations and that his book deal did not affect his view of Mr. Murdoch’s legislative agenda. Many companies publish books by public officials. But because of Mr. Murdoch’s wide business interests, HarperCollins’s book deals have at times drawn scrutiny. Its decision to cancel a book critical of Chinese Communist leaders by Hong Kong’s last British governor was assailed as a move by Mr. Murdoch to protect his Chinese business interests, a charge he denied. HarperCollins also provoked a firestorm when it gave Mr. Gingrich a $4.5 million book contract as Congress was preparing to redraw the media ownership rules. Mr. Ginsberg pointed out that Mr. Murdoch later fired the Gingrich book’s editor for making what he regarded as an “uneconomical and unseemly” deal. He said that in general Mr. Murdoch did not involve himself in decisions about book contracts, and added, “If these books aren’t viable, they aren’t published.” Mr. Lott’s book sold 12,000 copies, according to Nielsen Bookscan, which tracks about 70 percent of all domestic retail and Internet sales. Senator Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania, received $24,506 from HarperCollins for his modest-selling book “Passion for Truth,” according to financial disclosure forms. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, Republican of Texas, got $141,666 for her book “American Heroines,” which has sold better. All sit on either the Commerce or Judiciary Committees that most closely oversee the media business. … .. Murdoch Reaches Out for Even More

Too bad liberal authors like Glenn Greenwald don’t have a Murdoch in his pocket.

The issue of media ownership is not just about what the market dictates
and what listeners want. It’s what the owners want. Murdoch is a powerful example,
as this story today shows. Now the wingnuts will say, well, this story is in The (liberal)
New York Times. Truth doesn’t belong to a political party. The facts above are
not in question. The reality is that you’ll never read it on a wingnut blog or on any right-wing radio station. That’s the whole point.